And everybody wins, because when you go to the website to enter the contest, you can download a $1.00 coupon good for any of McCann’s healthy and delicious oatmeal products—from the elegant metal canister of traditional steel-cut oats to 5-minute steel-cut oats, 3-minute rolled oats and instant oats. We’ll be reviewing the entire line in January, “Healthy Foods Month” at THE NIBBLE.

If you like collectibles, McCann’s has just introduced a very limited edition Cookie Jar and set of 4 “Oatmeal Mugs.” Only 1,000 have been produced, so if you’re a McCann, a McCann’s fan or a collectible enthusiast, run to get them before they sell out.

Give these delicious, crunchy-textured steel-cut oats to friends who have only known softer rolled oats as “oatmeal.”

• Enter the contest, get the $1.00 coupon and check out the collectibles on the McCann’s website.
• Review the health benefits of oatmeal.

It’s effortless to save the world by drinking
organic, Fair Trade coffee. Photo by
Ermek | IST.

You’d think this would be great news, but just 0.6% of the coffee sold in the major consuming countries is organic certified, and even less is Fair Trade certified.

In honor of National Fair Trade Month, we’ve reviewed some of our favorite organic and Fair Trade coffees. Agricultural products can be organic and Fair Trade, organic or Fair Trade (obviously, the vast majority of foods are neither). What do these terms mean? In brief:

• Organic farming and products help the environment and mankind by refraining from use of chemical pesticides and by conserving the land for wildlife, by soil conservation and reforesting.

• Fair Trade practices and products help the farmers by guaranteeing them fair payment for their crops. This enables them to provide education and medical care for their families, among other basic human needs.

Yet of the $18 billion spent on coffee in the U.S. last year, the tiniest fraction went to organic and Fair Trade coffee. You can make a difference while enjoying an excellent cup of java.

• Discover delicious organic & Fair Trade coffee beans sourced and roasted by artisan roasters in the full review. (More than half of our coffees are certified kosher, too.)
• Learn your coffee terms in our Coffee Glossary.
• Where did coffee come from—and more importantly, how did it turn into the beverage we enjoy today? Read the history of coffee.
• Trying to cut down on your daily coffee expenditures in this economy? Read our money-saving tips.

• See some of our especially tasty diet foods. 

Don’t save your infused oils only for salads. Use them in marinades, as basting oils, and as anointing oils.

Drizzle them on cooked fish, poultry, meats, and vegetables, including potatoes.

It’s fun to have a variety of flavored oils to work with—garlic, basil, rosemary, wasabi, lemon, and jalapeño oils, for example.

Since oils begin to lose their freshness six months after the bottle is first opened, the more often you use them and the more frequently you replace them, the more lively-tasting they’ll be.

One of our favorite companies, Boyajian, sells small bottles of flavored olive oil that are a better way to buy flavored oils if you don’t use large quantities.

How about a deconstructed salad dressing?

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

[1] Basil and garlic are two popular infused EVOO flavors, but there are numerous other flavors including the “hot” group of chipotle, jalapeño, wasabi, and more (both photos © Boyajian).

[2] If you’re a fan of balsamic vinegar, try this one: It’s enhanced with natural cherry flavor.

[2] Tim Tams are available in the cooler months only. Why? The chocolate coating melts!

[3] You can find different flavors of Tim Tam online, including on Amazon (photo © Tony Cenicola | The New York Times).

We recently received an invitation to meet Gail Simmons, Special Projects Manager with Food & Wine Magazine who gained national (international? interplanetary?) visibility as a judge on our favorite TV food show, “Top Chef.”

She was the celebrity guest at a debut party for Pepperidge Farm’s Tam Tam cookies—the top-selling cookie in Australia, now available in the U.S., and apparently a favorite of Gail’s.

You can find them exclusively at Target stores from October through March (when they can be shipped in cool comfort without hot containers melting the chocolate).

Editor’s Note: Since this article was published, Tim Tams have become available online, including on Amazon.

If you like Kit Kat and Twix bars, these are bigger, plumper, more sumptuous versions. Crisp chocolate cookie layers are filled with chocolate crème or richer caramel, then enrobed in even richer chocolate.

> February 16th is National Tim Tam Day.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF TIM TAMS

Tim Tam cookies were originally made by Arnott’s Biscuits Limited of Australia, introduced in 1964. They were named by Ross Arnott, who attended the 1958 Kentucky Derby and decided that the name of the winning horse, Tim Tam, was perfect for a planned new line of biscuits.

The cookies are a huge favorite Down Under (the brand is now owned by Pepperidge Farm).

The biscuit (the word for cookie in Australia and the U.K.) was created by Ian Norris, an employee who took a world trip in 1958, looking for inspiration for new products.

While in Britain, he discovered the Penguin biscuit, and decided to try to “make a better one.”

The result: two malted biscuits separated by a light hard chocolate cream filling and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate.

Since the 2000s Arnott’s has released many different varieties of the product, some as limited edition runs. Varieties include caramel, chocolate, chocolate orange, dark chocolate, dark chocolate mint, double coat, honeycomb, and white chocolate. and choc orange.

In 2004, Arnott’s caused a controversy when they released limited edition varieties flavored with liqueurs: Tim Tam Tia Maria and Kahlua Mint Slice.

The Australian Drug Foundation suggested that selling the biscuits in supermarkets was “potentially dangerous” by “normalizing” the taste of alcohol for children. Arnott’s responded that a customer “would need to consume your body weight of biscuits every hour to reach a blood-alcohol content of .05” [source].

Pepperidge Farm, a sister company of Arnott’s, began importing the Tim Tam to the United States in 2008. Tim Tams are still “Made in Australia” and packaging in the U.S. carries the slogan, “Australia’s Favorite Cookie.”
 
 
TASTING THE TIM TAMS

The more voluptuous Caramel Tim Tams outshine their Chocolate Creme sisters, but if we had never met Caramel, we’d have been happy taking Chocolate Crème home.

 
Now, some of you have heard about the upcoming FTC “blogger disclosure law,” actually part of the new FTC Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, that is scheduled to go into effect on December 1st.

Among other things, it requires those who endorse products in the media, including blogs and social media, to disclose if they have received the products for free, work for the company, are an MD, Ph.D., or other “Dr.” (if they call upon their expertise as a doctor), etc.

At THE NIBBLE, we’re already anticipating using disclosures like, “We received these four flavors for free, and bought these 6 flavors at our local supermarket.” (THE NIBBLE gets some free samples, but we spend far more buying products plus the ancillary products needed to cook, bake, and otherwise prepare many of the free samples.)

In the case of Tim Tam: We got them for free but enjoyed them so much, that we would gladly have paid for them and certainly will go out and pay for the dark chocolate versions. These are not artisan baked goods, but they are one heck of a comfort food fix.