Ok, so I haven't tried every blueberry-flavored beer in the world (though trust me, that is my goal). That said, I can tell you what my favorite of the ones I have tried is: Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale.
Last week you may remember I gave a few deductions (too much Olympics!) to Blue Point Brewing Company's Blueberry Ale for balance -- pointing out that many times it can be hard to organically match malt and hops to fresh fruit flavoring, especially with extremely light ales. In my opinion, the best fruit beers tend to be unfiltered wheat beers.
Enter Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale. Right out the bottle, the nose is of fresh (wild Maine, they say) blueberries, but the brewers at Atlantic Brewing Company (makers of Bar Harbor) aren't afraid to let the beer itself do some of the talking. The nose is full of malts with a touch of hoppy spice. Hold your glass up to the light though for this ale to reveal its true secret: It's got the color of a darker beer but as the official press states it's "combined with wheat to give this ale its lighter body." Basically, you can tell you're in for a mouthful.
"Our distributor asked us to do something like that," says Alan Brady, Head Brewer for Long Island, New York's Blue Point Brewing Company. "Now it's one of our top sellers."
Ah, what inspiration: I've heard more passion in bank transactions. But who can blame him: Blue Point's flagship beer Toasted Lager is a World Beer Cup winner. Now he has silly bloggers wasting his time asking questions about this fruity brew. Even the official description is somewhat backhanded: "Blue Point fresh Blueberry Ale offers an unusual twist on brewing that turns out to be just perfect" -- as if to say: "Don't worry, guys! It came out okay!"
There's a discrepancy as to how many blueberries actually go into a Blueberry Ale. The box boasts an impressive 735 pounds, whereas the website speaks to a more conservative 132. Maybe they halved the recipe? Either way, these numbers are meaningless to the average drinker -- It's all about what ends up in your nose and mouth -- and Blueberry Ale is appealing in both regards. The scent is a bounty of fresh, authentic blueberries, but surprisingly, the flavor itself is not overpowering., which is perfect. Beginner's mistake numero uno in fruit flavoring is putting too much on the palette.
Going nationwide last July, Miller Chill quickly became ubiquitous at stores. This summer, Anheuser-Busch tried targeting the flourishing lime-flavored beer market as well, launching Bud Light Lime in April with $35 million in advertising. Since then, the macro-brew's been bragging about its success crediting the roll-out for an increase in 2nd quarter profits and summer market share.
Enough jabber-jargon... Do I want to drink it??
Personally, my taste buds sour at the mere thought of giving a Bud Light spin-off the full taster's treatment, but just for kicks, let's do BLL proper!
BLL's packaging alerts me it's a "premium light beer with 100% natural lime flavor." Also prominently displayed: "contains alcohol." Sold. After cleansing my palate of a Fudgsicle (hey, it's hot out!), I pour a small amount of BLL into a taster glass. The nose is very typical of Bud Light (subtle malt, ricey) and shows distinct notes of -- ta da! -- lime.
The flavor does not offend as much as I had expected.
I remember once, while I was around 7 years old and playing at a friend's house, my mom stopped by with lunch for me (they were doing her a favor by watching me and she didn't want to impose on them to feed me as well). It consisted of a napkin-wrapped hot dog that she pulled out of her purse. I remember looking at with distaste, as the hot dog was wrinkled and grey, and the bun was also a sad affair. It was edible, but certainly not exciting. That experience colored my perception of hot dogs and it was years before I ate them with gusto.
Fast forward to the present day and I am singing a very different hot dog song. This conversion is in large part due to gourmet meat producer D'Artagnan's new line of exotic (and very tasty) hot dogs. They come in four varities - pork, beef, buffalo and duck and they are made from meat that was never treated with antibiotics or growth hormones. They are uncured, which means that they are nitrate-free. For all the fancy varieties of meat, they do still taste much like your classic hot dog. Larger than the traditional frank, they are filling, which means that while the pack only comes with four dogs, you'll only need to eat one to be satisfied, so there's plenty to go around.
I recommend eating them with potato salad and some good, whole grain mustard. Very tasty!
The boozefest that is Tales Of The Cocktail has been everything I thought it'd be, and I have to admit it's nice, for the moment, to be relatively sober. You see, you can't go very far in New Orleans without being tempted to have a drink. When you throw the world's biggest cocktail and spirit schmoozefest/symposium, it is definitely hard to hold on to your sobriety. Not that any of us want to, of course.
This is just a reminder of something I posted earlier, but should you be interested in following the goings-on at this fantastic event, there is a cocktail blog called, literally enough, Tales Blog. The contributors are bloggers like myself, and we'll be consistently updating the site with differing interpretations. Should this particular site fail to fully scratch the itch, each blogger will also be updating their personal sites, and I strongly encourage you to check them out. They are, in no particular order....
There are few corporations as polarizing as Starbucks. Even on this blog, it is the rare Slashbucks post that doesn't incite a ruthless comments war. Yet there is no denying that Starbucks is a fast food force and their products deserve coverage like everybody else, so simmer.
