I’m not a vegetarian but I do chow on vegetables for health reasons. I include it in my meal whenever possible. Last night, it was a pleasure to discover that one of the new seven Starbucks Lunch Sandwiches – the Roasted Vegetables on Flat Bread -  is positioned as a healthy vegetarian sandwich for the ‘veggy‘ lovers.

Roasted Vegetables in Flat Bread

I wasn’t really expecting much from the vegetable sandwich but it was surprisingly good! The Roasted Vegetables Sandwich will replace the vegetable artisan roll you might have been used to. It consists of Mediterranean vegetables marinated in Italian spices with mild chili dressing on grilled flat bread.  The chili is interestingly mild just enough to put a twist to the fare.

To complete your healthy meal, pair it with the Green Tea Latte (no whip, of course) and go for soy.

6 Other New Lunch Sandwiches

Starting August 9, Starbucks will introduce these new hot lunch sandwiches catering to those looking for filling meals during lunch time. Prepared in less than 5 minutes, it is best suitable for  people on-the-go.

Aside from the Roasted Vegetables sandwich above, the first three which will be available in all Starbucks Philippines branches are the following:

Ultimate Grilled Cheese

Ultimate Grilled Cheese

It’s a grilled cheese sandwich made with six types of cheeses such as Gruyere, Emmenthal, Feta, Provolone, Mozarella, and cheddar.

Although half of those cheeses sounds alien to me, it ended up good to the taste. On the other hand, the premium cheeses might cater only to the more mature taste buds who can appreciate high quality cheeses. It also comes with slices of Hungarian sausages in between and seasoned with roasted garlic and Italian herb-ed butter on bread.

Roasted Chicken Pesto

The roasted chicken breast fillet comes with Shitake mushrooms and pesto mayo sauce topped with Emmenthal and cheddar cheese in between grilled flat breads. The breast fillet are juicy and the pesto mayo is really aromatic.

This is actually the only one retained from the previous lunch sandwiches menu. And there’s a great reason why this is so. 🙂

Roasted Chicken Pesto Sandwich (left) Beef Brisket Sandwich (right)

Beef Brisket

Emmenthal cheese covering slices of beef brisket with caramelized onions and Dijon mustard constitute this sandwich. The beef brisket itself was fairly ‘ok’ last night but I think I need to try this again before I give it a final verdict.

— o —

The last three new sandwiches are available in select Starbucks branches in the Philippines:

The Clubhouse

The Clubhouse Sandwich

It’s the usual chicken clubhouse you know…with ham, cheese, pickle relish, mayo mustard dressing, tomato and greens, among others, on flat cranberry bread.

It’s available in all Starbucks branches except Baguio, Boracay, Bacolod, Cebu, CDO, Davao, Iloilo and Naga.

Tuna Waldorf

Tuan Waldorf

Tuna Waldorf is a classic tuna salad with red and green apples, walnuts, and celery in yogurt mayo dressing topped with hard-boiled eggs served in raisin walnut bread.

This one’s a filler and will surely be loved by those with good appetite and good taste.

It’s available in all Starbucks branches except Baguio, Boracay, Bacolod, Cebu, CDO, Davao, Iloilo and Naga.

Tuna Melt

Tuna Melt

It’s a tuna salad with melted cheese on roasted Rye bread topped with mozzarella and seasoned wtih Spanish paprika.

This is the rarest among them all available only in selected provincial branches and the only one reachable by land from Metro Manila – is Starbucks Baguio. The other branches that carry this is Boracay, Bacolod, Cebu, CDO, Davao, Iloilo, and Naga only.

