THE NIBBLE BLOG: Products, Recipes & Trends In Specialty Foods


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RECIPE: Meet Your Matcha With A Green Tea Latte

With matcha tea, it is easy being green (photo © l’’Âge de Thé)

Green tea latte (matcha latte), a favorite coffee bar drink, is easy to make at home. Enjoy it hot or cold.

Matcha is a powder of finely ground green tea leaves. It has a vibrant green color due to the high concentration of chlorophyll and contains ten times as many antioxidants as regular green tea. Matcha is the tea used in the acclaimed Japanese tea ceremony, cha no yu.

Matcha powder is not steeped the way tea leaves are, but is whisked into a froth. Some think the beverage resembles warm tea ice cream.

Matcha is also used to flavor other foods, from smoothies and baked goods (cupcakes, tea cakes) to pots de creme.

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TIP OF THE DAY: Cookie Cutter Sandwiches

You don’t have to be a kid to love these special sandwiches. In fact, they’ll be a hit for Father’s Day or for parties in general.

Using thin-sliced whole wheat bread, build your favorite sandwich. Center the ingredients away from the edges so that you don’t waste much when cutting the shape. Then use jumbo cookie cutters—flowers, hearts, gingerbread men, stars or any theme—to cut out sandwiches.

If you’re using salad fillings (egg, tuna, etc.), cut the bread and lettuce first, then add the fillings—or else they’ll squirt out when the sandwich is cut.

For an added touch, garnish the top of the sandwich with a pickle slice or other pickled vegetable (we love the pickled smoked okra from Rick’s Picks), or an olive.

 

Serve a ham sandwich that looks like a hog
with this pig cookie cutter. Photo courtesy
Old River Road.

Find more sandwich ideas in our Gourmet Bread Section.

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FATHER’S DAY: Last-Minute Gift Certificate

You can print out or email a cheese gift
certificate at any time on Father’s Day.
Photo courtesy ArtisanalCheese.com.

Uh-oh: Still don’t have a gift for Father’s Day? Don’t have time to run out and buy one?

Here’s a great solution from Artisanal Cheese, one of the country’s finest cheese purveyors:

A gift certificate!

All you have to do is print it out online and hand it to Dad (BYO envelope, gift box or a ribbon to tie a “scroll”).

Artisanal’s Cheese Gift Certificates can be used towards the purchase of cheese, a cheese gift basket, cheese accessories (books, cutting boards and knives, for example) and Artisanal’s superb cheesecake.

  • Get your gift certificate (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to print out—or select the email option).
  • Find cheese reviews, recipes and an entire wheel of cheese education in THE NIBBLE’s Gourmet Cheese Section.

 

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TIP OF THE DAY: Gin Martini

Vodka martinis overtook the original gin martini back in the 1990s. The trend was started by Bond, James Bond, who liked vodka martinis shaken, not stirred (and he picked that tip up from the writer Somerset Maugham).
 
But new artisan gins are providing a reason to return to the original.

Vodka is a simple, unflavored distillation. Gin is the opposite—so many different aromatics go into creating a fine gin, that each brand is very different from the next (see the components of gin).

With very complex flavors—as much as any fine wine—fine gin, like fine Scotch, is delicious straight up.

It also makes a better Martini. For Father’s Day, we’re trying a new small-batch gin, G’Vine. The word is a contraction of gin and the French word vigne, grapevine—for this gin is made in France from grapes instead of juniper berries.

Make artisan gin part of your weekend celebration. Even if you’re not celebrating with your father, you can toast in his honor.

Learn more about gin and find martini recipes:

A Gibson is a martini garnished with cocktail onions instead of olives or lemon peel (photo © Philip Pellat | iStock Photo).

  • Classic gin recipes: Gimlet, Gin Fizz, Gin & Tonic, plus adaptations like a Gin Mojito and a Bloody Snapper (the Bloody Mary made with gin instead of vodka) 

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PRODUCT: The Wine Diaper

Flying with wine? Consider a Wine
Diaper. Photo courtesy WineDiaper.com.

Are you a wine lover who needs to fly with a bottle of wine (or whiskey or other bottle larger than three ounces)?

Some people remember a gentler time when you’d just hand-carry precious bottles into the cabin and tuck them into the overhead bin.

Today, when any liquid is classified as a potential bomb ingredient, wine needs to be checked with the luggage, subjected to freezing temperatures and yes, breakage.

To all of those who’ve said, “We just wrap the wine bottles in our tee-shirts and have never have a problem”: We wish them continued good fortune.

For the rest of us, the Wine Diaper is an alternative to bulkier, padded leak-proof wine totes.

What exactly is a Wine Diaper?

The Wine Diaper is an almost flat, heavy plastic wine bag with a built-in handle. The plastic is lined with a hyperabsorbent diaper-like material that cradles your precious bottle and catches any leaks (in the non-pressurized baggage compartment, air pressure can force some wine through the cork). Even if the bottle breaks in shipment, the Wine Diaper’s manufacturer claims it will contain everything within its freezer bag-type seal.

The price is three bags for $15, 10 bags for $40. Unless there’s an accident, the bags can be reused in perpetuity (or at least, for many trips). Find out more at WineDiaper.com.

While the design is a bit cutesy, it can serve as a wine gift bag (be sure to include a bottle of wine).

Learn more about wine in our Wine Section, including wine and cheese pairings and identifying the aromas and flavors of wine.

 

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