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THE NIBBLE’s Gourmet News & Views
Trends, Products & Items Of Note In The World Of Specialty Foods
This is the blog section of THE NIBBLE. Read all of our content on TheNibble.com,
the online magazine about gourmet and specialty food.
Archive for Sugar-Free
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August 29, 2009 at 7:59 am
· Filed under Sugar-Free
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Cherry Chocolate Chunk gelato from Organic
Nectars, a sugar-free trifeca for healthy
eating. It’s organic, kosher and raw! Photo by
Corey Lugg | THE NIBBLE. |
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Previously, people on sugar-restricted diets were limited in their choice of ice cream. But there are two premium products on the market that provide premium alternatives to artificially-flavored supermarket ice cream. Both are sweetened with agave.
Agave Dream is a premium ice cream developed by two moms who wanted a better choice for their children. Organic Nectars is a vegan product made from cashew “milk”; it’s also raw, kosher and, as the name implies, organic. Both companies make sorbet or granita as well as ice cream. They’re a real find for people who are steering clear of sugar.
Start with an overview of agave: what it is and why it’s good for you. (For starters, it has about half the glycemic index of sugar and honey.)
Have a taste of Agave Dream ice cream and sorbet.
Dig into Organic Nectars vegan, raw gelato and granita, plus agave-sweetened dessert toppings.
Feel like full-sugar frozen treats? Check out our Ice Cream & Sorbet Section for more of our favorites.
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July 6, 2009 at 5:39 pm
· Filed under Contest, Sugar-Free
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This week’s prize: A healthy gift basket
from Smucker’s. Denise Austin workout video
included but not shown in photo. Retail value $80.00. |
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You have a far better chance of winning the weekly food prize in THE NIBBLE’s Gourmet Giveaway than winning the lottery—and entering the Gourmet Giveaway is free!
Tearful letters were received last winter when we suspended the Gourmet Giveaway because the company that sponsored the prizes was sold. But it’s back now in a new and simpler form that will please some folks, because there’s no weekly trivia quiz to take before you enter. All you have to do is go to a page on TheNibble.com related to the contest (this week it’s a reduced-calorie recipe made with Smucker’s Fruit Spread), click the link on the bottom of the page and enter your email address. It’s that simple. To those of you who loved those food trivia quizzes: they’re still available to take, over and over again, and we promise to have some new ones down the road.
And rest assured, there’s no spamming. If you aren’t selected as the winner, your address will be discarded.
If you like to take quizzes and polls, you can take a weekly poll on our new Facebook Fan Page—just a quickie, one-question poll. And, there will be special Gourmet Giveaway prizes for Facebook Fans only. These blog posts are also streamed to the Facebook Fan page, along with our Tweets, so consider it a major stop for NIBBLE social media channels.
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What Should You Do Next?
Check out this week’s Gourmet Giveaway, a healthy food picnic basket and Denise Austin workout video, sponsored by Smucker’s.
Join THE NIBBLE Facebook Fan Page for extra opportunities to win food prizes—we’re saving some of the choicest morsels for our BFFs (best Facebook Fans).
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January 15, 2009 at 9:30 am
· Filed under Chocolate, NutriNibbles/Organic, Sugar-Free, Top Pick Of The Week
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| For everyone wondering about the healthy food picks of the last few weeks, January is “health month” at THE NIBBLE. That’s the brief hiatus between the six weeks of holiday eating that end the old year and the Valentine’s Day delights of the new year. During “health month,” we try not to tempt people away from their New Year’s resolutions. Both our Top Picks Of The Week and the regular reviews and articles on TheNibble.com are bursting with the most delicious “good-for-you” foods we can find.
Before you get tired of healthy foods, the indulgences begin again on January 26, with three weeks of Valentine gift recommendations. Or maybe they begin right now, as we show how chocolate can be wholesome, vegan, organic, raw, primitive…and delectable. We polished off every last morsel.
When we first set eyes on Uli Mana, its packaging did not look like manna from chocolate heaven. But then we tasted the organic chocolate truffles, brownies, chocolate spread and more. Raw cacao was never more divine. And with nary a drop of refined sugar: It’s all sweetened with lower-glycemic agave syrup. There’s no cream, no butter, and more antioxidants than in regular chocolate. How could our New Year’s diet disapprove? |
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Truffles made from raw cacao, covered with raw
cacao nibs, have intense, bittersweet chocolate
flavor. You are mano a mano with the cacao.
