THE NIBBLE Gourmet News & Views
Trends, Products & Items Of Note In The World Of Specialty Foods
Read all of our content on TheNibble.com, the online magazine about specialty food.
Archive for Top Pick Of The Week
|
July 1, 2008 at 8:00 am
· Filed under Wine, Top Pick Of The Week, Desserts & Ice Cream
|
Our two favorite flavors of Mercer’s Wine
Ice Cream, Ala Port and Red Raspberry
Chardonnay, can be served at the most
elegant dinner party. Photography by
Saidi Granados. |
|
Like ice cream? Like wine? Here’s something to make you glad you’re over 21: Mercer’s Wine Ice Cream. Made with 5% alcohol, you must be of age to enjoy—no, to wallow in—such ice cream happiness. July is National Ice Cream Month, and we’re in love with this wine ice cream.
We first discovered Mercer’s two years ago. This upstate New York dairy had a standout Port ice cream and three other flavors of wine ice cream that were a distant second. A lot of work has gone into making all four flavors medalists at THE NIBBLE Ice Cream Olympics, and two new flavors are about to join them.
All of the flavors are an ice cream and wine lover’s dream. In Ala Port, Cherry Merlot, Chocolate Cabernet, Peach White Zinfandel, Red Raspberry Chardonnay and Royal White Riesling, these seductive frozen dreams rock. As they soften in your dish, they evolve into an ice cream cocktail. No one we know is satisfied with just one serving, so here’s our advice: Don’t show restraint; order two of everything and call over your nearest and dearest to celebrate. Scoop up the details in the full review. And for a great line of wine sorbets, read our review of Wine Cellar Sorbets, another Top Pick Of The Week. |
| |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
June 25, 2008 at 9:34 am
· Filed under Top Pick Of The Week, Cookies/Cake/Pastry, Gluten-Free
|
Great taste and gluten free. So’s the whole line of Mariposa baked treats. From top to bottom: Triple Chocolate Truffle Brownie, Coconut Lemon Square, Mocha Truffle Brownie. Photography by Saidi Granados. |
|
This is the first gluten-free product to ever be named a Top Pick Of The Week, and the second “restricted diet” food.* But these brownies, coffeecakes and biscotti are good enough so that anyone can enjoy them and ask for seconds. With more people discovering they have gluten allergies, we want any of your friends and acquaintances who have such restrictions to know about Mariposa Baking Company.
*Divvies Cupcakes, a prior Top Pick, are dairy-free, egg-free and wheat-free. Some other Top Picks are naturally gluten-free because no products containing gluten are used in their production (e.g. olive oil and soft drinks).
Recommended by a NIBBLE reader, this bakery in Oakland, California, is a marvel. We taste quite a bit of gluten-free, sugar-free and fat-free baked goods, hoping to discover ones that taste good enough to recommend to people on restricted diets. Our standards are that they have to be good enough for everyone in the household to enjoy. Whatever magic is being practiced at Mariposa Bakery, these wheat-free, gluten-free brownies, biscotti and coffeecakes can be enjoyed by anyone. |
So even if gluten-free isn’t your food focus, take a minute to think of someone who will appreciate you forever for forwarding this review. Read more about Mariposa’s delectables in the full review. And take a look at more of our favorite baked goods in THE NIBBLE’s Cookies, Cakes & Pastries Section. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
June 25, 2008 at 8:59 am
· Filed under Top Pick Of The Week, Condiments
|
Stone-ground mustard with horseradish: one of the stars of the line. Photography by Saidi Granados. |
|
America’s specialty food stores are packed with gourmet condiments. Yet, as good as we would like them all to be, different brands vary in the degree of excitement they present to the demanding palate. That’s why it’s especially rewarding to discover a line that should be on the shelves everywhere: True Natural Taste Organic White Mustard. The Honey Mustard alone is the best we’ve ever tasted, and proves that you can find sophistication and layers of flavor in a product that is generally pleasant, with a one-dimensional sweetness. The rest of the mustards are so well crafted, you can taste the quality of the ingredients (where can we buy apple cider vinegar that’s this good?).
Here is an artisan at work, preparing small batches of mustard with the very best ingredients available. You’ll know it the minute you taste it, and may start eating the mustard from a spoon (as we’ve enjoyed doing over the past few weeks). There’s also an organic Atomic Horseradish, marrying horseradish root with parsnip to create a very different and earthier, more flavorful style than the prepared horseradish in the refrigerator case (or our grandmother’s own eye-opening recipe of horseradish and beets). The line is certified kosher and (like all mustard) is gluten free. |
Mustard is a terrific condiment. Low calorie, no fat or sugar (no cholesterol, no carbs), it has a spate of health benefits that are discussed in the main review. When you find a line this good, it’s worth clearing the shelf of your current inventory and trading up to a truly terrific taste. The Dijon flavor won the “best organic mustard” gold medal at this year’s Napa Valley Mustard Festival; but read about our favorites in the full review on TheNibble.com. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
June 24, 2008 at 4:58 pm
· Filed under Top Pick Of The Week, Candy
|
Madison & Marcela, located in a small seaside town in the low country of South Carolina, has hit a grand slam home run with three very different toffees. Chocolate Covered Peanut Toffee is a heavenly product—or perhaps a devilish one, as once you take the first bite, the bag is all but gone. CranAlmond Toffee (for those who want their antioxidants) is a beauty: cranberry-studded toffee on one side, lovely white slivered almonds on the other. For those who like things simple but perfect, Madison Crunch is a double-layered pecan toffee.
