Marco-brand grocery store pints

The tagline of Marco brand ice cream is "Culinary flavors. Global traditions." And with their roster of favors, they certainly live up to it: Turkish Mocha, Aztec Chocolate, Green Tea & White Chocolate, Moroccan Honey Nut, Dulce de Leche & Cookies, Vanilla Chai...and, uh, Peanut Butter Caramel. I bought five of the flavors to sample and review. Here they are listed from favorite to least favorite:

Dulce de Leche & Cookies - Most would-be dulce de leche ice creams merely taste like a sickly sweet caramel. This one tastes like the real thing. And no matter how much I ate in one sitting, it never was cloying. The churro-inspired cookie mix-in is okay, but honestly, even though it isn't dominant, this would have been better without it. The ice cream base is just that good.

Vanilla Chai - I will never turn away a cardamom ice cream and this one is no exception. That said, rare as they are, I've had other chai ice creams that pack more of a punch. Still, to see a good-not-amazing chai ice cream in the grocery store as a win.

Peanut Butter Caramel - The caramel in this is runny and excellent. The peanut butter base isn't stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth, which is a good thing. All in all a decent flavor; it's just peanut butter forward isn't my usual area of interest in desserts.

Aztec Chocolate - Chocolate ice cream rarely tastes like its namesake and is often disappointing because of it. This ice cream continues the long line of disappointing chocolate ice creams. Sure, the spice is there and it certainly is a dark brown (almost black) color, but chocolate it ain't.

Moroccan Honey Nut - This is one of the most interesting and original ice cream flavors I've eaten. Walking the border of savory and sweet, it makes use of a ras el hanout spice mixture. Try as I might, I could not tell you what all of the flavor notes here were. If it were just a hint more creamy and sweet, maybe I would have liked it.

Dr. Bombay's grocery store pints

The five flavors available at the Jewels.

With a leopard-print lid and a different multi-colored pinwheel art for each flavor, Dr. Bombay's ice cream pints stick out on the grocery store aisle. Apparently, this ice cream is a product of Snoop Dogg's imagination. I decided to buy one of each in the line to pass on the knowledge of what's worth trying and what you can skip. From best to worst:

S'more Vibes - Both sweet and creamy, this is easily the best of their ice cream bases. Wisely, they used dark chocolate fudge bites rather than mimicking a waxy, milk "chocolate" Hershey bar. Tasty graham swirl. I've no idea why they included crisped rice, but it isn't a bad addition.

Tropical Sherbet Swizzle - This is delicious. Tarter than your average sherbet and the pineapple swirl elevates this even further. Lost the top spot to S'more Vibes only by a hair.

Syrupy Waffle Sundaze - The ice cream base, which the packaging calls "waffle ice cream," is somewhere between brown sugar and maple. The waffle pieces are somewhere between a crisp Eggo and a waffle cone. A unique flavor.

Bonus Track Brownie - Not much flavor in the vanilla ice cream base. The "thick fudge swirl" is like what they use in Moose Tracks, like almost exactly. This flavor is pretty middle of the road.

Rollin' in the Dough - Not a good ice cream base. According to the packaging, it is "cookie ice cream." Tastes chemically, which is a shame since everything mixed in tastes good.

Freezer Favs: Stewarts's Crumbs Along the Mohawk

While this blog is primarily a fan of local scoop shops, it acknowledges that sometimes a person just wants to stay in for the night. That being said, this is one of my Freezer Favorites.

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Full disclosure: I have not eaten this flavor since the summer of 2005, the same summer I met and discussed ice cream with Marisa Tomei...and over two years before this blog was created. The seeds of this blog were actually a series of MySpace blog posts that summer all those years ago. While at a summer internship, I had chosen to detail my notable summer experiences in the Berkshires through the lens of the notable desserts I ate. It seems that even back then, my travels were defined by my sweet tooth.

