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Yummy Links: From Party Palettes to Marcel's DUI

partysugar — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:45:55 -0700

Black, white, and yellow makes for a sophisticated party motif. - Simply Stated
The top 10 ways to chop onions without crying.- The Epi-Log
Get a virtual taste of Starbucks mocha dark chocolate. - Baking Bites
Free ice cream! 90210 helps you cool off. - Serious Eats
Lucid absinthe is a tasty way to get acquainted with the green fairy. - Chow
Interesting tip! Use a serrated knife to slice tomatoes. - The Kitchn
Krispy Kreme cheeseburgers surface at the Google cafeteria. - Slashfood
Plan a patriotic beach party for Labor Day. - Hostess With the Mostess
In case you missed it, Top Chef's Marcel arrested on suspicion of DUI. - TMZ

Does Coffee Dream of Electric Chocolate? New Starbucks Chocolate Reviewed

YumSugar — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:30:31 -0800

This summer a press release went out with limited fanfare. The folks at Hershey's were teaming up with Starbucks. At the time there was very little news available, other than an upcoming Starbucks-branded premium chocolate. The news piqued my interest, but there was no word on when the products would hit the shelves. Turns out it's today.

Using the expertise of Artisan Confection Company - a division of Hershey's that includes Scharffen Berger and Joseph Schmidt - Starbucks has created a line of products to sell in stores. There are three types of chocolate bars, tasting squares and filled truffles. Thanks to FabSugar - who hand-carried these samples back from New York - we were lucky enough to give them a try. If you want to learn more about each flavor, as well as what we thought of them, read more.

The box the samples arrived in was dramatic. It was a high quality brown box filled with all sorts of goodies. There were six different tasting squares, four truffles, three chocolate bars and covered coffee beans. I thought the bars were better than the squares, and that the truffles were a bit overpowering. The beans on the other hand, were absolutely delicious. Overall, the flavors that paired coffee with chocolate were highly successful, the other tea-inspired flavors, not so much.
Truffles

Dark Chocolate Vanilla Bean Truffle: A rounded chocolate-covered-cherry sized truffle with a large dollop of vanilla bean cream in the middle. It was creamy and smooth, slightly buttery. Overall very nice.

Milk Chocolate Chai Truffle: This was the least favorite truffle. It was super heavy-handed with the cardamom and tasted more like sucking on chocolate covered cardamom pod, than it did like chai.
Milk Chocolate Caffe Mocha: The chocolate is slightly waxy. I thought it seemed rather Hershey's-like. Reminded us of the Hershey's Treasures, only better.
Dark Chocolate Espresso: This was by far our favorite truffle. The dark chocolate was smooth - almost too smooth - and it had a great melt, with a hint of smokiness. The espresso really came through, but was not overpowering. We'd definitely eat this again.

Milk Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans
This was my favorite thing in the box. FabSugar - who is a bit of a chocolate snob and hates on milk chocolate - even thought they were delicious. Unlike most chocolate covered beans, these are more like ground up beans covered in chocolate. It's a big coating of chocolate on a lovely amount of crunch.

Tasting Squares

Milk Chocolate: This was sort of generic. It would hit the spot if you craved chocolate, as it was tasty, but there was nothing special about it.
Dark Chocolate: Strangely, we liked the milk chocolate better. We thought it was a bit waxy. Again, tasty, but nothing special.
Mocha Dark Chocolate: This was our favorite square, the flavor pairing was really nice. There were bits of beans in it. I almost wished they offered this in a milk chocolate version too.
Chai Milk Chocolate: Like the truffle, there was way too much cardamom going on. Some of the folks here liked it because of that, but I was disappointed by how much it didn't taste like chai.
Passion Dark Chocolate: This was the worst thing in the entire box. Some of the folks thought it was okay, but I hated it. It was highly floral in taste, and there were bits of things in it that were just too much. It sort of tasted like artificial powder stuck inside of the chocolate. I say pass this one off to your friends, so you can eat the others.
Citron Dark Chocolate: Like the passion square, this one is also infused with tea. It was nicely flavored and okay. However at the end, it started reminding me of cleaner. If you love lemon/chocolate pairings you'd probably like it, but once again I say pass this one and eat the others.

Chocolate Bars
There are three flavors of chocolate bars - milk, dark and mocha dark - the flavors are reviewed above, but it should be mentioned that they tasted much better in a thicker bar format. It was nice to have something to sink your teeth into.

So, have you seen the new Starbucks Chocolates - they'll be in large grocery and drug stores retailers soon. If so, have you tried them?

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Up Next: Starbucks Dark Cherry Mocha, McDonald's Oatmeal?

YumSugar — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:00:51 -0800

This year, coffee and breakfast have been the name of the game for fast food and casual chains. Last week, Burger King announced it'd soon be serving specialty coffee in a partnership with Starbucks-owned Seattle's Best - part of the company's goal to bring "new and improved" products to a.m. customers. But they're not the only ones raising the bar: Starbucks will also up the ante with a new specialty coffee, and McDonald's has been mulling over oatmeal.

With the Dark Cherry Mocha, which makes its US and Canada debut Mar. 9, Starbucks hopes to add cachet to its coffee drinks. The drink is already an international favorite and has a significant cult following abroad. It comes with espresso, bittersweet chocolate sauce, dark cherry flavoring, milk, whipped cream, and chocolate curls and can be made hot or iced.

