Monday, July 4, 2011

See's California Brittle



I found some California Brittle in the gift box someone bought me from See's. For those of you who may not know what California Brittle is, it is toffee with almonds covered in milk chocolate. It's probably called California Brittle cause it was invented here, although I wouldn't know for sure.

Turns out this is one of the most popular item See's candies sells. It's been said to be the best in the world.



I don't think I could disagree. The milk chocolate on the outside was flavorful and smooth. The filling was crunchy, yet tender. But it didn't stick in our teeth like most other toffee does. It had a fresh, buttery flavor.

I can't imagine even thinking anything from See's tastes okay.

See's Dark Chocolate Cherry Cordials

Remember your first encounter with a maraschino cherry? I do. I was 7 years old and excited to be in a restaurant. They brought me this pink lemonade with the most pure red and plump cherry that I have ever seen floating on the top. I thought it was going to be the highlight of my meal. I finished whatever I ordered and drank all the drink and saved that cherry all the way until the end so I can top off my meal with something wonderful.

The time came and I slowly put it in my mouth, deciding to savor its taste. My smile turned into a frown as the nasty chemical taste of the cherry filled the sensory receptors of my tongue and nose. Yuck!

Maraschino cherries are the most deceitful foods out there.



Until this chocolate of course. I just pick this one out of the box that I had got as a present, having no idea what the filling was. I took a pinch of the corner just to see what I was getting into, and boy was I dissappointed to see that maraschino cherry sitting in there. I was kind of angry at myself for picking what I thought would be the nastiest one out of the whole box as my first chocolate.

But I ate it anyway, assuming that somebody must have liked it for it to be produced. It did also help that my parents taught me never to waste food either. So I ate the rest of it and it turned out that maraschino cherries have deceived me again!

This is one of the best chocolates I have ever tasted. The dark chocolte covering was smooth and delicious. The bottom of the filling had some nice thick cherry paste that the whole maraschino cherry rests on. Bite into it, and a delicious syrup coats your mouth as the chocolate slowly begins to melt in your mouth. The cherry is sweet, flavorful, chewy, and a the true highlight of this product.

Starbucks Cheese Danish


As I have said previously, I'm much of a moist baked good love than a flaky one, so it was kind of a spontaneous thing getting this Danish. At the moment, it looked really good.

I've thought and Danish was from Denmark. And I was right in the fact that Danish people do come from Denmark. I was wrong when it comes to the pastry though. Although it's like the donut of Denmark today, danishes originated in Austria. Specifically, in Vienna, Austria.

Interesting fact no?

So my Starbucks nock off of a cheese danish is described by Starbucks as 'A flaky pastry folded around a generous serving of cream cheese filling.' Was it as rich and flaky as Starbucks claimed?

I guess, I mean the outer part tasted like a croissant, which is what it essentially is. The croissant was fresh and the real, natural cream cheese in the center was very thick. To tell you the truth I was a bit disappointed in the fact that I wanted something sweeter. I think I was craving something sweet at the moment though.

The thing finished way to fast for me. But it was delicious. I didn't get a coffee with it because I brought some iced tea along with me already. It went okay with it buy I think it would have tasted better with hot coffee for breakfast.

Mine didn't look like the Starbucks picture either. The middle with cream cheese was completely exposed for the world to see; it didn't have that extra croissant covering like in the image. I wish it did. It seems like it would have made my experience with it better. It may have reduced the contrast of nice flaky outside to the densely cream cheesed inside.

In the end I will save my money and invest it in a bag of croissants and a container of cream cheese to enjoy the experience I had with this danish.

But like all baked goods at Starbucks, it had a pretty great taste. It's just not how I roll when it comes to pastries.

Post Raisin Bran

As a little girl I loved fruits and vegetables. My mother ate plenty of them when I was growing in her tummy and she also made sure she fed me them until I was able to feed myself. How wonderful for my mom right? I enjoyed to eat those foods so she didn't have to force them on me like other mothers, or come up with funny ways to stick them in.

Well it wasn't that easy for her. To tell the truth, she just made it harder for herself. When I was a little girl, I loved fruits and vegetables FRESH and only FRESH. NOT cooked. I hated them fully cooked, steamed, in soups, out of soups, even slightly warmed up. They were disgusting to me. The only cooked fruit or veggie I ate were potatoes. For some reason the other stuff made me want to vomit. Same with raisins. They weren't fresh so I didn't eat them.

This persisted until one time I had to eat my cousin's steamed broccoli because I didn't want to be rude. I liked it and my liking for cooked veggies grew from there.

As for raisins, I discovered I liked them when they served them for lunch at school. Even then I liked trying things so I tried them and liked them. The next time they served them I was Student of the Month. When you are Student of the Month they give you an award and feed you a Wendy's meal for lunch at my elementary school. That's what they used to do at least. I remember asking my teacher if I could have the raisins. She laughed and said, "You would rather eat raisins than a fast food meal?!" No, I did not give up Wendy's, but it was interesting that it crossed my mind.

So up till that moment I hated Raisin Bran. I couldn't imagine why anyone would like it. But then it grew on me. So this time around I was at Target and I saw that they put the Post Raisin Bran on sale. I needed some cereal anyway so I picked up a box. I had never tried Post's Raisin Bran, but I didn't figure there would be much of a difference.



In the end there wasn't. The flakes were bigger than I was used to. The raisin's were also chewier. It wasn't as sweet as Kellogg's though. I felt like it could have used more sugar until I got a raisin piece in my mouth and changed my mind. The sugar on the raisins didn't seem to sweeten the cereal. By the way, that sugar is used to prevent the raisins from clumping because grapes are high in fructose.

The wheat bran didn't sog as fast as Kellogg's either, but it still slogged a little fast for me. I did try a plain bran cereal once that seemed like it would never sog. I kinda wish they put that bran in this cereal. If they did it would have been perfect. The bran did taste good though, leaving a nice grainy aftertaste as well.

This cereal is very healthy for you. Made with 100% Sunmaid California Raisins, it has a great source of fiber and protein to make it a filling breakfast, snack, or dessert. It provides about 32% of your daily fiber needs.

Nutrition Facts:
1 cup
Calories: 190
Fat: 1g
Carbs: 46g
Fiber: 8g
Protein: 5g

See's Lemon Truffle


Rich smooth truffle center of white chocolte and lemon covered in dark chocolate and decorated with white chocolate lace.

The flavor is as interesting as the description sounds. Most of you may have never imagined lemon and chocolate together. It's not a common mix, but you may think it should be after trying these.

The smooth chocolate covering the creamy center is amazing. The lemon flavor inside isn't heavy, but it's there. It honestly has a fresh picked lemon taste to it. There is sort of a lemonade with chocolate chip cookies to this truffle.

It's actually a favorite of many. It may not be my favorite, but I absolutely loved it!