Elote is the Aztec (Nahuatl) word for what the corn on the cob. It is pronounced ay-LOW-tay. Removed from the cob, the recipe has a different name, esquites, from the Nahuatl word for toasted corn, ízquitl.

This hack from Good Eggs in San Francisco eliminates the need for a grill. Just use a gas range to turn ears of fresh corn into this Mexican street treat.

Here’s more about elote, including an off-the-cob elote salad.
 
 
RECIPE: STOVE TOP ELOTE

Ingredients

1. USE tongs to hold the ears of corn directly over the stove top flame, turning to to blister the kernels.

2. REMOVE from the heat, slather with butter, roll in crumbled queso fresco and finish with a squeeze of lime and a pinch of ancho chile powder.
 
 
ELOTE CONDIMENTS

In Mexico people serve the classics: ancho chili powder, lime, queso blanco. But in the U.S., some people substitute mayonnaise or sour cream (crema) for the butter.

Pepper or seasoned salt are also options (lemon pepper is popular in Texas, per Wikipedia). Other options: cilantro, fresh parsley, oregano.

Or for a true American take, how about crumbled bacon?
  

But according to Spiegelau, a manufacturer of fine glassware in Bavaria, Germany, we have it all wrong. You only get about 15% of the flavor of the beer when you drink it from the bottle.

That’s because smell, not palate, is the major component of taste (and explains why you can lose your taste when you have a badly congested nose and can’t smell). You get zero aroma through the narrow neck of the beer bottle, covered by your mouth as you take each sip.

When you pour beer into a glass, the head* releases the bubbles (carbon dioxide) that burst into aroma.

On top of that, different types of beer benefit from different shaped glasses, engineered to bring out the special attributes of the beer (Riedel, the parent company of Spieglau, was the pioneer in developing different wine glass types).

Engineered to bring out the best in American craft beers: from left, IPA, wheat beer and stout glasses. Photo courtesy Spiegelau USA.

Different regions have long made different glass shapes for their beers. Think beyond the German stein to the British pint glass; the tall, tapered Pilsner† glass; the stemmed snifter for Belgian ales and IPAs; the tankard for ales, lagers, stouts and porters; and others. See the different types of beer glasses in the chart below.

 
*The head is produced by bubbles of carbon dioxide gas that rise to the surface. The carbon dioxide is produced during fermentation.
†Pilsner is the English spelling of Pilsener, the German spelling. The name derives from the town of Pilsen, a city in western Bohemia in the Czech Republic, where the style was originally brewed in October 1842—a new, clear, pale golden beer created from new malts, Pilsen’s remarkably soft water, Saaz noble hops and Bavarian-style lagering. It was a sensation. The Czech spelling of the town is Plzen.

 
CRAFT BEER GLASSES FOR SPECIFIC STYLES OF BEER

Spiegelau has developed a Craft Beer Glass Collection, with custom-designed glasses for the three most popular American craft beer styles: IPA, Stout and Wheat Beer. Each glass is designed, according to the company, to highlight “the complexity of aromas on the nose while demonstrating the optimum beer texture, balance and flavor intensity on the palate.”

Riedel has done this for wine glasses with great success (you won’t believe how much better the wine tastes in a specially engineered wine glass than on a generic one). Now, they’ve done the same for beer.

An expert panel of master brewers tested multiple glass shapes before finding the optimum shape for each beer type. Here’s what resulted:

 
And you thought a glass was just a glass!

Custom-shape beer glasses isn’t hype: It’s precision engineering and it works. Buy yourself a set and test it against what you’re currently using. We had great results with the Spiegelau glasses.

Beer glasses are a great gift for beer connoisseurs, and other companies have gotten the custom-shape message.

MORE BEER STYLE-SPECIFIC GLASSES

Lenox has a new line of beer glasses in four styles: IPA, Pint With Crown, Stemmed Pilsner and Wheat Beer. And surprise: The shapes are totally different from conventional designs—as well as from the Spiegelau designs.

The Pilsner is a stemmed tulip, like the traditional Belgian Ale glass. The IPA and Wheat Beer glasses are tall and narrow with a tapered waist, like the conventional Pilsner glass. The Pint With Crown is a sleeker version of the pub pint glass.

Here’s what they say about their shapes:

 
Frankly, we bet on the precision of the Spiegelau glasses. We’ve tasted with them, and they work! There are no better glassware engineers on earth than Riedel, the parent company of Spiegelau.

We haven’t tried Lenox or other contenders, and you can’t be sure without trying. So we’ll keep testing, and will keep you posted.
 
CAN’T WAIT TO TRY THE GLASSES?

 
If you don’t care about precision engineering but like the idea of different glass shapes for different beers, try:

TRADITIONAL BEER GLASSES
 

See the original chart at DailyInfographics.eu.

For a refreshing iced latte, just squeeze two drops of concentrate into your favorite type of milk. Photo courtesy Folgers.

Now, all we need to make a truly delicious iced latte—in less than a minute—is our milk of choice and a bottle of the new Folgers Iced Café Coffee Drink Concentrate. The bottle is so small, it fits into a shirt pocket.

Just fill a glass with milk (and ice, as desired), add two squeezes of coffee concentrate and stir.

Make it with 2% milk and you have a drink that tastes like a milkshake without the ice cream: so creamy, it’s hard to believe this is a low-calorie drink. The drinks are called lattes, but if you’re used to a skim latte, as we are, the taste with 2% or almond milk approaches a milkshake.
 
Folgers Iced Café Coffee Drink Concentrates debuted in four equally scrumptious flavors:

The two drops of concentrate (per eight ounces of milk) add just 10 calories to the milk calories. The suggested retail price for a squeeze bottle with 12 portions is $4.99.

The flavors are very lightly sweetened with Sucralose. It was so light that we, who normally don’t add sugar to coffee, really enjoyed it. Along with the creaminess of the milk, it heightens the “milkshake factor.”

You can glamorize your latte, of course, adding whipped cream, chocolate syrup, ice cream or whatever. But the drinks are just perfect as is.

You can find Folgers Iced Café at retailers nationwide (store locator) and can buy it online.

We’re adding this “instant latte” solution to our list of delicious stocking stuffers.