Sparkling Honeycrisp Apple Juice

I'm not a huge fan of carbonated drinks, so I've mostly ignored the seasonal sparkling beverages at Trader Joe's, despite the raves for previous flavors like watermelon and strawberry. But when the sparkling honeycrisp apple juice cans came in last fall, I knew we had to try them. We hadn't bought any honeycrisp apples during the season, and this sounded like it might be their version of Martinelli's, which was popular in my family during lots of holiday dinners.

The ingredients were simple - just honeycrisp apple juice, water, and carbon dioxide - and the flavor was great. It tasted just like a sweet, ripe, crisp apple, but not too sugary sweet. We found it really refreshing, although A noted it might not be the best use of so many honeycrisp apples. (It's been so long since we've had actual honeycrisp apples!) It was also nice that they came in four cans instead of one big bottle, so that you didn't have to drink too much at one time. (I thought the news said there was an aluminum can shortage, so I'm not sure how they got their hands on so much of this when beer distributors are having issues, but I'm glad they did!)

Buy again? Sure. I think we could pick up a box of these every fall and be happy with a nice bubbly treat. If all the other flavors are as good as this one, we might even try some of those too!

August TJ's Medley

This past weekend was the 50th anniversary of Trader Joe's, meaning that they had parties at some locations and a fantastic sale with several popular items (avocado, eggs, canned corn, spaghetti, and baguettes) for only 50 cents each. We definitely went there to take advantage of that. We're pretty behind on posting about a lot of the new TJ's stuff we've tried lately, so here are some quick reviews.

Rosemary and Cheese Biscuits ($2.99)

Quick review: Rosemary and cheese (here, cheddar and parmigiano reggiano) are a great combination, so it was no surprise that these biscuits were really tasty. They're called biscuits on the box here, but they were basically like crumbly savory cookies. You could really taste the rosemary, and it gave the whole biscuit a nice herbaceous flavor. The cheese added just the right amount of saltiness to balance it all out. We bought these last fall/winter but only ate them recently since their expiration date was nearing, so unfortunately we have no idea if they're still on the shelves. (We were kind of distracted by the sale on our last visit, and they were marked as holiday crackers on the receipt at the time.)

Buy again? Yes. We probably wouldn't get them on a regular basis since they're not that great for you health-wise, but they're a nice treat.

Cold Pressed Matcha Green Tea Lemonade ($3.99)

Quick review: M saw this in the Fearless Flyer and was pretty intrigued by it because it contained several of her favorite things. The ingredients were simple - lemon juice, water, Manuka honey, and matcha powder - and because it was cold pressed, it wasn't cheap. It pretty much just tasted like good lemonade with a little hint of matcha to it. 

Buy again? Maybe as a treat. We don't regularly buy cold pressed juices from TJ's because they're kind of expensive (cheaper than a juice shop though), but we do like trying some of the new varieties and getting them every so often as a treat. We would get this one again in those circumstances.

Turkey Meatballs (can't find receipt for price but will update after our next visit)

Quick review: These meatballs come from the frozen section, and are really quick and easy to make. All you need to do is microwave them for 4 minutes, and they're ready to eat. We ended up only microwaving them for 2.5 minutes because we were going to finish heating them up in tomato sauce, but that worked fine. A touch spongy in texture, but overall good flavor.

Buy again? Yes. They're a quick and easy supplement to pasta night, and fairly versatile in other dishes. Sometimes you just need simple conveniences that are always around in the freezer.

Kohlrabi Salad Blend ($2.49)

Quick review: We've never actually bought kohlrabi before because we weren't sure how closely related it really was to broccoli (for food allergy concerns), but this salad blend looked like a good way to find out (it was fine). The blend had shredded kohlrabi, red cabbage, kale, and golden beets. Although it could be eaten as a raw salad, we opted to cook it instead so it would be easier to digest (and the bag also suggests it as an option). We prepared this simply, sauteing the vegetables in olive oil with garlic, salt, and a dash of Trader Joe's onion salt. We did our best to put in just enough to accent the flavor while allowing the tastes of the fresh vegetables to come out. Everything was crisp with a hint of sweetness from the slices of the golden beets. It was actually a really good mix of hearty vegetables, which we needed since we ate this on pasta night.

