Welcome to Thursday 13, home of the easy meme where participants make a list of thirteen things on Thursdays. Topic is your choice. If you need ideas, check the link here.
As all of the other memes that I participate in each week are somewhat bookish in nature, I try to avoid that on the Thursday 13's that I compile.
Other than the occasional Thai tea or iced coffee from a vendor, I buy almost all of my beverages from the local 7-Eleven. For more than ten years, I lived in an area of Phuket that only had one 7-Eleven which was about a ten-minute walk away (a rather long hike on a blistering hot day when you are hungry or thirsty). Last October, I moved to Kata Beach on the southwest coast of the island; the more touristy area has at least EIGHT 7-Elevens within a two-kilometer radius of my home (there may be even more that I have yet to discover).
Due to the sheer convenience, I visit a 7-Eleven almost every day for one meal or another. I already wrote about the hot meals I like to buy there. This installment of "Thursday 13" is all about the cold beverages I have tried and found fulfilling.
My go-to soda is Pepsi. I used to be a committed Coca-Cola drinker but switched around a year ago as the price-point to packaging ratio is better. Also, the 1-liter bottles of Pepsi fit in my tiny apartment fridge while the fatter red-and-white bottles do not. Very few of the nearby 7-Elevens offer a self-serve fountain but these do not even have cup lids available in the larger sizes (16- and 32-ounce), so I never get these. Fanta brand sodas are also very popular in Thailand (perhaps more so than Coca-Cola, Pepsi or Sprite) but I rarely buy them other than the purple-colored flavor a few times per month, usually to drink on the hour-long songthaew ride home after work.
I supplement the soda with a variety of other bottled drinks -- local brands of drinking yoghurt and soy milk (regular, Thai tea, and chocolate) are my favorites but I also like almost anything made by the Meiji brand. The DeeDo brand of fruit drinks are usually really good (I don't like their orange flavor). On very rare occasions, I will buy the UFC brand of mango juice as it's the least expensive of the others -- I wish they were available in single-serve containers as the large cartons do not easily fit in my refrigerator if anything else is in there!
13 of My Favorite Bottled Drinks from Thai 7-Elevens
01. Pepsi
I almost always have a 1-liter bottle of Pepsi in my refrigerator. In Phuket Town and Kata Beach, these usually cost 27 baht. I have seen them for 30-32 baht in Patong 7-Elevens and either 29 or 30 baht elsewhere. Pepsi is also available in 1.25-liter and 2-liter bottles but these will not fit in my refrigerator. I drink straight from the bottle as I live alone. A single bottle can last me up to two days unless it is super-hot outside. Sometimes, I will put one in my freezer to make it even colder but must be careful to remember to remove it after two or three hours or else I will get a frozen Slushie!
02. Meishi Banana Milk
Almost anything by Meishi is good -- other favorites include their chocolate and coffee milks -- but I will buy the banana flavored milk as a weekend treat. Usually intended to accompany my breakfast on Sunday, it rarely makes it to the morning if I buy it on Saturday night.
03. Meishi Strawberry Milk
Another Meishi favorite, this one reminds me of the Nesquik Strawberry Powder when mixed with milk that I used to devour as a kid. I always preferred that over chocolate. Like the Banana Milk above, this costs 28 baht at the Kata Beach 7-Elevens.
04. DeeDo Cantaloupe Juice
A steal at just 12 baht, I buy a bottle of this on almost a daily basis.
05. DeeDo Pineapple Juice
This is probably the best of the pineapple juices that I have found in Thai convenience stores. Of course, the fresh variety is also available in local markets but often has sweetened condensed milk mixed in.
06. DeeDo Chakrapad Lychee Juice
The lychee (Litchi chinensis Family Sapindaceae) is a tropical tree native to South China, Malaysia, and northern Vietnam. that has been introduced throughout Southeast Asia. Cultivation in China is documented from the 11th century. The thin, tough skin of the fruit is green when immature, ripening to red or pink-red, and is smooth or covered with small sharp protuberances roughly textured. The rind is inedible but easily removed to expose a layer of translucent white fleshy aril with a floral smell and a sweet flavor. The skin turns brown and dry when left out after harvesting.
