Starter Bakery Baked Goods @ Philz Coffee

Those of you who follow the day-of-the-week theme format of my blog, may have noticed that Thursdays are supposed to be about bakeries or ice cream shops.  Yet, last week I reviewed Coffee Cultures, a coffee shop, not a bakery itself.  But you see, I did so to review the baked goods they serve, from Mr. Holmes Bakeshop.  I did the same the week before, reviewing Epicenter Cafe on a Thursday, covering the baked goods they serve from Sandbox Bakery, not the cafe experience itself.   I think this is legit usage of my "bakery" review day, so, I'm doing it again.

This time we head to Philz Coffee.  When I first moved to San Francisco, I hadn't yet turned into a coffee snob.  I was coming from the east coast, land of Dunkin' Donuts, aka, massive quantities of cream and sugar in my coffee.  The idea of having my coffee black was unheard of.  Coffee was about being sweet, creamy, and generally, flavored.  It should come as no surprise then that my coffee shop of choice turned out to be Philz, where coffee is served not just with cream, but with manufacturing cream (>40% fat content, not sold in regular grocery stores.  Contrast this to half and half, at 10-15%) and with a secret sweeter mixed in that is rumored to include brown sugar.  It was the closest thing I had to my precious Dunkin' Donuts.

Of course, besides the excessive amounts of cream and sugar, Philz isn't actually anything like Dunkin' Donuts.  Yes, it is a chain now, but cups of coffee are brewed cup at a time, not in giant vats hours in advance like Dunkin'.  The coffee used is blends that Philz has curated, which is obviously better than Dunks.  I stopped going to Philz somewhere along the way, removed the cream and sugar, and wound up a devote Blue Bottle fan.  I recently tried Philz again and was shocked at trying to drink it black ... even the lighter roasts are much darker than what I prefer these days.

Anyway, didn't I say this was a bakery review day?  It is!  To go with your coffee, most of the Philz locations in San Francisco also serve baked goods from Starter Bakery (plus vegan donuts from Pepples).  Starter Bakery is located in Oakland, but they also run a large wholesale business, so I'm sure there are plenty of other places around town you can get their treats, which, you should do!

Starter Bakery cares about the sourcing of their ingredients, as their website calls out all of the local producers they use, not only for the staples like butter and eggs, but also TCHO for chocolate, Blossom Bluff Orchards for fruit, etc.

Ham & Cheese Croissant.

I decided to get something that wasn't totally just decadent, and somewhat counted as a balanced meal, to go along with my crazy sugary coffee: a ham and cheese croissant.  (I've basically justified it to myself that I can have a ham & cheese croissant at any time of day, because they totally have protein from the ham and cheese, and thus I'm not being an irresponsible person just eating baked goods and sweets.  Right?  Totally reasonable, responsible choice!)

It was good standard execution of a savory ham and cheese croissant.

The outside had a nice crispness to it, and the exterior dough was flaky and made a bit of a mess ... in a good way.  The interior was deliciously buttery and moist.

Inside was a generous amount of good quality ham and cheese.  I heated it up in the toaster oven to make it even more delicious and slightly gooey.

Not extraordinary, but very good.

Kouign-Amann.

But if you've heard of Starter Bakery, you know that they are known for one thing in particular: their famed kouign-amann (aside: if you have never had a kouign-amann, drop everything, and go do that now.  I'll wait.  Remember, I told you this when I reviewed the kouign-amann dessert at Clio in Boston too, which you should totally go to if you are ever in Boston, one of my top meals of 2013!)

The description is a bit wordy, but I'll include it, since I'm sure some of you are unfamiliar with this thing of wonder: "Starter's award-winning specialty, Kouign-Amann, is an indulgent French pastry that is similar to a croissant—but so much more. The rich treat is made by rolling out and folding together layers upon layers of dough with salted butter and sugar, then baking it in a butter-and-sugar-lined pan, resulting in an incredibly rich, sweet-and-salty experience." 

There are exactly two key words in that description: "sugar" and "butter".  They pretty much define this delicious treat (in fact, kouign-amann actually means "butter cake").  The recipe for an average batch of kouign-amann includes at least 2 sticks of butter.  And you can taste it.  And boy, does it taste good.  So buttery.

