Aroma Festival

first time going. wow, so packed, well more people went than i imagined.

i knew there weren't going to be many samples, but i didn't know that for all the coffee stands (and there were heapsss of them) there were at least 15 people. most coffee stands had 20-30 people lining, and even food stands had around 20ish, well it's really hard to tell since there are just heaps of people pushing/shoving/crowding around, and it's not even free. the mosaic was pretty cool. reminded me of the mole, one team had to a pixelated image of dame edna like the coffee mosaic except with paper of 5 different shades. coffee cups are so much cooler, but what if someone chucks something in the middle, or something falls into the middle, how would you get to it? couldn't take nice photos since the sun/shadows didn't match and lighting was weird.

ended up sharing a Chai latte with Bitter, the milk was frothed nicely, except that brand wasn't that strong, like Lipton packet chai latte is pretty weak, Tetley is the strongest out of packet chai lattes. there was this other brand, except their chai lattes came from tea boilers, so no freshly frothed milk.

got free nespresso coffee. i tried the intensity 4-volluto. it said it had some biscuit/fruit notes, but i could not taste anything. also, the milk frother took forever to froth the milk, and the milk wasn't even frothed/silky/hot enough compared to frothing it yourself/on other machines. i know i chose one of the milder coffees, i had it without sugar like normal, yet there was nothing special and kinda bland to what i was expecting. the flavours look so much cooler on the website, but i am turned off by nespresso machines for a while.

freebies: some tea samples, some ginger drinks samples which were pretty strong with ginger but quite nice at the same time-you're supposed to mix it with coffee/ice cream/ice to create your own drinks, a packet of fair trade tea bags, fake sugar (ie sweetener), bite sized treats (biscuits)-i realised where i've had them before! when i helped out at the easter show 2 years ago, our stands' boss made friends with the biscuits' boss, and they would trade their products, and then my boss would share the biscuits or i would sometimes take a few boxes home, yeah, i've had all their flavours (but i'm pretty sure in over two years they would have created new flavours that i have yet to try...). also, got a coffee cup =D yeah, i collect random things. i will do a proper list one day.

walking through the rocks today, i realised i've been to the La Renaissance cafe before and had a meal, but that was back in primary school where i didn't have a camera and i didn't associate the name with the cafe, but today i walked past and glimpsed how they had the seating at the back and i'm like yes! i remember what i eat (even as a kid), and i remember my cousin took my relatives/my fam and I to the rocks to eat, and even though it was a tad bit more expensive than other places back then (not sure about prices now), i remember it was a super good and satisfying experience, and their hot choc was sah good. might re-visit that place some time.

so far every plate i had has been $10 or less (except for chefs gallery but that was the week before break officially started and yum cha, where it's impossible to be super duper full with only $10). oh the irony, didn't want something fried or rice for lunch, but ended up getting that. ended up getting cheap $1 macarons from a place i don't even remember, so glad i only got 2. they were so small, and the watermelon tasted artificial and wasn't made properly. the rose one which had 2 different sized shells (which i couldn't see when looking at the display). baroque had a "special" today, 3 for 7.50 so you save 60c, but it was only coffee, chocolate, and salted caramel. coffee and chocolate by itself in a macaron doesn't appeal to me, so i would rather save that money for flavours i want.