Wow! |
In Uli Mana’s hands, raw cacao is a wow. This is food for serious foodies—though they may wish to share it with their raw foodist and vegan friends. Read the full review, including more about raw cacao, on TheNibble.com.
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December 17, 2008 at 9:00 am
· Filed under Books, Chocolate, Cocktails & Spirits, Cookies/Cake/Pastry, Gifts, Holidays & Occasions, Kitchenware, Kosher Nibbles, NutriNibbles/Organic, Sugar-Free, Wine
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December 4, 2008 at 9:30 am
· Filed under Beverages, Coffee & Tea, Sugar-Free
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| Since its debut, we’ve been hooked on ITO EN’s Sencha Shot, a highly concentrated 6.4-ounce steel can of unsweetened, premium green tea with an an energy boosting 152 mg of green tea catechins (antioxidants). We order it by the case. Now there’s Oolong shot, with a whopping 171 milligrams of oolong tea polyphenols. Oolong, also known as Wu-long and traditionally called blue tea, is a semi-oxidized tea, between green tea and black tea. Traditionally known as “weight loss tea” and “slimming tea,” an unidentified compound in oolong may promote weight loss, and has resulted in numerous hyped products for decades. However, you need not buy any special “slimming teas;” regular oolong will do the trick, if there is any trick to be done. (No research by a recognized scientific organization has been published.) The suggested retail price is $1.79. Both teas are sold at Whole Foods Markets and other retailers, and online at ItoEn.com. |
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Color coded: The green tea in the green can, the
blue tea, as oolong is sometimes called, in the
blue can. |
Read our full review of Sencha Shot and Oolong Shot.
Read our review of Ito-En Teas’ Tea bottled teas, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.
Discover Ito-En’s delicious line of Dr. Andrew Weil For Tea.
Learn about the different types of tea in our 15-page Tea Glossary.
Discover the best tea and food pairings.
Discover how to brew the perfect cup of tea.
Take our tea trivia quiz. |
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October 14, 2008 at 9:00 am
· Filed under Bread, Crackers, Muffins, Gluten-Free, Kosher Nibbles, NutriNibbles/Organic, Sugar-Free
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A quick glance at the Mary’s Gone Crackers package can make a serious foodie apprehensive: wheat-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, no hydrogenated oils, no trans-fats, non-GMO. The litany of what’s not in these crackers is so extensive, you start to wonder what is in them that makes them taste so vibrant and delicious. (See the answer in the main review.) They’re also organic, whole grain and kosher.
Mary’s crackers taste so good, and deliver such flavorful, addictive crunch, that it’s a pleasure to get your three daily servings of whole grains (and 455mg of omega-3 fatty acids per serving) by substituting whatever cracker or chip you’re enjoying now. The flat, round wafers have a great nutty, whole wheat taste despite an absence of wheat. Each of the five flavors (Original, Black Pepper, Caraway, Herb and Onion) is distinct and straightforward. Black Pepper, for example has a nice pepper bite; Herb features basil, oregano and other dried-herb-rack staples; Onion is reminiscent of Lipton Onion Soup mix, in a good way. Even the Original is splendid: a hearty grain flavor accented with the sesame and flax seeds that characterize the entire line. |
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You’ll go crackers when you taste the
lively, complex flavors of Mary’s whole
grain, gluten-free crackers and twig
snacks. |
In finding a solution to her own gluten-free needs, Mary Waldner has created a line that any lover of fine flavors will find exciting. There’s a new product line, Sticks & Twigs, that offers similar excitement in a pretzel-stick shape. Read the full review for the whole, healthy scoop. |
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September 9, 2008 at 10:00 am
· Filed under Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free
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Not only will Club Sauce’s Pomegranate
Reduction Sauce dazzle-up duck; you
can enjoy it on oatmeal, in salad
dressing, on grilled fruit and
cheesecake…even in a martini. |
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A good sauce takes an everyday piece of protein (or even an overcooked one) and turns it into a special meal. The Splash! line of pomegranate reduction sauces delivers a professional-quality sauce with sweet-tart flavors that are delicious with chicken, duck, lamb, pork and seafood…and much more. The line is fat free, sodium free and gluten free.