Buy again? Yes. It's a quick and easy side dish to prepare that's also quite healthy.

Banana Coconut Milk

M asked me to write this review as she doesn't want to think about this product ever again. I've held off on this for so long because, honestly, I don't really want to remember this either. Anyway, on our third day in London, we got off the train on our way to lunch and passed a guy handing out free samples on the street. Mylk was some sort of coconut milk that was flavored with cacao and banana. I didn't think there was going to be much good about this even though the flavors should have worked together.

After we both tried it, we had both had the same thought: this was terrible. I don't really remember what it was about it, but as I thought, nothing about this drink worked. I'm typically someone who can find something good in almost anything I try to eat or drink, but I found nothing here. After I finished drinking the first box we went to throw it away. On top of the trash can were several full or nearly full boxes left by people who obviously liked this about as much as we did.

Later in the day, back in the hotel, we were resting, and on a whim I thought to try the non-refrigerated box of Mylk we had remaining. I don't know why I thought this was a good idea. Maybe it's because I don't like wasting food. Oddly enough, it tasted better when it wasn't cold. M thought it tasted like a banana smoothie with a hint of coconut mixed in. She's not a fan of banana smoothies, but this one was tolerable when not cooled. I agree with that assessment, but it still wasn't that good. We would not ever buy this again, and we're glad we didn't pay for this to begin with. We saw this brand at Whole Foods back in the states, but thankfully it was not the banana flavor.

St Maarten Food Souvenirs

Other than Christmas ornaments, we don't generally bring home many souvenirs from our trips other than food. We didn't know much about what food souvenirs there would be in St. Maarten other than chocolate, since M's parents brought home chocolate from each of their past trips, and guavaberry liqueur, since M's parents also gave us a little bottle of that after one of their visits.

There was a guavaberry "colada and rum shop" right at the port where you could buy souvenirs and also get some samples. Even though M's parents had brought us something guavaberry before, we hadn't actually gotten around to opening it, so we didn't know what it tasted like. We gladly tried the small frozen drink sample, and found it sweet and refreshing (we think). Two years later, not really sure how to describe the flavor other than we liked it but didn't feel compelled to buy any.

The chocolate shop M's parents like is called The Belgian Chocolate Box. It was amusing to see a Belgian style chocolate shop in St. Maarten of all places, but the owner of the shop apparently studied chocolate making in Belgium, and you can definitely tell when you eat them. We got a few bags of their dark chocolate. For lack of a better term, they're little pellets of dark chocolate that are amazingly rich and not too sweet. We also got a couple bags of chocolate covered rice crisps as we love that style of chocolate.

We had a good time in St. Maarten. We were only there through the afternoon, so hitting the beach, watching the planes, having lunch, strolling the town, and buying chocolate was pretty much all we had time for. We walked back to the ship from the Philipsburg beach area soon after buying our chocolate (didn't want it to melt!) and then got on the North Star, a capsule-like thing on the ship that elevated you high enough to get good views, at dusk to say goodbye to St. Maarten before dinner. It was a nice first visit!

Organic Ginger Zinger

A has been really sick of late, and we had both forgotten all about having bought Trader Joe's Ginger Zinger, even though we bought it previously when we both thought we were getting sick. Yesterday we finally broke this out to try in the hopes that it would provide a little boost to A's immune system.