All of the ingredients are USDA-certified organic, with the exception of the chocolate on the Chocolate Covered Peanut Toffee (which is the excellent Callebaut brand from Belgium). The sweetener is raw cane sugar mixed with agave nectar. The agave nectar adds flavor dimension while cutting down on the sweetness (and it’s much lower on the glycemic scale than sugar—not that we’re claiming this as health food). Yet with all this organic goodness and handcrafting, the candy is still so inexpensive that you’ll want to order lots for party favors, stocking stuffers, teacher gifts, and just to hand out, because they taste so good, they put you in a munificent mindset. |
|
 CranAlmond Toffee: ruby-like cranberries on one side, ivory almond slices on the other. Photography by Saidi Granados. |
While we discovered these toffees months ago, we wanted to put them on hold as a last-minute Father’s Day gift. If you haven’t yet remembered Dad, Grandpa or Uncle Sidney, here’s your chance. Take a closer look at all three flavors in the full review at TheNibble.com. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
June 23, 2008 at 3:06 pm
· Filed under Top Pick Of The Week, Desserts & Ice Cream
|
Often, people as, us to recommend brownies. We always ask about the recipient and the occasion. Some companies sell brownies in very nice packaging that are too sweet for the sophisticated palate. We’d send them to a kid, but not to a fine food enthusiast. Others, like the brownies made with Dagoba organic chocolate by artisan chocolatier Chokola’j, are very fine, indeed. But they are too elegant to snarf down at a picnic or barbecue, and too delicate for grab-and-go.
Enter Geoff & Drew’s. There are three flavors, each a variation on the same moist, fudgy brownie. Chocolate Chip is the most classic, Toffee has a subtle caramel topping and Mint will blow your socks off with a large chocolate peppermint pattie embedded in the top—a simple but brilliant idea and our favorite idea to borrow thus far this year. The caveat emptor on these brownies is that they melt in your mouth so easily that one brownie seems like only half a portion. To compensate, we drink an extra tall glass of milk with each. The brownies are individually shrink-wrapped for shelf life as well as easy grab-and-go. Take a closer look in the full review on TheNibble.com. Caution: Photos may cause drooling. |
|
 |
| |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
June 21, 2008 at 8:00 am
· Filed under Top Pick Of The Week, Condiments
|
 |
|
We taste more than 3,000 foods a year; sometimes it seems that half of those are barbecue sauces and similar condiments (in reality, we probably taste more like mere hundreds of them). While some of the sauces stand out (here are prior favorites), only one has made it to Top Pick status. Until now.
The sun is indeed shining in New Haven, Connecticut, where six varieties of Sweet Sunshine Chile Sauce are made: Sweet, Warm, Roasted Garlic & Shallot, Jamaican Jerk, Hot and Atomic. Our personal preference leans to the milder side of the chile spectrum. But the captivating thing about Sweet Sunshine is that Jamaican Jerk, Hot and Atomic all deliver wonderful, complex chile flavors instead of the simple, searing heat found in many other products. No wonder they’ve racked up 18 awards at major chile festivals. People looking for a great new sauce are urged to let some Sweet Sunshine into their lives…and onto their grilled meats, sandwiches, eggs, chicken wings, crudités and other dippers. |
What an easy way this is to spice up everyday foods—and what a great gift for anyone who likes flavor sensations. If you plan to be invited to barbecues this summer—or want to impress guests at your own—lay in a stock of these. Read the full review, and get more serving suggestions, at TheNibble.com. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
June 20, 2008 at 8:26 am
· Filed under Vegetables, Top Pick Of The Week, Condiments
|
With Rick’s Picks, you can pick a peck (or at least a 15-ounce jar) of pickled red peppers, asparagus, beets, green beans, green tomatoes, okra and, of course, that most familiar of pickled vegetables, the cucumber (including garlic dills, bread-and-butter and other pickles).
