The day has come and gone by so quickly, that I’m left in wonder. Is the day and time moving really fast, or are we moving really slow? That is the question. Or are the days shorter now than it was 20 years ago?

I figure if it was, it would probably be a few seconds shorter. The other answer, more likely the logical one (as Spock of tv and movie series Star Trek would have said); is that we cramp too many activities in our daily schedule. Armed with an armament of sophisticated mobile phones, tablets, laptop computers, electronic tracking devices (many of which we pay a premium monthly subscription fee for use of the various apps and software that we have been convinced [unknowingly] to be of high importance to us, and is the only way to go, “moving forward” {sounds sophisticatedly business like}), we feel that we have more time on our hands. And we do.

However, we now do not know what to do with ourselves during this free time. We also may not want to be seen as not doing anything or being lazy. We may ever feel some guilt that we have free time, some free time, that is; time that we earned by paying for the likes of subscriptions, etc. So, we pile more things to do to our schedule. Back again, we are busier than bees. Then, we probably become highly work stressed, efficient people.

Easier said than done, we should be less work stressed and more work fun. My wife, Jeannie and I met my cousin Chris, and his wife, Evelina, at Backyard for coffee. One thing led to another and the next thing was we accompanied them to IPC, popularly known as Ikano Power Centre, where they had a couple of things to do.

On our way out, we stopped at a traditional Chinese tea shop for a drink. I did not order a drink for myself as I am not a tea person. After they finished their drink, while we were walking to our car, we passed by HWC Coffee.

I noticed the “HWC Coffee” brand (1) had quite a few outlets in P.J. and Subang Jaya (2). However, I never ventured to try their coffees. Until now. Since I did not have a drink while the others were yum cha-“ing” (3) their tea; I decided to get a HWC coffee.

I ordered Lemon coffee. Lemon coffee? What’s that? This I had to try. On the menu, it states that this drink is only served cold. This was going to be interesting.

The drink came in a sealed plastic cup; the same type of cup that New Apollos restaurant near my house serves their iced coffees in. It looked like an iced americano with some whitish, yellowish liquid stuff at the bottom of the drink. This I assumed to be the lemon in the drink. It was.

I let Jeannie have a sip of the drink. She immediately did not like the drink, saying that the lemon made the coffee more acidic than it already was.

I took a sip. My first sip was the lemon. Then, I pulled the straw up higher so that I could taste the coffee. Then, I stirred the drink so that the lemon could mix with the coffee.

First impressions: This is an acquired taste. Definitely not for the traditionalist coffee drinkers.

I liked the lemon. It was as how lemon should be. The coffee tasted ordinary on its own, in the medium weak-to-strong range. When the lemon was mixed thoroughly with the coffee, the drink tasted just about ok. Definitely an acquired taste, that you need to let it grow on you. The best time to have this coffee is when you come into the building out of the sweltering sun, your throat parched.

Stop by at a HWC Coffee cafe, try their lemon coffee, and let us know what you think of this drink. Nice?

I will have a go at this Lemon Coffee drink again when it is a very hot afternoon and I come across a HWC Coffee cafe in the future.

NOTES:
1. The name HWC Coffee ( Hei Wo) is derived from chernozem or black soil that plays a central role in high-quality bean cultivation. In 2017, HWC Coffee set up a coffee plantation in Panama, that offered full-fledged services from coffee beans cultivation to coffee roasting. hwccoffee.com.my
2. P.J. or Petaling Jaya and Subang Jaya are cities in the state of Selangor, Malaysia.
3. Yum Cha has Cantonese origins. In Cantonese, drinking is “yum” , and tea is “cha”. It was amongst people chatting in Cantonese where the practice of yum cha flourished. During the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911), people would stop by small houses to catch-up with each other and drink tea. joyfulhouse.com.au