Product Name: Organic Ginger Zinger

Price: $3.49

Quick Review: We both really loved this drink, which contained water, sugar, ginger juice, and lemon juice. It wasn't too tart as is sometimes the case with lemon-based drinks, and while you could taste and feel the snap of the ginger, it didn't overpower the overall flavor of the drink. You could definitely taste the added sugar, but it wasn't too sweet. It was just the right amount to balance out the lemon and the ginger. The drink was incredibly refreshing, and it's a drink that we would both drink even when we're both healthy. Our only gripes are that the bottle is so small and that it's only 19% juice, but if it were more, it would probably be even more expensive.


Buy Again? Definitely yes. We hope they're still carrying this the next time we get out to Trader Joe's.

Pumpkin Harvest

On a recent Trader Joe's visit, we were a little dehydrated and run down so we picked up one of the cold pressed juices to drink on our walk home. They're not cheap juices, so we haven't tried all of them yet, but maybe someday we will.

Product name: Pumpkin Harvest cold pressed juice

Price: $4.49

Quick review: According to the bottle, each juice contains 1/20 of a pumpkin, 2 carrots, 3/4 celery stalk, 1/8 sweet potato, 1/8 orange, 1 inch of ginger, and a pinch of turmeric. We were trying to decide between the pumpkin juice and the cranberry juice, but ended up deciding to go with pumpkin because it might only be around for a limited time and also because a bunch of those ingredients sounded like they could be good for healing. It was loaded with Vitamin A thanks to all the orange stuff it contained. As far as flavor, it tasted a bit earthy and muddy, basically like what was in it, lots of earthy fruits and vegetables. Not very sweet, but just kind of like the earth.

Buy again? Maybe. It wasn't bad, just different, and kind of expensive for 120 calories. We'll probably try the other cold pressed juices before coming back to this one.

Winter Wassail

This holiday drink likely isn't on the shelves at Trader Joe's anymore since it's now summer, but we only opened it recently, well after the holidays.

Product: Winter Wassail

Price: $3.99 for 64 oz

Quick review: This drink definitely makes you think of the holidays, as it's filled with traditional holiday spices like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, and orange peel. It combines black currant, apple, and lemon juices, so it's a little different from other holiday drinks that are based solely on apple cider. The black currant in particular added a bit of a unique flavor that we really liked. It is pretty sweet though.

Buy again? Maybe, if we're looking for a holiday treat next holiday season. It had a nice, sweet flavor (although a little too sweet to be a constant purchase), and maybe next time, we'll actually drink it in the winter and can try it warmed.

Coconut Water

We're huge fans of coconut water, and A especially loves it. The usual problem with coconut water is that it's fairly expensive. Earlier this year, we were looking into drinks that would replenish electrolytes instead of just drinking regular tap water, so we decided to pick up a 1 liter container of coconut water on our next visit to Trader Joe's. It was $2.99, so not cheap, but not as bad as some other brands.

One thing we noted once we tried it was that the TJ's coconut water wasn't as sweet as other brands we've had in the past and also since. That's actually a good thing as it was even more refreshing since it was less sweet. If we ever find that TJ's lowers the price on this, then we'll definitely consider grabbing as many as we can to stock up, maybe even a case. It's really just that much better in our opinion.

A couple of TJ's trips later, M found herself dehydrated while shopping and grabbed a smaller sized coconut water on the way out, $1.49 for 500 milliliters. It was nice that TJ's didn't charge a premium to get a smaller size. The coconut water was a really refreshing treat. We would definitely buy this again, but for right now, we only pick it up every so often because of the extra cost.

Maple Water

Last summer we picked up some maple water from Trader Joe's ($2.99 back when we got it). Maple water is basically tree sap from the maple tree (which always makes me think of the Hunger Games), so pretty natural stuff. We had never had maple water before, but considering we like coconut water, we thought it would be good to try. It was also just before the Women's World Cup started in June, so we thought it would be fun to drink it while watching some of the games being played in Canada.

