If you’re a coconut lover who enjoys a good cup of coffee, there’s a limited-edition flavor that hits the spot: Starbucks Toasted Coconut Mocha.

Available in ground coffee and K-cups, it’s flavored naturally and delivers a rounded, toasty coconut flavor.

It’s delicious hot or iced, and the iced coffee makes a delicious float with a scoop of chocolate, coffee, or vanilla ice cream.

If you can’t find it locally, check Amazon.
 
 
> The different types of coffee: a glossary.

> The history of coffee.

> The history of coconuts.

Toasted Coconut Mocha K-Cups. Ground beans are also available (photo © Starbucks).

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[1] Something different for National Piña Colada Day: a Beer Piña Colada (all photos © Radeberger Grupper USA).

[2] When you’re having guests, chill some Juicy Pineapple Hefeweizen and its sibling Hefeweizens: Grapefruit, Passionfruit, Pomegranate, and Wild Cherry.

[3] Even if you can’t get to a tropical beach, have a Juicy Pineapple Hefeweizen in your yard and close your eyes.

July 10th is National Piña Colada Day, one of our favorite drinks. But here’s an interesting take on it: a Beer Piña Colada.

It’s made with pineapple beer, specifically, Schöfferhofer Juicy Pineapple Hefeweizen, a 50/50 combination of lager beer and pineapple juice.

The beer is a refreshing blend of tropical sweet and tart flavors, and we enjoy drinking it right from the bottle. (There are also grapefruit and pomegranate flavors.)

But for National Piña Colada Day this year, we went “juicy” with pineapple beer.

Thanks to Schöfferhofer’s for the inspired recipe.

> The history of the Piña Colada and the original recipe.

> The history of beer.

> The different types of beer: a glossary.

More beer cocktails, a.k.a. beertails:

> Beer Mimosa and Michelada.

> Beer Bloody Mary.
 
 
RECIPE: BEER PIÑA COLADA

A classic Piña Colada is typically a blender drink: 2 ounces white rum, 1 ounce of coconut cream, 1 ounce of heavy cream, 6 ounces of fresh pineapple juice, and ½ cup crushed ice, pulsed for 15 seconds and garnished with a fresh pineapple wedge and a maraschino cherry.

This recipe substitutes Juicy Pineapple Hefeweizen for the pineapple juice and uses evaporated milk instead of heavy cream (but you can use cream if it’s easier).

If you can’t find Schöfferhofer Juicy Pineapple Hefeweizen, you can make your own with a 50/50 mix of lager or wheat beer and pineapple juice.
 
Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. PLACE the ice cubes in a blender with the coconut cream, rum, and evaporated milk. Pulse or blend to a smooth consistency or as desired. Pour into a tall glass.

2. TOP off the glass with the Pineapple Hefeweizen and stir. Garnish and serve.
 
 
GET YOUR JUICY PINEAPPLE HEFEWEIZEN

> Here’s a store locator.

> You can also buy it online.

*Note that coconut cream is not the same product as cream of coconut. Cream of coconut is blended with sugar, and is similar in sweetness and thickness to sweetened condensed milk.

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Forgot to buy the beef? No problem. Forgot to thaw the meat? No problem. Only need a small amount? No problem. Pound Of Ground Crumbles® is here to solve the dinner dilemma. No worries!

Pound of Ground was created by a working mom to help ease the dinner dilemmas of moms everywhere.

Pound of Ground eliminates the need to thaw or plan ahead. The ground beef Crumbles sit snug in the freezer until you need them. Then, they go straight from the freezer to the stovetop and cook for 7-8 minutes.

Why does it cook so quickly? Because small pieces cook faster.

There’s zero thaw time. You just pour out the amount you need, and return the remainder to the freezer.

A great feature of Pound of Ground Crumbles is that you can use as much or as little as you want. The remainder goes back to the freezer in a sealed bag.

With Pound Of Ground Crumbles, there’s no:

 
Why has no one thought of this before?

There are three varieties:

 
 
WHAT KIND OF BEEF IS POUND OF GROUND?

Pound Of Ground is 100% pure all-natural (minimally processed, no artificial ingredients) frozen uncooked ground beef.

Raw beef is ground and flash-frozen at peak quality. The beef comes from American cattle, harvested and produced in a single USDA-inspected facility in Michigan for product traceability.

The brand was created to bring high-quality ground beef to consumers in a convenient form without sacrificing quality.

A box or two in your freezer will make dinner a breeze.
 