The chakrapad cultivar from northern Thailand is bigger and the seed inside is smaller than any other type. It's also juicier with a sweeter taste. I only recently found this DeeDo brand of chakrapad lychee juice at a Phuket Town 7-Eleven while waiting for the bus. I hope that I can find it again as it was really good!
07. Kukuru Lychee Juice
I love lychee fruit when it is in season -- it is flavorful and juicy as well as being easy to open compared to some other local Thai fruits. I will try lychee drinks when I stumble across them and this Kukuru brand was nice although the container was quite small and it also included flavored gelatin bubbles inside which I am not a big fan of. I think this was 10 or 12 baht.
08. Ooha Lychee Soda
This is a fizzy soda which was interesting but I would have enjoyed it much more had it been a yoghurt-style drink or, better yet, a juice.
09. F&N Sarsi Sarsaparilla Soda
I bought this one thinking it was root beer (not having my glasses on when I visit 7-Eleven can sometimes result in "interesting" purchases). 7-Elevens used to carry my favorite brand of root beer - A&W -- but I have only been able to find it at a single FamilyMart (which has recently been bought out by Tops). Sarsaparilla is known by the common name sarsi in most Southeast Asian countries and is said to be similar in flavor to root beer. Personally, I think it is a very distinct flavor but not at all unpleasant. I much prefer A&W (and I remember Hires as being really tasty as well) but this F&N brand of sarsi can be a good substitute if I don't want to visit a Tops mini-mart. The real test may have to see if it makes a good float by pouring it into a glass with a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream.
10. (Unknown Brand) Peach-Sakura Drink
Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of the side with the English translations of the brand and beverage name but I remember it being quite tasty and very peachy. I have never seen peaches in Thailand so I doubt that many Thai people are buying this beverage. Drinking it made me homesick Southerner as we had a peach tree outside of our home in Texas when I was very young. I will try to find this again on my next 7-Eleven visit. Oddly, I am now in the mood to listen to an Allman Brothers album. Which one do you think?
11. Keto KoolKool Blue Hawaii Drink
Several cocktail-inspired drinks by this brand began appearing in local 7-Elevens earlier this year. The Blue Hawaii flavor was the first I tried; I did not realize that it was based on an alcoholic drink but I remembered the Elvis Presley movie. The original Blue Hawaii is a tropical cocktail made of rum, pineapple juice, Blue Curaçao, sweet and sour mix, and sometimes vodka. This non-alcoholic 7-Eleven version is quite sweet but refreshing. A bottle is only 13 baht.
According to Wikipedia,
The Blue Hawaii was invented in 1957 by Harry Yee, head bartender of the Hilton Hawaiian Village (formerly the Kaiser Hawaiian Village) in Waikiki, Hawaii, when a sales representative of Dutch distiller Bols asked him to design a drink that featured their blue color of Curaçao liqueur.
The name "Blue Hawaii" is related only indirectly to the 1961 Elvis Presley film of the same name, and apparently derives instead from the film's title song, a hit composed by Leo Robin for the 1937 Bing Crosby film Waikiki Wedding. Yee named the drink which, along with the films and songs, the many other tropical drinks he invented, and tiki bars such as Trader Vic, did much to popularize a faux Hawaiian tiki culture, both in Hawaii and on the Mainland. The era was immediately pre-statehood, a time when Hawaii was thought of by most Americans as playground for the rich.
12. Keto KoolKool Piña Colada Drink
Yes, I had heard of the cocktail long before buying this at 7-Eleven for the first time. I was in junior high school when the Rupert Holmes song came out and this is what popped in my head when I saw the drink on the shelf. Invented in Puerto Rico in the 1940s or 1950s, the piña colada is made with rum, cream of coconut or coconut milk, and pineapple juice, usually served either blended or shaken with ice. It may be garnished with either a pineapple wedge, maraschino cherry, or both. This Thai version actually had more of a taste of alcohol rather than of juice. Still, I liked it enough to buy it again.
13. UFC Mango Juice
There are a number of brands of packaged mango juice, most without any additives. UFC's version can usually be found for 59 baht at the local 7-Elevens but I have seen it on occasion for as low as 45 baht! It is always good to have some fresh juice on-hand and mango is my favorite.
That's my Thursday 13! list for the week. Did you find any of these drinks particularly appealing? Are there any that you would not try? Please let me know in the comments.
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