So I finally went into the Whole Foods Market in Yorkville (Toronto), and I found it worthy of a review!
Category Archives: Reviews
Starbucks Christmas Blend Coffee – Product Review and Tips
Sitting inside a Starbucks with my husband Joe on one of our weekend Starbucks coffee dates, I couldn’t help but be drawn into the smell of the Starbucks Christmas Blend coffee. I decided to purchase a small bag to take home. This coffee is simply amazing. It is light, and best used for a breakfast coffee. Maybe even a light after-dinner coffee. It has a bold aroma, but is very light and smooth to drink. With this coffee, if you want it stronger definitely use 3 scoops of beans instead of just 2 when grinding. This coffee works great as an espresso for use in many christmas beverages because of the spiced flavour. It almost has a hint of cinnamon…I’m not quite sure what else. Very pleasing taste, and I highly recommend a trial of this blend before it’s no longer available!
Note: I’ve found that a great way of brewing a single cup of espresso (or coffee) with fresh grinds is to use a single cup coffee maker. (I like to use a french press when brewing regular coffee so that I get a different texture and the full flavour of the coffee bean, but here I will discuss a different method that works particularly well for espresso–well obviously not espresso machine espresso, but just super strong concentrated coffee.) This is basically a piece of plastic that has two parts. One part contains a nylon coffee filter,the other part has a handle (shaped like a cup) with holes on the bottom. This piece fits on top of the bottom part with the nylon coffee filter. The whole item fits on top of your coffee mug. You place the grounds into a paper coffee filter, and set the filter inside of this “cup” that sits on top of your coffee mug. You boil water in a kettle, and pour the water slowly and evenly into the coffee filter.
Tips:
- When using this method to brew coffee, pour slowly and evenly otherwise the grinds will not be fully covered by the water. If you pour too fast, you will also spill over the edges, resulting in grinds leaking into your mug.
- Ensure that the water is not being poured in right after being boiled, but let it sit for about 1 minute after being boiled otherwise you will burn the grinds resulting in a burnt flavour and aroma in your coffee.
- For a weak coffee, grind the beans to a coarse grind. For a stronger coffee, grind them a little finer. For an espresso, grind the beans super fine with the texture being just slightly more coarse than a powder.
- It’s best to use about 2 1/2 scoops (tbsp) of beans per coffee mug, however when experimenting with different coffee beans, and your own tastes, this is only a general guideline.
- When buying coffee beans, resist the urge to be lazy and have the beans ground for you at the store. As tempting as this is, you will miss out on the freshness of your coffee after your first couple of cups. As soon as you can smell the coffee, it’s already slowly starting to go stale. Store your beans tightly sealed in the bag, inside of another airtight container. Purchase only small bags at a time to prevent the chances of your coffee going stale. Invest in a grinder for your own personal use at home, there are many available in every price range. Lastly, only grind the amount of beans that you need to use at that time.
Starbucks Christmas Blend
Toronto’s 2009 Hot and Spicy Food Festival Review
After missing last year’s Spicy Food Festival, I decided to make sure that I went to this year’s festival. We didn’t stay for long, but we got a taste…
First, the bad.
Well, I’ve got to say that as a spicy food enthusiast, I was honestly disappointed this year. I did miss last year’s festival, but the year prior was pretty good if my memory serves me correctly. (It’s not that this year was “bad”, but I just had really high expectations.) 
I won’t go into my issues with a coconut costing $7. I promised myself I wouldn’t go there… (Really?? $7 for a coconut with a straw in it??…Go onto Spadina near Kensignton Market, they’re much cheaper there…Plus, I wanted spicy food, not coconut with a straw. Anyways…)
Upon our arrival to the festival, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as I had anticipated. (Though, that’s not always a bad thing…)
We went to the tented area to scope out the different booths, only to see that there were maybe 6 or 7 booths in total.
As I remember it the last time I went, there were more than that. There were a couple of booths set up along the side of the harbour front building, and even there we only saw a few.
