250 tastes
From
MICHAEL LOO@1:123/140 to
ALL on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 20:24:44
Rao's Homemade All Natural, Premium Quality marinara
sauce (an all-purpose tomato sauce) PRODUCT OF ITALY.
Ingredients: Italian tomatoes, olive oil, fresh onions,
salt, fresh garlic, fresh basil, black pepper, oregano.
I really wanted to hate this, with all the baggage it
comes with - all that natural, imported, blah blah, and
the fact that it has one of the most hyped names in
New York restauration, stamped with the approval of such
odd bedfellows as Woody Allen, Warren Buffett, and, yes,
various Trump people. Okay. It's probably the best jarred
tomato sauce I've had - it's almost as good as mine on a
good day, perhaps a little acidy and a bit shy on the oil,
but it is very good. Plus it doesn't have any cheese in it.
Wild Harmony Farm maple syrup - from the trees on the farm
where my recent pork chops and chicken came from. Standard in
every way, but on the thin side. And on the expensive side,
Beringer Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 14 - medium ruby, good color
not quite borne out on the palate. Meaty, plummy, Between your
modern lightweight Pinot and and the rich old-style Pinot,
real wine; but a little less concentrated. A return to the
famous old Beringer, perhaps, looking back to before the brand
was corrupted these many tears by cheap sweet swilling wines
such as the infamous white Zin (though better and more costly
than most of those) and the sweetish mass-market whites. I
thought a great deal at $15, but it turns out it cost almost
double that, so not so much.
World Market Bold 99% cacao dark chocolate - quite pleasant
all around, a rather hard melt, a little sweeter than I'd
have imagined. No nonsense chocolate. When melted for hot
chocolate, a bit of acid and coffeeishness came out.
Al Dente egg fettuccine - for like eight bucks a pound, I
would expect better. It was perfectly okay pasta but no
better than the low-priced spread.
Majella Shiraz 15 (Coonawarra) - rather acrid and appley;
I found it kind of poisonous and was sorely disappointed, as
this is a well-regarded house.
Zapp's Hotter 'n Hot Jalapeno potato chips - reasonable
heat, some real Jalapeno flavor, good crunch of thick-cut
chips. The bad and ugly - these should have been called
Saltier 'n Salt. Also, the frying oil was not, shall we
say, in its first youth.
Zapp's original flavor potato chips - nice and robust,
with good potatoiness and without the flaw of old oil.
Pretty standard, nothing to seek out specially. Too salty
by maybe half.
Ocean Spray blueberry-juice-infused Craisins - pretty much
what you'd expect, tasty enough, though. I was hoping for
a head-scratcher, like, oh, what's that. These were, gee,
cranberries with blueberry flavor, what fun is that, and
then a few bites later, gee, I wish these were dried
blueberries, or regular Craisins for that matter. A
strange chemically aftertaste. Funny, because back in the
day, Cran-Blu was one of the most successful (to my palate,
not commercially) of the early juice blends.
Ocean Spray strawberry-flavored Craisins - this was a giant
why bother. The strawberry flavor was woefully artificial
and warred with any natural cranberriness one might expect
of Craisins. Very sugary, so only the most self-deceiving
health nut would imagine any real benefit from these.
Smashmallow root beer float flavor (1 snacking mallow)
- pretty weird. If you remember what root beer
Flav-r-Straws were like, well, you've got it. Not a
great snack, not substantial but not pleasantly airy
either. The slightly herbal aspect did not add.
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