I put the maple water in the fridge back when we got it since the box said it was "best consumed chilled," and promptly forgot about it through the entire Women's World Cup. I noticed it every so often over the next few months but never took it out, so we never drank it until A took it out of the fridge this afternoon. Not sure we were actually saving it for anything, but just never got around to drinking it. Good thing it didn't "expire" until next September. As far as taste, it basically just seemed like slightly sweetened water. I don't know that we would have been able to label the sweetness as maple if we hadn't known it was maple water, but it was nice and light and refreshing.

Buy Again? I don't know that we need to, since we don't buy a lot of water (we use our Brita instead), and we mostly bought it because we were curious about what it would be like. It was fine, but we don't really need it on a regular basis.

Pho Cafe

After eating our pie and mash we were still a little hungry. M was really starting to feel the jet lag since she didn't get to nap so I volunteered to find the next part of our meal. After walking around the entire food court, I decided on Pho Cafe. Both M and I felt like we needed something healthier, and this restaurant seemed like the best option. Pho Cafe is a chain in London advertising themselves as Vietnamese street food. We love the fresh, clean flavors of Vietnamese food so I figured that this would be exactly what we were looking for.

I ended up getting two dishes for us to share along with two drinks as well. The two dishes were both appetizers/salads so I made the guess that they wouldn't be too much food in our not 100% hungry, extremely exhausted state.

I had originally thought to get one of their homemade lemonades, but I saw a sign for a new special, spicy lemonade. It was their homemade lemonade with fresh ginger juice and mint. This was the perfect drink as M was starting to get to that point of pure exhaustion where the world starts to spin and rock a little, and her stomach was unsettled. The ginger not only gave the lemonade a mild sharp bite, but it was also a good stomach calming agent. The mint was a little less pronounced, but this was a very refreshing drink overall. Our other drink was a bottle of water, and it was just that.

The first dish we ate was the gỏi cuốn, or summer rolls with shrimp. Their menu describes it as "fresh rice paper summer rolls with herbs, vermicelli & pickle." The description is a bit of a misnomer as neither M or I remember any pickles in the roll, but there was definitely lettuce, mint, cilantro, and carrots going along with the shrimp. Overall they were pretty standard summer rolls and reminiscent of ones we could get back in NYC. The dipping sauce was a bit different, though, as it had much more kick than any sauces we'd had before. They added chili sauce to their fish sauce mixture which gave it a nice heat. I thought the rice wrapper was a little too sticky, and there seemed to be quite a bit of shredded lettuce in there used as a filler.

Our second dish was the gỏi bắp chuối, or fragrant banana blossom salad. The menu describes the dish as "fragrant banana blossom salad with tender beef, peanuts and star fruit." The "and star fruit" part made me laugh a bit as there were two very thin slices of star fruit, one of which you can see sadly fallen over to the side in the picture. There were a lot of other ingredients in there, though, so it ended up being okay. Along with the star fruit and beef there were carrots, onions, chilis, mint, peanuts, and a bunch of other ingredients. We have no clue what they all were, but they all tasted really fresh and clean. There was a bit of an odd funk to the salad, though, and neither of us had any clue what it was coming from. It wasn't a bad funk, just an odd one. The flavor of the beef was really nicely balanced, and the texture was perfect. The beef, plus the funk, made this salad taste really good. The only problem is that once you ran out of beef, the rest of the salad didn't hold its own. Thankfully, there was plenty of beef to go around.

On the whole, Pho Cafe was a clean, fresh, and tasty meal for us. While the flavors didn't blow us away because of past experiences with Vietnamese food in the US, it was the perfect set of dishes for a post-flight refresher. The spicy lemonade is something that we would definitely get again as is the banana blossom salad. The summer roll we'd consider, but it's not a definite. For a quick and healthy meal, we would certainly recommend stopping off at one of their several locations for a bite.

This location of Pho Cafe is located in the Westfield Mall in White City, London.

