Today’s story begins with a YM chat last night. “What time ing class mu tomorrow?” Kuya Al asked. “I’ll bring some coffee. Makagawa from here. [sic From at home in Pampanga] Go, request naka!”

I never really hung out with Kuya Al until recently, so it’s just now that I learned about his passion for cooking and making gourmet coffee. That makes us opposites since the kitchen isn’t really my place in the house, but I seldom pass up an opportunity to eat or drink. So I took on his offer, and before we said goodnight I had a peppermint almond mocha with my name on it due the next day.

If I tell you that this day is beautiful, you know I’m shitting you because I don’t like rainy days and it’s the day of my second Econ 131 exam. To put it in Dana White’s words, this day is fucking terrible. So when Kuya Al and I met up at SC for lunch today and I finally took a sip of the well-heralded peppermint almond mocha, the only thing I could say afterwards was “This is the loveliest thing I’ve had today.” ^_^ And I meant that.

I only tasted a hint of the almond flavor and a bit of the chocolate, but I’m not complaining because the heady rush of the minty aftertaste was enough to keep my eyes twinkling and my mouth tingling. ^_^ Kuya Al said that the coffee wasn’t suited to his taste because it wasn’t as bitter as he would have wanted and it was way sweeter than he would have preferred, but I guess that’s just him because it tasted swell to me.

He brought just a tall tumbler, (which wasn’t even filled full since Kuya Al took sips from it when he got bored during the bus ride back to UP this morning) but I liked the coffee and its mintiness so much that I took only small, frequent sips so I could taste the caffeine mint as many times as possible. And guess what. The beverage lasted me a whole afternoon!

I drank it when we ate lunch, I drank it while we waited for the OUR offices to open so Kuya Al can submit his dropping slip, I drank it during my Natsci 1 class and finally emptied it at nearly 5:30 as I left Econ after my 131 exam. If I took on Kuya Al’s offer to cut my class and exam and hit the mall with him instead, that’s still probably the time it’ll take me to let go of the coffee. ^_^ Needless to say, I enjoyed it much.

In our YM chat I promised Kuya Al that I would blog a review about the coffee he made, (“magpakaplastic ka naman at sabihin mong masarap”) but heck, who am I kidding? I’m not a coffee connoisseur. I’m not even a millimeter of the coffee drinker that Al Rivera is. My opinion would be worthless.

But for whatever it’s worth, I’d give Kuya Al four thumbs up. More if I had any more thumbs to give. I lovelovelovelovelove his coffee, and I appreciate him even more for sharing so many things with me today. ^_^

Will I pay him back by making coffee for him too? Uh, let’s not waste precious coffee beans. Let’s just go to Starbucks one of these days. ^_^