Cafe Domingo and Cafe Solano

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, I was selected to receive two bags of Peet’s new medium roast coffees- Cafe Domingo and Cafe Solano, a great plastic coffee thermos, and several $2.00 off Peet’s coffee. Pete’s coffee is an artistan-crafted, deep-roastd coffee, that’s been around for 45 years! Both Cafe Domingo and Cafe Solano blend are medium roasted and have unique taste profiles- perfect to pair with brunch or dessert foods this fall!

 

Cafe Domingo is a blend of Central and South American coffees that is smooth, balanced, and medium-bodied with more pure coffee taste. I personally like a sweets, so I brewed a mug full of Cafe Domingo to pair with a glazed crueller donut. I added just a pinch of sugar and Coffee-mate. The Cafe Domingo brew was slightly sweet and I tasted hints of toffee. Also, the coffee went really well with the donut because the coffee wasn’t too sweet, so it didn’t overpower the donut.

 

 

My boyfriend, Danny, likes more savory and food that’s not very sweet. He brewed a mug full of the Cafe Solano. The Cafe Solano is a blend of African, Indo-Pacific, and South American coffees. He also added some Coffee-Mate to his cup. I tasted it and liked it as well! The Cafe Solano was very aromatic and though had light floral flavors, wasn’t overwhelming with the flavors. Danny paired this up with a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. The coffee complimented the sandwich because it wasn’t sweet and was light, something you need with something as heavy and savory as a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.

 

I recommend Pete’s coffee to anyone that wants to try something different and unique in flavor. There is also an online coupon you can use towards your purchase. This coupon is up to a $3.00 value when shared with three friends. If anybody wants a $2.00 coupon off Pete’s’ coffee, let me know and I’ll send them out to you right away!

http://www.peetscoffee.com/medium-roast-offer.asp

Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , — by Jen
No Comments »
14
Oct
2011

Sargento Cheese

I was recently selected to be a part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Sargento. They sent me a giftcard to buy a package of my favorite Sargento natural cheese variety, choice of cheese pairings (crackers, dried fruit), and choice of processed cheese to compare to Sargento. I really love a good Provolone, so I picked up the Sargento Natural Provolone. I really love Provolone on sandwiches and crackers, so I also picked up a package of Triscuits.

 

As for the processed cheese, I picked up some Kraft American Singles, a pasteurized prepared cheese product. I am very familiar with Kraft cheese and never really thought of it as “natural.” I never really compared Kraft’s cheese to natural cheese, such as Sargento, and definitely noticed a big difference.

 

I placed a square piece of each cheese on triscuits and definitely noticed a big difference. Color wise, the Sargento Natural Provolone had a nice rich non-glossy off white color. The textures were different as well. The Provolone cheese broke when bent all the way. The Provolone cheese smelled earthy and slightly smokey. For the final test, the Provolone cheese tasted smokey and sharp. The winner of this taste test: Sargento Natural Provolone!

*Left: Kraft American Cheese

*Right: Sargento Natural Provolone Cheese

Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , — by Jen
No Comments »
14
Sep
2011

Grand Central Station’s Super Bowl Bash

After a quick lunch, I headed over to Grand Central for their “Super Bowl Bash.” A bunch of vendors set up stations with samples and great food for Super Bowl Sunday. Luckily, I only had to walk like 6 blocks from Kati Roll, so I burned off some calories from that.

I walked in and sampled everything there was to be sampled. I start with food from Cafe Spice, an Indian Restaurant. I tried some saag paneer (a spinach based dish) and chicken tikka masala with some basmati rice. I wasn’t really feeling the saag paneer because it didn’t look really appetizing and really didn’t have much flavor (not even a little spicy). The chicken tikka masala though, was really good and mildly spicy.

Next was the Brother Jimmy’s BBQ station. They had stations set up with small bowls of shredded pork and chicken. I tried the pork with their own chipotle sauce and the chicken with their BBQ sauce. I could’ve done without the chipotle sauce but I fell in love with their BBQ sauce. It was slightly smokey, sweet, and just good. It was so good, I bought a jar of it!

Next on the way was Oliviers & Co, a French retail store specializing in olive oils from all around the Mediterranean. I tried a chile oil and wasn’t feeling it. I did try truffle oil on popcorn and loved it! Ultimately, I decided on smokey mild heat seasoning. It’s supposed to be used in place of a pepper. Hopefully I can show off my Italian cooking skills with this seasoning!

I also tried popcorn from Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse. They tossed regular popcorn with truffle oil, black pepper, onion and garlic powder. So good! I love popcorn and I think I’m going to have to toss truffle oil on my kernels from now on.

Manhattan Chili Company offered samples of their beef, turkey, and vegetable chili. I tried the beef and turkey and they really weren’t that good. They kind of tasted as if they were sitting there for hours (they probably were). The only way to go up from there was gelato from “Ciao Bella Gelateria.” I love frozen desserts, so I tried a tiny scoop of their espresso and blood orange gelato. The blood orange gelato was to die for! Apparently Oprah likes that flavor too. It was so good but I ran out of cash, so I couldn’t even pay for a scoop. That only means I have to go back and get a 3 scooper!

I tried a sample of anniversary coffee from Oren’s Daily Roast. It was alright. I probably will stick with my usual Starbucks vanilla latte.

The last stop was Murray’s cheese. They were giving out samples of salami and I believe Wisconsin cheddar cheese. They also had a weighing contest, where people had to guess how much the huge chunk of cheese on the bottom weighed. I guessed 1075 lbs but who knows. If I was able to cut a chunk to throw into cheese and broccoli soup, I would’ve been just as happy.

Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , — by Jen
No Comments »
04
Feb
2011