Hogsmeade Sweet Treats

After stopping into The Three Broomsticks for lunch, we set out to explore Hogsmeade. While there were various rides there, we also wanted to check out the shops. Universal really did a great job installing a large variety of stores, making it really easy for people to spend money on Harry Potter souvenirs (wands, joke items, and more). One of the places we enjoyed wandering around was Honeydukes, which, for those unfamiliar with Harry Potter, is the sweets shop.

Although there are quite a lot of magical candies in Harry Potter, like chocolate frogs that have a life of their own, a lot of the candy at Honeydukes was pretty much the same candy you could get at any candy store. It was just cutely packaged in nice Honeydukes containers.

I did like the way the store was set up, even if the candies weren't that revolutionary for the most part. They really tried to give it a light and whimsical feeling. I especially liked this display, which reminded me a little of a candy buffet/cart at a wedding, but that was mostly because I saw a lot of candy types I liked.

And of course, they had Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans there. We've had a box of those in the past, and for the longest time, we've said that was the one food A would never eat again (since he pretty much just eats everything otherwise). I don't know if they're still made by Jelly Belly, but they were then. They were true to the "every flavor" thing, even including jelly beans with really gross flavors like vomit. Laundry or soap, fine. Vomit, disgusting. Never. Again.

In addition to loose candy, they did try to include packages of a lot of the candy types mentioned in the books/movies which was a nice touch (and probably also helps them increase sales to fans). Too bad for any kids who try them thinking they're actually going to feel the effects of magical candy.

Outside of Honeydukes, most of the shops in Hogsmeade weren't food stores, but focused on all other sorts of magical items and implements. But there were a couple of other food stops in Hogsmeade other than The Three Broomsticks and The Hog's Head (the bar). They had butterbeer and pumpkin juice carts out in the middle of the "town," which made sense, since it was Florida, it was hot, and people really needed to stay hydrated.

We picked up another pumpkin juice at the cart, since, like I said, it was a hot Florida afternoon. We had liked the pumpkin juice we had for lunch, so although it was not cheap, we thought we'd get one more during our visit. This one also had the benefit of coming in a really cute bottle.

We weren't expecting anything amazing food-wise from our visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but it was still a lot of fun. After we got our fill of Hogsmeade, watched some performances, and tried all the rides we wanted to, it was off to another Island of Adventure!

The Three Broomsticks

For Harry Potter fans, amazing news broke a few weeks ago. For the first time ever, Warner Bros was hosting a special Christmas dinner event on the studio tour, with the Great Hall decked out just like it was in the movies. We weren't going to be in London in December and the tickets were crazy expensive (and quickly sold out), but it made us think back to the closest we ever got to being at the "real" Hogwarts. That was 4 years ago today, when we journeyed to Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, and set foot in Hogsmeade for the very first time.

It was a sunny and hot Florida afternoon, and it was completely packed. (Who knew that many people took vacations in October? Don't kids have school?) Although the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was located at the far end of the park, we sped through all the other Islands to get there, figuring it would be the most crowded (which it was), and since it was the primary reason we had gone that day. Our first destination was naturally Hogwarts Castle, home to the Forbidden Journey ride. Walking around the castle grounds while snaking through the line was exciting, but the ride itself was quite motion sickness-inducing.

After the ride was over, we were ready for some lunch, both to calm our stomachs and because it was late and we were hungry. When in Hogsmeade, where does one go for lunch? The Three Broomsticks, obviously.

The Three Broomsticks was basically a pub/tavern, but that's what were expecting. Although they did serve some standard American theme park fare (like smoked turkey legs, chicken and ribs), they also made an effort to add in some more English items and things mentioned in the books/movies. You could choose from shepherd's pie, fish and chips, or Cornish pasties, or if you had a large group, could splurge on the Great Feast. I don't know if this is what they really ate at a Great Feast in the English wizarding world, but it just sounded like an American barbecue to me (garden salad, rotisserie chicken, spare ribs, corn on the cob, and roast potatoes). Also, as a side note, considering it was at a popular attraction at a theme park, the prices at The Three Broomsticks for all of this stuff (4 years ago, anyway) were surprisingly reasonable, not much more than you'd pay at a regular restaurant.