Today Starbucks is introducing yet another beverage to their liquid arsenal. Though frozen and blended, the new Vivanno isn't another tired variation on the -ccino theme. Nope, this is Starbucks' answer to Jamba Juice: A protein-packed smoothie.
Here's the scoop:
One whole - real! - banana (seriously! it will be peeled and pulsed before your very eyes!)
Whey protein (16 grams) and fiber powder (5 grams)
Choice of milk (default is 2%)
Ice
Secret Starbucks-Proprietary Orange-Mango Naked Juice
Portion controlled (default is Grande, and always has less than 270 calories)
Although I believe it is rather naive of the financially-woed coffee conglomerate to try and break into the oversaturated smoothie market with a mere four options, I decided to give 'em a go.
So I'm guilty of impaired riding. Carousel riding that is. Like many fans of the Cocktail, I'm down in New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail for the next week and having a blast. Within a few minutes of getting to my hotel in the French Quarter, the Hotel Monteleone, I was sitting on a carousel and bellied up to the bar all at the same time. The famous carousel bar in the hotel turns at a leisurely four times per hour, which is negligible at first, but seems to speed up as the drinks slide down. I ordered one of my favorite cocktails, a Vieux Carré, which was invented here by Walter Bergeron in 1938, and sat back to enjoy the ride. Every now and then a friend would stop by for a chat, having to do a side step shuffle every few moments to keep up with the stately procession of the Carousel. I came to call this the Vieux Carré Strut, and soon it became one of the most popular dances at Tales.
Vieux Carré is another name for the French Quarter, meaning "The Old Square," and this fabulous drink fits right in, no wonder Bergeron called it such. The decor in the Carousel Bar is a mix of a fine lounge and antique amusement park, with an elegant feel. That is until the whole crew descended upon the establishment. Then it became more like a cross between the Midway, and the Fun House. Now if only they had the carousel horses like in Mary Poppins. I can imagine my fine friends from Tales gallumphing off the Carousel and taking a turn 'round the Monteleone, refreshing themselves along the way as we stop hither and yon for fine cocktails. Then after making our way through all the laudatory libations, a few circuits of the Queen Anne Ballroom to the tune of a waltz, zig zagging among the masked dancers; before heading out onto the streets of Vieux Carré showing the world how to do Tales in style.
Recipe for the Vieux Carré Cocktail after the jump.
I never thought I'd come across a candy that didn't sound at least somewhat appetizing. I've heard tell of the vomit flavored jelly beans, but I've never encountered them, so it doesn't quite count. However, this review of Chum Bucket candy from Candy Addict was enough to give me sympathy nausea.
The seafood flavored candy is made by Archie McPhee, whose company mission it must be to create candy that's only fit for gag gifts. I'm sure they don't intend their products for actual human consumption.
I know that I would not ever willingly eat sea food flavored "candy," but I'm glad that some people will for the sake of a candy review. So I say thanks, Candy Addict. How about the rest of you? Would you be willing to try the sea food flavored candy?
My poor feed reader has been a bit neglected over the past few days, and, after finding this gem on Grub Street, I'm sad that I didn't catch up sooner. If I had looked at those feeds sooner, I would have found Food Party a few days earlier, and brought some much appreciated laughter into my life.
Food Party is a cooking show/artsy spoof on a cooking show created by New York artist Thu Tran. Episode three is the funniest thing I've seen in forever, and I mean laugh-out loud-every-two-seconds funny. From the donut tree to the fresh eggs, to illustrating the seven deadly sins through deviled quail eggs to the devil, this is definitely the most creative cooking show you'll ever see.
You won't see this one on Food Network, folks. However, you can apparently get them on DVD.
Our intrepid pack of testers blind-chomped their way through fifty different franks, hot dogs and wieners in hot pursuit of the top tube steak in all the land. Not a single chicken, turkey or tofu dog made the final cut, while beef and pork reigned supreme. Did your favorite frank lead the pack?
If you're a fan of flavored vodkas and can stand a little fun being poked at you, I recommend this post from the A.V.Club. They reviewed three new flavors of vodka from Three Olives brand, and it's pretty amusing.
The flavors in question are tomato, root beer, and triple shot espresso. Not being a huge vodka fan in the first place, I found this review ,um, not too helpful, but entertaining. In the name of humor, they were a little homophobic, but I tried to remember to take it with a grain of salt.
Apparently, the tomato flavor was the least popular, which sounds reasonable to me. Can anyone find a reason for tomato flavored vodka? It didn't even get great reviews with bloody mary mix. The root beer flavor was deemed "all right', but apparently it went well in a root beer float. The triple shot espresso was by far the favorite. A.V.club also tried it with a Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino to raves.
If you have your own personal review of these or any flavored vodkas I'd love to read it. Maybe it'd inspire me to try vodka more often.
I do not like the flavor of sweetened applesauce. I didn't like it when I was a kid and I sure don't like it now. I feel like adding sugar to something that is naturally so sweet and flavorful mutes the delicate flavors and makes it bland and flat. You might think I'm being a little overdramatic here, but I take my applesauce very seriously. In my family, we like to make our own, peeling and coring large mounds of handpicked apples and simmering the fruit down in a large pot with cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon zest and a hint of ginger. There were always quart sized bags full of frozen applesauce in the freezers of my childhood refrigerators.