Still, my memories are strong of Stewart's Crumbs Along the Mohawk, a graham cracker ice cream with graham cracker pieces and a caramel swirl.

Eating it was revelatory.

One usually uses of the label "acquired taste" for a flavor that challenges one's flavor sensibilities, something strong and usual. No one would ever describe a flavor as benign as graham crackers as an acquired taste. That said, it wasn't until I had Crumbs Along the Mohawk (named for the Mohawk Trail) that I awakened to the flavor of graham.

Certain flavors appeal to us more as we get older and that phenomenon is bolder than merely "acquiring" a taste. The sensation is more like learning you have a long-lost sibling who loves you very, very much.

Crumbs Along the Mohawk, I salute you!

Jeni's Frozen Dessert Sandwiches

A product about as high quality as my photo skills.

Maybe it's the holiday spirit getting into me, but these were ho ho ho hum. Now for the airing of grievances:

First off, "frozen dessert sandwiches"? Not "ice cream sandwiches"? Jeni, you done me wrong. You wouldn't serve these in your shops, so why are you pumping them out nationwide. Jeni, you are lending your luxury ice cream name to a low-end product.

Second, the options are basic. Mint chocolate, sure. But is there a mix-in or imaginative twist I have come to expect from Jeni's? Nope. As for "bramble berry," let's call it what it really is: "mixed berry." And key lime? ...Okay, that is still pretty uncommon. But theirs offers nothing new.

Third, the actual flavors are nondescript, totally lacking depth. Does the mint ice cream use actual mint? Nope; it's peppermint oil. The mixed berry is is vaguer than vague. Miscellaneous tartness. The key lime is run of the mill as far as key lime stuff goes, which is to say it's mildly sour, but primarily sweet.

Fourth, the cookies part, while good, is the dominant flavor. Why might that be? Because these are teeny tiny. The size of the product is the only part that actually resembles fancy pants food because it is downright dainty.

Fifth, how dare you.

Jeni's Frozen Dessert Sandwiches. Skip 'em.

Milk Bar Ice Cream's Seasonal Selection

Oh, what a happy holiday it is when there's seasonal ice cream flavors at the store AND a new blog post! Milk Bar out of NYC has not only expanded its line since I first reviewed them--doubling in size or more--but they have two wintry delights that have blown into town, one better than the other:

Candy Cane Chocolate Chip Cornflake - With the exception of chocolate mint ice creams, there has been a tendency in recent years for mint ice creams to be Altoid-level minty. Happily, this ice cream airs on the side of sugary peppermint, pleasantly complemented by bits of marshmallow fluff. (The marshmallow flavor is very faint, but is enough to make an impression.) The chocolate chunks are enough in number to be a part of at least every other bite, offering a nice kiss of chocolate to the mint. Unlike other Milk ice creams, the corn flake mix-in was not crunchy at all. Similarly, the advertised candy cane swirl was non-existent. A crunchless ice cream, but a good ice cream all the same.

Gingerbread House - "Do you like nutmeg?!?" This the question this ice cream asks again and again despite my cries of, "No!" The base, though advertised as gingerbread, is nutmeg all the way. This flavor cannot even be saved by the gingerbread cookie hunks within, nor the simple sprinkles throughout. Good mix-ins, terrible flavor imho. If you enjoy eggnog to get your nutmeg fix, though, you should give it a shot.

Jeni's - Three Winners and a Dud

The aforementioned "three winners."

When I first blogged about Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in 2012, they were only in area of Columbus, Ohio (AKA the perfect halfway point when driving from Chicago to Virginia). Based on those visits, they made my list of Top 25 to Visit. Since then, they have slowly started taking over the country with pint in many grocery stores plus locations in eleven states, including several locations in Chicago. Jeni's is always innovating, so occasionally I find myself placing orders online to get the latest flavor since they don't always last long in scoop shops. Here is my review of four recent flavors:

Strawberry Pretzel Pie - From first bite I started asking myself, "Is this the best ice cream I have ever had?" While I think Toscanini's probably has an edge over Jeni's, this is undoubtedly the best I've ever gotten from a mass produced facility and the best to have ever graced the inside of my freezer. Sure the strawberry and pretzels are nice, but there is something magical in the base that made my tastebuds pause to savor. Made in collaboration with Dolly Parton to benefit her non-profit, you can feel good eating it as well. Get on Jeni's email list for the next time they manufacture this flavor because it sells out FAST.

