Starbucks Very Berry Coffee Cake

Although I truly love Starbucks, and believe that they offer some great products, I have a full list of criticisms for them. One of items include that Starbucks isn't very classy. It offers a great shop and a good atmosphere, but it doesn't exactly have that true coffee shop feel like they do everywhere else in the world. If you got to a coffee shop in Europe they sit you down in a nice table, take your order and bring your drink in a nice fancy glass mug. I realize most people pick up a Starbucks because they are in a hurry and they need a quick java shot. Those people can have the paper cups. Just like at a restaurant, you either eat out of their plates or take the styrofoam box to go.

I've always looked at getting a coffee as a social thing. Especially at Starbucks because it is so overpriced. I can buy almost a pound of fresh coffee at the store for the same amount that I would pay for a frappuccino at Starbucks.

So the reason I am bringing this up is because I was at the mall hanging out with my precious mom and we got a little hungry for a snack. So I picked up a Reduced Fat Very Berry Coffee Cake from the Starbucks stand for us to split. I chose this because I've never tried it before, and it looked like the most fresh item they had.

The instant they gave it to me, my complaint that I mentioned above came up in my head. I really wished they served this on a plate with forks. Or at least some paper plate or something. I am open to eating with my hands, to tell the truth I prefer to get down and dirty with my hands with baked goods, but this cake was one of the rare times when I wanted a fork and a plate.

Well, I still enjoyed it anyways. It tasted almost exactly like their blueberry muffins. I can bet my life on the fact that they took the blueberry muffin batter and added blackberries and raspberries to it. It seemed like it had more berry material than the muffin version anyways.

The cake had a heavy vanilla taste with wonderful sweet, soft crumbles decorating the top. I'm pretty sure the crumble part had nutmeg in it. It was dense, soft, moist, and fresh.

But when it got to the parts that were heavy in berry, it wasn't so pretty. The flavor was sickening. It just tasted like heated berries, which if you have ever tried, doesn't taste so good. I have experienced this before when I was baking and cooking with berries. I prefer to not use anything other than blueberries. The other berries don't work as well. This cake confirmed this fact to me.

Overall the cake had a wonderful taste and I enjoyed it, minus the extra berry parts. But in the end I would rather get the blueberry muffin. It has a much preferable taste, and no unexpected nastiness. It also easier to eat.

See's Maple Walnut

The thing about See's chocolates is that you can eat eat eat and eat more until your are sick and say, "Well at least gaining weight was worth it!"

That's is not a far fetched thought. I would commiserate over weight gain if I knew it was because of cheap fast food or something.

Now these maple walnuts are filed with creamed brown sugar, maple syrup, and English walnut pieces all covered in See's signature dark chocolate. This doesn't taste like the ordinary maple syrup in a bottle. The maple is fresh, strong, and a perfect compliment to the raw walnuts which also contrast perfectly with the extra sweet buttercream brown sugar filling.

Like the Marzipan, the filling is more crumbly than creamy. But it has more of a smooth crumble to it.

It has a truly interesting flavor.

See's Coconaut Special

Angel flake coconut held together with honey and covered with dark chocolate. Can anything sound more heavenly? I don't think it could.

Lucky for me I found four of these in my gift box. I could really get obese off of these.

Look at that filling, I'm drooling! The moment I deposited the first one in my mouth I think I heard inspirational music turn on, and I am pretty sure the lights in the room got brighter.

The filling is amazing, with chewy sweet coconut in every freakin' bite. The dark chocolate went puuuurrrfectly with the filling. I savored each bite and chewed on those coconut flakes for a long time.

If you love the person you are buying See's for, including yourself, put these in there.

See's Marzipan

See's Marzipan is filled with almond paste, honey, and powdered sugar and covered with dark chocolate. Like all of See's chocolates, the dark chocolate coating is smooth, strong and delicious. The filling of the marzipan tastes pretty fantastic, but it is not nearly as sweet as most of the other options at See's.