Starbucks Lunch Sandwiches

NomNom Recommends

After perseveringly trying all of the seven sandwiches last night for the benefit of my readers 🙂 , I recommend these top three in no particular order (parang beauty pageant lng) :

• Roasted Vegetables on Flat Bread
• Roasted Chicken Pesto on Flat Bread (there’s a strong reason why this one was retained)
• Tuna Waldorf in Raisin Walnut Bread

 So, a day after my birthday on August 8, you can immediately try these new Starbucks Lunch Sandwiches. But if you are the scrimpy-type like me, you can wait for August 15 and 16 where all Starbucks branches will have a P50 off promo on all these lunch sandwiches I have mentioned upon purchase of any Starbucks beverage except service water. 😛

Remember the “However-You-Want-It Frappuccino Blended Beverage” article two months ago which showed ways to create blended beverages with a variety of syrups, toppings and intensities? Well, here’s some newer flavors Starbucks came up with which will be offered starting tomorrow, June 28!

Black Sesame Green Tea Cream Frappuccino

Introducing the new Black Sesame Green Tea Cream Frappuccino and Soy Strawberries and Cream Frappuccino blended beverages!

The Black Sesame Green Tea Cream Frappuccino blended beverage is a mix of  “matcha powder and black sesame powder, blended with ice and topped with whipped cream and black sesame seeds” while Soy Strawberries and Cream Frappucino is made with “soy milk blended with ice, infused with strawberry sauce and topped with whipped cream.”

Want to create something uniquely yours? Here’s how to create your however you want it Frappuccino blended beverages:

Request any milk:

• Nonfat, whole or soy

Choose the coffee intensity:

• Regular, double, triple, decaf

Or choose “cream” for a coffee-free beverage:

• Strawberries & Cream
• Vanilla Cream
• Caramel Cream
• Chocolate Cream
• Chai Cream
• Green Tea Cream
• Chocolate Chip Cream

Soy Strawberries and Cream Frappuccino

Select your syrup or blend of syrups:

• Mocha
• White Mocha
• Mint
• Raspberry
• Vanilla
• Caramel
• Hazelnut
• Classic
• Sugar-free Vanilla

Choose whipped cream, light on the whip or no whip

• Add a topping:
• Mocha drizzle
• Caramel drizzle

I’ve tried and I’ve discovered that I’m lousy at experimenting with my Starbucks concoctions so I guess I’ll settle with trying out the new Starbucks Black Sesame Green Tea Cream Frappuccino and Soy Strawberries and Cream Frappuccino blended beverages first! 😛

I’m not sure what is the connotation of a ‘Happy Hour‘ in other countries or culture outside of the Philippines. But I think Starbucks Philippines is taking it by the raw meaning  – giving its customers a Happy Hour!

It is an outstandingly happy hour for Starbucks customesr as Starbucks Philippines recently launched its one-week promo on its Frappuccinos which is offered at half the price (50% off!) everyday from 12 noon to 2pm from May 2 to May 8, 2011. This is to highlight their new offering of the ‘However-You-Want-It’ Frappuccino blended beverage option.

Yeah I know, I was quite late in publishing this because I’m quite busy organizing a blogger mountain climbing event. Anyhow, you still got three chances including today!

Starbucks Happy Hour

This promo is so successful that some customers abused it on the first day so they updated the promo immediately by limiting each purchase of the Frappuccinos under this promo to only two beverages for every customer.

I’ve got one secret to share…they actually officially start 10 minutes before 12nn and end 10 minutes after 2pm to avoid inconvenience with minor time difference in watch/clock synchronization with customers. ssshhhhh….  🙂 One more thing, as long as you are in the  queue by 2:10pm cut-off time, you’re still in! 😛

Once this is over, I hope Starbucks do a repeat of this Starbucks Happy Hour soon! This is really an awesome treat specially with the scorching heat of the summer season.

Is it Starbucks’ Happy Hour as you’re reading this? 🙂

Starbucks Philippines launched the new ‘However-You-Want-It Frappuccino® blended beverage‘ last Monday.

Soy Green Tea Cream Frappuccino Blended Beverage

Basically, it allows customers to create a blended beverage of their liking. You can choose to add a variety of fresh milk or soy to your Frappuccino beverage.

Moreover, you could indicate the intensity of your coffee and pick any combination of toppings and syrups in the same way a Starbucks espresso beverage can be customized.

