I was recently sent a sampling of POM Iced Coffees which included 2 of their 3 flavors—Chocolate and Cafe au Lait. Their 3rd flavor is Vanilla, which I’m excited to try. In general, I’m not a huge fan of packaged coffee drinks, as they tend to have this slimy mouth-feel that’s, to put it simply without curse words, wrong. Luckily, neither of the POM Iced Coffees has this strange texture.

(As an aside: My husband and I joke about what ingredient imparts that slimy feel, and he kind-of-but-not-really jokingly mentioned propylene glycol, which is often used in oral pharmaceuticals, cosmetics such as toothpaste and lotion, food colorings, saline solution, coolant, and has a host of other industrial uses (yummy, huh?). Wikipedia lists propylene glycol’s characteristics as faintly sweet, colorless, nearly odorless, clear, and viscous. Viscous = thick, sticky, glutinous, gelatinous, gluey, tacky. Yep, sounds about right. And he could be right, though I have yet to see propylene glycol listed as the exact ingredient. I wonder if it has other names…)

Both coffee drinks had good flavor. The Chocolate was reminiscent of chocolate milk, with a coffee kick, and the Cafe au Lait definitely had strong espresso undertones. All POM’s coffee drinks contain their POMx antioxidant, which is an extract of their pomegranates. Apparently, this antioxidant is more potent than those found in red wine, green tea, and grape and acai extracts! (Which is why POM calls their Iced Coffee the “Healthy Buzz.”) (Oh, yeah, it contains loads of caffeine—175 mg per bottle.) I’d be curious to try their coffee mixes before they added the extract, to see what flavor the extract imparts on the drink… As another plus, POM uses Rainforest Alliance Certified shade-grown coffee beans, hormone free milk, and organic cane sugar. Could it get any better? It can? Oh, yeah—I forgot to mention their cute animated sheep. What, you ask? Check out their website and you’ll see!

Pour spouts are handy little buggers. My first introduction to them, however, didn’t go so well. As part of our new set of dishes, we purchased a decorative container with a pour spout. Loved the look of it, but the function was ridiculous. I mean, who in their right mind is going to pour the oil or vinegar or whatever other contents they want to easily pour from a pour spout from one container into another, just to make that happen? Not I! But the dang spout didn’t fit anything else. And forget about washing the beautifully decorated ceramic container… There’s a laugh.

Luckily, my favorite olive oil (Santini Premium Extra Virgin from Trader Joes) started coming with a pour spout attached. I loved being able to grab the bottle and drizzle wherever I needed to. Several times, I tried stealing the pour spout off the bottle once I was finished with it so I could use it elsewhere, but after a couple torn knuckles from trying to wrestle off the slippery thing, I decided I’d have to go without.

Then, Useful Things hooked me up with these stainless steel Pour Spouts. Yay! If you make your own salad dressings as often as I do, you will wonder how you went without having a pour spout attached to everything. (Next mission: find jars I can make my salad dressings in that the pour spouts will fit.) It’s also great to put the pour spout equipped oil and vinegar jars directly on the table for guests to mix up their own.

What else is cool about these pour spouts? They are natural cork, which I prefer over plastic any day, because plastic contains all sorts of icky chemical bonds that do strange things to the human body. Also, these pour spouts have lids! I’ve never in my life seen a pour spout with a lid, and I love to leave my vinegars in the fridge, with pour spouts attached, without having to worry about odors leaking out or getting in.

Other possible nifty uses for pour spouts: liquor bottles, extracts (vanilla, almond), food coloring, and other thin sauces, such as soy.

Pour Spouts from Useful Things.

I recently came into possession of these Herb Scissors from UsefulThings.com, and boy are they handy! I love using fresh herbs—they pack so much flavor and color into a dish–but fresh herbs are delicate. They easily bruise, especially when washed and then chopped. The Herb Scissors solve the bruising problem even if your herbs aren’t completely dry when you go to use them. Plus, they ensure that all of your herbs are evenly chopped, so you don’t end up with some large pieces and some mush. Come on, you know what I’m talking about. It’s not exactly easy to finely (forget evenly!) chop fresh herbs without turning some of them into an herb paste! And I hate cleaning up my island butcher block after I’ve made an herb mess of it. The maple looks like its growing algae! But no more of that. With the Herb Scissors, I can snip my herbs directly onto my plate or dish.

At first, I was afraid I’d catch my fingers in the Herb Scissors’ five blades, but after using them several times, I’ve found them easy enough to avoid. I’m now wondering if I can use my knife sharpener to sharpen the blades, but so far, I haven’t had any dulling problems. I’m also wondering if I could use the Herb Scissors to cut pasta. Think of the linguine one could make! I know most people use a pasta maker, but I don’t have one, and don’t plan to get one, so…

Getting back to the point… These Herb Scissors are extremely useful and easy to use and clean. If you’ve got $10.95 to spare, I suggest you try them.

