Flavored Beer, Random Snacks, and a Long Overdue Catch-Up

It’s been four years since Jem, our friend, last visited the Philippines. She’s been living in the US for a while now but even with the distance, we somehow stayed close. Whenever there’s a get-together here in the Philippines, we usually include her through video calls and our group chat is still active with random check-ins and updates.

So when she told me she’d be coming back to the Philippines for a vacation, we already knew we had to organize a get-together.

She trusted me with organizing everything. Planning it wasn’t exactly easy though. Her schedule here was pretty packed because she’s staying with her whole family and they already had trips lined up. At the same time, most of us here in the Philippines are working, so everyone had different availabilities. Good thing everyone's cooperative and willing to make time, so I organized a mini get-together here in our area.

After dinner, we walked to a nearby grocery store to grab some drinks and snacks. Since we wanted something chill and refreshing, we decided to go for light beers.

We picked up San Mig Light Beer, including the apple and lychee flavors. Flavored light beers are perfect for nights like this: not too strong, a bit refreshing and easy to sip while catching up with friends.

We have a friend who doesn't drink beer so we also got May sparkling wine, and I let them try the Yellow Tail Pink Moscato.

Then came the snack choices which were a bit questionable 😆 We got Doritos, chocolates, and ice cream. Imagine, ice cream with beer and wine. I know that sounds like a weird combo, but in our defense, we had already eaten dinner and we were just buying whatever we were craving at the moment.

We started drinking slowly while catching up on life. Conversations were jumping from updates about her life in the US to random throwbacks from years ago. It actually felt like time didn’t pass at all even though it’s been four years since she last visited the Philippines.

At some point, we used some of my game cards and started playing. Then we switched to playing Imposter using a phone app, which quickly turned into chaos.

Meanwhile, the beers were just doing their job, keeping the vibe light. That’s what I like about light beers during hangouts like this, we can just sip while talking, laughing, and playing games without the night feeling too heavy.

Eventually, some of our friends had to go home since they had work the next day. Three of us continued talking, laughing, and finishing our drinks. Before we knew it, it was already around 4 AM.

Anyway, that’s it for this week’s little beer story with my friends 🍺