It was love at first bite with Rick’s Picks. We usually leave our specialty food store with arms aching, because we’re carrying so many jars. Rick’s, a beautiful artisan product, is no cheap pick(le), but it’s worth every nickel. Every sandwich served becomes more gourmet with a garnish of Rick’s Picks. A barbecue becomes memorable with a Rick’s Picks tasting bar. Some of the vegetables make cocktail garnishes extraordinaire. And as gifts for those who love their pickles, a sampler package—or even better, the Pickle Of The Month Club—will make you a hero. |
|
 |
We first wrote about Rick’s Picks two years ago. But Rick Fields continues to innovate (Smokra, pickled smoked okra, is a slam dunk—even for people who say they don’t like okra). With barbecue season, Father’s Day and summer guesting upon us, it’s time to revisit these gourmet pickles. There are four gourmet cucumber pickles and seven pickled vegetables for appetizers, sides, snacks and garnishes. You’ll never think of a pickle the same way again. In fact, you may even be inspired to try pickling your own! Read the full review on TheNibble.com. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
June 20, 2008 at 8:24 am
· Filed under Chocolate, Top Pick Of The Week
|
 |
|
If you’re a person with a passion for the world’s greatest chocolate, why not produce it yourself? That’s what the chocolate artisans in this week’s Top Pick have done—the majority of them as a second career.
They are not chocolatiers in the traditional sense. Their goal is not to make bonbons, nut clusters and truffles. They are chocolate purists whose goal is to produce the best chocolate bars in the world from scratch, traveling abroad to source raw beans, cleaning, roasting, winnowing, grinding, refining, conching, tempering, molding and packaging the chocolate—some with no help, some with a partner and/or a tiny staff. In the process, most have built or modified chocolate-producing equipment for results they could not otherwise achieve.
So, how good are these bars? They rank with the world’s best, including acclaimed small producers (but still, much larger than micro producers) like Amedei, Michel Cluizel and Pralus. If you like great dark chocolate, this is an eye-opening journey you can take without ever leaving your home. Read the full review and learn more about these exceptional chocolate bars on TheNibble.com. |
| |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
June 20, 2008 at 8:20 am
· Filed under Top Pick Of The Week, Cookies/Cake/Pastry
|
While most Americans don’t have to go too far to buy a tarte aux pommes (French apple tart) or a mille-feuille (Napoleon), one of the toughest baked delicacies to track down is a macaron, a French macaroon. Those fortunate enough to dine out often on haute cuisine may get a decent macaroon on a petit-fours plate. Sometimes you can find them at retail; but like Aesop’s fox and his grapes, the macaroons are often dull when they should be exciting.
A hasty note: We are not speaking of the type of macaroon that is a hearty, chewy, mounded cookie made with coconut (see Erica’s Macaroons, another Top Pick Of The Week). Those coconut macaroons are only one variation on the theme, having evolved from the original Italian almond paste cookie, which was similar to today’s amaretti (read the history of the macaroon). French macaroons evolved in a different direction, some into ethereal, filled, meringue-like cookie sandwiches—pretty, variously flavored and colored, a delicacy for a sophisticated table. Yet, not everyone has the knack for making them this way. We’ve nibbled on quite a few macs that have made us long for better flavor and texture. |
|
 |
One of New York City’s prominent patissiers, Florian Belanger, recognized the need for an alternative to droning, monotonous macaroons. He began Mad Mac to supply restaurants, hotels and retail pastry stores nationwide. Thanks to online ordering, you, too, can enjoy tasty bites of Mad Mac, in colors that make a special dinner or a party even more festive. Made from egg whites, sugar and almond flour, macaroons are often a better end to a fine dinner than heavier sweets. And they’re easier: All you have to do is open the box and put them on a plate.Read the full review, see more photos of these mad, fun macaroons and get a tray or two for your own festivities. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
June 16, 2008 at 9:10 am
· Filed under Top Pick Of The Week, Condiments
|
Mustard is a fantastic condiment; it has no calories, fat, or sugar. The mustards and horseradish from True Natural Taste are a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week. Read the review here. |
|
America’s specialty food stores are packed with gourmet condiments. Yet, as good as we would like them all to be, different brands vary in the degree of excitement they present to the demanding palate. That’s why it’s especially rewarding to discover a line that should be on the shelves everywhere: True Natural Taste Organic White Mustard. The Honey Mustard alone is the best we’ve ever tasted, and proves that you can find sophistication and layers of flavor in a product that is generally pleasant, with a one-dimensional sweetness. The rest of the mustards are so well crafted, you can taste the quality of the ingredients (where can we buy apple cider vinegar that’s this good?).
Here is an artisan at work, preparing small batches of mustard with the very best ingredients available. You’ll know it the minute you taste it, and may start eating the mustard from a spoon (as we’ve enjoyed doing over the past few weeks).
|
|
There’s also an organic Atomic Horseradish, marrying horseradish root with parsnip to create a very different and earthier, more flavorful style than the prepared horseradish in the refrigerator case (or our grandmother’s own eye-opening recipe of horseradish and beets). The line is certified kosher and (like all mustard) is gluten free.Mustard is a terrific condiment. Low calorie, no fat or sugar (no cholesterol, no carbs), it has a spate of health benefits that are discussed in the main review. When you find a line this good, it’s worth clearing the shelf of your current inventory and trading up to a truly terrific taste. The Dijon flavor won the “best organic mustard” gold medal at this year’s Napa Valley Mustard Festival; but read about our favorites in the full review at THE NIBBLE.
|
|
|
Permalink
|
« Previous entries
|