A handful of these places seemed to be heavily promoting sauces that have a lemon-ginger taste to them, or different fruit flavours mixed with a bit of “Canadian spice”. I wasn’t quite sure why this term “Canadian spice”
was so popular this year. I go to the spicy food festival to try international sauces and marinades. If I want “Canadian spice” I’ll just take a walk over to Sobey’s and grab some Frank’s Red Hot sauce, or better yet I’ll make my own sauce.
That being said, mid-search for some hot sauces, I changed my mind on what I was going to look for. (The Canadian spice was starting to appeal to me after a few samples of different things…)
I decided that instead of looking for the next super spicy yet somewhat tolerable sauce, I would look for something fruity with a bit of bite to it. Something I could either put on my chicken, or on my salads.
I had high hopes for the Hot Mama booth, but was a little
let down. I even tried some chilli heat chocolate sauce,
but couldn’t imagine putting it on anything even though I
liked the taste of it. (Doesn’t Lindtt have a chilli heat
dark chocolate? I would just buy that for $3 a bar
instead of paying $12 for a small jar of it from this
festival…)
There is some good!
I DID however, find a hidden gem. Chef Jono.
Not only did he have a booth here, but he also did a
demonstration (that I unfortunately did not get to see).
His booth seemed simple enough. There were a few pictures
of the product he was selling, and a display of some of
his artsy foods. (I saw a picture of a fancy salad
wrapped in a shaving of a cucumber. Very impressive!)
He was selling a pomegranate balsamic, and a hot mango pepper
sauce. Both were very tasty and appealing, so I purchased
one of each. He also gave a pointer on how you can cook
the balsamic on its own to thicken it, and then drizzle it
over cooked chicken and salad. I’m looking forward to
trying this, and even to just using the balsamic on my
salad as is!
***Edit: upon having this balsamic on my salad, I loved it. It was the perfect flavour to go as a side to some spicy chicken. ***
He really seemed to know a lot about food,
and was able to give information and pointers about his
product. This is so much more than I can say for some
of the other booths at this year’s festival. One booth
that had a hot sauce called “Obama Sauce” (haha), didn’t
really seem to interact with the customers. Even though
the sauce was pretty tasty, I probably would have been
more inclined to make a purchase if they had shown that
they even cared that customers were checking out what
they had to offer.
I strongly encourage anyone who happens to stumble upon
this, to check out Chef Jono’s website:
http://www.chefjono.ca
He has many recipes posted on his website, and you can
contact him. He also does catering as a personal chef
for groups ranging from 2-20 people. Even more interesting,
he will cook WITH you if you like, so that there’s a
sense of involvement and so that you get to learn.
All of the stores that sell his sauces are also listed.
Banana Tofu – Trying New Things
I have never been a fan of tofu in my vegetable dishes. I’m not sure why, just something about the texture throws me off. Even when I was a vegetarian (yes, I was a vegetarian at one point) I couldn’t bring myself to eat it. However, now there seems to be so many more flavour options for tofu, which I found to be intriguing.
I told myself a few weeks ago, that I was going to put myself on a mission of trying at least one new thing every week. Two weekends ago was my first week with this new mission. My mission was a banana flavoured tofu dessert. It’s not just a dessert though, it can also be put into smoothies for a creamier texture, and fruity flavour.
My thoughts on this “dessert” are mixed. Tasting it on its own, I was not impressed. The texture, just like in the past, didn’t sit right with me one bit. The taste was even a bit off. There was a pleasant banana flavour, but then that dreaded after taste of tofu popped up. However, when mixed into a smoothie with other fruit, the banana flavour is great and there is an absence of the tofu taste.
Out of 5 stars, I give this stuff a 3. I would give it a 4, but the only way I like it is when I mix it with other fruit in a blender. So I’m not really enjoying JUST the tofu, but the mix of other fruit with it. I do however give the other fruit a 5 out of 5!
Here’s a picture of the product I bought. (It’s “Sunrise” brand, but the top of the label was cut off–oops!)
- Banana Tofu Dessert
