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First Vegan Cafe Experience!

2021.04.06

Hey everyone! Nicholas here!

As usual, my post will be about something to do with food but in a slightly different direction. Recently, I have been experimenting with different combinations of sauces to try to recreate the everyday flavors I used to take for granted in Singapore. Most of them, however, ended in failure.

Since most of the food I try to replicate tends to be Singaporean Chinese food, herbs and spices have to be used in specific ratios and cooked in a specific way for the exact same flavor to be brought out. After several failures, I decided to consult my Indian friend who also attempts to recreate the flavors of his hometown.

My friend is from Lucknow, which is the capital city of the Indian state Uttar Pradesh in North India. Being a vegetarian, it was quite difficult for him to find food in Japan, even in Tokyo. To explore all the options open to him, he usually will search for all the vegetarian and vegan options around him wherever he goes.

Since we have not met up for quite a long time, my friend suggested that we should go for coffee together at this cafe that he has had his eye on for some time. I agreed and met up with him after the state of emergency was lifted.

Knowing my friend, if he has his eye on a restaurant or cafe, it usually is a vegan restaurant with some interesting options. Sure enough, he brought me to this restaurant.

This cafe is known to be an organic vegan cafe, which usually is enough to catch the attention of my friend but this time, that was not the only reason for him wanting to try the coffee here. This cafe is one of the few cafes where one can purchase coffee and sweets with CBD.

Cannabidiol (CBD), as its name suggests, is a cannabinoid — yes that means that it is found in cannabis plants — BUT should not be confused for tetrahydroxycannabinol (THC) which is illegal.

Cannabidiol (CBD) — Not illegal Tetrahydroxycannabinol (THC) — Illegal

CBD is actually a legalized cannabinoid in certain countries for medical purposes and much research is actually conducted to utilize it in medicine. THC, on the other hand, is the compound that makes people high. Contrary to popular belief, CBD actually does not make the consumer high, but instead helps them to relax and calm down.

Both compounds are illegal in Singapore and as a Singaporean, consuming prohibited substances overseas is also a chargeable offense. Thankfully, the shop had normal organic coffee which did not have any CBD in it.

While I got the normal hot coffee for myself, my friend got himself a coffee and cookie with CBD.

I only tasted the normal coffee myself so I can’t give a proper account of the flavor of the CBD sweets. According to my friend, the CBD oil adds a very herbal flavor to the coffee which may or may not be very enjoyable depending on the person. The cookie, however, was earl grey flavored and apparently did not have much of the CBD smell.

Price wise, the coffee I had costed about the same as other cafes. The coffee my friend had with the cookie, however, costed much more than I expected. As someone who really enjoys good food, spending that much money on a cookie that did not have any butter and eggs did not sound very wise.

On the overall, I felt that going all the way to this cafe for a cup of organic coffee was not very worth it. My friend found the CBD coffee and CBD cookie interesting but a little bit too pricey for his taste. We probably will not be going there for a cup of coffee to catch up again anytime soon.

Until next time!