I’ve become addicted to these little drops. As far as addictions go, it’s pretty harmless.
I guess I probably won’t admit it if I had serious addition problems.
There were first produced in the 8th century by monks.
The candy is still made in the same ancient abbey of Flavigny.
It’s anise seed coated in sugar, and it’s simply delicious.
It takes an amazing fifteen days to complete the coating process and only the best natural ingredients are used.
It has just the right hint of mint with a touch of rose flavour.
I get them by the stacks from the Italian store.
They come in these very cute old-fashioned tin, I use the tins for all sorts of handy things afterwards.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know that I’m slightly obsessed with Parisian macarons.
Seriously, my life changed after I tasted Pierre Hermé’s magnificent macarons last September.
I’ve had plenty a macarons since then looking to capture that glorious taste, and so far, non have come close.
I spent a small fortune at the tea shop, their macarons are shipped straight from Paris but they obviously aren’t shipping from Pierre Hermé or Ladurée
A wise man once told me in frustration that if you wanted good fufu, you went to a good chop-bar in Kumasi.
After various failed attempts to find that perfect macaron here in my fair city, I said; touché.
Looks like I’m going to have to go back to Paris!
Yet, when I saw these macarons at Trader Joe’s for $4.99 a dozen, I just couldn’t pass up on them.
Of course I wasn’t expecting mind blowing macarons, I don’t even know what ‘mind blowing macarons’ are anymore.
The Trader Joe’s macarons come frozen in a box, there are two flavours, vanilla and chocolate – six of each.
For store-bought frozen macarons, they are ok.
The vanilla ones are lighter and crumbly, maybe crispy; the filling is soft and very sweet.
The chocolate is a firmer with a ganache filling which gives it a fuller flavour.
You obviously can’t compare them to the real deal, but they’ll do in a pinch.
I must confess; I’d never read a ‘style book’ before last Christmas!
Sure, I’d leafed through a couple and gawked at pictures, but I never really took the time to actually read one from cover to cover.
I got Amanda Brooks’ style book; I ♥Your Style: How to Define and Refine Your Personal Style as a Christmas present.
And I must say that I really liked it; it’s simple, communicative with basic helpful tips.
There are a lot of photos, and the styles are broken down in a way that makes them practicable.
I liked that it didn’t have a list of fashion dos and don’ts; rather it encourages developing personal style.
The text is simple, straight forward and classic, with many lovely pictures from various decades.
Six styles types are defined in the book; Classic, Bohemian, Minimal, Street, High Fashion and Eclectic.
With each type are pictures of style icons, and suggestions on how to make that look your own.
There are also tips on shopping from vintage to basic.
This book talks in simple terms how to find your personal style, make it interesting and love it.
It’s a short and easy read with nice classic and vintage pictures.
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On the exercise front; I ran another tiring five miles today.
If you wish to live vicariously through my miserable run, go here and hit play to see how I ran on a map – it’s pretty cool.
I haven’t done a ‘curious product’ post in a while; I guess I haven’t been as adventurous lately.
Today’s product isn’t really a curious product, it’s chocolate from Ghana; Dean and Deluca’s single origin 60% dark. I’ve been curious about single origin chocolates for a while; they seem to be everywhere these days. These chocolates are marketed by chocolatiers for being made from beans from a specific country, region or farm.
They’re packaged and sold as sets in most specialty supermarkets. It looks like while I wasn’t paying attention single origin products became hip. It’s not limited to wines anymore; it’s coffee, chocolate, tea, honey etc.
The idea is that food tastes unique to the region it is grown and perhaps that differing taste is lost when we mix it up. With this bar I also wanted to see if it tasted anything like the other made-in-Ghana bars I’ve tried. I assume those are made from wholly Ghanaian beans.
Chocolate from Ghana tastes different. For years people have tried to determine why chocolates made in Ghana tasted different from those made in… say… Hershey, PA But I really picked up the bar at Dean & Deluca because I liked the earthy brown and bright yellow packaging.
It doesn’t say on the package whether the beans are from a specific farm or region in Ghana, so the claim of single-origin is still a tad vague.
What I liked most were the ingredients…. simple and few; dark chocolate, sugar, vanilla and an emulsifier. The taste was surprisingly similar to the other Ghanaian cocoa bean bars I’ve had, the texture is smoother. It’s firm with a bold cocoa taste, it has slight fruity notes and a mellow nutty flavour.
It also has the same deep hints as Divine Chocolate’s 70% dark, except the Divine bar is richer (taste wise). It wasn’t too bitter or too sweet except for a mild bitter aftertaste that lingered. In all, it’s a delightfully centred bar; smooth, rich, dark with nutty hints. Maybe the proponents of single-origin-beans are on to something after all.
