I Deserve a Fun Drink Today

I wasn't sad. I just needed a fun drink.

Jul 30, 2024

Spending Rp40,000 on an iced coffee is my favourite pastime.

Halo! How was your Monday? I hope everything is well and that you’re ready to take on the rest of this week! Today’s newsletter is all about treating yourself. I will talk about what a fun drink is, share a personal recipe and some from my friends, and discuss how making or getting these fun drinks can help you get through the day, or heck, even the week. Enjoy!🍹

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Repeat after me: I deserve a fun drink today. Good. Now grab a piece of paper, and a pen, and write this down: I deserve a fun drink today. Great. Whenever you feel down, overwhelmed, or burned out in the middle of the day, you can now gaslight yourself by saying this mantra, and spend the next 10-15 minutes making your go-to fun drink.

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A fun drink is a TikTok trend that is here to stay and for a good reason. Forget Tiffany’s Plate and stop counting your calories for a moment. Dipping a bunch of raw carrots and sausages into cottage cheese is not a dinner, and comparing a piece of martabak coklat with 1kg of tomato cherries is insane. I’m not a nutritionist, but you guys need your damn carbs and have fun a little. Treat yourself a little.

There is no exact formula of what makes a drink fun, but I believe it should be… well… fun, experimental, and sparks joy. Think of your regular black coffee and tea. Maybe add a splash of cashew milk to make them extra nutty. Or brew them with cold water overnight to get rid of the bitterness. Think of another type of drink. How about coconut water? Have you tried adding orange juice to them? That shit hits hard.

The simplicity of making a fun drink inspires people to share their take religiously on TikTok, often making it a daily ritual. All you need to do is pop your phone on the kitchen counter, get your ingredients ready, and start creating. Most of these videos don't even include exact ingredient measurements or specific techniques. In fact, the more chaotic the prep, the more realistic and relatable it feels. It's comforting to see others experiencing the same specific struggles – like did you know that a plastic chasen could be a more sustainable way to whisk your matcha? I wouldn’t know because I whisk mine with a stainless steel whisk.

The rule is, there are no rules. Anything can be a fun drink if you take the time to make it. And when it can serve as a pick-me-up, you know you did it.

I have always been making fun drinks, but one core memory that anyone here may relate to is the Dalgona Coffee era. If you somehow, by any chance, didn’t use social media during that global panoramic thing we had in 2020, let me explain. Dalgona Coffee is a whipped instant coffee, sugar, and milk. It wasn’t new. Most Koreans would probably know this before it was trending on TikTok. But during our hardest time quarantining, a fun, simple activity to cheer our day is what we needed. A little jog to our pantry, a tablespoon of instant coffee, some sugar, milk, and you just made yourself a fun drink.

Dalgona Coffee captures the essence of ‘fun drinks’ very well. It combines the joy of trying new things, the ability to customise to our taste, simplicity, and visual appeal. She really walked so that every other fun drink could run.

During this time, I was lucky enough to be able to work from home, allowing me to take as many silly breaks as I wanted throughout the day. There's something relaxing about making fun drinks.

Personally, I feel like taking the time to make something nice for myself, especially in an era where hustling is being glamorised, is so metal. Working in both corporate and entrepreneurial settings messed up my perception of time. With all the back-to-back meetings and growing to-do lists, it was easy to think I couldn’t afford to slack even for a second. But after starting this small, silly routine of making fun drinks, I realised I actually had more than a second to pause. In fact, I have 10 minutes to squeeze all the cashew milk from a cheesecloth.

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Although it may seem contradictory, taking a break is also productive.

Making fun drinks for yourself is a form of self-reward. Imagine it's 2 PM on a Thursday. You've just finished your third and last meeting of the day and finally have time to focus on the actual tasks you need to do. You have two options. First, you could dive right into those tasks, or second, you could treat yourself to a refreshing cup of Iced Maple Hojicha Latte.

Think of it as a way to thank yourself for sitting through a two-hour meeting that could've been an email. Ideally, you'd have time to enjoy this fun drink, but even if you don't, you can bring it back to your desk and enjoy it while doing your next tasks. The slightly bitter hojicha, the woody and aromatic maple syrup, and the creamy oat milk just hit differently in the middle of a busy day.

During the hardest, most boring times of the day, these fun drinks are the ones that helped me get through the day. Even writing this essay is so much easier with an Iced Caramel Latte in hand. Most of the time, we can't control the tasks that come our way, and the fact that we still have to get them done remains unchanged.

But what we can control is how we respond to them. Taking a 10-minute break to make myself a fun drink helps me get back to my desk feeling refreshed, and that, is a productivity hack.

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If you’re reading this in the middle of your work day, this is another friendly reminder to stop whatever you’re doing. Spend a quick 10 minutes making yourself a fun drink – *Your* kind of fun drink, not the Nara Smith type of shit. If that means adding a slice of lemon and honey to your hot green tea, good news, that probably will only take five minutes. If it means you need to get it from the local coffee shop, go take that silly little walk!

What are your favourite fun drinks to make at home? Comment down below!

I Deserve a Fun Drink Today

I wasn't sad. I just needed a fun drink.

The rule is, there are no rules. Anything can be a fun drink if you take the time to make it. And when it can serve as a pick-me-up, you know you did it.

Dalgona Coffee captures the essence of ‘fun drinks’ very well. It combines the joy of trying new things, the ability to customise to our taste, simplicity, and visual appeal. She really walked so that every other fun drink could run.

Although it may seem contradictory, taking a break is also productive.

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