We got 2 entrees and 2 drinks to split for lunch. The first was the fish and chips, "fresh North Atlantic cod battered and fried with chips and tartar sauce." This was pretty standard fish and chips. They were okay, but it's kind of hard to screw up fried fish and fries. We have had better fish and chips at plenty of other non-amusement park places, but these were fine.

The other main dish we got was the Cornish pasties with garden salad, "flakey pastry pies filled with ground beef, vegetables, and potatoes, served with a side salad and choice of dressing." The salad was fine, mostly lettuce, but it felt good to have some raw vegetables alongside all the fried food and pasties. The pasties themselves were pretty tasty. The filling was well-seasoned and they felt more English and Harry Potter-like than anything else we ate at lunch.

We don't always order drinks when we go for meals on vacation, but we had to during our visit to The Three Broomsticks since they were drinks that they actually get in the books/movies. The first one we tried was the pumpkin juice, which we quite liked. It was perfect for fall, full of pumpkin spice flavor, along with apple and other fruit flavors. After reading the Universal site, it seems like the primary ingredients are apple juice, pumpkin puree, and apricot puree. (There are some copycat recipes online like this one that I'm very curious to try.)

The other drink we tried was butterbeer. We weren't really sure what the butterbeer would be like. We figured it wouldn't taste like beer since it was non-alcoholic, but would it be like root beer? Something else? Turned out it was frothy like a root beer, with the flavor of cream soda, to take A's description of it. It had a really strong cream soda taste. I'm not a huge fan of cream soda, so I took a sip or 2 of this and then passed on the rest in favor of the pumpkin juice. A likes cream soda, so he liked this, but he wasn't expecting it to just be cream soda since it was called butterbeer.

We enjoyed our meal at The Three Broomsticks. It was a good place to relax after being flung in all directions by that ride at Hogwarts, and gave us the fuel we needed for some Hogsmeade exploring (and other rides) later in the afternoon. It wasn't an exceptionally filling lunch, but it was nice. It's also the closest we've ever gotten to eating in the real wizarding world!

Zia Green Chile Company

We finally made it out to Smorgasburg in Williamsburg this weekend, which meant we had the opportunity to try a bunch of food vendors that aren't at the other smaller Smorgasburg locations or other food fairs. One of those was Zia Green Chile Company, which specializes in the amazing green chiles that come out of New Mexico. Our only exposure to these green chiles so far (since we haven't yet made it to New Mexico, but it's on our list) has been from canned chiles from the grocery store (which are good, but we're sure not as good as the real thing) or green chile cheeseburgers (which are good, but not that plentiful around here).

Zia was actually our last stop on this Smorgasburg visit, so we're posting about this a little out of order. By this point, we weren't that hungry but just wanted one more thing to finish off our eating adventure for the afternoon. We were also desperately in need of a drink. The day was supposed to be mostly cloudy and/or full of showers, but instead it was blue skies, lots of intense sun, and pretty high (around 75%) humidity. We were drenched, had already gone through multiple bottles of water and iced tea lemonade, and were extremely dehydrated. That was another reason we ended up at Zia, besides the fact that the green chile food items sounded great. They were advertising a drink that sounded perfectly thirst quenching.

Zia's drink of choice was a prickly pear cactus limeade ($4).  This was a very refreshing drink for a hot day. Bright pink, it was pretty mild in flavor, and not overly sweet like some drinks. It also wasn't very tart despite the lime. It was great for that afternoon with its light sweetness.

