Garden Creme Wafer Durian Flavour

My interest in the fruit that is King, the Durian, brings some interesting food products, and some not so interesting. This is a fairly traditional creme wafer, but, when you open the package, you get a good waft of the good Durian fragrance.

The creme wafers are not remarkable, they do taste like Durian, it's the smell that makes it interesting, though this contains really only Durian essence, not any actual Durian fruit. My beautiful Bride prefers the Coconut version, really the original flavour available.

Bellagio Sipping Chocolate

Bellagio from California in the United States makes chocolate products, I have seen several of their different varieties of hot chocolate recently, this is bittersweet sipping chocolate made in a traditional Italian manner.

The ingredient listing looks good, just cocoa powder, cane sugar, chocolate liquor and cocoa butter. To make, use 2 Tbsp and combine with 1/3 cup of hot milk.

I've also added a tablespoon of it to my morning coffee to give it a good flavour.

Valor Dark Chocolate with Mint

I have liked the combination of mint and chocolate in other products, and I like it in this chocolate bar from the Spanish company Chocolates Valor, S.A.. Like the other Valor bars I have eaten lately, this has a cocoa content of 70%, and the chocolate itself is fairly good tasting. The ingredient listing is fairly good, chocolate processed with alkali, sugar, cocoa, cocoa butter, soy lecithin and peppermint natural flavour. I think that I would eat this bar again.

Schweinsöhrchen or Pig's Ears

They're called Schweinsöhrchen (pig's ears) in German, or Palmiers (palm leaves) in France, Butterflies in Thailand, these heart-shaped pastries are very popular. They often are dipped in chocolate, these are dipped in milk chocolate, though most of the time I have seen them, it is dark chocolate that is used (which is a better choice, otherwise it ends up being too sweet), or strewn with powdered sugar.

To make them, one uses a long slab of puff pastry, roll them up on both sides; when they meet in the middle, you slice them off and bake them. Simple and delicious.

Reed's Cherry Ginger Brew

As you all know, I like ginger, in its many forms, and a good Ginger Beer or Ginger Ale is one of them. This micro brewed Ginger Ale by the American company Reed's, bought recently at a local Health Food store, is better for you than the commercial sugar-oriented pops, the ingredients are carbonated water, fructose, fresh ginger root (22 grams fresh ginger per bottle), cherry juice from concentrate and spices; no preservatives, artificial flavour or colour. I found it to be refreshing and tasty, but not very gingery (despite its description of a strong ginger bite), perhaps I'm now used to far more ginger flavour, this was weak as to what I expected it to be. The combination of cherry and ginger was interesting and good, but I don't think that I would pay the $1.60 that I did (this was even the sale price).

Numi Toasted Rice Green

I have tried the Japanese toasted rice and green tea blend, Gen Mai Cha, many times before, I liked the taste of the toasted rice combined with green tea, but was always disappointed by the quality of green tea that came with the more readily available offerings, usually they contained broken leaves and sticks; with the loose tea brands, I would end up eating the slightly nutty delicious brown rice, but I would have to pick out the sticks before I could enjoy the brown rice. I know that I could go to any Japanese store and purchase the more expensive selections, I've never got around to it, so I was intrigued by this offering from Numi Tea, a company I've bought lots of tea from. Organic Sencha green tea (a traditional Japanese green tea with needle-like leaves that are rolled, flattened and steamed and makes a very pale yellow-green tea) and organic toasted rice are the only ingredients in this tea, and, while I miss being able to eat the rice, the flavour is quite good and refreshing.

Numi Ginger Sun

What a name. Ginger Sun.

Makes me oh so want to drink this tea! And I oh so want this tea to taste really good.

This offering from Numi Tea features Fair Trade Certified organic Selim Hill Estate decaffeinated green tea, organic ginger and organic lemongrass. Normally I like full strength teas, and coffees, this should be interesting to taste, given the kick ginger normally gives. The decaffeination process is done through "Effervescence", using CO2, which does not extract the flavour or antioxidants of the green tea, which means it takes out the "bad" caffeine, and leaves the good stuff.

How does it taste? Well, not as gingery as I'd like, the colour of the tea however was quite amazing, a golden brown. The taste of the green tea was very subtle. Overall, not my favourite.

President's Choice Sour Cherry and Aronia Juice

I like sour cherry, actually much more than its sweet cousin, and when I saw this new offering by President's Choice, I picked it up. This also contains aronia, a berry found mostly in Europe, that is both astringent and not sweet, it's also high in antioxidants and Vitamin C. I found it as an ingredient in my sour cherry tea. Other than water, the main ingredient is concentrated apple juice, down the list of ingredients is concentrated sour cherry juice, concentrated pear juice, concentrated aronia juice, citric acid, natural flavour and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). So saying, it tastes very much like sour cherry, and I enjoyed the flavour. I definitely would drink this again.

Dede Instant Thai Coffee Drink

You might wonder why I am interested in this coffee drink, seeing as I like my coffee black and the beans from Costa Rica, I must say that the only reason I tried this, is that my beautiful Thai Bride recommended it (well, actually, she recommended the Tea version, but I prefer coffee to black tea).

Ka Fae Yen, or Instant Thai Coffee Drink, comes from Thailand, I found it in several Chinese supermarkets. The ingredient listing is very short, just non-dairy creamer (48%), sugar (27%) and coffee powder (25%). You can drink it hot or cold, just add 200 mL of hot water to the contents of the package.

How does it taste? Not bad, though I don't think it will replace a good cup of Costa Rican coffee prepared slowly, it does make for a quick cup of coffee on those mornings that I need a little jolt to wake me.

Sarotti HalbBitter

It's been sort of hit and miss for the chocolate bars I've eaten from the German chocolatier Sarotti, most of them have had less than stellar ingredients, more sugar and flavour than chocolate. This halbbitter (semisweet) bar's ingredients look better, just sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, soya lecithin and flavouring, with a cacao content of 50% minimum. It tastes not bad too, a good semisweet bar, though not fantastic. I see, too, from the packaging, Sarotti is promoting a Chocolate Museum, located in Köln, which looks to be associated with Lindt.