This Weather Calls for Hot Tea and Pastry

CBTL Lemon Square
Php85

It is monsoon season and it is raining buckets again where I live. Through the bedroom window, I watch pedestrians wade and vehicles carefully wheel through gutter deep flood water. I would see the occasional car make an abrupt stop at one section of the highway, perhaps deciding the water is too high, and make a U-turn. It's been like that since yesterday and I have not been able to get out of the house since then.

Genmaicha Green Tea
Php110

On days like this, my thoughts wander off to a quiet cafe cozying up with the latest book I've been putting off reading. Today it's Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf - ATC that beckons me. As I am wont to do in CBTL, I would order a scalding hot mug of Genmaicha Green tea and a lemon square to nibble on. Also called "popcorn tea," genmaicha is a combination of green tea leaves and roasted brown rice. Some of the brown rice pop in the process of roasting, resembling little popcorn, hence the alias. I find this blend satisfying on its own, I don't even see the need to add sugar or honey, and the aroma is soothing. It's perfect for cold and wet weather like the one we're having right now.

And that lemon square... I've only recently tried it because the creature of habit that I am, I constantly order the supremely indulgent Triple Decker Cheesecake whenever I am in the mood for sweets in CBTL. Sufficiently sweet, lemony, and lip-smackingly tangy, the Lemon Square is my favorite CBTL pastry of the moment. Now, if only the weather permits...

But the monsoon does not permit. The weather bureau has delivered a precarious forecast just two hours ago, lowering the rainfall alert but warns of moderate to at times heavy rainfall with a chance of flooding. Whatever that means, I think I am staying indoors a while longer. Stay safe everyone.

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf - ATC is located at Outdoor Activity Center, Alabang Town Center, Alabang-Zapote Road, Alabang, Muntinlupa.