Among the featured Frappuccino® blended beverage creations are the Extra Coffee Caramel and Soy Green Tea Cream Frappuccino® Blended Beverage

The Starbucks Extra Coffee Caramel is a coffee-intense concoction of caramel syrup combined with new Starbucks Frappuccino® roast coffee, milk, blended with ice and topped with whipped cream and a swirl of buttery caramel sauce.

On the other hand, the Soy Green Tea Cream Frappuccino® blended beverage is made with matcha powder and soy milk, blended with ice and topped with whipped cream.

Extra Coffee Caramel Frappuccino Blended Beverage

Furthermore, Starbucks Philippines elaborates on the new soy options as quoted:

“From soy combinations to those that limit the number of calories, customers can now select their favorite ingredients to find a Frappuccino® blended beverage to meet their dietary needs.  By choosing nonfat milk with sugar-free syrup, a Tall (12 fl. oz) blended beverage has only 100 calories, while doubling the Starbucks® Frappuccino® roast coffee and skipping the syrup will intensify the taste, without increasing the sugar.”

Check out http://www.frappuccino.com.ph/ and enjoy your Starbucks However-You-Want-It Frappuccino® blended beverage.

Thank you all for participating in this year’s Starbucks Planner 2011 Giveaway Contests. First on the writing contest, and next on the FB photo-comment contest. 🙂

Pardon the slight delay in the announcement as I had to validate and filter for the unique comments in the photo entries in which one even had an awesome 1,029 comments. On the other hand, reading through your Christmas stories with the theme of ‘sharing‘ was also heartwarming. Many entries were very creative as well.

I also invited Sebs Yu from  Marriage Journeys blogsite to be a co-judge in the “Share Your Stories.”. So we averaged our scores and came up with the winner based on the criteria.

Share Your Stories Winner

Starbucks Share Your Stories

Without further adieu, the winner of the the Share Your Stories writing contest with an average score of 88.5% is “Thinking April” with her blog post entitles “Last Christmas.” It was her personal story of sharing and letting go of old things albeit with sentimental value. Congratulations! You will receive a Starbucks 2011 Planner soon!

Following her in second and third place with a tie score of 84.5% are “Sharing  This Christmas Season” from Make Melodies and Snicker Ho Hum.

Photo-Comment Winner

Starbucks FB Photo-Comment Winner

And for the Photo-Comment entries, the greatest number of comments we had was 1,029. But since we are looking for the unique number of comments, we had to validate and trim them down.

The winner, who had originally 146 comments, and after validation was filtered to 110 unique comment entries is the photo by Jian Marla Reyes. Congratulations! You also receive a Starbucks 2011 Planner!

In second and third places are Krismer Acuesta who had 78 unique comments out of 298 and Joanne Garces Gonzales with 71 unique comments out of 1, 029. (all values include the +5 in comment to Digital Manila)

Thank you to all for participating!The two winners will get an FB message and/or email to get their snail mail addresses where the Starbucks 2011 Planner will be sent by Starbucks.

As a gesture of appreciation, I would like to invite the Top 3 Share Your Stories winners and Top 3 Photo-Comment winners to a simple merienda gathering at Spuds (Potato Corner brand) at the Ayala Columns condominium in front of RCBC bldg in Makati at the intersection of Buendia and Ayala Ave on 2pm of December 28, 2010. Kindy email me at admin AT NomNomClub.com to RSVP. Thanks! I’m off to Batangas tonight and will be offline until then. Will be back in Manila on Dec 26. Expect my email replies after that date. 🙂

Today, Starbucks marks its 13th year of presence in the Philippines. Its first branch of Starbucks in the Philippines opened December 4, 1997 at 6750 Ayala Building in Makati City.

The 1997 opening of Starbucks in the Philippines was significant as it became the third market to open outside of  North America.

The Starbucks experience has since spread throughout the Philippines. In fact, it’s first branch in Mindanao has opened just last month in the province of Cagayan De Oro (CDO).  Starbucks continues to innovate with new concoctions and products such as their latest introduction of the Starbucks VIA Brew instant coffee. They have also released their Starbucks Planner 2011. They are also having the rounds for their Christmas Starbucks Cheers Party around the Philippines.

