The original Noosa is a picturesque Australian resort town on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, the home of golden beaches. The name Noosa comes from an Aboriginal word meaning shade or shadows, a probable reference to the tall forests behind the sunny coast.

On a vacation to Noosa, company co-founder Koel Thomae—an Aussie ex-pat living in Colorado—came across a tub of creamy yoghurt and passionfruit purée.

It took just one spoonful for her to decide that she must bring this celestial style of yogurt to the U.S. Back in Colorado she found a partner, fourth-generation dairy farmer Rob Graves, who milked happy, pasture-raised cows. He took one taste of the Australian yogurt and agreed with Koel. America needed Noosa.

They began to make Noosa in small batches, from farm-fresh whole milk, local raw clover alfalfa honey and purées of the best fruits. The “Australian-style” texture is thick like Greek yogurt but oh-so-velvety, as elegant as any dessert. (Some of that texture comes from kosher bovine gelatin.)

The line is certified kosher (dairy) by OU, certified GMO free and made with rBGH-free milk from pastured cows.

Noosa Yoghurt is so silky, it’s like an elegant dessert. Photo courtesy ChooseCherries.com.

The four-ounce cups, for 140 calories or so, depending on the flavor, is a wonderful bit of fruity sweetness at the end of the meal, or as a snack anytime.

And for breakfast or lunch, well: What a treat. It’s worth seeking out.

Here’s a store locator and the main website. Scroll to the bottom of the home page for a link to print a coupon.

Instead of our favorite after-dinner coffee—a steaming cup of French or Italian roast with a shot of coffee liqueur, substituting for dessert—we celebrated with a Café Liégeois (lee-eh-ZHWAH). It’s a parfait with layers of iced coffee, ice cream, and whipped cream (called chantilly [shon-TEE-yee] in French).

We highly recommend it as an easy-to-make dessert for coffee (and especially iced coffee) lovers.

While the original recipe does not contain alcohol, no one stops you from adding a shot of coffee, chocolate, or vanilla liqueur.

If you don’t have parfait or sundae dishes, use what you do have—beer glasses, wine goblets, any tall glasses, or glass mugs. You can even make the recipe in conventional coffee cups, although part of the eye appeal is looking at the layers through the glass.
 
 
RECIPE: CAFÉ LIÉGEOIS

Ingredients Per Serving

A modern variation of Café Liégois (photo © Benoit Bistro | NYC).

 
Variation

1. MAKE the coffee and refrigerate. Also, refrigerate or freeze the dishes or glasses. When ready to serve…

2. FILL each dish or glass with ice cream and pour over the iced coffee and the optional liqueur. Add the whipped cream, garnish as desired, and serve immediately.

 
THE HISTORY OF CAFÉ LIÉGOIS

According to Wikipedia, Café Liégeois did not originate in Liège, Belgium; it was initially known in France as Café Viennois (vee-en-WAH), Viennese Coffee.

Following the Battle of Liège in World War I, in which the city of Liège put up a resistance to the advancing German army with its Austrian-made guns—Paris’s cafés changed the name of the dessert from Viennois to Liégeois. Curiously, notes Wikipedia, in Liège itself, the dessert continued to be known as Café Viennois for a while.

In the U.S., both ice cream desserts are made from the same ingredients. The difference is in how the ingredients are presented.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When it gives you spilled food, make art.

That’s what Italian artist Giulia Bernardelli does. She’s become a specialist at turning spilled coffee, honey, jam and other foods into wonderful canvases that look as if they were created by accident.

Animals, landscapes and portraits art so beautifully crafted that they really look like an accidents.

Giulia doesn’t plan her work in advance but develops the ideas as she eats the food. At one breakfast, for example, she imagined the footprints left by a cat who walked into the jam.

You can see that and other images at BoredPanda.com. For more images, go to Google Images and search for Giulia Bernardelli.