Maple Soaked Pancakes - They could have just lazily made a maple ice cream with pancakes thrown in, but, no, they incorporated the buttery flavor necessary to make this a genuine breakfast experience. Promoted for National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, I only consumed the flavor at more conventional times because some slopes are too slippery to risk taking.

Sunshine - A flavor designed to raise awareness (and funds) towards children's mental health, I knew I wanted to support...and not just because it sounded delicious. A grey ice cream boasting of tasting "like sunshine on a cloudy day," it is a fruit ice cream with mouth-puckering punches of lemon, tangerine, and passion fruit. While not as over-the-top incredible as Jeni's buttermilk frozen yogurts--perhaps their best creations overall--this is still a must-try flavor.

Everything Bagel - Cream cheese ice cream is an excellent base for cheesecake ice cream. So imagine that. Now subtract enough sugar from the cream cheese base to make it more savory than sweet. Not add onion and garlic. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Thankfully, I only sampled the flavor, which was enough to send me running away at full speed. But some people must love it because this is not the first time they've had the flavor. So don't take my word for it; try it for yourself!

Milk Bar grocery store pints

Milk Bar is a New York City legend. Whether their Cereal Milk soft serve, their pie (formerly known as "crack pie"), or their cake truffles, dessert there is a sweet-toothsome experience. But I have a confession: I've always *liked* Milk Bar, but haven't *loved* Milk Bar. Their sugar-forward approach may give the chic place an adult candy store feel, but to me it was always at the expense of depth of flavor. Until now.

I happened to be walking through the Whole Foods freezer aisle, just taking stock, when I saw that Milk Bar now has grocery store pints! I jumped on the opportunity to buy one of each flavor, praying that this NYC export wasn't the bitter disappointment of Serendipity's grocery store pints. The results of my scientific inquiry? Well, I liked them enough to blog about it, which is saying a lot these days.

From favorite to still-good-but-not-as-good, here are my thoughts:

Cereal Milk: Admittedly, when I eat cereal, I do not drink the milk remnants afterward. To me, it is concentrated sugar, like drinking soda from the machine is too many parts syrup. That said, when I had the Cereal Milk soft serve in New York, I was underwhelmed. It ends up all it needed was more milkfat. Simple and an instant classic, this pint has a subtler sweetness than its namesake, all with crunchy cornflakes mixed in to add some textural diversity. A wonderful flavor.

Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow: Are you even making ice cream in post-Ben & Jerry's America if you don't have a flavor boasting to have the most crazy chunks mixed in? This long flavor name doesn't even mention that the flavor base aims to taste like cookie dough, something I'm not sure it achieves. What is does taste like is toasted bliss, vaguely s'mores-like. The mix-ins--chocolate chips, more crunchy cornflakes, and the occasional patch of a marshmallow-like substance--only add to the flavor experience, making each bite a little different from the next.

Birthday Cake: In general, I find this flavor trend cloying and something colorful intended for kids, but Milk Bar made it right. Rich and flavorful, my only complaint is that the delicious frosting mix-in (usually the downfall of Birthday Cake ice creams) was in hunks rather than a ripple. This made some bites a bit much.

Pie: A somewhat bland name for an interesting flavor. The "deep vanilla" base has a hint of burnt sugar. With the "gooey butter filling" giving the ice cream a St. Louis "Gooey Butter Cake" effect, this flavor is almost too rich for me...he says still licking the spoon. Lastly, they have some oats mixed in to approximate pie crust, but for me oats just don't work as a mix-in. Sure, they maintain their texture, but they linger too long and end up dominating. Still, a good flavor.

