The new Jif Natural Peanut Butter Spread is 90% peanuts; with sugar, palm oil, salt and molasses as the only other added ingredients, it is delish. It also has half the sodium of regular stabilized peanut butter. MSRP $2.70/18 ounce jar and $4.15/28 ounce jar.

Reduced Fat Jif is 60% peanuts and has eight grams less fat per serving than the regular Jif To Go. It also has corn syrup solids, soy protein, sugar, salt, molasses, fully hydrogenated vegetable oils, magnesium oxide, ferric phosphate, niacinamide, copper sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride and folic acid. No surprise, we happily kept the Jiff Natural, and gave the Reduced Fat product to reduced-fat-buying friends. Available in 6-pack To Go cups, MSRP $2.99-$3.19, and 18-ounce jars.

Natural Jif and Jif To Go Reduced Fat PB spread. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

• See more of our favorite peanut butter brands.
• Your friends and family will flip for these fab, award-winning peanut butter sandwich recipes from Jif’s sandwich contest.

Yuzu. Photo courtesy Wikimedia.

If you didn’t have a chance to celebrate National Martini Day yesterday, make a splash this weekend with a Yuzu Daiquiri. Whozu, you say? If you haven’t yet discovered the joys of the Asian citrus yuzu, it may well become a favorite in sauces, beverages, desserts and more.

Yuzu is believed to be a hybrid of the sour mandarin orange and Ichang papeda citrus, related to the kaffir lime. The fruit looks somewhat like a tiny grapefruit, and tastes like a relative, with a lot more sparkle (think grapefruit mixed with exotic citrus).

Buy yuzu juice at your specialty food store, Asian market or online; and try this recipe, courtesy of Riingo restaurant in New York City.

YUZU MARTINI RECIPE

Ingredients

Learn more about yuzu.
  

Shaken or stirred? Who cares—it’s ‘Tini Time. Photo courtesy of European Sources Direct.

First, that bit about James Bond liking his martinis “shaken, not stirred,” a variation actually called a Bradford (as you can tell, the concept didn’t originate with 007). The traditional way to create a martini is to mix all of the ingredients in a mixing glass, not shake them in a cocktail shaker, so as not to “bruise the gin.” What, you say? Yes, the shaking action breaks up the ice and adds more water, slightly weakening the drink and altering the taste. Evidently, British gin martini drinkers take their mixology seriously: No less than W. Somerset Maugham declared that, “Martinis should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously one on top of the other.”

So what does this mean for 007, bruising (or weakening) his martini? We’ll have to defer to experts to comment on that.

• Read the history of the martini and traditional martini recipes, including the Gin Martini, the Dirty Martini, the 50-50, the Gibson, the Perfect Martini and the Vodka Martini.
• Throw tradition to the winds with fun martini recipes: Chai Martini, Greentini (green tea), Lemon Meringue Pie Martini, Pomegranate Martini, Watermelon Martini and numerous other ‘tinis.

O.K., get moving. It’s ‘Tini TIme.