Pomegranate, the unusual fruit that originated in Persia, is widely used for cooking in the Middle East and Mediterranean countries like Greece. It has been a flavor darling in the U.S. specialty food market for several years, appearing in everything from mustard to ice cream, and a proliferation of pomegranate juice brands (see our review of the best) have put pomegranate within reach of everyone. It’s possible to buy bags of arils (the juice sack in which the seed rests) and avoid having to deal with the cumbersome fruit altogether, and use the juice for everything from sorbet to fruit soup. Now, products like Club Sauce’s Splash! pomegranate reduction sauces, make cooking with pomegranate a snap. While it’s possible to reduce pomegranate juice to a sauce, Club Sauce’s approach, based on a centuries-old Middle Eastern pomegranate molasses recipe, makes something much more interesting. |
There are no sugars or sweeteners added to this line; ruby red pomegranate molasses is combined with different types of wine and berry essences, then micro-brewed in small batches and slowly reduced in special kettles. It only takes a splash (hence the name) to add rich and complex flavor to recipes, from breakfast to dinner to cocktails and dessert.Read the full review on TheNibble.com. |
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August 13, 2008 at 8:15 am
· Filed under Candy, Chocolate, Sugar-Free
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 Martine’s sugar-free almond bark
doesn’t skimp on good ingredients;
sweetened with maltitol, the only thing
it’s missing is regular sugar. |
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It takes a true master of chocolate to make delicious sugar-free versions of his or her art, and who better to take on the challenge than Manhattan’s own Martine Leventer, creator of Martine’s Chocolates? We’ve already raved about her top-notch gourmet chocolate in a past review, but we are delighted to report that she makes excellent sugar-free chocolates, too, from the fine Belgian chocolate of Callebaut. They are perfect for people who have been searching for a high-quality gourmet chocolate that’s so good, it’s easy to forget that it’s sugar-free. (Please note that this is not a low-calorie product, and should be consumed by people who need to restrict their intake of sucrose. Those on restricted diets should consult with their healthcare advisors before consuming any sugar substitutes.)
Martine Leventer experiments with every one of her chocolates until she is satisfied, so we aren’t surprised that her sugar-free line meets high standards. After careful investigation, she found that maltitol was the only artificial sweetener that did not leave an aftertaste. That may be why her sugar-free chocolates leave plenty of folks fooled (including us!), in a good way. Martine’s sugar-free chocolates have the same charm as their sugared counterparts; both are made with fine Belgian Callebaut chocolate and hand-crafted with elegant molds.
Read the full review on TheNibble.com. |
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February 25, 2008 at 1:20 pm
· Filed under Beverages, Sugar-Free, Tip Of The Day
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| If you can’t find the flavored water you want in a store—or if you want to save the amount of plastic you consume—you can make it yourself and save both money and the environment. Refill a 16-ounce water bottle with water and start by adding 5 drops of flavor extract (from the spice department) with a clean medicine dropper. We love making mint water this way! If you want to sweeten your water, add a few drops of low-glycemic agave syrup (you’ll find it in the supplements department of natural food stores), or use a liquid non-caloric sweetener. Read about the water that inspired us to make our own, Hint Water, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week. Find more of our favorite waters in the Bottled Water Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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We made mint water with mint extract, and added a spring of fresh rosemary and a lemon wheel to layer the flavor. Great taste, zero calories. |
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February 15, 2008 at 8:07 am
· Filed under Desserts & Ice Cream, Diet Nibbles, Recipes, Snacks, Sugar-Free, Tip Of The Day
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| If you’re ready to switch gears after chocolate-filled Valentine’s Day festivities, fruit kabobs with yogurt dip are a sweet transition—low-calorie and healthy, too. For a snack or light dessert, simply skewer pineapple chunks, melon balls, berries, grapes, orange segments—whatever catches your eye in the produce section—in interesting patterns (or, serve them as fruit salad). You can make an easy yogurt dip from one cup of vanilla yogurt, 2 tablespoons of honey and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. The diet dip version substitutes plain, fat-free yogurt and 2 packets of sweetener—hold the honey. Our favorite plain, fat-free yogurt, FAGE Total, is so delicious, we’re happy with the fat-free version. Read our review of FAGE Total Yogurt. Find more low-calorie foods in the Diet Nibbles Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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Make fruit kabobs with berries, grapes, pineapple, etc.; or just enjoy this delicious and healthy snack as a fruit salad with yogurt topping. |
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