The filling is not exactly creamy, but more on the crumbly side. But it's still feels good in your mouth

The filling and the coating pair nicely. The only complaint I have is that it doesn't have much of an aftertaste. I would like it much more if I could savor the taste in my mouth for at least a couple minutes after it falls down my throat.

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!

See's Raspberry Creme

See's candy has dominated the West Coast of America by having some of the widest variety and best tasting chocolates around. People run to these chocolates for every special occasion. They have over 100 choices you can make, even plenty of options for the chocolate haters out there.

Like all quality chocolate sellers, they have their own shop. They actually have multiple shops in my own town. Don't have one near you? Too lazy to go to their shop?
Purchase them online for the same price.

This time a tried the Raspberry Creme described as: 'Heavenly dark chocolate covers a tangy, rich raspberry center to create this melt-in your mouth piece'
I must start off saying that See's chocolates actually look as perfect as they do on the pictures.



Of all the varieties they offer it may not sound like something you would add to your custom box, but it should be! The raspberry filling is so creamy, sweet, and has just the right amount of tartness. The color itself of the filling is beautiful enough to make you drool.

Try it and it just may be your favorite.

Sweet Home Farm Maple Pecan Granola

Granola was created in the late 1800s by a man named John Harvey Kellogg. At his time granola was only rolled oats baked to a crisp. It wasn't until the hippie movement that they added fruits and nuts to make the granola that we all so much enjoy today.

Back then there were two brands of granola, and the basically made the same exact thing anyway. Today, for us, we just have a myriad of options that it makes it a difficult task to choose a simple cereal. Some granola are crispier than others, some are sweeter. Some have nuts, others have fruit. Some have fortified vitamins and minerals, others are lower in calorie. There is honestly something for everyone.

On my last trip to Winco I noticed that they put the Sweet Home Farm Granola on sale. I've tried this brand months, maybe years, before and remembered being very satisfied with it. I didn't continue eating it though because a container of it was close to $5.

But on this trip I noticed the price was lowered to $2.78. My first thought was to check the expiration date to find that it wasn't going to expire until next year. They came in French Vanilla, Honey Nut, Maple Pecan, and a low fat version of granola with raisins.



I obviously chose the Maple Pecan, as you can see in the title of this post, because I have a secret crush on pecans. They add some of the most delicious flavoring to foods.

First off, this granola is great in the fact that it is 100% natural: free of preservatives, artificial flavors and colors.
Ingredients
Whole Rolled Oats, Milled Cane Sugar, Vegetable Oil (Canola and/or Safflower and/or Sunflower Oil), Rice Flour, Maple Syrup, Cornstarch, Pecans, Honey, Natural Flavor, Salt, Barley Malt Syrup.
All ingredients were produced in the USA and made without GMOs. GMOs are genetically modified organisms, which are organisms who had their DNA altered by some sort of genetic engineering. This stuff is bad for your health as well as your ecosystem.

RANDOM FUN FACT: The member of the hickory family, the Pecan tree grows over 100ft tall and bears nuts for more than 300 years. the pecan is the state nut of Alabama, the state tree of Texas and the only nut native to North America. WOW! I knew pecans were amazing.

So now to the grub. This granola smells divine, kind of like pecan pie. Taking a look inside you don't see loads of pecans but they are in there, and there are enough to flavor your cereal with delicious pecan goodness.



The taste is marvelous. I chose to pack it for an on-the- go snack, which I think granola is perfect for as well as nuts. Why? Because it doesn't mash in your bag like regular cereal and other stuff like cookies. It also doesn't take up much room. It was great by it self and very crunchy! The density of this granola is perfect, unlike the light crispy texture of the other granola I have tried. I also LOVE to eat it with almond milk. The longer it sits in the milk the better it tastes. It never gets fully soggy and slimy! I can take my time eating it as I please.

It's pretty healthy too. It is a high energy snack and does pack on some extra calories for the size, but it is well worth it.

Nutrition Information:
2/3 Cup
Calories: 250
Fat: 8g
Carbs: 40g
Fiber: 3g
Protein: 5g

This product is definitely something a cereal/granola lover should try. As I said it comes in other flavors so you can pick what kind you are in to.
I give this product a 10/10