Freezer Faves: Tillamook's Monster Cookie

While this blog is primarily a fan of local scoop shops, it acknowledges that sometimes a person just wants to stay in for the night. That being said, this is one of my Freezer Favorites.

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I was delighted when mid-pandemic, the local Chicago-area grocery stores started carrying the Oregon brand Tillamook. Having lived in the Pacific Northwest, Tillamook's extra creamy ice cream is well-known to me. But enough boasting about my extensive dairy dessert knowledge, on to the blog!

M&M's, oats, chocolate chips, and peanut butter. What makes these cookie ingredients a "monster" you ask? Elementary, my dear blog reader. It is not the cookies that are the monster, but, in fact, you...once you have your first taste of a monster cookie. Om nom nom nom.

Tillamook's Monster Cookie ice cream is my first time hearing of this classic cookie being made into an ice cream. And they knock it out of the park. This isn't bursting with mix-ins, but instead strikes a delicate balance one might not associate with the eponymous baked good: not too much oats, which would result in the still being chewy after the ice cream part has melted away; not too much peanut butter, which could easily overpower the other flavors; and kissed with just enough chocolate chips and wannabe M&M's to elevate the sweetness in every bite.

But the crowning achievement is the ice cream base. Boasting itself to be cookie-dough flavored ice cream, the base is definitely more than your average sweet cream. Were it a blond-folded taste test, would I name the flavor cookie dough (as I would with Thomas Sweet's Chocolate Chip Cookie flavor)? Probably not. But that doesn't stop the base from being exceptionally tasty!

Tillamook's Cookie Monster, I salute you!

Freezer Faves: Signature Select's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup

 While this blog is primarily a fan of local scoop shops, it acknowledges that sometimes a person just wants to stay in for the night. That being said, this is one of my Freezer Favorites.

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Gasp! Is he really recommending a--double gasp!--grocery store brand ice cream?!? (Clutches pearls.)

I am often confused with being an ice cream snob. But the truth is I appreciate high-brow and low-brow ice creams. Who among us doesn't crave a Dairy Queen blizzard or McDonald's caramel sundae from time to time?

In proclaiming the virtues of this particular flavor, I would argue that that its chocolate base has more of an actual chocolate flavor than most so-called chocolate ice creams. (It still isn't like taking a bite out of a 72% cacao single origin chocolate bar, but one should turn to fresh gelato or even fresh chocolate sorbetto for that.) And, unlike most products offered by the grocery store staple brands Edy's/Dreyer's and Breyer's, this flavor is actually ice cream and not "light ice cream" or "frozen dairy dessert."

Moving beyond the singing the praises of its chocolate base, I must also declare its peanut butter cups to be hunks of joy. Mixed in along with an exceptionally good (but not overpowering) peanut butter swirl, the cups are not in every bite, but are such that I often bargain with myself that I'll stop eating "one more peanut butter cup...no, one more...no, one more..." 

Signature Select's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, I salute you!

Freezer Faves: Kemp's White Chocolate Raspberry

While this blog is primarily a fan of local scoop shops, it acknowledges that sometimes a person just wants to stay in for the night. That being said, this is one of my Freezer Favorites.

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"Decadent mascarpone cheesecake ice cream with a luscious raspberry swirl and white chocolaty chips."

Need I go on?

Sure, the base may not scream of mascarpone and there aren't as many raspberry swirls as I'd like, but damned if this flavor ain't the truth. With the white chocolaty flakes packing every bite, this flavor is similar to Häagen-Dazs' Double Belgian Chocolate Chip, in that it utilizes a sweet and creamy base with a differently textured mix-in to produce a chocolate truffle effect, albeit a white chocolate truffle.

When I turned a half gallon of this flavor into a mere two portions, I knew I had my hands on an instant classic.

Kemps' White Chocolate Raspberry, I salute you!

