That's right! This December, Beer made with chocolate will be available from the Japanese company Kirin. What can be better than the mixture of these two alluring and bewitching foods? This sounds like an idea for Valentine's Day...
Apparently, this beer chocolate will be better than previous beer and chocolate concoctions. I've never tasted them before. So, I wonder if it'll taste obnoxiously sweet or if it'll meet that perfect balance.
Beer chocolate is just one out of the many flavored beers you can find. For example, just last month, we had a post about a blueberry ale from Maine. This makes me wonder whether or not this is a recent trend or something that has been done for ages. Either way, I look forward to tasting this Japanese beer chocolate this winter.
For years now, I've been hearing about the Fancy Food Show. I'd see clips of it on the Food Network, or read about it in the New York Times, until this week, it had never been something I got to experience personally. And now that I've lived through my first one, I'm struggling to find a way to write about it.
You see, it's a big event. Thousands of people are there, selling, buying, tasting and sipping. I only sampled a fraction of the available goods and by the end of each day all I wanted was a crunchy green salad to serve as a simple foil to all the chocolate, cheese, cookies, crackers, salsas, jams and gourmet popcorn I had munched.
I discovered that herbal flavors are the New! Big! Thing! in sweets, beverages and vinaigrettes, so expect to see lots rosemary, lavender and mint in both sweet and savory items going forward. Another popular flavor combination I encountered was Pear-Ginger. It is a lovely marriage and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it on the store shelves. My gluten-free friends will be happy to hear that lots of companies are working on producing the best in gluten-free cookies, crackers and breads (I'll have more specifics in another post). And lastly, everyone is looking for a way to make their products more natural, organic and artisanal.
I'll have more on the show soon, including specific products that I loved. I'm still working my way through a lot of the samples I brought home with me (the image above is my coffee table after I unpacked my suitcase). Don't forget to check out Kat's Day One Favorites!
Have you ever looked at a cake with flowers on top and thought about possible hygiene issues? Or have you just wondered how they did that? There hasn't been any kind of industry standard, but the new CakeVase would not be a bad start.
Most of the time, decorators just put a plate on top of the cake with a floral arrangement on that. One problem with that is the plate may be too heavy. Also, you have no way water the flowers, so you may have some wilting by the end of the day. And no one recommends sticking flowers directly into a cake.There are ways around these problems without the CakeVase of course, but this gadget really does appear to make the task pretty easy, clean, and hygienic.
The website has more information and examples, as well as links to where it can be purchased. It's not too pricey, either. You get three vases for $13.93. There are two sizes of the regular vase, and one that's a ring so you can have flowers just around the edge. The CakeVase can help easily add a touch of elegance to your next cake.
Stop what you're doing. Kraft is about to revolutionize the cheese industry with - are you ready? - parmesan cheese that comes in a ready-to-grate block form.
Shocking, I know.
The product, called Kraft Grate-It-Fresh Natural Parmesan Cheese, was actually first introduced last year at the 2006 Food Marketing Institute (FMI) Supermarket Convention, and was available at some east coast distributors as of last November. Now, much to the chagrin of those who like their parmesan cheese to be fresh and not prepackaged, it is now nationally available.
The "natural" cheese block is packed inside a disposable, plastic grater that utilizes a "clockwise twisting motion [to keep] the cheese in place" until ready to use. Kraft is promoting it as the perfect way "to bring the restaurant experience home... without the hassle of pulling out your grater." It is aimed at those who are looking to shave off those three seconds it takes to get out your own grater (a kitchen gadget that is so inexpensive and so handy that even dorm-dwelling college students own them) and use it with a fresh chunk of parmesan.
Kate, the Accidental Hedonist, noted the same thing when she reviewed this product just after its initial introduction and was not a fan. Others, however, liked its convenience and child-friendly usability, so there appears to be a market for the product. In the long run, a cheese grater (nondisposable) will run you less than $10. You can buy the Grate-It-Fresh in a 7oz. size for $4.99 and you'll have to pay for that disposable grater every time - and you'll still have to have a regular cheese grater at home for other uses.
Milk consumption in Japan is steadily declining and there seems to be no drop in production, which means that there is a lot of extra milk that needs to be disposed of every year. A liquor shop owner in Hokkaido, Chitoshi Nakahara, began to wonder what could be done about the oversupply of milk when he was struck the idea of combining milk and beer. He dubbed his new product "bilk."
