There are some people who it is just plain good to know. When you're in college, for example, the guy with a truck is incredibly helpful, and when you go in to business, the understanding accountant and the slightly unethical lawyer are almost necessities.

A few years ago, my friend John became one of these fabulously helpful people. A lifelong resident of southwest Virginia and a trained chemist, John had a skill set that was uniquely wonderful: he knew how to get hold of moonshine, and he knew how to test it for impurities. While the grain liquor (or "likker," if you prefer) that I got from John wasn't all that cheap, it was completely flavorless, and I soon discovered that it made the perfect carrier for various fruits. Within a couple of months, I had a collection of incredibly delicious infused cordials that I would mix with seltzer or tonic water to produce light, moderately alcoholic spritzers with insanely pure tastes.

Could kiwis be the next major source of biofuel? There's some research going on in New Zealand (of course) about the feasibility of using the green fruit as a source of the plant based fuel alternative.

Right now, they say, ruined fruit gets used as stock food, but that could be turned into a fuel source. They're even working on using it for bio plastics. The "refineries" would be like wineries. There are a lot of people in New Zealand who are excited about this.

My question is, would kiwi biofuel cause any of the same problems that corn based biofuels do now? I know that the world doesn't survive on kiwi (tasty as it is) the way it does on corn. I mean, if using kiwis as biofuel doesn't cause world food shortages and all, then I would be all for it. What do you think?

[Via New Zealand Herald.com]

It's a darn good thing this photo is pure food porn for me because the site from where I've gotten it is in Japanese. I suppose I could run a translator on it, but it's a little too early in the morning for that.

However, if there's one thing that doesn't need translation, it's the sticky sweet green of kiwi fruit, and the beautiful black seeds that have been transformed here into what looks like a jam. I love how almost the entire photo is washed out white, and the kiwi jam is what stands out.

The concept of "drinkable fruit" is one that I do not quite understand. I understand fruit juice, but Tropicana's new Fruitwise Drinkable Fruit beverages are just confusing. Tropicana makes good-quality products, so I don't doubt that these drinks taste good, but the marketing concept is weird.

The drinkable fruit line is neither a juice nor a smoothie, but somewhere in between. The products claim to deliver two full servings of fruit in their 8-ounce, 170-calorie containers, but the fruit inside isn't necessarily the flavor printed on the packaging. Take the Strawberry Kiwi flavor, for example. It lists it ingredients as "filtered water, apple puree concentrate, strawberry puree concentrate, white grape juice concentrate, apple juice concentrate, raspberry puree concentrate, kiwi juice concentrate and natural flavors." The ingredients are all natural and to increase the thickness it is not surprising that everything was from "concentrate" - but there are more flavors in the bottle than promised, and the kiwi flavor seems as though it was thrown in as an afterthought.

A serving of fruit juice is ordinarily 6-ounces and you could drink 12-ounces of fruit juice for the same number of calories contained n one of these drinks - so why bother with them? Have plain juice if you are looking to get more fruit into your diet or make a smoothie on your own instead of reaching for one of these.

A New Zealand company is using some unusual tactics to grab customers' attention. The Brazil cafe commissioned a company to create specialty branded trash cans to promote their coffees. The trash cans are shaped like coffee cups, complete with protective sleeve and stir stick, and shout "Coffee taste like crap?" insinuating that coffee drinkers should ditch their sub-par beverages and head for a Brazil location, to which the cans helpfully point the way. Located in a popular Auckland neighborhood with many independent cafes as well as corporate chains, the cans that were placed outside a Starbucks had their slogans removed by Starbucks employees who were unhappy about them. There is little doubt that the company wasn't a big fan, either.

[Image via Adrant]

 

One of the reasons I miss the Bay Area is the San Francisco Chronicle. Now don't get me wrong, I love the Los Angeles Times and a couple of the writers in the weekly food section are ones I look forward to. However, the San Francisco Chronicle dedicates a whole section to wine on Thursdays (and the fact that there is no need to "register" right away).

As we've already posted, the Chronicle pays homage to the wines of New Zealand this week, but their list of 36 recommendations from the 52 wines that they tasted deserves to be singled out. They're all Sauvignon Blanc, which is what New Zealand is famous for.

• Highest ranked of their list, rated three and a half stars (***½) to 2005 Framingham Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($17), 2005 Matua Valley Paretai Estate Series Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($17), and 2005 Sauvignon Republic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($18). 2005. That was a very good year.
• Three stars (***) out of four awarded to 2005 Forrest Estate Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($16).
• Two and half stars (**½) for just about everyone else.

  Aw, they didn't even mention my favorite Monkey.

   

Seven new "superfoods" have been added to the original list of 14 by Dr. Steven Pratt, the founder of the superfoods movement. Superfoods are generally defined as foods that are incredibly nutrient dense, more so than any other foods. In his new book, Pratt describes the nutritional properties of these foods in detail, as well as naming similar foods, or "sidekicks", which have similar properties. Pratt's seven new superfoods are:

• Pomegranates
• Apples
• Kiwi
• Honey
• Cinnamon 
• Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Dark Chocolate

I wonder if there are any recipes that involve all the superfoods. These new ones seem as though they might be combined into some sort of dessert, but once you have added beans, blueberries, salmon and soy from the original 14, your dish will start to look very unusual, not to mention fairly unappetizing.