Rickland Orchards Greek Yogurt Granola Bars

As you know, I eat a lot of snacks, and in particular, I like to have different types of bars on hand for whenever I find myself out and about, and needing something quick and easy to munch on.

I was intrigued by the granola bars from Rickland Orchards, as they are all coated or drizzled with various flavors of greek yogurt.  Basically, taking the idea that people often eat greek yogurt topped with granola, and turing it into a portable form.  Rickland Orchards also makes greek yogurt coated pretzels, almonds, granola bites, and caramels.

Blueberry Acai.

"Two nutritional rockstars - blueberry, acai - plus oats, granola and a Greek yogurt coating."

The bar base is made of honey roasted granola, soy crisp nuggets, and almonds sweetened with brown rice syrup and honey, plus dried blueberries in this case.  Drizzled on top, and completely coating the backside, is the "white" Greek yogurt coating.  I'm not sure where the acai was, as it wasn't listed in the ingredients.

The granola was basic sweetened oats, unremarkable.  I didn't care for the taste, nor the texture, of the soy crisps.  The crunch of the whole almonds was a nice touch.

But the real issue here was the sweetness.  It was just out of control sweet.  The base was too sweet, and the "Greek yogurt coating" was way, way too sweet.  I couldn't manage more than a few bites.

Strawberry.

Next I tried the strawberry, basically exactly the same as the blueberry acai.  The bar was again made of granola and soy crisps, sweetened with brown rice syrup and honey.  The top was again drizzled in "Greek yogurt coating", and the entire bottom was coated in it.  It was again cloyingly sweet, and the Greek yogurt coating's first ingredient is sugar.  The strawberry flavor came from "strawberry shapes", made from apple puree, strawberry puree, and strawberry juice.

I was starting to feel a bit deceived.  Yes, it did contain "strawberry" I guess, and technically some yogurt, but, not exactly what I expected from an "orchard".  It did contain 7 grams of protein and only 8 grams of sugar, so not quite as unbalanced as I expected, given the taste and ingredients.

Pumpkin Spice.

During the fall season, when Pumpkin Spice was popping up everywhere, even Rickland Orchards made a Pumpkin Spice bar.

It started with the same base of honey roasted granola and soy crisp nuggets, sweetened with honey and brown rice syrup, with almonds, pumpkin seeds, and dried pumpkin.

This bar didn't taste nearly as sweet as the others, I think due to the pumpkin seeds and their slight bitterness.  The spicing also helped cut the sweetness, and did indeed have classic spices you'd associate with pumpkin: cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg.

It was better than the others in that it wasn't as sweet and actually had some interesting flavors in it.  But, it was really hard, not nearly as soft as the others, and almost difficult to bite into.  The best of the "white" yogurt coated ones, but, I still wouldn't want another.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter.

Next I moved on to the chocolate greek yogurt coated ones.  Yes, for real.

"Dark Chocolate Flavored Greek Yogurt" was the coating on this one.  Um, what?  It tasted like chocolate, but I have no idea where the yogurt was.

Anyway.  Still made from a base of soy crisps and oats, with a few large chunks of peanut mixed in.  I liked the peanuts, but I've realized that I really just can't stand soy crisps.

It wasn't too sweet like the others, so that was nice.  And chocolate and peanut butter are obviously a great combination.

But ... I still didn't like it.  Soy crisps.  Meh.  I need to stop trying products with soy crisps.

Caramel with Sea Salt and Dark Chocolate Flavored Greek Yogurt.

Another one with the magical "dark chocolate flavored greek yogurt".  Again, yes, it was coated in chocolate, but I failed to detect any chocolate flavor.  There was a secondary drizzle of caramel as well, sweet, but not quite as cloying as the white yogurt bars.

The base again had whole almonds along with granola and soy crisps.  The almonds helped mask the soy crisps flavor.

Again, I just don't care for the product in general due to the soy crisps and the sweetness, but, the caramel and chocolate were at least decent. 

Taro Milk Tea from R & B Cafe

Do you remember when I went through a taro milk tea phase a while ago?  You may recall a slew of reviews, all of fairly mediocre bubble tea, concluding with me deciding that basic Quickly is about the best I can find.  Well, the craving for bubble tea hit me again, and I was delighted to discover that R & B Cafe, located just a few blocks from my office, has bubble tea, and incredibly customizable bubble tea at that!

R & B Cafe offers online ordering via eat24, including through the mobile PayPal app, which I did as I headed out the door, hoping my order would be ready as I walked in.

As an aside, the PayPal app is much more stable now, it no longer crashes like when I ordered a taro milk tea from Chai Yo (spoiler: Chai Yo's version is better than R & B), although my experience wasn't as seamless as when I used it for taro milk tea from Cocoa Cafe (spoiler: Cocoa Cafe MUCH better than R & B).

As I said, I placed my order as I left the office, but unlike my pickup experience at Cocoa Cafe, my order was not ready when I arrived.  Nor was it even started.  Why?  Because they were out of the taro that I asked to have as my "topping", rather than boba (one of the many choices).  So I asked for the red bean as my next choice.  And ... they were out of that.  The only options were regular tapioca, or, popping boba in a few flavors.   Boo.  A lot of the reason I picked R & B Cafe as my source of bubble tea, besides convenient location, was the topping choices!

Anyway, service was friendly enough, and they made my drink quickly once consulting with me on adding regular boba instead, but I won't be going back.

Taro Bubble Milk Tea, Green Tea, Lightly Sweet, Honey Boba. $2.95.

R & B offers incredibly customizable milk teas.