So I was relieved to discover that the new line of Mott's Plus Sauce, designed as a way to give active folks an additional way to bring calcium, fiber and antioxidents into their diet, is unsweetened. As I tasted my way through the packets, I liked the Pomegranate flavor the best, as it was tangy and smooth, without being cloying or overly processed. I had a harder time with the Cranberry Raspberry, mostly because you couldn't detect the extra fiber in it at all and I kept wondering if it was really there. Essentially, my brain got in the way of my enjoyment. The Harvest Apple tasted just like the unsweetened applesauce that my grandmother kept around when I was a kid -- smooth, gentle and terrific with cottage cheese.
Michael Pollan tells us not to eat foods with health claims on them, and while it's true that simply eating an apple is the best way to go, this new line of applesauce from Mott's is tasty, free from nasty additives and so is probably fairly inoccuous.
When the box of snacks first showed up on my doorstep, I was unimpressed. I figured, how different could these be from anything else on the market? Nuts are nuts, right? Turns out, I was wrong. These new snacks from Frito-Lay, called TrueNorth, are fantastic. They are fresh-tasting, unique and made out of easily pronounceable ingredients (when Scott first picked up a package, he said, "Wow, I actually know what everything on the ingredient list is.").
They come in eight varieties, ranging from nut crisps (the peanut ones are amazing with a drop of honey), to nut clusters (by far my favorite and highly addictive), to nut crunchies (I didn't love these quite as much, but they were still quite tasty). The nut clusters are a bit sweet and would make a great snack to take with you on an airplane or car trip, as they are compact, high in protein and have a little sweetness in them as well, which makes them an energizing snack (sugar for quick energy and then protein for the slow burn). With all the crap in packaged food these days, it's really nice to see a large food corporation making food that keeps things simple and natural.
Honestly, the only thing I didn't like about this product was the marketing materials. They're a little cheesy, announcing that "By naming the nut snacks TrueNorth, Frito-Lay hopes to celebrate its passion for nuts and inspire other people to find their own true north." I can appreciate the sentiment behind that statement, but they are still just snacks. I don't think they're going to be changing anyone's life.
It is a well-known fact that, whether they be made of corn, potato or other variety of vegetable matter, chips aren't a health food. However, they are delicious little buggers and so despite the danger that they present to the waistline, many of us keep on crunching away.
The Frito-Lay company, in an attempt to respond to some of the health concerns related to the high levels of salt in their chips, has recently released a line of chips that they're calling "A Pinch of Salt." They've reduced the level of sodium in several of their most popular chip lines between 30 and 50%.
I had the opportunity to taste chips from the two bags you see above and I must say that I was really impressed by the flavor of both products. While I've never been one to avoid salt due to health concerns, I don't like to eat overly salty foods because while a little salt can enhance flavor, too much of it can mask the natural flavor of the food you're eating. I found when the amount of salt was reduced I could really taste the corn and potato from which the chips were made. Whether you like less salty foods, or are trying to reduce the amount of sodium in your diet, this new line of chips could be a good choice.
While in Dubai, I tried a lot of foods with za'atar, a spice mix containing the herb za'atar, dried oregano, thyme, marjoram, and a combination of sesame seeds and salt. My favorite dish for breakfast was za'atar bread and za'atar croissants. They're crispy, sweet, flaky, salty, and zesty. In the Middle East, za'atar bread is often eaten in the morning, because the spice blend is supposed to make your mind more alert.
I highly recommend za'atar bread and za'atar croissants for their unique pungent spicy flavors. A great way to balance out the saltiness is to dip them in labneh, a yogurt that's been drained to form a thick tangy cheese. Next time you're in a Middle Eatern restaurant, make sure you ask for these piquant pastries.
Ok, so I haven't tried every blueberry-flavored beer in the world (though trust me, that is my goal). That said, I can tell you what my favorite of the ones I have tried is: Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale.
"Our distributor asked us to do something like that," says Alan Brady, Head Brewer for Long Island, New York's Blue Point Brewing Company. "Now it's one of our top sellers."
Going nationwide last July, Miller Chill quickly became ubiquitous at stores. This summer, Anheuser-Busch tried targeting the flourishing lime-flavored beer market as well, launching Bud Light Lime in April with $35 million in advertising. Since then, the macro-brew's been bragging about its success crediting the roll-out for an increase in 2nd quarter profits and summer market share.
The boozefest that is Tales Of The Cocktail has been everything I thought it'd be, and I have to admit it's nice, for the moment, to be relatively sober. You see, you can't go very far in New Orleans without being tempted to have a drink. When you throw the world's biggest cocktail and spirit schmoozefest/symposium, it is definitely hard to hold on to your sobriety. Not that any of us want to, of course.
I never thought I'd come across a candy that didn't sound at least somewhat appetizing. I've heard tell of the vomit flavored jelly beans, but I've never encountered them, so it doesn't quite count. However, this 
If you're a fan of flavored vodkas and can stand a little fun being poked at you, I recommend this 
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