Freezer Faves: Häagen-Dazs' Double Belgian Chocolate Chip

While this blog is primarily a fan of local scoop shops, it acknowledges that sometimes a person just wants to stay in for the night. That being said, this is one of my Freezer Favorites.

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I have blogged about this flavor before. Indeed, it was this flavor that inspired me to share my extensive ice cream knowledge on the blogging platform when a co-worker I had a decade-and-a-half ago falsely claimed there were no good American chocolate ice creams. And this flavor was once considered my all-time favorite ice cream flavor. But while my palate has become more refined over the years, there is no denying that Häagen-Dazs' Double Belgian Chocolate Chip still kicks serious butt.

While it has gone through a number of name changes over the years--Belgian Chocolate Chocolate to the simplified Belgian Chocolate to its new, most accurate name--the flavor has remained the same. A pint of creamy chocolate ice cream that is nearly fifty-percent dark chocolate shavings. Every single bite is equal parts ice cream and shavings so delicate and small that they are nearly indistinguishable from the base were it not for their full-bodied punch of flavor. The effect is that of a chocolate truffle ice cream with two types and textures of chocolate blending into a wholly original experience.

Häagen-Dazs' Double Belgian Chocolate Chip, I salute you!

Freezer Faves: Talenti's Roman Raspberry

While this blog is primarily a fan of local scoop shops, it acknowledges that sometimes a person just wants to stay in for the night. That being said, this is one of my Freezer Favorites.

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When my lactose-intolerant lady friend told me her favorite dairy-free grocery store option was made by Talenti, I balked. I've never been impressed with their gelato. Quite frankly, I thought their gelato stunk and tasted of the plastic container it came in.

Enter Roman Raspberry dairy-free sorbetto.

Soft, scoop-able sorbet. None of that icy block that you have to scrape and scrape and scrape away at until you eventually get a satisfying amount onto your spoon. And the flavor envelops your taste buds with tart berry flavor that forces you to pause a moment to savor before dipping your spoon in for more.

 

Now, authetic, fresh sorbetto is comprised of merely sugar, water and the fruity flavoring agent, be it fruit or juice. Talenti's Roman Raspberry contains more than that; it is a mass-produced grocery store product so of course there are preservatives...but the final product has only six ingredients! Ultimately, though, one should trust the taste buds. It is so close to being the real thing, one might question if, in fact, it is the real thing. I dare say it is.

Talenti's Roman Raspberry, I salute you!

Pandemic Land Special: What's Good in the Grocery Store?

There hasn't been a ton to report on dessert-wise during pandemic times. I am limited to the spots that are walking distance from my apartment. But while I prefer to review local spots, the pandemic has allowed me to settle in with a few new grocery store favorites AKA my Freezer Faves. This week I will be reporting on my best new discoveries as well as a few old stand-bys. Scroll on for more...

Craft Soda Week: The Worst Sodas

This week the ol' blog is celebrating Craft Soda Week. Glug, glug, glug.

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Let us also honor the bottom three worst soda I've ever consumed. Counting down...

Spruce Beer.

3.) Beverly by Coca-Cola. Out of Italy.
Discontinued in 2009, I sampled it at the Atlanta tourist trap World of Coca-Cola. This allegedly "bitter citrus" soda tastes like carbonated quinine and ear wax.

2.) Sweat by Jones Soda. Out of Seattle, WA.
Jones Soda likes to have fun. For years they had an annual Thanksgiving pack that included feast-flavored sodas, ranging from the appetizing (Cranberry Sauce soda) to the bizarre (Mashed Potatoes soda). But one even stranger soda pack they created was themed after the Seattle Seahawks, a series of sodas that represented what the team had to go through (Dirt, Turf, Sports Cream, Sweat) to achieve Victory (the final soda). Sweat had me gagging.

