My aunt, Beans, got me some chocolate from a recent trip to New Hampshire/Maine and I finally tried it. It’s called Coastline Confections and it’s really quite good. I have tried the River Mill with Maine Sea Salt and Morning Loon with Espresso, both are good, but I prefer River Mill. I’m sure it’s just made out of some guy’s basement with its generic “May contain any of the following” label (with every type of chocolate and inclusion the company makes listed) on the back of each bar, but good is good. I won’t question it. (It is also labeled “all natural,” goodie!!)
My Poppy and Fran just got back from a German vacation and they brought me back some chocolate (I love that people see chocolate and think of me!!) They chose a milk chocolate by Feodora, which is fatty and European and heavenly. They add butterfat to it, which makes it smooth, soft and luxurious in the mouth and the flavor is that sort of cheesy dairy note typical of European chocolates (I also detect a hint of hazelnut, but that could be they way it was stored). Nice work, ‘rentals!
My last new love is Yogi Tea, I know I wrote about it before with the “Uplift St. John’s Wort” flavor. I’ve now tried about 4 other kinds (4 of about 85 million) and they are all delicious. My favorite so far is Tahitian Vanilla Hazelnut, which I have been brewing at night and dipping ginger snaps in as a bedtime snack. To be more accurate, I’ve been dipping Sweetzels Spiced Wafers into my Yogi Tea, which can only mean one thing; it’s fall in the greater Philadelphia area. Go Eagles!
Well, they are finally taking approved to be an organic facility and if you want to read all about how Vosges (and you) are helping the environment, click to read all about their green initiative.
I just tried Yogi Tea for the first time today, specifically their “Uplift” flavor with St. John’s Wort. Even though it’s caffeine free, I feel a little buzzed from it. And by “a little” I mean “quite.” I like the flavor because it reminds me of the tea Marianna would prepare for breakfast every day when I would visit her (this is when I lived on Crete), except that this has licorice in it, which has been stuck in the back of my throat all day. It’s all organic and I like the spices (cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, fennel seed, etc) in it, but the “uplift” is almost too much for me, I feel a touch shaky, but that could be a different issue altogether. I’d say “Uplift” is pretty good, not great, but I’ll probably keep drinking it.
Back to Marianna for a second; she makes the most amazing teas and tonics from herbs she harvests from the Greek mountainside. If you’re ever in Crete, you should absolutely stop by her workshop, which is located in the stunning village, Maroulas, only a little ways from Rethymno. Definitely worth a trip.
Today’s the day you’ve all been anxiously awaiting; the live launch of Delish.com!! And more importantly, my blog on it. Check it out, read my thoughts on Ace of Cakes and live forever!!!!!!!!
I wanted to add onto my post from yesterday because I forgot to mention that I don’t for a minute believe that the appearance of kissables changed from the old recipe to veggie oil chocolate. They would still employ the exact same panning techniques, polishing methods and use the same ingredients to coat it. I think Matt and the gang lied to us about that. The fact that they pan those little guys is pretty amazing, just as a side note.
So, it seems that people are in a real tizzy over this video from Good Morning America. Even my aunt asked me about it. I’ll give you the long and short of the video so you don’t have to watch it. Basically, Hershey got called out on replacing cocoa butter with vegetable oil, a cheaper fat. I’m a) not shocked and b) not offended. The FDA has very strict guidelines about chocolate standards of identity, so you can’t just go throwing anything into chocolate and still call it “Chocolate.” Once vegetable oil is added to chocolate, it is no longer considered to be chocolate and the product label must be changed. Hershey did in fact change the labels for their products right on the front of the packaging and if you just read the ingredients, it said veggie oil right there, plain as day. Everyone feels tricked and betrayed by their beloved Hershey. And to that I say, it’s f*cking hershey, get over it. It’s not a high quality product to begin with (still love it, though).
It’s hard right now for chocolate makers. Milk prices are soaring and so is the cost of cocoa beans. The most expensive product right now is cocoa butter, so of course in times of financial difficulty companies are going to try to figure out ways to save money without passing the cost onto their consumers. Hershey’s just trying to be profitable and it’s not like they used vegetable oil in their standard chocolate bars, they just used it in candies (kissables, almond joys, etc), which really shouldn’t have affected overall flavor a great amount. It would have changed the way it melts and the mouthfeel more than flavor. I just think this is a dumb thing to get worked up about, especially when so much food right now is making people sick. Can we focus on making and growing food that won’t give us E. Coli and forgive a little vegetable oil?
I’m ridiculous, I know. This was from the day at the Astoria Beer Gardens, which was filled with brats ‘n beer. Thought this would be a good Friday post, just looking forward to the weekend and am thankful that I’m not this guy. I didn’t realize that they publicly executed the Chinese dude in charge of food safety. I’m sure the same fate is in store for the guy in charge of the lethal baby formulas. Yikes.
I was just thinking about The Go-Nuts, the self-proclaimed “World’s Greatest Super Hero Snak Rock&Gorilla Revue,” and wondered if me and Mikey were the only 2 people who listened to them? I think that more bands should sing about snacking and food in general. Let’s see if I can come up with a Food Playlist:
Ice Cream, Sarah McLachlan
Nutrition, Dead Milkmen
Cinnamon Girl, Neil Young
I Want Candy, Bow Wow Wow
Sugar Sugar, the Archies
Cherry Pie, Warrent
This is tough, help me out. Isn’t there some song about a Candy Shop and licking things? Why aren’t there more songs about hotdogs?
My site is under a bit of construction at the moment, please excuse the mess while me & mostly Neddy clean it up. Also, I did something I never do — I altered previously published content. Someone thought I was a little mean and certainly that wasn’t my intent, so I changed it. I’m a softy, what can I say? The last thing is my header photo…Ned & I seem to have some creative differences about it. I think I look like a douchette in every photo, maybe I should just stick to pictures of hotdogs.
I am feeling a little guilty lately about my eating habits and food choices. I am pro-local, but at the same time, I’m also pro-good food. Does it make me a hypocrite to preach about buying from CSA’s and neighborhood farms and yet I eat chocolate from Africa and avocados from Mexico? I ponder this as I sip a cup of tea from Careme knows where. That’s the other disturbing thing, I know that certain foods are shipped from afar, wasting precious fossil fuels, but other morsels I haven’t a clue where they actually hail from. This is particularly upsetting after the most recent findings of melamine in Chinese baby formula, the chemical responsible for the death of American pets and now Chinese babies. I also found out that America tests less than 1% of our cattle for Mad Cow Disease and the Bush Administration is fighting to make sure that we DON’T test all our meat. It really makes you wonder, what are we eating? It makes me want to be more cautious and raise my own livestock, grow an even bigger garden and get laying hens. If only we could all be farmers!!
In other news, I finally saw those hideous commercials saying hey kids, High Fructose Corn Syrup is totally fine for you! It’s just like sucrose. I mean, it’s probably even better for you than sucrose since it’s in every God-forsaken bit of junk we cram into our big fat American faces. Nothing gets me going like the subject of HFCS!
