The beverage edition

Welcome to Five Things I Ate! It’s like Instagram, but with no photos. Each week, I highlight five things I ate (or drank) that I felt were worth a shout-out. If you love it, please forward it to a friend.

Ruby Oolong Tea at La Colombe

75 Vandam St, New York, NY

About a year and a half ago, I did something remarkable for 20-something New Yorker — I quit drinking coffee. Instead, I now drink about half a dozen cups of tea throughout the day. Actually, I still drink coffee twice a week, but who’s counting? In any case, I became very familiar with all the tea options at my favorite coffee shops. And La Colombe, which makes excellent iced coffee, also has a great loose leaf tea selection at their Vandam Street location. Their teas ain’t cheap, but the cup of Ruby Oolong, sweet and just slightly smokey, was worth the $4.50 I would have previously spent on a latte.

And if you don’t live near Soho, not to worry: You can order it online. Look, you can even send it to me as a gift.

Yamamotoyama oolong tea

Your local Asian grocery store

Now that I’ve talked about the fancy tea, it’s time to talk about my favorite cheap tea as of late: Yamamotoyama’s oolong tea bags. For $2.99 at my local Sunrise Mart (although I’m sure it’s even cheaper outside of New York), a whole box costs two-thirds as much as the fancy oolong at La Colombe, although it’s really not a comparable experience. My favorite way to drink it is steeped for a minute or two longer than listed, then adding plenty of milk and sugar. Sacrilege, I know — but there’s nothing more comforting than cheap tea made creamy and sweet.

Lambrusco of unknown origin

A New Year’s Eve party in Park Slope

Lambrusco is an Italian sparkling red wine, which, until I went to my friend’s house on New Year’s Eve, did not know was a concept. As someone who always prefers red wine, even in the summertime, I can now finally celebrate special occasions by popping some bubbly just everyone else. I was given pretty much unfettered access to the Lambrusco, since everyone else at the party found the idea of sparkling red wine “gross.” To me, it was anything but: Rich and bold and fruity; the opposite of everything I dislike about champagne and prosecco.

Mixed grain latte at Tous les Jours

31 W 32nd St, New York, NY 10001 (multiple locations)

“Mixed grain latte” is admittedly not the most appetizing name for a very delicious drink. Misugaru is a traditional Korean beverage made up of a powder of 7-10 different types of ground grains. At Tous les Jours, a French-Asian bakery chain with a location across from Penn Station, it’s served hot and subtly sweet in latte form. It tastes like a slice of thick toast topped with sweetened condensed milk, malty and thick, the perfect bolster against the hell that is Penn Station during the holidays.

Nescafé frappé

Your local bodega

I started off my very first newsletter with a story about how I stopped drinking coffee, and now I will end it with a recommendation for a coffee drink. I am anything if not consistently contradictory. But I learned this One Weird Trick™️ about my favorite cheap coffee, Nescafé, that I just had to share with you. Apparently, the physical structure of the freeze-dried coffee makes it susceptible to producing foam. So now I put a spoonful of Nescafé in a mug, fill it two-thirds of the way full with boiling water, and foam the top with a handheld milk frother (I have this one, but there are many others like it).

Until next week,

Sophie