1.) Spruce Beer by Empire Bottling Works. Out of Bristol, RI.
Root Beer is popular, Ginger Beer recognizable and Birch Beer more of a niche product. Some jokers decided to try out the flavor of spruce in a beverage, resulting in a creamy flavor at the start and the most god-awful Windex aftertaste imaginable.

Craft Soda Week: The Best of Discontinued Sodas

This week the ol' blog is celebrating Craft Soda Week. Glug, glug, glug.

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We all have the one that got away. In my case, I have three delicious sodas that got away.

1.) Apricot Peach by The Switch. Out of Richmond, VA.
While most of the country was marveling at Izze and Orangina for their high juice content, Richmonders had a short stretch of years when a small company was putting out a 100% juice that, thanks to a patented method, was carbonated. Not only was the product amazing, the flavors were also creative, like my favorite Apricot Peach. Dry and tangy with a bite. In the years that followed my east coast college experience, the bottles disappeared and the Switch seemed to be dead. But internet research seems to show a product going by the Switch that offers more typical fruit juice flavors and possibly a focus on school vending machines.

2.) Pink by Jones Soda. Out of Seattle, WA.
This brand first was introduced to me when my brother was in college. At the time, Jones Soda had several flavor names that were fun and told you little of what to expect from their flavor: Happy, Fufu Berry and, my favorite, Pink. It tasted, well, pink if the color were a cream soda. We're stretching back to half a lifetime ago, so my memories of how much I liked the flavor exceed my specific memories of its taste. If only I could drink again!

3.) Blueberry Cream by Soda Shaq, a subdivision of AriZona Beverage Company. Out of Woodbury, New York.
100% blueberry juice is strong stuff that'll put hair on your chest, as they say. And artificial blueberry is less common than, say, the (fictional) blue raspberry. Who'da thunk that Shaquille O'Neal would be behind the creation of an artificial blueberry soda that was cozy and smooth? As a bonus, the can was huge, like all AriZona cans are.

Craft Soda Week: The Best of Mass-produced Sodas

This week the ol' blog is celebrating Craft Soda Week. Glug, glug, glug.

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Not all mass-produced sodas are of low quality. Some even still use real sugar. Here are my favorites:

Key Lime...in terrible lighting.

1.) Key Lime by Stewart's, a subdivision of Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. Originally out of Mansfield, OH.
Stewart's may have an olde-fashioned feel to it--their Orange Cream soda is offered on the menu at Cracker Barrel--but some olde-fashioned things are bona fide classics. Stewart's Key Lime brings a bit of sour with a bit of sweet to create a winning alternative to an often overly sour carbonated lemonade.

2.) Aranciata Rossa (blood orange) by Sanpelligrino. Out of Italy.
Out of a brand that rarely missteps comes the crowning prince: Blood orange. I describe blood orange to the uninitiated as a cross between a grapefruit and an orange, but even that doesn't capture the red fruit's bittersweet and sweetbitter pulpy richness. I've had several blood orange sodas, but this one captures it best.

3.) Cheerwine by Carolina Beverage Corporation. Out of Salisbury, North Carolina.
Though it alleges to be a cherry soda, it blessedly isn't one of the medicinal-tasting cherry sodas we all have suffered through. Nor is it simply a Black Cherry a la Dr. Brown's, which is nothing to sniff at. No, Cheerwine tastes like a perfect cherry soda mixed with the difficult-to-improve-upon Dr. Pepper. A dark flavor with a sweet crispness. Though once a regional specialty, it can now be found nationwide at certain retailers.

Pumpkin Spice.

4.) Ginger Beer by Gosling's. Out of Bermuda. 
The right amount of spicy bite without overpowering the ginger flavor. I've tried numerous ginger beers, from the super-spicy Jamaican brands to the watered down versions that ought to be labeled ginger ale. Of all of them, it is Gosling's that has held the place at #1 for me.

5.) Mango by Jarritos. Out of Guadalajara, Mexico.
Some sodas are all about the sugar buzz, while others can be refreshing. This soda is one of the latter. And artificial mango flavor seems to approximate actual mango flavor a little bit better than other fruits, in my humble opinion. This one does it best.

