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


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PRODUCT CHOICE: Chocolate Tea For Easter & Beyond


[1] Chocolate Earl Grey tea is available year-round, and in this special Easter packaging [all photos © David’s Tea).


[2] You can see why this tea is called Hot Chocolate. It’s pu’ehr tea with chocolate chips that melt into the brew.


[3] An Easter sampler with six different chocolate flavors. During the holidays, there’s a holiday sampler.


[4] Here’s another winner: Hazelnut Chocolate.

 

Here’s a calorie-free chocolate treat: chocolate-flavored tea.

David’s Tea has blended its fine loose teas with chocolate flavors.

They are available year-round, but for the Easter season there’s special Easter Egg packaging.

Plus, there’s a gift box with six chocolate flavors.

Yes, the teas do have the subtle and delicious taste of chocolate, and can be enjoyed hot or iced.
 
 
LIMITED EDITION EASTER PACKAGING

  • Limited Edition Chocolate Covered Strawberry Maté Tea
  • Limited Edition Chocolate Earl Grey Black Tea (photo #1)
  • Limited Edition Easter Chocolate Chip Cookie Black Tea
  • Limited Edition Easter Hot Chocolate Pu’erh Tea
  •  
    The Limited Edition Easter Sampler (photo #3) is a gift box that includes:

  • Chocolate Chili Chai
  • Chocolate Chip Cookie
  • Chocolate Earl Grey
  • Chocolate Macaroon
  • Hazelnut Chocolate
  • Hot Chocolate
  •  
     
    YEAR-ROUND PACKAGING

  • Chocolate Chip Cookie Black Tea
  • Chocolate Covered Strawberry Maté Tea
  • Chocolate Earl Grey Black Tea
  • Chocolate Macaroon Black Tea
  • Hazelnut Chocolate Pu’erh Tea (photo #4)
  • Hot Chocolate Pu’erh Tea (photo #2)
  • S’mores Chai Pu’erh Tea
  •  
     
    ETHICAL TEA PARTNERSHIP

    David’s Tea has partnered with the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP).

    The organization’s mission is to create a more fair, more sustainable tea industry for the tea farmers, the tea workers and the environment.

    They also created the David’s Tea Impact Fund, which enables meaningful change by supporting projects in countries where they source their tea.
     
     
    GET YOUR CHOCOLATE TEA!

    For a tea lover, for a calorie counter:

    This is a much more welcome Easter gift than sugar-laden Easter candy.

    In fact, the chocolate teas have so much flavor that we didn’t even need to sweeten the tea.

    Head to DavidsTea.com.
     
     
    > THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEA
     
    > THE HISTORY OF TEA

     

     
      

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    TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: Mason Dixie Biscuits, Scones & Sweet Rolls

    We were grumpy because there was no decent bakery in our neighborhood. Then fate intervened and brought us…

    Premium biscuits, scones and sweet rolls from Mason Dixie Foods.

    The line, which is sold frozen, is simply wonderful. No bakery could do a better job.

    Quality and freshness are key to good baked goods, and freezine helps to keep them that way.

    “That’s why our bakers handpick the freshest, natural pantry ingredients and why we freeze our products, locking in all the goodness without any additives or preservatives,” says Mason Dixie

    The line, which is sold frozen, is simply wonderful.No bakery could do a better job.

    “We’re about good, clean baking: for the people, by the people. Because when we eat good, we feel good. When we feel good, we live good. And when we live good, it’s all good.”

    “So go ahead!” she says. “Butter that biscuit, crack into that scone, and lick those sticky bun fingers clean!”

    Thank you Ayeshah: We will!
     
     
    THE MASON DIXIE LINE

    The products add something special to breakfast, lunch and dinner.

    They’re terrific for a coffee or tea break.

    And they also make one heck of a brunch or tea party.

    We loved everything we tried; and damn the carbs. We’ll be a frequent customer.

    (Online orders have free shipping!)
     
     
    BEAUTIFUL BISCUITS

    “What makes a perfect biscuit?” asks Mason Dixie. “Ice-cold butter, fresh buttermilk, clean, simple ingredients, and a lot of practice!”

    If you’ve made biscuits from scratch, you know the challenge of getting that perfect texture.

    “Ours took years to perfect, multiple broken machines, and lots of visits back to the drawing board. We went out of our way to unravel mass manufacturing processes to make our biscuits the right way,” notes Ayeshah.

    “They even have the bumps, the nooks and crannies and bumps,” she continues.

    Imperfections make for biscuit perfection. The biscuits are as close to handmade as you can buy (photos #1, #2 and #3).