Bilk is 30% milk and took six months to develop with the help of a local brewer. The production process is much like that of regular beer and the resulting brew "apart from a slight milky scent looks and tastes like ordinary beer." It is currently being produced in limited quantities and is available via mail order, but Nakahara says that he has gotten so much media attention that he is totally out of stock for the moment. Despite this, bilk's success won't be assured until the novelty wears off and Nakahara can find out whether people will continue to buy the product.
In the loving spirit of Valentine's Day, Whole Foods wants some of their customers to know just how appreciated they are by offering a new product, Aquamantra's I AM LOVED in stores in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.
Described as tasting sweet by consumers, the liquid affirmation is natural spring water that "resonates with the energy and frequency of well-being" - seemingly due to the "powerful messages" delivered by the bottles' labels: I AM HEALTHY, I AM LOVED and I AM LUCKY.
Do I sound skeptical? As much as I loved the Stewart Smalley sketches on Saturday Night Live, I don't really think that affirmations alone - especially ones that come from the labels on bottles of spring water - are going to make people feel loved. That being said, it probably wouldn't hurt to pick one up for your significant other before Valentine's Day because that affirmation will mean a whole lot more if it is coming from someone special, even if it is arriving on a bottle of water.
Of course, if you go for chocolates instead, you won't need an label for your S.O. to figure out why you chose it as a Valentine's Day present....
American Idol fans -- or ice cream fans, for that matter -- may want to take note of the new flavors available from Dreyer's that tie in to the popular realty show. Dreyer's/Edy's is the newest partner for American Idol, joining one of the most lucrative media franchises in history, and has five new Idol-themed flavors for fans to choose from. Each is presented on the Dreyer's website with a profile listing its "hometown," "slogan," and other information in the style of the stat given for a real contestant. Tasters can sample the flavors, which will be released to stores on or around Feb. 1, and then vote for their favorite flavor online. Voters will then have a chance to win tickets to the American Idol season finale.
If you're not interested in the show, at least you'll still get to enjoy some new Slow-Churned flavors as long as you can get past the Idol propaganda on the containers: Take The Cake (yellow cake flavor with blue frosting and sprinkles), Choc 'N Roll Caramel (caramel swirls and mini caramel chocolate cups), Hollywood Cheesecake (cheesecake ice cream with graham and strawberry swirls), Soulful Sundae Cone (vanilla, chocolate ice creams with chocolate peanuts and ice cream cone bits) and Triple Talent (triple chocolate).
Jonathan mentioned that Oregon Chai has a soy Chai Nog on sale for the holidays for anyone who avoids dairy or is just a fan of chai in general. If you fall into the former category and prefer soy milks to dairy, there is another nog option available: Vitasoy's Holly Nog. Spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, the creamy holiday drink is a good stand-in for traditional eggnog. As an added bonus, it has only 120 calories per serving, a fraction of the dairy-based recipe.
If eggnog - or soy nog - isn't you're cup of tea, Vitasoy also has a new Peppermint Chocolate Soy drink out this year, which it touts as being delicious hot or cold, and an excellent choice for chocolate fans. It is low in fat and makes a great, seasonal creamer for coffee. Both drinks are dairy, lactose, cholesterol and gluten-free and both are USDA certified organic.
Starting on January 1st, Jones Soda will be pushing its canned sodas to consumers instead of the bottled sodas that it is known for. They will continue to package the soda in bottles, but the switch to cans is intended to make the product more accessible as the company expands. Coinciding with that launch, Jones Soda has announced that they will be sweetening their sodas with pure cane sugar, rather than the high fructose corn syrup that they use now (the diet flavors are made with sucralose/Splenda). All of their canned sodas will use cane sugar and, by mid-2007, so will all of their bottled drinks.
Jones Soda says that the change is being made with consumer health in mind, even though nutritionists say that it is not any more harmful than other forms of sugar. The reality is that the switch is being made because shoppers are interested in anything that they think is good for their health. Neither sugar nor corn syrup is all that good for you, especially in large amounts, so claiming that it is healthier to drink the sugar-sweetened soda at the same time as they are trying to push sales seems to be a bit contradictory. That said, the taste is really the most important factor in soda selection and if the change improves the flavor of their sodas, which is already excellent (with a fewexceptions), then it sounds like a good one.
General Mills has a brand new cereal out in stores now. It's got the now-familiar "whole grain" label on it, promising a healthy breakfast, but somehow Double Chocolate Cookie Crisp doesn't seem like it's going to stack up nutritionally to, say, a bowl of oatmeal. I had no idea that Cookie Crisp was still on the market (anyone remember the cop that used to be in the commercials?), let alone the fact that GM was working on new variations, including the double choc as well as peanut butter.