For our final Smorgasburg snack, we got the green chile Frito pie ($6). Somehow, after all these years of wanting a Frito pie, this was the first one I ever had. Basically it's a bag of Fritos topped with cheese and chili or some other form of meat, which was in this case topped with a layer of green chiles. We really liked these green chiles. They had great flavor, and it made us want to go to New Mexico even more to try them there. There was a good subtle heat to them, but they weren't painfully spicy or anything like that. The Frito pie itself was good, but a little bit hard to eat and mix up in the bag since it wasn't cut open on the side like some Frito pies are. Overall, it was a nice snack.

We enjoyed what we got from Zia Green Chile Company, and would recommend a stop by their stand at Smorgasburg if you want to try some good green chiles. Next time maybe we'll have stomach space for the sopapillas, or if it's in the fall, the posole. (Too hot for posole right now!) Right now though, could really go for a green chile cheeseburger...

Week 19 - Flowers

The theme for Week 19 was flowers, and it was an easy choice for me about what flower to use - hibiscus. We love the hibiscus flower. We used it in some of our wedding stuff since we got married in Hawaii, and it was the flavor of the iced tea at the restaurant where we got engaged. We always loved that iced tea, but until I started cooking more, it didn't even occur to me to try to make it at home.

Originally I was planning to make hibiscus enchiladas, since I usually try to do something savory for dinner for each of the challenges. But we had just gotten back from our road trip that weekend, I wasn't in the mood to make enchiladas, and I really just wanted some hibiscus iced tea (sweet tea withdrawal?). Making a drink might seem like an "easier" route to go for the challenge, but it still counted!

Making hibiscus iced tea is really easy. All you need is some dried hibiscus (aka flor de jamaica, as you'll probably find this at a Mexican grocery store, like we did). Following this recipe from The Kitchn just for proportions, I combined about 1/2 cup of dried hibiscus with 4 cups of water, and stuck it in the fridge overnight to steep. The next day, we poured ourselves some tea, added a little bit of agave to taste for some sweetness, and our tea was ready to go!

When we first had hibiscus iced tea, we had no idea it was so simple to make, but now we can make it whenever we want. This didn't taste quite the same as the original one we had, but maybe they added other things to it or used simple syrup instead of agave. (They probably also add ice since it is "iced" tea, but we had no ice.) The best thing is that, since the entire bag of flor de jamaica cost $2.19 and we only used a little bit for this experiment, we can keep trying all different variations until we find the one we like best, and for a fraction of the cost of a single order of iced tea at a restaurant. Highly recommend giving hibiscus iced tea a shot if you've never had it before!

Berries Gomega

When I was at Whole Foods last week, I saw that they were having a sale on Odwalla smoothies. $2.50 for a bottle isn't incredibly cheap but considering how expensive juicing is as a hobby (as much as we enjoy making fresh juice at home), it's fairly reasonable. I did a double-take at the high sugar content, but since I needed to rehydrate and regain energy after a fast, the sugar content was bearable (that time).

This smoothie combines juice and puree of 8 different fruits, and according to the bottle, it has the equivalent of juice from 1-1/2 apples, 3/4 orange (those were the 2 juices), 1/3 cup cherrries, 1/4 peach, 1/5 pear, 1/7 mango, 4 blackberries and 1 strawberry (and those were the 6 purees), along with 1500 mg of omega-3. I'm not sure how they measured that, but I'll take their word for it.

It was really, really sweet, but I love sweet smoothies. You could definitely taste that it was all fruit. I liked this, especially for $2.50. If we tried to get that much fruit and combine it into our juicer, it would be really tough getting this much to drink for that amount!

Passion Fruit Zico

I was at Whole Foods the other day looking for something to drink when I stumbled upon a last chance sale on coconut water. (I also found Bell's Brewery sampling some fantastic beer, but that wasn't really what I meant by a drink.) I guess they're phasing out a bunch of items, including a few Zico flavors. The sale sign was also under the original flavor which I thought was odd, and I didn't read it closely enough in my rush to realize that only the passion fruit and mango were on sale. I ended up getting the passion fruit when the person at the register swapped the regular-priced original out for one that was discounted. I love passion fruit flavor, so I figured this water couldn't be that bad.