Honorable mention: Pumpkin Spice by R.W Knudsen's, a subdivision of The J. M. Smucker Company. Out of Orrville, OH.
This seasonal alternative to carbonated apple cider adds a magic blend of pumpkin patch to your apple picking season.

Craft Soda Week: The Best of Fruit-Flavored Sodas

This week the ol' blog is celebrating Craft Soda Week. Glug, glug, glug.

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It baffles me that the most majorly distributed fruit soda is lemon-lime. While lemon-lime is refreshing, it isn't known for being sweet; with sweetener being the second ingredient after water, why not go for fruits that are, well, sweeter.

Anyway, here's my Top 5 fruit-flavored sodas:

Concord Grape.

1.) Concord Grape by WBC Craft Soda (formerly Goose Island). Originally out of Chicago, IL. Now out of Redding, CA.
Before I tried this, I'd never understood the appeal of grape sodas, which were often cloyingly sweet, like a Jolly Rancher Slurpee. This soda, which is getting harder to find than WBC's other flavors, has made a convert of many folks I've shared it with. It is getting harder to find though, which is disconcerting.

2.) Peach by Bundaberg. Out of Queensland, Australia.
Crisp with a fizzy bite. Not as well-distributed as Bundaberg's Root Beer or Ginger Beer, which is a crying shame.

3.) Kitty Piddle (orange pineapple) by Totally Gross Soda, a subdivision of Avery's. Out of New Britain, CT.
Sweet with a tang, this unfortunately-named soda is the standout in a wonderful line of sodas, each with their own intriguingly(?) awful name: Dog Drool, Bug Barf and Toxic Slime, to name a few.

4.) Strawberry by Sprecher's. Out of Glendale, WI.

Peach 4-pack.

Natural strawberry is among the greatest flavors on earth. Artificial strawberry is its own form of sugary delight. This soda captures a little bit of both.

5.) Point Premium - Orange Cream by Point Premium, a subdivision of Stevens Point Brewery. Out of Stevens Point, WI.
The right combination of creamy and orange, the first sip of this soda goes down so smooth you want to guzzle the whole thing in seconds. But it'll taste better if you pace yourself.

Craft Soda Week: The Best of Root Beer

This week the ol' blog is celebrating Craft Soda Week. Glug, glug, glug.

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Ah, root beer. The finest of sodas. Look at nearly all the craft soda companies out there and I wager that you'll find more root beers than colas. (Cola is great, but we're talking root beer here, okay?)

What is it that makes root beer the flavor everyone wants to master? And what exactly makes a perfect root beer? Is it the bite? Is it the creaminess? Is it the sweetness or the rich flavor? I love a balance, but everyone has their own preference. Here are my favorites:

1.) Root Beer by Fitz's. Out of St. Louis, MO.

2.) Root Beer by Roots Pizza. Out of Chicago, IL.

3.) Root Beer by Dublin Bottling Works. Out of Dublin, TX.

4.) Root Beer by Sioux City, a subdivision of White Rock Beverages. Out of Queens, New York City.

5.) Root Beer by Henry Weinhard's, a subdivision of MillerCoors. Originally out of Colfax, CA.

Craft Soda Week

As someone who doesn't drink alcohol, something that has long annoyed me is when I dine out somewhere and their beer menu features dozens (or hundreds) of craft beer options--representing a clientele with a discerning palate--but their only soda options are Coke or Pepsi products. Boring. With each region having its own fun sodas, why not go local?

This week, I will be celebrating craft sodas. While it would be impossible to try all of the pop available, I have made a list of favorites I've encountered in my travels and from dining out at more conscientious food spots serving craft sodas in bottles or even on tap.

