IMHO, the Philippines has six seasons: Hot, hotter, hell; Rainy, rainier, and flooded.
As I personally welcomed the transition from hell to rainier (goodbye astronomic aircon bills!), I came up with two beverages (and activities I like doing while having them) that are perfect with “rainier” days:
Good, Humungous Amounts of Piping Hot Pressed Coffee
Classic Coffee Press from Landmark
We have so many ground coffee beans at home. Being the lazy person I am, however, I didn’t feel like breaking out the coffee machine for my morning brew.
I decided to do the next best thing and get us a proper coffee press. There are many options in the market, but some are too pricey for my taste. Others don’t fit my personality (I prefer seeing the dark liquid, and a thermos-style portable press just wouldn’t cut it).
After a massive effort hunting down the perfect press, I found THE one in Landmark Department Store. This massive press is a classic beauty, has the capacity for two huge mugs of coffee, and is really cheap (under PHP500!).
A Decent Bottle of Port
A Cheap S&R Find
Rainier days are best spent in front of the TV.
While I’m okay doing series marathons (Big Bang Theory is always a welcome idea), I decided to take a cue from a writer-friend of mine who went through a Jane Austen phase a few months back. I popped in Pride and Prejudice (the Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth version) in our DVD player.
A couple of discoveries I made: I finally understood why an old friend drooled over Firth years ago (goodness, he was hot as Mr. Darcy). I also remembered the art of having port for dessert.
Port is a type of fortified wine from Portugal (the Douro region, to be specific), made by adding aguardente (a neutral grape spirit) to wine. This stops the fermentation, leaving residue sugar (making it sweet) and increasing the alcohol content.
Anyway, after doing my own Austen marathon one rainy night (I followed Pride and Prejudice with an unusually sexed-up version of Sense and Sensibility with Dan Stevens as Mr. Ferrars), I decided to do a totally British thing and have ruby port with cheese. I had a simple version called Porto Quevedo Ruby Port from S&R. Sweet but not cloying, it went wonderfully with blue cheese and a stormy evening.
What do you like drinking during “rainier” days? Cheers!
