food trends

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf recently launched a slew of new beverages: a new line of sweet teas, as well as a unique hot-beverage concept, tea cappuccinos. Intrigued by the new concept and a penchant for sweet tea, we took a coffee tea break to see how the chain's latest drink offerings stack up.

A quick word before we delve into specifics (and how each beverage fared): a tea cappuccino, at least by TCB&TL's definition, is a vanilla bean syrup-sweetened, steamed milk-topped beverage with a tea base that's brewed in an espresso machine solely devoted to tea brewing.

Chai Tea Cappuccino

Full of robust, peppery, authentic chai flavor, the Chai Tea Cappuccino was neither too sweet nor flat (as many chai blends unfortunately tend to be). Hints of ginger, cardamom, and other sweet-leaning spices meld perfectly with the vanilla bean sauce and powder, making for a drink perfect for days when an indulgent start is obligatory. For everyday mornings, we'll take advantage of the store's openness to drink customization (and use of loose leaf tea, rather than a concentrated chai base) and order the cappuccino unsweetened to avoid a midmorning sugar crash.

Scottish Breakfast Tea Cappuccino

While we enjoyed the robust, tannic Scottish tea base of this iteration, it lost points when combined with the incongruent vanilla bean sauce, which, while spot on when paired with the chai tea, didn't quite do it for us with the otherwise pleasant black tea. We'd consider reordering this option unsweetened or with a drizzle of honey.

Keep reading to learn how the chain's other new offerings fared.

He stays busy as a media personality, author, fashion consultant, and designer, but even Clinton Kelly — of ABC's The Chew and TLC's What Not to Wear — believes in the importance of slowing down for the holidays. Despite it being the busiest time of the year, the television star took a moment to chat with us about his holiday menu, what still makes him nervous, and how to deal in that awkward moment when the first person arrives alone to your holiday party.

YumSugar: What are you making for the holidays?
Clinton Kelly: I'm spending Christmas Eve with my entire family at my sister's house on Long Island.
Then I'm going to come back and spend Christmas morning with my husband, Damon, in New York City, and then we're going to go to Connecticut to see some more family. My sister's asked me to bring a salad, and I'm bringing something I just whipped up the other night with endive, candied walnuts, blue cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. She's serving seafood fra diavolo over angel hair, so that'll be a fun Christmas dinner. I'm embarrassed to say I have not decided yet what to cook for Christmas lunch; I figure I'll go to the butcher and see what looks beautiful and try to be inspired. I'm thinking about maybe beef tenderloin with horseradish crème fraiche and roasted potatoes.

YS: Holiday leftovers are always a big thing. What do you suggest doing with them?
Find out Clinton's answer when you read more.

We're seeing a new food trend heat up the condiment aisle: spicy ketchups. In less than a month, three ketchup companies have sent over their spiced varieties: Sir Kensington's Spiced Ketchup ($7), Solutions Condiments Hot Tomato Ketchup ($5), and Heinz Tomato Ketchup Blended With Real Jalapeño ($5). We put them to the test in a taste-off to determine the best spicy ketchup. Did the spiciest win? Or did the most ketchup-tasting one win in a landslide? See the results.

Remember last year's big bottled-juice trend? Well, it appears to be moving beyond juice bars and into cocktail bars. At an increasing number of venues across the country, health junkies and boozehounds have a place to convene and enjoy their gin with fresh-pressed ginger.

At Soaked in Manhattan's Mondrian SoHo, guests can lounge on the rooftop with "orchard to bar" cocktails, such as the 100 Mile Margarita, made with apple, pear, pineapple, and wheatgrass juice. LA's Parisian-themed cocktail lounge Pour Vous offers a new take on carrot juice with pear eau de vie, and Verveine Velay Jaune.

We had a chance to sample the trend here in San Francisco at Nectar Wine Lounge, which has recently launched a juice-centric brunch with Thrive juicery. In lieu of mimosas and Bellinis, customers can choose between Day at the Spa (apple, cucumber, fennel, and mint), Pink Pearl (strawberry, pineapple, pear, mint), and True Blood (red beets and navel orange), all with Baron de Seillac sparkling wine. "It's a fun way to offer the benefits of fresh-pressed juices and the already well-known benefits of wine consumption," owner Chris Potter told us.

What do you think of the trend? Could you see yourself getting behind, say, a kale margarita anytime soon?