Please enjoy as I explore:
The Best of Root Beer
The Best of Fruit-flavored Sodas
The Best of Mass-produced Sodas
The Best of Discontinued Sodas
The Worst Sodas

Taza Chocolate Factory Tour in Somerville, MA

Taza's two best: Chocolate Mexicano 70% Dark Chipotle Chili and Coco Besos

You may be familiar with Taza Chocolate. It comes in two round discs, has a course texture and boasts itself as being "Mexican Stone Ground Chocolate." But that isn't all there is to know about their product. Here are some things I learned when I went on the Taza Chocolate Factory Tour:

Molino.

What are the origins of Taza Chocolate? 
Alex, the founder, went to Oaxaca where chocolate is primarily for drinking, not eating. While there, he studied with molineros (mill experts). Taza started in 2007 in Somerville, MA. The goal was to make the Oaxacan style chocolate, but in a way that was both good for eating and drinking. Today Taza still uses molinos (stones used to grind chocolate) from that region, though Taza carves the ridges into them themselves to their chocolate-making specifications.

What is the benefit of the stone ground method?
There is no conching. Conching pulverizes the bean. Taza's stone ground method doesn't pulverize because pulverizing causes chocolate to lose some of its nutrients, like magnesium and antioxidants.

What is the process for making stone ground chocolate?
All of the bean harvesting is the same: the cacao pod is cut from the tree, the beans--actually seeds--and white fruit are removed and placed into wooden boxes to ferment for up to 7 days, the beans are dried on wooden slats for up to 8 days, and then they are packed and shipped.

Because Taza is bean-to-bar, the process in their factory starts here with roasting the cacao bean. Roasting both develops the flavor and loosens the shell. Next, winnowing separates the shell from the nib. (All there is is nib and shell, so to eliminate waste, the shells are used as mulch.) Next the nibs are crushed between the stones. One stone is stationery, while the other rotates. The nib is ground up into a paste known as chocolate liquor, which has a texture like hot peanut butter. The chocolate liquor is then combined with cane sugar in the mixing tank. At this point in the process, chocolate used for the Taza's disc chocolate is ground once more to break down the sugar crystals. Then it goes in a holding tank, followed by tempering for texture and appearance, molding and wrapping. Then you can eat it!

The process is a little different with their bars. For their bars, they use a wheel with more finely etched ridges to lightly pulverize the bean to get a smoother texture. This pulverizing is not as much as a conch used typically in chocolate making. The bars are European style, which is to say they add more cocoa butter.

Why are most of Taza Chocolate's products round?
So it can fit in a cup for drinking chocolate.

Is Taza Chocolate Fair Trade?
No, they are not Fair Trade by choice. Instead they are Direct Trade, which has less intermediaries/bureaucracy via brokers. Instead 100% used toward the product goes to farmers.

Learn anything else?
Sure did:

• Cacao plants are the size of a "fully-inflated American football." They are cut open with a machete.
• The flavor of baba, the white fruit cacao beans (seeds) live in, is like lychee, jackfruit or durian in quality. (The guide said that it is the sweetest fruit he had ever tasted.) Baba is what activates the fermentation. It's called "baba" (which translated to "spit") because originally people sucked the fruit and spit the seeds out.
• Cinnamon is originally from Sri Lanka, so the Aztecs and Mayans couldn't have used it in their chocolate drink.
• Tempering actually changes the melting point, which sounds like black magic, but heating up other foods also has an effect, like how the texture of onions changed when carmelized.
• My guide's favorite chocolate other than Taza is El Rey. Gotta check that out!

Learning's fun and all, but what about the chocolate? Was it good?
Yes! There's no denying that the rough texture of stone ground chocolate is a paradigm shift from the chocolate most people are used to, but it sure is tasty. In the shop after the tour, we were allowed to sample chocolate to our heart's content. After doing my duty for my readers and eating as much as needed for a full report, I can say that there were two Tazo standouts I would direct you to first: the Chocolate Mexicano 70% Dark Chipotle Chili disc and the Coco Besos chocolate-coconut bar. Enjoy!