Herb Scissors from Useful Things.

My kitchen is on the small side, and being the cooking junkie that I am, that means every inch of space must be efficient and tidy. So, I was excited to find this Collapsible Silicone Funnel available through Useful Things. Most funnels are bulky and take up valuable space, but this one is compact enough that it will fit in any kitchen. The funnel’s accordion-style pleats not only allow you to adjust the height and width of the funnel for easy pouring into a variety of sized containers, but make it fully collapsible so that it fits neatly and easily inside even a shallow drawer. Plus, the funnel is made of high quality silicone, which is heat and cold resistant, and dishwasher safe, making it more durable and longer lasting than plastic funnels. It’s also handy for camping, or when you need to change your car’s oil, or add windshield washer fluid. If you’re going to use it in the garage, however, I’d recommend getting a second one. Why not? They only cost $8.95.

As a Foodbuzz Tastemaker, I sometimes get to sample products that are new or forthcoming on the market. Last week, I was sent a package of Quaker True Delight Granola Bars, which are now in stores. (The packaging is very chic, by the way.) The package contained two samples of each of their flavors—Dark Chocolate Raspberry, Honey Roasted Cashew Mixed Berry, and Toasted Coconut Banana Macadamia Nut. Overall, I thought the flavors were good, and I like the fruit and nut combinations. For me, however, they are too sweet to eat on a regular basis, but that’s true of any granola bar. Apparently sweet sells. For my husband, the sweet tooth, the sweeter the better, so these went over well with him. Here are a few notes on each:

Dark Chocolate Raspberry: The dark chocolate actually tastes like dark chocolate, which is a bonus. The almonds were whole or nearly whole, which I also like. I was a bit disappointed in the raspberries, which must have been freeze dried. But what else can you do with raspberries?

Honey Roasted Cashew Mixed Berry: For me, these were the most “benign.” If I ate these on a regular basis, in my lunch for example, I’d go with these. The texture seemed a bit crisper, and I liked the cashew and dried cherry combination.

Toasted Coconut Banana Macadamia Nut: Neither my husband or I are banana fans, but the banana flavor in these bars was actually quite good. It wasn’t overwhelming, and it wasn’t fake tasting. Again, they were quite sweet for me, and I’m not a big enough fan of the ingredients to buy these bars for myself, but if you’re into coconut and banana, I bet you’d dig them.

Would I buy these? Well, I’m more of homemade kind of girl, but if I didn’t have the time, sure. I wonder if they have a combo pack…

You’ve all heard the news, right? Drinking out of plastic water bottles is BAD! The worst offender is the bottle made from PET—polyethylene terephthalate—which has been proven to release DEHP, a compound known to disrupt reproductive health. Soda pop and juice is commonly sold in bottles containing PET plastic. From what I’ve read, the compounds only break down and leach after repeated use of the bottle, but that shouldn’t be of any comfort. Production and disposal of these plastics has led to contamination of air and ground water. If you had yourself tested for plasticizers, I doubt you’d like the results.

Next up is the harder polycarbonate plastics. Think Nalgene. These types of bottles contain Bisphenol-A. Bisphenol-A binds to estrogen receptors, causing reproductive issues as well. Recently, many companies removed all Nalgene and Nalgene type bottles from their shelves. Canada officially declared Bisphenol-A hazardous to human health.

So what’s a person to do? I like to have a water bottle in my car. My husband packs one to work. We all use them for something, right? Along with a gazillion other plastic products. (Which is another issue…) Well, here’s at least one alternative for you to consider—SIGG.

SIGG is Swiss company with worldwide presence. They make their bottles out of lightweight aluminum, and use a water-based non-toxic interior lining. Plus, the bottles are cool! With 144 designs and 22 styles of lids, SIGG has something for everyone. Their line-up even includes kids’ bottles, sports bottles, thermal bottles, and flasks. I got mine a couple weeks ago, and I love it. Check out their website and get one for yourself.

For more information about plastics and plastic drinking bottles, visit these two sites:

Earth Resource

Wikipedia. Be sure to check out the list of references at the bottom of the page.

A few weeks ago, when my husband wasn’t feeling well, I went to the store for Tylenol, Kleenex, and throat lozenges, and ended up spending a bit of time in front of the ice cream coolers. I admit, it was a relief to be “off duty,” if only for twenty minutes, and I was going to enjoy the time away from hubby’s illness. Plus, I thought ice cream might numb his aching throat, and, well, just plain taste good. I browsed the usual Ben and Jerry’s section, scanned the Haagen Dazs and Dove pints. And then there they were, on the top shelf, sporting bright colors and interesting flavors—Ciao Bella Gelato.

If you’ve never had gelato, here’s the scoop. It’s an Italian-style ice cream that contains only twenty percent air by volume (as opposed to American ice cream’s 60 percent), and less butterfat. It’s incredibly smooth and rich. Often, one scoop will leave you more that satisfied.

