In the past, we've posted about several social bookmarking and networking sites that focus on food, such as FoodCandy and Cork'd. Today Slashfood received a heads up about thisjustbrewed.com, a Digg-like site that describes itself as "social news for social beverages." True to its description, thisjustbrewed is a place where users can submit and vote for various news stories or sites that pertain to social beverages like coffee, tea, wine or beer. Scanning the site this evening, recent posts included a story about a type of bio-diesel fuel derived from beer by-products, news of $11,000 coffee machines, and a link to Bottletalk, another site where users can trade their own wine reviews. Most of the posts on thisjustbrewed are only getting a few votes each and none look to be more than a month old, so perhaps the site is still a bit new. With any luck, it will take on more users (I just joined), and become another good source for beverage-related news on the web.

[Thanks Ken]

Southern California McDonald's restaurants launched three new burgers this week. All are part of the new Angus Third-Pounder lineup. The burgers are made with USDA-inspected Angus beef and are intended to be more "gourmet" than the average McD's offering (they come on "bakery-style" rolls, for instance) in order to appeal to those who would normally opt for a different burger chain over the golden arches.

The three varieties are the Deluxe, Angus Mushroom and Swiss, and Angus Bacon and Cheese:

• Angus Deluxe: American cheese, sliced red onions and sliced red tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, mustard and mayonnaise.
• Angus Mushroom and Swiss: sauteed mushrooms, Swiss cheese and mayonnaise.
• Angus Bacon and Cheese: bacon, merican cheese, sliced red onions, mustard, ketchup and pickles.

The estimated retail price is $3.99 each. They will be available in Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties.

Russell Stover Chocolates started back in 1923 and leads the market in terms of the sales of boxed chocolates. It is the third larges chocolate manufacturer in the US, behind Hershey's and M&M Mars (Masterfoods). Although receiving consistently decent scores in taste tests, the brand has an image of affordability and none of the cache that more upscale brands - Godiva, Lindt, Vosges, to name but a few - do. Since chocolate is an ever-growing segment of the market, Russell Stover has decided to take action and reinvent the brand to appeal to new, younger consumers, consumers who are looking for more sophistication, trendier packaging and flavors that mimic those of upscale brands.

Several new lines will launch this spring, including Russell Stover Urban, Internationale and Origin Select, as well as a Private Reserve line designed to compete directly with bars from Lindt. There will be more organic chocolates, as well. The Whitman's brand, which is owned by the same company, will also launch a new line Whitman's Soho.

Consumers will make or break the new products, but industry insiders already see potential in Vanilla Bean Brûlée with 70% Dark Chocolate squares and other similar products, with Candy Industry magazine even giving Russell Stover the Manufacturer of the year award for 2006.

Pepsi is reworking their image and giving the look of their brand a total overhaul. The plan features a "360-degree marketing campaign", but the first thing that most consumers will notice is that their cans will look very different than before. Starting next month, the company will begin using more dramatic designs on their cans, bottles and branded cups and will be rotating the designs every few weeks to "reflect themes close to the hearts of teens and young adults." The theory is that younger consumers will be more interested in something more visually stimulating than their current design and that if there is a sports or music-themed can, a music fan might be more likely to purchase it. The logo itself will not change, but since Pepsi has only changed their can design 10 times in the 109 year history of the company, this new plan is quite a departure from tradition.

Also in pursuit of the drinking loyalties of the "millennial generation," the company will be running more contests, games and sweepstakes and will be sinking more money into merchandising (did you know that you can buy a Pepsi dress?) and advertising. Different contests and prize-winning opportunities will be associated with the different Pepsi products, giving consumers "different experience each time they buy a Pepsi" and "a passport to the things they enjoy most." Oh, and they'll be getting Pepsi, too.

Last year, Sun-Maid's iconic mascot, the Sun-Maid maid, got a makeover so the brand would have a new look. Her overall appearance remained very similar, but she was digitized. The newly three dimensional character talks, does yoga and promotes California raisins, but even though she was one of the first ad icons to undergo this overhaul, she isn't the only one. Orville Redenbacher has recently been digitized so that he can continue to convincingly promote his famous popcorn brand over ten years after his death. The first ad to use digital Orville will air during the Golden Gloves and will depict "Redenbacher [pitching] popcorn while jiving to his MP3 player." A preview clip can be seen here.

With the amount of technology that went into the ad, it is the company's most expensive ever, but as we have seen from the movie industry, an expensive venture doesn't always yield blockbuster results. Opinions vary on whether this was a good idea or a bad one. Some, including Redenbacher's grandson, see it as a way to remember the man and even feel that he would have loved the idea himself. Others think that there is "a certain creepiness" to the revival of a long-dead man.

Click past the jump for a vintage Orville Redenbacher commercial.

The most recent edition of the New York Times Book Review features a write-up of A Stew or a Story, a new collection of short pieces by M.F.K. Fisher assembled by Fisher biographer Joan Reardon. The NYT review doesn't exactly make you want to run out and snatch up a copy, however. From what reviewer Julia Reed has to say, many of the pieces in the collection are less than essential reading. Rather, they're mainly instructive pieces that don't feature much of the intertwining of food and emotion for which Fisher was known. Still, if you're already a fan, as I am, A Stew or a Story sounds to be worth a look. If, however, you're looking to get into M.F.K. Fisher, as any human who reads and eats should, perhaps the best place to start is The Gastronomical Me, which is available as a standalone volume or as part of the collection The Art of Eating.