Surprisingly, Double Chocolate Cookie Crisp isn't too bad when you take a look at the label. Each serving as only 130 calories and 2.5 grams of fat, none of it saturated, and it's fortified with calcium, iron, folic acid, etc. And the taste? It's pretty much like chocolate chip cookies and milk. They might be a bit on the sweet side, but for a chocoholic needing a fix in the morning, you could do a lot worse.
If you're not interested in sugary treats in the morning, the cereal might be more satisfying as a snack in the afternoon. Each 3/4 cup serving is going to be slightly bigger than what you'd find in one of those 100 calorie packs of "cookies" and you'll get a lot more servings out of a $4 box.
How long does the flavor in your gum last? OR, for that matter, what type of gum do you chew? Lately, I've been chewing quite a bit of Orbitz and I'm pretty satisfied with how long the flavor lasts. I also chew Extra and have found that some of their flavors seem to last longer than others (the mints verses the fruits). Gum is one of the most popular "foods" items in the US, but it is probably also the most complained about. According to the vice president of Cadbury Schweppes, 66% of people feel that their gum looses flavor too quickly. So, to try to give customers what they want, Cadbury has developed a new gum, called Stride. The gum is formulated to remain soft and chewy longer, as well as to release its flavor more slowly, thus increasing the amount to time that customers are willing to chew it. An unofficial taste test in the New York Times found that it did last longer than regular gum, averaging about 20 minutes of good chewing time. The new product will hit the shelves later this month, as will a $50 million advertising campaign, so the release - just like the longer, time-release flavor of the gum itself - will probably be hard to miss.
Dr. Pepper has been planning to add other flavors of soda to its Soda
Fountain line since the release of it's Diet and Regular Cherry Vanilla Dr. Peppers in 2004. This month marks the first
release of its new flavor: Dr. Pepper Berries and Cream . The new flavors we wildly successful during test marketing and
their rollout will continue through June, at which time they should be
in stores nationally. Several packs of the new sodas are already for
sale on eBay. The official launch started when the company released several in Plano, Texas, where the
headquarters of Cadbury Schweppes, the company behind Dr. Pepper, is located.
Starbucks is scheduled
to launch a few additions to its line of prepackaged drinks. Working in conjunction with PepsiCo, which distributes
the Starbucks brand bottled Frappuccinos, the new drinks will include a lower-fat version of the popular Double-Shot
espresso drink, a strawberry Frappuccino and an iced coffee beverage. The iced coffee will be a sweet, milky drink sold
in 8-ounce cans. The Starbucks bottled Frappuccino sold over 434 million units last year and no doubt Starbucks hopes
that this new drink will draw on the popularity of its existing line, filling anticipated consumer demand for a sweet
coffee drink that is less rich than the Frappuccino.
I shopped, I brought
home, I cooked, I photographed. And you'd like to know, wouldn't you? What I thought of Trader Joe's new product:
Mexican-style chili One Pot Sauce. ("Just add Meat or Chicken" - isn't chicken "meat"? Just
curious.)
Well, it was o.k. Maybe I'm not a big fan of Mexican-style chili. Maybe... I don't get the need for this product. I
sautéed my ground turkey (completely violating the suggestions of beef or chicken), I added in a bit of
chipotle pepper for extra spice, I stirred in the cup of water and kidney beans on cue. I even added the optional
corn (though not canned corn! ick. I used frozen).
Peak into my grocery bag from last night: I went to Trader Joe's last night
to get a couple of things for dinner. But there were so many good things on the new products shelf! I picked up one.
Then another. And then I figured, why not? I'm doing it for you. I'll be reviewing some delicious (or maybe not so
much) things including:
Have you ever looked at a cake with 
Milk consumption in Japan is steadily declining and there seems to be no drop in production, which means that there is a lot of extra milk that needs to be disposed of every year. A liquor shop owner in Hokkaido, Chitoshi Nakahara, began to wonder what could be done about the oversupply of milk when he was struck the idea of combining milk and beer. He dubbed his new product "
In the loving spirit of Valentine's Day, Whole Foods wants some of their customers to know just how appreciated they are by offering a new product, 
Jonathan mentioned that Oregon Chai has a 
Starting on January 1st, Jones Soda will be pushing its canned sodas to consumers instead of the bottled sodas that it is known for. They will continue to package the soda in bottles, but the switch to cans is intended to make the product more accessible as the company expands. Coinciding with that launch, Jones Soda has announced that they will be sweetening their sodas 
General Mills has a brand new 
How long does the flavor in your gum last? OR, for that matter, what type of gum do you chew? Lately, I've been chewing quite a bit of 
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