The Ciao Bella company is based in New York, but you can find their products nationwide. In addition to gelato, they produce sorbets and other specialty desserts. Some of the gelato flavors are: bourbon butter pecan, caramel, chocolate hazelnut, cinnamon, coconut, dulce de leche, espresso, fromage blanc, ginger, green tea, hazelnut biscotti, lemon poppy seed, lychee, pistachio, rum raison, strawberry, several varieties of vanilla, and zabaione, plus a whole lot more. Their sorbets come in apricot chardonnay, blackberry cabernet, blood orange, cassis, champagne, chocolate orange, lemongrass coconut, mango, margarita, passion fruit, peach, pear, and many more. Don’t they all sound fabulous?! To view the full list, click here, and keep in mind that many of these flavors are available by the scoop at venues only. The pints come in more limited flavors. To find out where you can purchase a pint, or enjoy a scoop or two, you can search via your zip code on this page of Ciao Bella’s website. My local Safeway wasn’t on the list, however, and they had at least 6 varieties… If nobody in your area carries the brand, you can have it shipped to you. Keep in mind it will be expensive…

I took home a pint of chocolate hazelnut, and it was divine. Next on my list to try is the blood orange sorbet. Oh, yeah!

This list always interests me. How do the editors choose? How do they even find out about half of this stuff? And more importantly, how accessible are these places, these foods, these drinks, to the general population? Before we take a sneak peek inside the 2008 list, let’s go back and look at 2007’s Tastes to Try. How many did you experience? I didn’t fare too well, but I came to the list late, so that’s my excuse. Of those I picked out, here are the 2007 tastes I still have yet to try:

#27 Peruvian Food. I seriously need to get my passport.

#43 Amaranth. A high-protein grain loved by the Aztecs. Is it anything like quinoa? I love quinoa!

#48 Syrah from South Africa. I love Aussie Shiraz, and I’m betting South African is superb. Gotta get me some!

#71 Mangosteens. Has the FDA approved this Thai fruit for import? I’m not sure. I haven’t seen it in the market yet, but I’ll keep looking. I did, however, try cherimoya, prickly pear, and the pepino melon this year.

#73 Wild Artichokes. Italian imports. Mmmmm.

And the one trend for 2007 that I will never, ever understand? Bacon in desserts.

***
Now for my personal 2008 Tastes to Try. The full list is in the January 2008 issue of Food and Wine.

#4 Mochi Creams. A Tokyo craze, these desserts are made with mochi rice balls that are filled with ingredients like caramel pudding, green tea, and red sweet potato. Yum!

#25 Costa Rica. I really do need to get my passport.

#29 Napa’s Best Market. 40,000 square feet of gourmet food. What more could you want?

#35 Exquisite Tea Blends. I love tea, especially in the winter, and these blends that combine unique flavors like almond and coconut sound tremendous.

#52 Sicilian Almonds. Almonds that taste like marzipan? Sign me up!

#73 New Exotic Herbs. Rare edible plants. The environmentalist in me doesn’t like this idea, but I’m curious…

#83 Barrel-Aged Beers. I love beer—dark beer. Beer aged in oak barrels that adds wood, vanilla, and fruit essences? Oh, yes!

#99 Miso Lager and Other Japanese Beers. I’m down for the Echigo Stout, which is said to rival Guinness, and the Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout.

Hmmm. I better get busy!

I recently received two boxes of Cheryl & Co. Halloween sugar cookies from a woman I interviewed, and I must admit, I’m addicted. I’m usually more of a salty snacker, preferring pretzels or nuts over sweets, but I’ve found myself craving one of these cookies, along with a hot cup of tea, late in the morning for the past week.

What makes the cookies so good? The first thing I like about them is they don’t contain preservatives. I have one of those finicky digestive systems that doesn’t like too much junk running through it. Upon arrival, I promptly froze one box, and placed the other in the refrigerator. This alone has kept me from pigging out on them. Out of sight, out of mind, as the saying goes. But when I get that craving, it’s perfect to go to the fridge, slide one out of the box, and unwrap it from its decorative wrapper. Ah. Nice and fresh.

What really makes these cookie winners, however, is the fact that the frosting isn’t overly sweet. I’m not a frosting fan, in general. That gunk that comes on cake? I scrape it off. I do like a light layer of cream cheese frosting on carrot cake, but otherwise, my general rule is plain. This frosting, however, works just fine, and the sugar cookie underneath it is moist and perfectly crumbly.

Now that I’ve had the frosted pumpkin cut-outs, I’m anxious to try the snickerdoodles, lemon bursts, and apricot almond bars. They also have a Sweet and Savory Tower that looks great. Fruit and cheese is my favorite!

Check out Cheryl & Co. full selection, which includes gift baskets for just about any occasion, on their website.