 
WAYS TO USE POUND OF GROUND CRUMBLES

Pound of Ground was designed for favorite dishes that use crumbled meat like:

 
> Check out these recipes.
 
 
GET YOUR POUND OF GROUND CRUMBLES

> Here’s the store locator (look in in the frozen meat section).

> Check out the company website.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF BEEF

Humankind has been eating beef since prehistoric times. The ancestor of today’s cattle is the now-extinct auroch (images #5 and #6), the wild ox of Europe, a primitive bovine that is pictured in the earliest cave paintings.

Aurochs were black in color, six feet high at the shoulder, and had forward-curving horns. They inhabited Asia, Europe, and North Africa

The auroch was domesticated around 10,500 years ago, around 8000 B.C.E. Domesticated cattle were in demand not only for beef but for milk and leather.

Wild aurochs were a popular beast to battle in the Roman arenas. They lived for many centuries beyond Roman times. However, they were overhunted and by the 13th century, the once widespread aurochs existed only in small numbers in Eastern Europe.

The last recorded aurochs died in 1627.

While the ancient ancestor of bovines is extinct, its DNA lives on in today’s domesticated cattle [source].

Fast-forward to the beginnings of America. Spanish explorers likely introduced the first longhorn cattle to America, roughly around 1534. Around 1623, British colonists brought Devon cattle.

French and English colonists brought many new breeds across the pond, including Aberdeen Angus, Ayrshire, Charolais, Herefords, and Shorthorns, to name a few. Some of them were sought for dairying, others for their meat.

Beef wasn’t a significant part of the American diet until after the Civil War.

Prior to the Civil War, poultry and wild game were the main meats on American tables. Cattle were more widely used for dairy, butter, hides, and as draft animals.

After the Civil War, cattle began to move further west with the population. Cattlemen discovered that many Spanish missions had already amassed large herds.

[1] Pound Of Ground Crumbles are available in three varieties: Original, With Onion, and Hearty-Sized Pieces (all photos © JBS Foods Group).

[2] From freezer to pan: Just pour out what you need.

[3] It’s easy to make family favorites.

[4] You can also discover new recipes on the company website, like this Beef Stroganoff.

[5] Detail of ancient man with an auroch. See the full illustration here (photo © José María Galán El Pais).

[6] An auroch depicted in the famous Lascaux cave paintings. Julius Caesar, in describing its size and strength, compared it to an elephant. Read the fascinating article (photo © Creation).

Fattened cattle were transported by train to the midwest, where they were slaughtered and shipped via refrigerator cars to the East, where most of the American population lived.

The Industrial Age saw the mechanization of the beef industry, in the raising, slaughtering, and processing of beef.

The production line emerged, beginning with feedlots that were densely packed with cattle.

As the feedlots became overcrowded, the need for heavy antibiotic usage* spiked to keep cattle healthy. Advances in bioengineering created synthetically grown hormones as well as steroids that could be used to increase beef output as well as dairy.

Post-World War II, advances in bioengineering created synthetically grown hormones as well as steroids that could be used to increase beef and dairy output.

But awareness of the means by which cattle were raised and handled led to the beginning of consumer demand for natural and organic beef.

The incipient demand for organic beef by health-aware consumers began in the 1950s in response to ranchers giving growth hormones to cattle. It led to the modern awareness of the benefits of USDA-certified organic beef.

In addition, the demand for better treatment of animals, for the health benefits of grass-fed as opposed to grain-fed beef, and for eco-friendly and environmentally conscious farming has grown as we learn more and more about our relationship with the ecosystem [source].

Grass-grazing, free-range cattle now live as the ancient aurochs lived. For those who can afford organic beef, it somewhat closes the loop to the healthier diets our ancestors knew.
 
 
________________

*The first antibiotic, arsphenamine, also known as Salvarsan, was introduced at the beginning of the 1910s. It was the first modern antimicrobial agent. Penicillin did not appear until 1941.

†There is no USDA definition of “natural” as regards food products, including cattle. On the other hand, USDA Organic certification is highly regulated. It verifies that livestock are raised according to the USDA organic regulations throughout their lives. These include: (1) Unborn animals must be managed organically from the last third of gestation (mammals) or the second day of life (poultry). (2) Animals must be allowed year-round access to the outdoors except under specific conditions (e.g., inclement weather). (3) They must be raised on certified organic land meeting all organic crop production standards. (4) They must be raised per animal health and welfare standards. (5) They must be fed 100% certified organic feed. (6) They must be managed without antibiotics, added growth hormones, mammalian or avian byproducts, or other prohibited feed ingredients.

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