My eternal fascination with vending machines in Tokyo continues. They seem to have the most interesting drinks, never mind that I still cannot read most labels and usually go by color(pink for a strawberry drink, brown for chocolate) , pictures of fruits(hopefully indicate juice) and pictures of tapioca pearls hopefully indicating a tea concoction or coconut milk with tapioca pearls. Jasmine tea is the easiest to identify with a very pretty bottle with a label of jasmine flowers.
There are several varieties of teas. The more common japanese green tea or “matcha” the interesting tasting oolong, and the”good for health” tea with atleast 5-6 different kinds of herbs. My favorite is “afternoon tea” which tastes of regular indian tea without the masalas. Nothing beats holding a can of hot afternoon tea in your hand from the vending machine, on a freezing cold winter morning. Did I not mention that the machines dispense hot drinks on winter mornings? These hot cans make nice hand and face warmers. The location of an average vending machine is also very convenient, on a hot day like today, these machines are life saving refreshment stations!
I walk down my street with renewed vigor after a sip of an ice cold cantaloupe drink!- did I bother to check if it was full fat milk? nope, hopefully those extra pounds fell by the wayside while I ran towards the machine!
What life-savers line your streets! I can feel the warmth in the hot cuppa tea in the cold.
Keep blogging it is good to read from you and your life.
Hey Di,
I always equate vending machines with the magical weighing machines in the central station in Chennai – each time you weigh yourself, your prediction for the day changes!!!
Priya
wow cool!