randamu with ah-kam

HK milk tea workshop

You can't say you have been to Hong Kong if you haven't tried our "pantyhose" milk tea.  If you feel nauseated by the vision of someone filtering tea over a pair of pantyhose, take a look of the following video -- a news coverage of the very first HK milk tea workshop co-organized by secrettourhk and the Association of Coffee and Tea of Hong Kong.  (The coverage is in Cantonese but I think you'll get the idea through footages of the workshop and the interviews with some foreign participants.)

http://youtu.be/BveBhF9MCuY

I'm in for the next workshop!

Starbucks - reframing instant coffee??

Instant coffee...those who claim they are coffee lovers usually frown over this term.  Instant by its name means quick fix, and it implies poor quality for the desperate and tasteless.

Earlier this year, Starbucks launched its instant coffee variant - VIA [TM].  What claimed to be "the brand" that redefines instant coffee, launched a new ad campaign, 4-15sec spots during SNL, a couple of nights ago, challenging people if they can taste the difference between Starbucks VIA [TM] and the conventional instant coffee.  

Check out one of the ads (from Ad Age):

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid42091344001For me, how it tastes is yet to tell.  But like the brand's first attempt to redefine the category by naming itself VIA [TM] Ready Brew instead of instant coffee.  Sounds more sophisticated to me (sorry for being literal and superficial).  I just wish the brand would have been more consistent in reinforcing this new term in its other communication. 

Wuhan's delight

Dinner with colleagues@Wuhan.  Wanted to try out some Wuhan's special dessert dish.

Server's recommendation: Hot glutinous rice balls with sweet bean paste.   Truth: Cold whipped cream in a thin coat made of glutinous rice flour. It's a bit like  雪糕糯米滋 but with a mouthful of whipped cream inside.  None of us wanted to take another bite so we decided to delight ourselves with this at least...

A new burger place in Tokyo

   

A cool burger place has opened 2 shops in Tokyo that sells nothing else but Quarter Pounder.  Wait a minute here you may ask, "Isn't Quarter Pounder a signature product of McDonald's?"  You are right! The burger shops were opened by McDonald's, except this place is brand-free and you won't find Ronald McDonald, Happy Meals, or the golden arch in sight.

Instead you will walk into a minimalist red and black interior with sofas.  There are only 2 items in the menu, a quarter pounder at 500 yen and a double quarter pounder at 600 yen, both presented to customers in simple red and black packaging.

 

While this may be just a temporary tactic as McDonald's has run a campaign alongside the product launch asking customers to guess the fast food chain that launched the Quarter Pounder in Japan, yet as a marketing exercise, this is quite a clever move of McDonald's - introducing Quarter Pounder to the Japanese customers with a premium image.  And it seems to be working for the brand as the 2 shops have been driving pretty good traffic since launch. 

Full moon

The coming September is the Mid Autumn Festival and moon cakes are the traditional festive food, just like ginger bread cake for Christmas in the west. G.O.D., a contemporary furniture retail store, launched its moon cake collection, one with a little bit of twist.