I like Nutella, have for a long while, so I thought to try this Nutella-like product from President's Choice. The ingredients of Nutella are basically hazelnuts, oil, cocoa and sugar; this one is very similar, using canola and palm oil, skim milk powder and low fat cocoa.
How did it taste? Quite good, similar in flavour to Nutella, but with its own unique flavour. I don't know if it would replace Nutella in my heart of hearts, but it's a good substitute.
I like shortbread, and especially Scottish shortbread, there’s nothing like this biscuit made from very good butter and only a few ingredients (flour, butter, sugar). This shortbread from President’s Choice has that short ingredient listing; they use demerera sugar rather than just white sugar.
How do they taste? I wouldn’t say they are the World’s Best, but they are a pretty good shortbread. I think they would have been better to make a smaller cookie, most of them were quite flaky, as they should be, but broke when I picked them up (and who wants to lose part of a good cookie). I probably just might buy these again sometime.
I did like President's Choice The Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookie, made with their The Decadent Semi-Sweet Chocolate, this is very similar to that cookie, but with chunks of chocolate rather than chips of chocolate. Or so their picture on the package shows, very large chunks of chocolate. The actual cookies don't seem to have very large chunks of bulging chocolate pieces. So, I don't see what the difference is between the two. Still good, but not as good as one I can make.
I can’t really recommend these potato chips, though if you are a fan of plain potato chips, and I mean plain, then these are the ones for you! Made from Organic potatoes using Organic sunflower oil, and sea salt, it should at least be reasonably good for you (compared to the more commercial less expensive ones).
This new 100% fruit and juice blend from President’s Choice (similar to their Pineapple Guava Passion Fruit, which I really like, and their Mango Orange) features Peach puree, and tangerine and orange juice as its only ingredients. I don’t really taste the tangerine and orange juices, the predominant flavour is peach; not that I mind, I like peach. This is a very thick juice; I normally add some carbonated mineral water to it. I think I prefer this second to the Pineapple Guava Passion Fruit.
Another chocolate bar we got for Christmas, along with the Milk Chocolate with Hazelnuts is Dark Chocolate with Almonds (of course, I wish they would switch the two). There is no indication of the cacao content, so it's likely to just meet the qualifications of being called Dark (> 50%). The ingredient listing is good, unsweetened chocolate, sugar, almonds, cocoa butter, canola lecithin and vanilla flavour.
How did it taste? It's a little better than the milk chocolate hazelnut one, the chocolate itself is quite hard, almost as crunchy as the large pieces of almonds. Overall, I still prefer the hazelnut version, despite it being milk, or at least I enjoy the hazelnuts, but this one isn't bad, the almonds are tasty and the chocolate was okay.
This very big chocolate bar from President's Choice I got as a Christmas gift. The chocolate is milk chocolate, unfortunately (you have to go with the Almond one for Dark chocolate), but it does contain whole hazelnuts. The ingredient listing is as good as any milk chocolate bar (okay, perhaps better), sugar, milk powder, hazelnuts, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, canola lecithin and natural vanilla flavour.
How does it taste? Sweet, like most milk chocolate bars, but the hazelnuts are tasty, and crunchy. I'd definitely like to see a Dark chocolate version.
I like the idea of this twice-baked cookie (which is what biscotti means) having whole wheat, a healthier version of this treat. It also has honey in it, another good ingredient, as well as butter. The hazelnuts were whole before the individual pieces were sliced. These taste pretty good, not too sweet, and with good hazelnut flavour. I would say, that I would eat these again, and it gives me an idea to make my own version.
The second of two of the President's Choice Organics chocolate bars, the other was Raisins and Hazelnuts (they were on sale for $2.50 each). This is a straight chocolate bar, dark chocolate, with 70% cacao content. The ingredient listing looks good, all organic ingredients, unsweetened chocolate, raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin and vanilla extract.
How did it taste? Not bad, snaps well and smells fruity. Though, I found it to be a little chalky when eating, and thus wouldn't choose this to eat on a regular basis.
Now, I like fruit and nut chocolate bars, so I thought this one would at least have that going for it. It also has hazelnuts going for it! Like most hazelnut chocolate bars, this one is milk chocolate (Again, dark chocolate, people!). The ingredient listing looks good, all save the soy lecithin is organic (from their Organics line); raw cane sugar, whole milk powder, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, raisins, hazelnuts, soy lecithin and vanilla extract. There is no indication of cacao content, though it's likely to be about 30 percent.
How does it taste? Good for a raisin nut bar, and the pieces of hazelnuts were substantial enough, ie. not tiny. The hazelnuts paired well with the raisins, though, once again, it had me longing for a Dark version.
