Archive for the ‘ Food & Coffee ’ Category

Last Year, I talked a bit about my experience as a “New” Coffee drinker.  Most people try to reduce their personal vices, I took it upon myself to actively gain one with Coffee.

Maybe I should try adding alcohol next.  (Not likely, though because I hate the taste not for some moral high ground bull shit).

I have been getting a bit too carried away with my various flavored coffees and creamers.  Here’s my current lineup of available morning drinks.

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Dunkin’s Donuts Mocha Mint – I bought this because it was on clearance because it’s holiday themed.  I thought “I like mocha, it sounds kind of tasty, and it’s cheap”.  I was a bit uneasy though because I am not a huge fan on mint things.

Turns out, the mint is very not minty, at least in this case.  It’s okish, but not quite was I was expecting.

Steep & Brew Icing on the Cake – I think I had a coupon for this coffee and it was on sale so I decided to try it.  I also forced myself to not pick the same “Mocha or Caramel” I get everytime from every brand and decided “Icing on the Cake” sounded tasty.  I really can’t say much of what it tastes like, Icing I guess.

Folgers Gormet Chocolate Truffel – The obligatory chocolate coffee, because I am a Chocoholic.

Another part of what I have change recently is that I’ve started using liquid creamer.  The dry stuff is cheaper, but it takes more to get the flavor and it feels… cheap.

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This photo is a few days old so I only have one flavored creamer here, but I also have some Chocolate creamer, which is excellent.  This one here was chosen because it’s Vanilla, I want the cream, but I want the coffee flavor to be more present.  I also decided to try out “Fat Free” to see if it tastes okish (traditionally, I hate lite style foods).  Surprisingly, this is more than usable.  a lot of the unhealthyness of my coffee comes from the fact that I use a decent amount of cream and this helps alleviate that.

I also have these flavored toppings that I found for a few bucks at Gordman’s.  I have not really used the cocoa but the vanilla suga is pretty good.

A Few Notes on Coffee….

I started drinking coffee on a regular basis for the first time around 8 months ago.  Previous to that I drank a fair amount of ‘fake gas station cappuccino” and hot chocolate.  I say fake because the stuff is mostly just “flavored hot chocolate”.

I decided to upgrade so to speak to real coffee.  This started more or less after a 4 week work trip and many trips to Starbucks.  I’d been working on drinking coffee some unsuccessfully before that and had even purchased a small coffee pot which sat mostly unused for months.

So here’s a few notes on what I’ve tried and how it all stacks up.  I’ve only really brewed like 4 different brands/types of ground coffee so far so it’s not overly long.  Over the time period I’ve also roughly halved the mount of cream and sugar I use as well.  I started off using regular milk and sugar, I’ve since replaced the milk with regular dry creamer.  I have some crummy generic non dairy creamer that I’m not sure where it came from I tried but mostly I’ve been using the flavored Coffee Mate stuff..

cc-cm Both flavors, Creamy Chocolate, and Italian Sweet Cream are pretty good.  The Chocolate works a bit better with more vanilla or non isc-cmflavored coffees and the Sweet Cream works better with any coffee.  I kind of prefer the liquid kind of creamer but the dry stuff seems to go farther and I’m generally pretty cheap when it comes to this sort of thing.

Then of course there is the coffee.  The first kind I have tested and probably my favorite still so far was Dunkin Donuts French Vanilla.  It has the best flavor all around especially when mixed with the Creamy Chocolate Creamer. 

Starbucks House Blend Ground 12 Oz Probably the second best is one I’m currently using which is Starbucks Medium House Blend.  I’ve been steering clear of non flavored coffee since it’s part of the reason I have been drinking it in the first place (it tastes like crap).  My wife brought home this set she found on clearance at her work of a small Starbucks coffee jar which included a trial sized bag of regular Starbucks coffee.  It’s good stuff thankfully.

41WZTXlHjTL Previous to the Normal Starbucks I also tried the Starbucks Caramel Blend.  This goes good with the Creamy Chocolate Creamer as well.  It also has a decent natural sweetness.

Finally there is the Ghiradelli Double Chocolate I’m also currently working on.  With all of my love of chocolate I really expected to like this more but it’s just not all that great.  I picked up for pretty cheap at least, but it’s not overly recommended.

I’m not sure where I’m going to go next, I may try some other Dunkin Donuts flavors as it was the best one I’ve tried so far.  I also may try my hand at making Iced Coffee or Frappes as well.


This seems like a bit of an odd move. Starbucks is opening coffee shops in Seattle that are not called Starbucks.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Starbucks-wipes-name-from-apf-2852535657.html?x=0&.v=4

Basically, Starbucks has decided it’s brand is considered too “upscale” and “expensive”. So they are creating a chain consisting of “fake local brands”.

Basically, in order to shed the label of being “pretentious” they are becoming even more pretentious. Also they are adding alcohol to the menu.

This certainly seems like a good idea as opposed to say… LOWERING PRICES.

Mmmmmmm?


Mmmmmmm?
Originally uploaded by Ramen Junkie.

These Banquet Meals were on sale so I decided to try them out for lunch. I rather like thier Salsbury Steak and Turkey slices & Gravey meals which we have for dinner fairly frequently.

Unfortunately all of th eindividual sized Turkey and Steak meals included Mashed Potatoes as a side dish, which I don’t like.

A few days ago I tried one with fish sticks and pudding. The Fishsticks were more or less flavorless but the pudding was surprisingly good. I can’t say I’ve ever had warm pudding before or any sort.

I was a bit leary about meal however since the brownie started off looking like it was more pudding. I enjoyed the pudding, but this was supposed to be a brownie. Creepily, the brownie goop puffed up and became a brownie in the two minutes it took to cook this.

The pizza was alright but the corn came out cold. I didn’t want to over cook the other parts of the meal.

While waiting for my courmet meal to cook, I entertained myself with the back fo the box. This dish includes a conventional oven recipie.

Talk about useless. These aren’t real cheap compared to “real food”. They definitely aren’t as tastey as “real food”. Pretty much the onyl thing these have going for them is convenience. I can cook this whole meal in 2 minutes and store it without taking up half of my employer’s fridge.

The conventional oven directions include preheating the oven (10-15 min), and cooking (16-18 min), and coolin (2 min). That’s pretty muc a half hour of cooking no matter how you cut it.

Learn to cook here people. Hell if I had an oven at work I’d never eat this junk for lunch.

Take THAT Ronald!


Take THAT Ronald!
Originally uploaded by SteddyRuxpin.

I don’t know what’s going on in this picture, or why, but it’s awesome.