ONEstyle: Coffee Bean

For starters, I am not much of a coffee drinker like the rest of my family do. Well, except for the Starbucks Frappuccinos but I can appreciate a good coffee specially its aroma because I love the smell of a freshly brewed coffee, it stimulates me --- not in a dirty kind of way --- I don't know why I didn't got hooked with coffee as much as I am with tea but something we all know is that its better to start a day with a steaming cup of our favorite coffee or tea. This is the experience The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf would want every coffee and/or tea lover to have every morning with the new CBTL single serve beverage system.

CBTL with the finest Italian technology and design by Caffitaly System brings The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf specialty beverages, choose whatever your heart so desires --- espresso, brewed coffee or brewed tea, straight to your home and its as simple as ONE touch of a button on the CBTL machine. CBTL comes in 2 sleek designs: Contata and Kaldi. The 2 designs actually only differ in the design aspect with the Contata being a more monochromatic to its design and the Kaldi having a more vibrant, fun and hip feel.

With regards to the capsules, as of now CBTL has 12 different flavors (4 espresso --- Italian, Premium, Continental & Premium Decaf, 4 brewed coffee --- French, Viennese, House & House Decaf and 4 tea --- Chai, English Breakfast, Tropical Passion & Moroccan Mint --- variants) and more to come. It has a twin pressure system that provides both high pressure to capture all the aroma, texture, flavor and great crema of an authentic espresso and gentlt pressure to allow flavors in coffee and tea to develop naturally and with great balance. What's great about the 12 flavors is that you can still add your own twist and come up with a new taste and a new drink like for example a latte. The answer for that is the CBTL Milk Frother, which makes the milk thicken and foamy.

“CBTL was created as a response to how The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf understands and anticipates the needs of its customers. The growth of the specialty coffee industry in the last few years has been overwhelming, but consumption trends and customer desires have also shifted,” explains Walden Chu, president of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Philippines. “Customers want the same café experience beyond the time they spend in our stores, and we want to make sure that we give it to them while staying true to everything that The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf stands for.”

The same flavor, taste and consistency that you expect from any hot drink you purchase from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf stores is what you get from CBTL. One perfect cup, with just a single push of a button. Quite simply, CBTL is redefining the idea of instant coffee and tea, as we know it. No longer do we have to settle for watered down cups of morning brews; because now, a single push of a button can create a cup of cafe-quality coffee or tea --- one that will not disappoint even the most discerning experts.

The Cantata

Me with a Silver Kaldi

The CBTL single serve beverage system can be bought at any The Coffee Bean & Teal Leaf stores at a retail price of Php13, 750 BUT you can get Php2,000 OFF your purchase if you visit their exhibit at Rockwell Powerplant on October 17, 2011 (they are there for 2 weeks) and trade in your old coffee maker for a CBTL machine. =D The capsules are also available at any The Coffee Bean & Teal Leaf stores and are priced at Php400 for the capsules (Box of 10 of ONE variant), Php480 for the sampler pack that contains ONE of each variant and Php1,750 for the presentation pack, which is great when you have guests so that when you offer them a cup of coffee or tea, they can choose what they want.