Well, it was. I hated it and completely understood why Whole Foods wasn't going to carry it anymore. It tasted just like some medicine I took when I was younger. In this case, since I didn't get a drink for fun and needed it because I was really dehydrated, I just pretended it was medicine in order to get it down. Just did not taste pleasing to me at all.

I only ended up drinking half of it and gave the rest to A. Unlike me, A thought the fruit flavor here was mild, nice and tart. He doesn't really like flavored coconut water but preferred this to some of the other flavors like chocolate. I let him finish it as I had no desire to remind myself of a medicine whose name I have clearly blocked from my memory. I don't mind the pineapple flavor but I don't think I'll ever get the passion fruit one again. Good thing it was only 67 cents after my bag discount.

Alexander's Tea

Another post from the archives, this time from the end of June. Why did I not post anything in June when I wrote them?

I don't buy a lot of drinks (I usually just drink water), but when it's over 90 degrees and I'm on a long walk, I inevitably end up at Duane Reade looking for a good cold drink. Often it's Vitamin Water, but if there's something on sale for $1, it's more likely that. This time the sale was for New Jersey-based Alexander's Real Tea, which sounded good to me!

They had peach and raspberry, and I went with peach. The tea flavor wasn't very strong, but the peach flavor was nice and light. It wasn't overly sweet like some iced teas can be, but tasted more like actual fruit. I also liked that the ingredients had no artificial flavors, but relied on real cane sugar and natural flavors. I think you can taste the difference.

Would I get this again? I think I would. If there were water on sale, I'd probably get that instead since it's better hydration on a sweltering hot day, but this iced tea had a nice sweetness and was really refreshing.

(I love that I wrote this on a day when it was 90 degrees outside and the current weather is temperatures in the 20s with snow for at least the next 12 hours. What a contrast.)

Free at ABP

Less than an hour left to the promotion (in this time zone), but if you go to Au Bon Pain, you can get a free iced coffee or iced tea!

If you're going through Port Authority before 6 pm, there is no reason NOT to get a free drink!

From 2-6 pm today only, those drinks are free, no purchase necessary. It also seems like any size is valid, as the person in front of me got a large.

I went for the unsweetened goji berry green tea. It was just okay. I was expecting some sweetness and some tartness from the goji berries but in the end, it just tasted like green tea. I probably should have also added more ice since it wasn't that cool from the dispenser. But in the end, I can't really complain too much. It was completely free!

Hot Dogs and Glögg

Today was a dreary winter day but Norwegian Cruise Lines tried to brighten it up a little bit with an event in Times Square celebrating their new ship, the Norwegian Breakway.  They had a few palm trees, a cruise photo station, some giveaways, and more interesting for me - food tasting!

The event on a crappy weather day

One was the "classic" New York Sabrett hot dog because the ship will have a few of these hot dog carts onboard.

New York hot dogs for free!

It's been awhile since I've had a regular NY hot dog with mustard and onions, but I do love them. Cheap and tasty. The only thing I didn't like about this one was the bun was too bready. I ended up leaving half of the bun.

They were also serving a warm drink, which was appropriate for the 30 degree weather.  I thought people were just drinking apple cider, but it turned out to be glögg, which they described as hot apple cider mixed with black currant juice.

The event's version of glögg

Googling glögg, it sounds like this is a traditional holiday drink - a Scandinavian mulled wine.  (More info and a recipe from NPR here.)  I really liked the (non-alcoholic) offering at the event and am now really intrigued about traditional glögg. Maybe next holiday season.

We haven't been on a cruise since 2011 (the Carnival Glory, which we reviewed in full (the only trip we've ever finished recapping) here).  Chances are slim, but maybe we'll win the free trip on the Breakaway's maiden voyage!