And as a Starbucks treat to it’s loyal customers, all branches of Starbucks in the Philippines are giving away complimentary cupcakes to it’s first 50 customers in each branch today. Happy Anniversary Starbucks!

It’s 40 days before Christmas, and the nights are getting longer and colder here in the Philippines. The Starbucks Planner 2011 was introduced about two weeks ago at the Starbucks Christmas Cheers Party with the theme Stories are Gifts, Share,” held at 6750 in Makati City.

As the 8th of the Limited Edition Starbucks Coffee Planner in the Philippines, it was an instant hit as the customers started to fill their cards with stickers to avail of the free Starbucks Coffee Planner 2011 soon.

Cool Clean Stainless Steel

This Year’s Theme

This year, they are available in three (3) cover variants with each cover representing elements found in Starbucks stores; from Maroon Velvet Fabric, Cool Clean Stainless Steel and Stained Dark Wood Panels.

What’s Inside

Every month features a Philippine Starbucks store for their uniqueness and relevance to their community. The 14-month planner which extends from December 2010 to January 2012 highlights fourteen (14) Starbucks stores, giving customers a further feel of Starbucks as their third place.

How To Get One

Starbucks customers can get the Starbucks Christmas traditions planner promo card at the beginning of the Starbucks Christmas last November 3. One sticker will be given for each Starbucks beverage purchased. It only takes seventeen (17) stickers to bring home the coolest Starbucks planner ever. Customers need to accumulate nine (9) stickers from the Christmas beverage returning favorites; Peppermint Mocha, Praline Mocha and Toffee Nut Latte plus eight (8) stickers for core handcrafted beverages. Purchase of the Starbucks VIA Ready Brew 3-pack booklet can also earn customers one (1) sticker while the Starbucks VIA Ready Brew box of 12 will earn customers two (3) stickers.

Maroon Velvet Fabric

Moreover, every redemption comes with a donation to SparkHope – Starbucks flagship program for early childhood care and development in partnership with UNICEF.

Hovw To Get One from NomNom Club

It’s easy! You have two chances of winning by joining either the “Share Your Christmas Story Write-Up Contest” or the “Share Your Christmas Photo”.

Stained Dark Wood Panels

Share Your Christmas Story Write-Up Contest Mechanics (For the Writer In You)

1. Write and share a story in your blog with the theme of “Sharing this Christmas Season”
   — Your story should be within the length of 150 words to 350 words only.
   — Either in the first or last paragraph, your story should mention the set of words “pinoy food recipes” which links to  “http://NomNomClub.com”.
2. Post about this contest in your Facebook wall with
   — A link of this blogpost ( http://nomnomclub.com/others/2010/starbucks-planner-2011-contest-win/)  and
   —  A tag of ‘@NomNom Club‘ Facebook Fanpage. Type “@” so your wall post will appear on NomNomClub FB page ( http://www.facebook.com/NomNomClub ).
   —  Make sure your FB share setting is for “Everyone“
3. One entry per person only.
4. Post the link of your blogpost on the comment section below.
5. Criteria
   * Creativity of Story – 25%
   * Awesomeness / Impact – 20%
   * Originality – 20%
   * Relevance to  Theme – 20%
   * Grammar and Technicalities – 15%

Share Your Christmas Photo Mechanics (for the social media celebrity in you) 🙂

1. Post any of your Christmas photo at Share Your Christmas Photo with NomNomClub.com (NomNom Club album) in Facebook.
2. Post about this contest in your Facebook wall with
   — a link of this blog post ( http://nomnomclub.com/others/2010/starbucks-planner-2011-contest-win/ )  and
   — Make sure your FB share setting is for “Everyone“
3. Photo should be captioned with “Two Starbucks Planner 2011 Contest – Join & Win! Click http://nomnomclub.com/others/2010/starbucks-planner-2011-contest-win/” Check this example.
4. The FB Photo entry with the most number of comments by December 15, 2010 wins.
5. One entry per person only. Fictitious FB accounts will be disqualified.
6. This last one is not required, but if you do this, you get an automatic +5 comment points: participants should place a relevant comment  in this article – http://DigitalManila.blogspot.com/2010/11/samsung-nf-sf-qx-notebook-series.html. Place the link of your comment (of the Digital Manila article ) as the first comment of your photo entry in FB. To get the URL link of your Digital Manila comment, simply click on the ‘time link‘ beside your name.