I like blood oranges for a few years now, so I was intrigued by this new offering from President's Choice. Given that this is a soda, albeit an Italian soda, the ingredients are better than the average sugared drink, other than carbonated water, sugar and natural flavour, there is concentrated blood orange juice and black carrot juice (for colour). This tastes to me like one of those sugared orange sodas, that is to say, unremarkable and at the same time, pretty good; I guess they are trying to emulate those. I like the better ingredients, but the price, $2 for 750 mL, is too expensive to drink all the time. It does put me in mind to juice some blood oranges, when they are in season, and mix it with a little sprudel and maybe a sprinkle of sugar. With a little ice, it should be refreshing.
This was the second of the two new juices from President's Choice I tried. It was not my favourite of the two, though pretty good. It is a mango orange blend, though very thick. Adding yogurt to it would make a great mango lassi! The mango here is purée only, there is also orange and apple juices as the sole other ingredients. Despite it not being my favourite, I think that I would buy this again.
I have a love affair with Costa Rican coffee. Well, not so intense a love affair, as it's fairly hard to find coffee beans from the Central American country in most supermarkets. So, when I found that Loblaws had a line of ground coffee beans from various countries known for their coffee, including Colombia, Kenya and Costa Rica, I hoped I had a potential source for the coffee I prefer. There was a time when I thought it had disappeared, at one time they came in cans, and, for a little while, I couldn't find them anymore, but they reappeared one week in the bag form you see them as now. The beans have been medium roasted, and then fine ground. Costa Rican coffee are Arabica beans, the ones used for this product are grown high in the mountains, but there is no indication of which region in Costa Rica.
Is this the best Costa Rican coffee I've drunk. No. But that might have more to do with when they were roasted, and how long the package has been open, than whether the beans were really premium when they were picked. I like the flavour of the coffee when it is made, and, though I have had better Costa Rican coffee, made from fresh roasted and ground beans, that is something that I have not found a good source for.
I read in the President's Choice Insider Report, that this cookie won the Chosen By You survey, as the most desired cookie flavour. This is the fourth cookie in 'The Decadent' line of cookies, all containing 'The Decadent' semi-sweet chocolate (okay, the one has white chocolate - it's the reverse of their signature and most popular chocolate chip cookie). There is lots of crunchy peanut butter, milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips in this cookie. Do I agree with it being the most desired cookie flavour. Well, no. I used to like peanut butter cookies, made a few in my day, and like the combination of peanut butter and chocolate (Reese owes me nothing), but I don't really care for this particular cookie. There is an underlying flavour to this cookie, that I do not care really care for, perhaps the peanut butter is not to my taste. I do like their The Decadent chocolate chip cookie.
They had on two new juices from President's Choice; this was the second of the two I tried, but it was the better of the two in taste. This is a 100% juice blend, which features pineapple, apple and passion fruit juices, with guava purée. I do taste the pineapple prominently, but there is also the underlying flavour of passion fruit, which I also like. The brown colour of the juice I don't care for, but the flavour combination will make me want to come back for more. This was on special for $3.
This new appetizer from President's Choice intrigued me, mostly because it contains figs, a fruit I like, and don't get enough of. The season for figs is very short, three weeks or so, and they are normally expensive, so my opportunity to have some, other than Fig Newtons or such baked goods, does not come so often. Within the puff pastry shell, the fig topping, which seems overly sweet reading the ingredients, covers the filling made from cream cheese and goat cheese. Overall, these are quite tasty, a good appetizer, though I think that I would want to make them myself, or something similar, rather than buy these again. They are small, too, a mere mouthful.
These are the whole wheat version of President's Choice fig bars, their similar-to "Fig Newton" product. They are fairly good tasting, I like figs. They are part of PC's Blue Menu, and thus are Fat Free, with zero Trans Fats and no Hydrogenated Oils, though I would like it if there was less sugar.
I love the combination of rhubarb and strawberry, the tartness of the rhubarb pairs wonderfully with the sweetness of the strawberry. Indeed, the rhubarb is harder to eat without it. The two come out about the same time of year as well, perhaps they are meant to be together. Most of the time I have it in pie form, strawberry-rhubarb pie is delicious. Too, I like it when made into jam, and now I see that President's Choice has come out with a new entry to their Twice the Fruits jam product line, Strawberry Rhubarb. And it tastes quite good, and brings back memories of pies I've enjoyed. The only thing I don't like about this jam, is that sugar is the first ingredient, I would have preferred to have fruit first. Not that there isn't lots of fruit, it's very thick with fruit pieces.
Yet another offering by the line of President's Choice from Loblaw's, this product gives you the taste of dry roasted almonds in the shell, and makes the shell easy to crack open. These cost about $5 for one pound.
They taste pretty good, toasting nuts give it a whole new dimension of flavour.
Another of the new items that comes from Loblaw's President's Choice line is this 250 g bag of dry roasted and lightly salted macadamia nuts. Macadamias are very rich, with a buttery flavour, that goes well in baked goods, or just to eat like that. I want to use them in some sort of cookie, so likely I'll rinse them off before I use them. Macadamias too tend to be an expensive nut to purchase, this is about $5 for 250 g, that's like $9-10 per pound, very similar to what hazelnuts go for.