Number one fast food chain McDonald's, in turn, has been following the lead of Starbucks and Jamba Juice by testing out oatmeal in test markets like Baltimore and Washington DC. Although it hasn't yet decided the future of the breakfast offering, McDonald's representatives maintain that the oatmeal has been "well-received."

One thing is for sure: the breakfast wars are on in full force. Which chain do you count on for breakfast on the go?

Source

Taste Test: Starbucks Macarons

YumSugar — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:36:15 -0800

I mentioned before that 2010 will be the year when cupcakes take a backseat to the ethereal, candy-colored French macaron. The macaron - not to be confused with the dense, coconut-flavored macaroon - has spread far and wide beyond Ladurée, the Parisian pastry shop where it was first created nearly 80 years ago, to Japanese patisseries, American bakeshops, McCafés, and, now, Starbucks.

From Dec. 13 to 25, a limited edition 12-piece macaron set will be available in select Starbucks locations. Made in France by Château Blanc "exclusively for Starbucks," the $9.95 gift box includes two pieces of each of the following flavors: coffee, pistachio, raspberry, vanilla, chocolate, and lemon. Being the slight macaron snobs that we are, we didn't know what to expect. Read our thoughts after the break.

Starbucks Chocolate

YumSugar — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:22:18 -0800

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'Wich of the Week: Pecan Pumpkin Cakewich

YumSugar — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:00:10 -0700

In Autumn I welcome the arrival of all things pumpkin, whether it's pumpkin lattes at Starbucks, pumpkin chocolate cookies, or pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. So why not pumpkin sandwiches? Inspired by carrot cake with cranberries folded in, this sweet sandwich would make a great dessert or an afternoon snack with cider. Just in time for Halloween, you can make your own pumpkin bread or use a mix from a store like Trader Joe's, which is where I found the apple-cranberry chutney. Get this comfy Fall recipe now.

My Afternoon as a Starbucks Barista

YumSugar — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:10:52 -0700

Chaotic as things may appear behind a Starbucks counter, every drink is made custom and to order in a systematic, organized way. I know this because I spent an afternoon as a Starbucks barista. Laurel Village Starbucks store manager Deanna Barbagiovvanni put me to work yesterday behind the espresso machines.

The trickiest part of being a barista is deciphering the code on the side of a Starbucks cup. It was like trying to read an unknown foreign language. "That's a nonfat, two-pump white mocha," Deanna said, reaching for espresso shots, as I stood there, still trying to make sense of the notations. Customers rarely place orders for standard drinks, she explained: "One girl comes in every day and orders a venti Coffee Frappuccino with a grande scoop of ice, double blended, with light whip and just a little chocolate drizzle." Find out what else I learned and check out a video of me as barista when you read more

What's Yummy This Week - YumSugar Weekly Recap

YumSugar — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:30:59 -0700

Seriously, make this cherry pie: it's the best you'll ever have.
Party plans a "birthday paw-ty" for FabSugar's cutie-pie French bulldog.
Starbucks is changing the names of several of its stores.
Check out Summer's collection of cool, creamy ice cream cakes.
We conducted a side-by-side test of two European raisin-and-nut chocolate bars.
Find out why Texans love the soft filled pastries known as kolaches.
An inside look at the food at a rustic wedding hosted on the banks of Northern California's Russian River.

Starbucks to Do Smoothies, Subway to Do Coffee

partysugar — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:15:47 -0700

With reality stars posing as fashion designers and singers turning into restaurateurs, it's no surprise that Starbucks and Subway would expand into something other than caffeinated beverages and sandwiches. Tomorrow Starbucks is scheduled to launch a new smoothie line. Called Vivanno Nourishing Blends, the smoothies come in two flavors: Orange Mango Banana and Chocolate Banana.

Scrambling to increase sales with innovative new products like smoothies, Starbucks has reason to worry: Subway is testing out a cafe concept. The Subway cafes will be larger than the existing sandwich shops with comfortable seating, wi-fi, espresso drinks, gelatos, and paninis. Subway isn't the first fast-food chain to expand into coffee, both McDonalds and Burger King have been heavily promoting coffee drinks.

What do you think about these announcements? Will you try a Starbucks smoothie or Subway coffee?

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Chocolate Challenge Recap

partysugar — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 13:36:11 -0800

On Monday I told you about my adventures in the food blogging challenge Sugar High Friday (edition 27). David Lebovitz, a food blogger, cookbook author, and chocoholic stationed out of Paris, invited food bloggers to submit a recipe and picture incorporating chocolate for this week's Chocolate By Brand test. I used Ghirardelli chocolate to make dunk-able, delectable espresso double chocolate chunk cookies. There were over 100 recipes submitted to David and here are a few of my favorites.

Trinigourmet used chocolate from her native Trinidad to whip up a absolutely heavenly looking upside down chocolate pudding with crispy top.

Hallo at Cook (almost) Anything made a fashionable, frothy white chocolate mousse with poached cherries (using Lindt chocolate) that I'm dying to try in my kitchen because I love white chocolate.

For a scrumptiously sweet breakfast treat, Suzy Not a Homemaker made chocolate hazelnut scones using a bar of chocolate she bought at Starbucks. These are definitely a must make for my next brunch.

Check out the rest of the competition and read the comments at David's (mostly) chocolate website.