How to get the URL link of your Digital Manila comment

Other Notes:

• Contest Duration will start November 15 and end December 15, 2010. Winners will be announced December 19, 2010 in this blog as a blogpost.
• Winners in both contests can choose which of the three Starbucks Planner variants they want from the Maroon Velvet Fabric,  Cool Clean Stainless Steel, and Stained Stained Dark Wood Panels.
• Prizes will be couriered to anywhere in the Philippines with a valid address.
• Participants can join both contests and win independently.
• Winners will be contacted in their blog (for the story contest) and sent a personal message in their FB account (for the photo contest) and have until Dec 31, 2010 to acknowledge and respond. Otherwise, the prize will be given to the winning entry next in line.

Starbucks Planner 2011

Get ahead of the game and start joining now! Get the chance to win one, or two, Starbucks Planner 2011! Have a NomNom Starbucks Christmas!

It’s Christmas! And NomNom Club starts it with Starbucks Christmas Cheers Party!

Starbucks Cheers Party

The Starbucks Christmas-themed beverages and Starbucks Christmas-themed food items are back! Last November 3, 2010, the 6750 branch in Makati held the first Starbucks Cheers Party this year for their loyal customers and patrons from 6-8pm.

Starbucks Peppermint Mocha

Starbucks Christmas Beverages

We enjoyed sample servings of Toffee Nut Latte, Praline Mocha, and Peppermint Mocha.

If you miss the Christmassy feeling, try the Peppermint Mocha. The minty aftertaste, rich chocolate, smooth espresso and velvety steamed milk would reassure you of the season’s atmosphere. It is topped with whipped cream and red sugar sprinkles.

Starbucks Toffee Nut Latte

The Toffee Nut Latte on the other hand has the buttery flavor of sweet toffee combined with toasted nuts.

Also blended with smooth espresso and steamed milk, it is topped with whipped cream and toffee-flavored  sprinkles.

Praline Mocha is similarly prepared but accented by hazelnut syrup and topped with mocha sauce drizzle.

My favorites though are Toffee Nut Latte and Praline Mocha; in that order.

Starbucks Christmas Red Cups

Starbucks Coupons

Similar to last year, guests were given Cheer Party cards with coupons. It has a raffle stub, planner promo card, photo booth pic, 10%off on Starbucks merchandise / Starbucks VIA ReadyBrew, and a complimentary tall beverage.

Acapella Manila

Although I did not win in the raffle draws, I got to taste a wide array of the Starbucks Christmas-themed food items while the Acapella Manila choir serenaded us with popular Christmas songs.

Here are photos of Starbucks guests and friends in the recent Starbucks Christmas Cheers Party:

Starbucks Cheers Party

Starbucks Barkada

Starbucks Merchandise

Starbucks 6750

Starbucks Philippines Family

Starbucks Friends

Starbucks Christmas Cheers Party

More Starbucks Philippines Cheers Party might be coming your way over the next few weeks!:

• Nov 12 – Starbucks Silver City (7-9pm)
• Nov 17 – Starbucks Aguirre BF Homes (8-10pm)
• Nov 18 – Starbucks Northeast Greenhills (6-8pm)
• Nov 19 – Starbucks Katipunan (6-8pm)
• Nov 26 – Starbucks Marquinton (6-8pm)
• Nov 29 – Starbucks #10 Congressional (5-7pm)

It was indeed an awesome Starbucks Cheers Party 2010! I’m already excited for next year; hahaha! 🙂