The Philadelphia Daily News recently ran a column by beer reporter Don Russell, a.k.a. Joe Sixpack, about the growing number of restaurants that employ beer sommeliers. As the name suggests, these are folks that orchestrate a restaurant's beer selection, from consulting with the kitchen to helping diners pair beer and food. Russell has no problem with the existence of such a position, but he takes issue with the title, saying that the French term (and its connotations) has no business being paired with the word beer. His answer? Cellarman (or cellarwoman), an old British term for the person charged with the upkeep of a pub's beer supply and equipment. Personally, I'm just excited by the prospect of more restaurants having such a person. I don't much care what they're called. Still, Russell's piece is fun and definitely worth a read.

[Via Fark]

The Zagat Survey recently released some stats from its new 2007 edition of America's Top Restaurants. According to Zagat, the citizens of Houston, Austin and Dallas/Ft. Worth dined out the most, all about four times per week. (Houston also frequently tops the Men's Fitness list of America's fattest cities.) The average meal is also a little cheaper in Houston ($27.04), compared with some of the more expensive dining cities on the survey, such as New York City ($39.43) and Palm Beach, FL ($38.56). Also, west coast diners apparently tip a percentage point or so less than East Coast diners, according to Zagat. Average tips out west hovered around 18 percent, while averages on the other side of the country were around 19 percent. There are still plenty of chowhounds out there too, apparently; 63 percent of those surveyed said they would drive 45 minutes each way for a good meal. Restaurant News Resource has the full Zagat press release with lots more info.

GroupRecipes is a website about people, food, recipes and bringing those elements together. It is an interactive space where you can read, write and rate recipes, build your own personal page and meet (virtually, anyway) other foodies. Eventually, as the community grows, it could evolve into being some kind of hybrid between myspace or another social-networking site and allrecipes, with a group blog and a common interest in food binding everything together.

At the moment, the recipes are one of the sites biggest draws - though judging from some of the profiles already up on the site, there are a number of interesting people already using it - and the ways in which recipes can be tagged is particularly interesting. Not only can they be identified by category (e.g. "cookies" or "breakfast"), but by flavor, as well, so if you are in the mood for nutmeg, you'll be able to find something to satisfy your craving.

One of my favorite discoveries so far is a recipe for Oatmeal Cookie Granola, but I'm still exploring the site myself. Check it out if you have the chance. I suspect that it's going to be a hit.

Wine sales in France are on the decline, and that has several wineries turning to other ways to use their crops, such as grape-based sodas and beers, according to a recent Times article. The Times' Adam Sage reported on several such products unveiled at last week's International Food Fair in Paris. While one of the new products, Le Soda de la Vigne, is alcohol free, other new grape-based products like Ensô are more akin to beer, and others are simply wines with lower alcohol contents. These are aimed at "drinkers who have grown more health conscious and in some cases more wary of France's tougher drink-driving laws," The Times reported.

The center of discourse and industrial endorsements, the good old Food Pyramid created by the FDA in 1984 (now re-created), can be used effectively with children. Because kids don't think abstractly until about age 11, a visual guide is often useful to illustrate a point.

The old pyramid had its deficiencies (check Harvard University's approach to old and new) but there is an interactive exercise that I have tried singularly with a 5, 6, and 9 year old. Each had questions about balance in diet, which led to questions and considerations of balance in day-to-day living. I was impressed, being a detractor of the old pyramid and not head over heals with the newest (here's the kid's page). This useful tool can help a child learn how to eat a balanced diet. It's up to you to put the balance in "balance," though.

Wensleydale Creamery, makers of Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese, has launched a blog. According to their About section, the launch of the blog coincides with Wensleydale's application for a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), which would certify their Yorkshire Wensleydale as the genuine article and prevent producers in other regions using the name. So far, there are only a handful of entries on the blog, which launched earlier this month. The plan is to have various Wensleydale staffers post entries about the goings on at the creamery, according to an article in Brand Republic. In case you're wondering, the blog's link section does feature a link to Wallace and Gromit.

Today's New York Times features a review of Alton Brown's new road food series Feasting on Asphalt, which premiers tomorrow on the Food Network. NYT television critic Virginia Heffernan has apparently grown tired of food shows that exalt gritty American fare and she sees Brown's new series as the latest example. The piece is actually one of the more negative reviews of Brown that I can recall reading. By the end, Heffernan indirectly critiques AB for trying to "capitalize on the down-home food craze and create a franchise." I've yet to see the show, so I can't offer my own opinion of its content, but I don't think Heffernan's criticism is totally unfounded. Still, it could probably be applied to any number of contemporary cookbook authors or food celebrities. Yes, there are plenty of road food shows, likely inspired by writers like the Sterns or Calvin Trillin, and those shows are there because viewers have shown a growing interest in regional food. Is there something wrong with that?

DC blogger El Guapo recently pointed out an ad for McDonald's Australia's new El Maco, a Big Mac variation with taco sauce and sour cream. Salsa on a burger, no big deal, right? Well, it's all about the ad, which features a mustachioed man in mariachi garb emerging Ridley-Scott-style out of the torso of some office drone. The mariachi then hightails it over to McD's and scores an El Maco. A voice-over then encourages you to "feed your inner Mexican." To see the ad, go to the broadband section of the Australian site, go to "What's NEW" and then to "LATEST TV ADS." There's a similar ad for feeding your inner child where a little girl emerges from door in her mother's stomach, but it's tame compared to the El Maco ad.

In an attempt to draw in evening customers, Panera is launching a line of flat bread pizzas called Crispanis, according to Barron's. The pizzas, announced in May, will be sold only after 4 p.m. and should be available at most stores by the end of the year. This may be old news to those of you who frequent Panera locations that already serve these flatbreads, but I've yet to see them here in Florida or on Panera's website (aside from in this press release). Anyone in a test market care to share their experiences?

[Via Restaurant News Resource]