To start, you pick a base of black or green tea.  Since I didn't want tons of caffeine, I went for green.  I can't say I tasted a difference, and many places don't even use tea in their milk teas anyway.

Next, you pick the flavor.  12 different fruity flavors were offered, but, I only wanted taro.  Like most places, a powder was used for the taro flavor.  Unfortunately, even though it was a vibrant purple color, there was somehow no taro flavor to it.  I honestly wouldn't have known it was taro.  Very disappointing.

Next, toppings.  As I mentioned, I was excited to have additional taro in my taro tea, but alas, they didn't have any.  Nor did they have red bean.  I didn't want fruity popping boba, so I went for the classic boba instead.

The tapioca were fairly awful.  Really soft and mushy, just like the horrible tapioca I had in my taro milk tea from Little Garden.  Luckily for me I guess, there really wasn't much tapioca added, which I originally thought was lame when I saw the small quantity in my large drink, but ended up appreciating this since I didn't want the tapioca.

And finally, sweetness.  I appreciated that this was an decision you had to make when you order, rather than needing to specify it separately.  "Light", "Normal", or "Very" were my options, and I wisely went for "light" remembering numerous too sweet experiences in the past.  I think I made the right choice.  It was certainly sweet enough, but not overwhelming.  Perhaps the only element of this milk tea that I actually liked.

Clearly, this was not a winner, and I won't be getting another.

The price of $2.95 was right in the middle of the range of others around town.  Interestingly, a single topping is included in the base price, rather than a $0.50 add-in like most others.  Obviously, the $1.99 Quickly version is the best deal in town, but R & B was more reasonable than $4.40 charged by Little Garden, or $3.50 from Cocoa Cafe or Chai Yo.

Waffle Amore Food Truck

As you read in last week's review of Oaxacan Kitchen Mobile, my office in Mountain View has been hosting food trucks.  Most have not been very good, but then again, they are food trucks, not Michelin star restaurants after all.  I'd pretty much given up on them, until one truck immediately caught my eye: Waffle Amore.  It didn't matter that I was on my way to a real cafe for lunch, I stopped dead in my tracks.  I love waffles, particularly when they have interesting mix-ins or toppings, which I assumed these would as they were presumably going to be savory.

I'm no stranger to savory waffles, and have a hobby of taking random leftovers and asking the question "Will it Waffle?"  (The answer is generally yes.  Mac and cheese, pizza, and mashed potatoes are all at the top of my list, happy to provide details on how to best waffle things!  Maybe I should start a second blog ...).  The all time best savory waffles are of course the Vadouvan waffles with foie gras from the glory days at Spruce, but obviously, alas, those are no more.

Anyway, back to Waffle Amore.  The food truck is based in the South Bay, featuring both savory and sweet waffles, although sadly for me, it seems Google only ever gets the savory ones.  Their website proclaims they top the sweet ones with strawberries, bananas, whipped cream, hot fudge, and even maple bacon butter.  But I've yet to encounter these.

My first introduction to street waffles was through b. Street Waffles, where I fell in love with Liège waffles.  Before then, I always thought waffles were to be eaten with a knife and fork, loaded with plentiful toppings.  I also didn't realize just how amazing waffles can be.  Seriously.  b. Street Waffles are ridiculously delicious, and unlike any other waffles I've ever encountered.

Waffle Amore does offer Liège waffles, but ... only for sweet ones.  Alas, the savory ones all seem to be Brussels style instead.  I really prefer the crispness and denseness of a Liège waffle.

The truck!

Anyway, the Waffle Amore waffles aren't exactly true Brussels waffles.  They are more like something in-between a street waffle and an American waffle.

There is no way you could eat one with just your hands, and they are covered in toppings (not that this is a bad thing of course, but, it isn't quite what I was expecting).  They have the characteristic deep, large pockets and doughy style that I was expecting, and the square format.

Bacon Cheddar Brussels Waffle.

"Brussels waffle with bacon and cheddar cheese baked until golden brown, and topped with sour cream and green onions.  Oh and more cheddar cheese!"

On the first day I visited, I had the choice of a vegetarian pizza waffle, or a bacon waffle.  Like that is really a "choice".

Unfortunately, it wasn't very good.  It was lukewarm.  It was really, really oily.  There were little bits of bacon in it, but that couldn't really save the off-putting oily nature of it.  The sour cream seemed like a good idea, but didn't really go with the dough at all.  And, why was the shredded cheese dumped on top cold and unmelted?  Meh.

Bacon Mac 'n Cheese Waffle.

"Thick-cut bacon and Macaroni and Cheese baked into a crispy cheesy waffle".

On my next visit, there were again two choices, this time, a vegetarian Mac 'n Cheese waffle, or, one enhanced with bacon.  Again, not really a "choice".  Bacon is always better.  Also, zomg, mac 'n cheese waffle?

I expected some garnish on this one, like the previous waffle, even though the description didn't say it would have any.  Like some cheese sauce or ... something?

The mac and cheese was baked into the waffle.  They used gouda and sharp cheddar, but, I didn't really taste any particularly interesting cheesy flavor.  And having macaroni noodles inside a waffle doesn't turn out to be very good (now, waffling straight leftover mac and cheese, that is another story - delicious!).

Like the previous waffle, it was really oily.  It was crispy on the outside, but it wasn't fluffy or moist or light or anything nice inside.  And it was served quasi-warm.

Serious meh, which is sad for something that sounds so promising.  Oh, and it also didn't have any bacon.  I'm assuming my order was messed up, as "thick-cut bacon" should have been noticeable ...