    We’re a biscuit-aholic, and now that we’ve tasted Mason-Dixie’s, we’ll never again be without an assortment in the freezer.

    The tough part is decided among:

  • Buttermilk Biscuits
  • Cheddar Biscuits
  • Cheddar-Chive Biscuits
  • Garlic Parmesan Biscuits
  • Jalapeño Cheddar Biscuits
  • Pumpkin Spice Biscuits
  • Savory Herb Biscuits
  •  
     
    SCRUMPTIOUS SCONES

    Scones are some of the hardest pastries* to make. They can be moist and crumbly, or they can be unpleasantly dry.

    Mason Dixie got them just right (photo #4), using the biscuit dough and the best fruits, chocolates, and spices.

    Even the Queen would be proud, says Mason Dixie.

    Have them all:

  • Blueberry Lemon Scones
  • Chocolate Chip Scones
  • Cranberry Orange Scones
  •  
     
    SATISFYING SWEET ROLLS

    The sweet rolls started out as a post-lunch treat for the staff, made by the team from biscuit dough scraps. They were so popular that they became a new product line (photo #5).

    The fillings and icings are made with only the simplest, cleanest ingredients—unlike those chemically-enhanced “rolls” you get at the mall, says Mason Dixie.

    Like the other Mason Dixie products, they contain no oils, no stabilizers, no artificial enhancements, only the real stuff .

    How can you resist:

  • Cinnamon Rolls
  • Sticky Buns
  •  
     
    GET YOURS!

    Here’s a store locator.

    Or shop online: There’s free shipping!

     
    ________________

    *Scones are classified as small pastries or quick breads. The originals were baked on a griddle.

    A quick bread is any bread leavened with a chemical leavening agent, rather than a natural one like yeast or sourdough starter. Quick breads include many cakes, brownies and some cookies, as well as banana bread, beer bread, biscuits, cornbread, muffins, pancakes, scones and soda bread.

     


    [1] Tea, blood orange and a buttermilk biscuit (all photos © Mason Dixie Foods).


    [2] Bacon and eggs with a cheddar biscuit.


    [3] Fried chicken with a jalapeño cheddar biscuit.


    [4] Blueberry lemon scones: tender and moist, not dry and crumbly.


    [5] Sticky buns, warm from the oven. You can add as much or as little icing as you like.


    [6] You can’t have too many boxes, for biscuits at breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee breaks.

     
    The main difference between a pastry and a cake is that a cake has a bread-like consistency (called the crumb in both breads and cakes).

    A scone is not a biscuit. A biscuit should have a soft, light, flaky crumb (interior). A scone does not flake—it crumbles—and is slightly dryer than a biscuit. It should not be dried out, disintegrating into crumbs when a piece is broken off.

    In the U.K., the correct pronunciation of scone is skon, to rhyme with gone; not the American pronunciation skone, that rhymes with bone.

    Here’s more about scones.

      

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    FOOD FUN: Easter Cheese


    [1] Need an “Easter cheese?” Put bunny ears or a tail on a wheel of it (photo © Jasper Hill Farm).


    [2] How about surrounding the cheese board with small foil-wrapped Easter eggs? Chocolate and cheese are a good pairing (photo © Murray’s Cheese).

     

    Turn a great cheese into the Easter Bunny (photo #1).

    That’s what Jasper Hill Farm did with one of our favorite cheeses, Moses Sleeper, a bloomy-rind wheel made from pasteurized cow’s milk.

    Jasper Hill Farm is an artisanal cheese maker in Vermont, and all of its 15 cheeses are glorious.

    They were a Nibble Top Pick Of The Week.

    Moses Sleeper is named after a Revolutionary War scout who was killed while defending Northeast Kingdom’s Bayley Hazen Military Road.

    (Bayley Hazen is one of Jasper Hill’s famous blue cheeses.)

    Moses Sleeper has a classic bloomy rind and underneath that delicious rind, a gooey, milky core.

    One of our treats during the pandemic has been a monthly order of their great cheeses.
     
     
    IS THERE A SPECIAL CHEESE FOR EASTER?

    In some countries, a homemade cheese is served at Easter dinner.

    These cheeses are easy to make at home:

  • Cirak, Slovak Easter Cheese
  • Hrudka, Ukranian Easter Cheese
  •  
    Otherwise, if you’ll be serving cheese at Easter, treat yourself to the best—like the cheeses from Jasper Hill Farm.
     
     
    > THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHEESE: A GLOSSARY
     
     
    > THE HISTORY CHEESE

     

     
      

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