Holsem revisits or trying to go through their whole drinks menu

If you haven't noticed, I've been on a coffee kick this past year.

Until earlier this year, the only coffee I would try was iced or cold brew. Never hot drinks. Until this year. Tasting for the sake of "research", heh heh.


Of course I'll still have some specialty cold brew coffee drinks. My favorite are from the relatively new Holsem Coffee which opened in early May. Since then, I've been back so many times, it's not even funny. Holsem is truly a coffee parlor instead of just a coffee shop. They are the only place I'm aware of that uses a cocktail shaker for several of their coffee concoctions. They also don't use that fake syrup shit that gets pumped into flavored coffees elsewhere. Everything is natural, even their handmade hazelnut and banana milks.

So here is the rundown on 90% of their drinks menu, as explored by myself and Bert.

The Colada:

Made with cold brew coffee,  cream of coconut, evaporated cane sugar and toasted coconut. This was taken to go so I didn't get the "experience" of having it in a tall glass but it still worked!


I would get this again.

Another time with Bert, we had a cold and iced coffee combo. I had the Lemon Meringue while he had the Cubano.


The Lemon Meringue has iced cold brew, lemon zest, thyme, evaporated cane sugar  and cream.

The Cubano was a Macchiato topped with Madagascar vanilla whip and milk. There was supposed to be a mint leaf on top as garnish, but it sank to the bottom. He really liked this; it was pretty potent.

I wasn't sure if I would like this but I did. The lemon flavor is not overpowering but you could definitely taste it. The evaporated cane sugar in these coffees has a distinct taste which I really like. It makes a big difference than regular sugar.


During that same visit, I went to get up and bumped into one of the workers, who turned out to be the co-owner, Muna Farhat. She said I looked familiar and I told her we'd been there before. I joked that we were trying to go through their whole menu and that we really liked the place. She seemed genuinely happy to hear that and  when she asked us what we hadn't tried yet, offered us that very drink. Bert chose the Lavender, which is a mocha (uses Valhrona chocolate), milk (subbed with hazelnut milk), and topped with lavender buds.


I'm not a lavender fan at all so Bert was the one who drank most of this. I took a few sips and was glad that the drink wasn't entirely lavender flavored. Otherwise it would have been like drinking pot pourri, or baby lotion. The lavender buds look pretty but taste weird to me. In any case, this complimentary drink was quite an unexpected but welcome surprise. How nice and generous of the owner!

Not long after that visit, Bert and I returned to try a couple more drinks. This was La Vie en Rose, which is a cappuccino flavored with rosewater, cardamom and milk and topped with rose petals.

My iced drink was the Gingersnap, which is cold brew with fresh muddled ginger, nutmeg, maple syrup and cream.  Like the lemon drink, I wasn't sure if I'd like this but did!  The ginger was very present but not overpowering. It was a nice flavor combination.

As for Bert, the milk was their housemade hazelnut.  I didn't like this too much since I could taste the faint rosewater flavor. Bert did NOT like the petals. It felt weird swallowing it in a drink and didn't seem "right" to him. He liked the coffee itself but probably wouldn't get it again due to the floral flavor profile.



Fresh ginger = flavor explosion.



During the first weekend of June, Bert and I stopped here yet again. TC was over at the park with the dance troupe for the Balboa Park Centennial Philippine American Celebration. We had some time to kill.

This time, we not only had coffees but one of their sandwiches and one of Bake Sale's egg tarts (which we had before).

What we got...

Bert's Honeycomb which was the Holsem blend with spiced honey and cream. It had a weird curdled look to it. Maybe the coffee was too hot (the milk or milk sub wasn't spoiled) and caused it to look this way?


I didn't like the Honeycomb because the spices were too strong for me. Bert thought it was sweet and liked it more than the rose and lavender coffees.

As for the sandwich, it was cold (meant to be?). I forgot that these types of breads are the kind that can cut the roof of your mouth if you aren't careful. Major jaw action is required. The fillings were excellent though especially the tiny pickles.



Our spread:

My drink this time was the Strawberry Malt which was a Latte with strawberry puree, vanilla malt and milk.


I quite enjoyed this drink. The strawberry puree was so fresh and there was some left on the bottom of the mug that I wanted to scrape up but didn't have a spoon to do it, ha ha,

This time, the egg was runny so Bert ate more of this tart than I did.

More recently, when Mr. TJ and I went here with our former students, I treated one to the Banana Bread iced coffee. We admired the garnishes at the coffee bar (mint, lavender buds, dried rose petals and star anise). I was wondering what drink the star anise was used for; I'll have to ask next time.

Shake it!

Scraping the block of Valhrona chocolate for our Banana Bread drinks.

The Banana Bread was iced cold brew with homemade banana milk, cinnamon and honey and garnished with chocolate shavings.


Taken on top of a painted utility box while on our way to Hammond's ice cream.


Our most recent visit was last weekend where TC tried their vanilla gelato and Bert and I tried yet two more coffee drinks.

This was new...bagged homemade marshmallows and granola in those hipster geometric glass things. Pretty.

Cool tile pattern.

Bert had the brownie  with his Zaki coffee which was the Holsem blend with cardamom, cream and evaporated cane sugar.

THIS was a hell of a lot of gelato. It was $3 and I was expecting a tiny scoop but whoa. I guess you could say it was worth it but for a portion like this, seems more appropriate for sharing.

No, this was THREE generous scoops.

Even though we tried to "help" her with the gelato, there was leftover gelato which I ended up dumping and mixing into my drink, which was the Egg Cream. As with their other iced coffee drinks I've tried, I enjoyed this mix of chilled espresso, chocolate ganache, Madagascar vanilla, cream with a sparkling water float. I was glad that there wasn't an actual "egg" in there.

Bert's Zaki also had that strange "curdled" look; his milk was subbed with almond. Perhaps it's properties (even if it was non-dairy) combined with the hot coffee that caused it. It looked pretty in a way but not.

My egg cream on the other hand was a pleasant taste sensation. The sparkling water was carbonated and tasted so good  mixed with the thick rich chocolate ganache and coffee.


We'll have to try the Zaki with regular milk next time to see if this happens or not.

Bert didn't really like the spices  though. The coffee drinks with the spices aren't his thing. So maybe we won't get it again after all.  Incidentally, both co-owners are of Middle Eastern descent, hence their drinks with the exotic flavorings.

That just about wraps it up. Dayum.

Previous visit(s) to Holsem:
Earlier last month! May 2015

There's a few more drinks to try (the frozen ones) and I can honestly say I've tried all of their "creations".  Next time, it'll be the Espresso Shake and the Cold Brew Float!