Latte Dah

Came across a link on twitter (thank-you Techweev for always finding and posting interesting pics) and it brought to mind our own coffee dreams!  Not a coffee drinker?  Don’t worry – we’ve got a chai alternative.

Jazzed up on caffein, we went digging in our archives to bring back  Cravings in a Foreign Land -penned by Megan Ritchie while she was living in China.

Here’s a small excerpt to tempt your tastebuds:

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I’m in love, and his name is Sea Salt Latte. It’s a fairly simple equation: a sweet, creamy latte sprinkled with salt on top. Think sea salt caramels, but drinkable. Served at the perfect temperature everytime, they are UNREAL!  But hold on a minute, I am getting ahead of myself here…

When I moved to China, I was excited to try all sorts of new foods, but also a bit wary.  Not only am I a craving-driven eater, I’m also a fairly picky eater…and those cravings multiplied as the weeks went by. My initial pull for Mexican food and pizza was paired with an overpowering need for cereal—any cereal!— and cake—any cake!—divided by an incessant desire for brownies, chocolate bars, chocolate malts, chocolate chocolate chocolate…none of it readily available in Changzhou. I was doomed.

I knew I had to find other things to eat, beyond fried rice, steamed vegetables and too many containers of yogurt, or suffer the consequences of a crazed food craver. Enter Café 85°C.

Café 85°C is fondly known as “the Starbucks of Taiwan” but I have never seen baked goods like these at any Starbucks I’ve ever wandered into. The place is so named for their self-proclaimed “perfect temperature to serve coffee” (85° Celsius is 185° Fahrenheit, for those Americans in the group who don’t feel like Googling the conversion). The place is one-third coffee shop, and two-thirds bakery. Oh, the bakery.  Suddenly, bread was back in the equation. And sugar. Real, honest-to-goodness sugary treats. Were. Back. My luck was on the rise!

Now, eating at that café (there’s a tiny branch in Changzhou) is like creating cravings I never knew I had.