Ok, so what is a kouign-amann?  It is pastry with butter and sugar folded between the many layers.  Hard to go wrong here.  And, baked in a butter and sugar lined tin, so that the outside gets super caramelized and crispy.  When a kouign-amann is well prepared, it is a thing of wonder.

This was one of the best baked goods I've ever had.  Crispy, sweet, caramelized sugary exterior.  Moist, buttery croissant-like interior.  It was really, really, really good.  I'd get another in a heartbeat.

Starter Bakery also makes variations that I'd love to try, with different fillings like chocolate, espresso custard, fig, frangipane & raspberry, hazelnut praline, TCHO crunch, and vanilla cream.  I think I've seen at least the chocolate filled ones at Philz before, but I started with the classic.  The only time I've had a filled kouign-amann before is from Cyrus, when they gave chocolate filled ones as take home treats (you should also go there, Cyrus was one of my top meals of 2012!).

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Auberge du Soleil

For Emil's birthday, we took at trip up to wine country, to enjoy a day of wine tasting.  But of course, the area is not only known for its wine, it is known for the food.  And while I appreciated the wine tasting, the thing I was most excited for was lunch.  Does this surprise you?

The Napa region has a slew of amazing restaurants, and shockingly, I haven't been to most of them.  Yes, really.  This was my first trip up to wine country in several years, since I really became a food lover.  I'm a bit tardy in publishing this review, as you may recall that I went up to Napa for MY birthday, where we dined at ... The French Laundry.  But this trip was actually about a month or so earlier.

Emil picked out our winery tour plan, and I was tasked with figuring the dining venue.  No problem!

There were many restaurants that I wanted to visit, but first, I was able to easily narrow our choices down to only those open at lunch.  Next, I decided to arbitrarily narrow our choices down to only those with Michelin stars (although I really had my eye on Archetype, a new addition).  Finally, I decided to only consider restaurants serving with a la carte menus, rather than full on tastings, as we didn't want the dining portion of our day to occupy too much time.  From there, it was pretty easy to settle on a place, since we had a 2pm wine tasting appointment in St. Helena, and there was one Michelin rated restaurant nearby: the restaurant at Auberge du Soleil resort.

The resort grounds were beautiful, but we didn't take much time to explore, besides having a drink on one of the patios overlooking the property before our meal, since we were pressed for time.

The service was fine, friendly and polite, although it didn't quite feel Michelin star level, possibly because they intentionally tone it down at lunch time?  The meal also did not include an amuse bouche, a palette cleanser, or mignardises, which made it feel far more casual than I was expecting.

Many items on menu sounded fantastic, so I was thrilled that Emil agreed to split 2 appetizers and 2 mains with me, so I wouldn't have to pick just one from each category.  And everyone else was happy to split desserts.

Overall, the meal was a mixed bag: the appetizers were mediocre, the mains quite good, and the desserts really disappointing.  Everything was nicely plated, the dishes well conceived, but nothing was all that memorable.  I don't really see a reason to return, as there are so many other great places to check out in the area instead.

The View.

We were seated out on the patio, like most (all?) of the other diners.  The patio is a more casual environment than inside the formal restaurant, where I imagine most people sit for dinner.

The view overlooking the property is stunning.

The patio is outfitted with very sturdy furniture, with umbrellas to protect from the sun, which I'm sure is intense at certain times of the year.  Although it was sunny, it wasn't that warm when we were there, but I can only imagine how amazing this setting is when it is warmer out.  Instead, we had the heat lamps on to keep warm.

Place setting.

The tables were set with cheery yellow tablecloths, with matching yellow cloth napkins.  We were offered house filtered still water, or bottled sparkling.  I opted for the still, as I love it when restaurants provide their own filtered water.

The centerpieces were fresh flowers and the setting was completed by a charger, which was removed after we ordered.  The cheery color scheme of the place settings matched the sunny day quite nicely.

Bread Service.

As I mentioned, no amuse bouche was offered, so the meal began with bread service.  The server came by and put a slice each of two different breads onto our individual plates; one whole wheat, the other rosemary meyer lemon.  They were both served warm, and had a nice crust on them, but were sourdough based, and since I don't like sourdough, this ruined the bread for me.  The wheat was slightly hearty tasting, but otherwise unremarkable.  I couldn't taste any rosemary, nor meyer lemon, in the other, although I was told that was the flavor.

Our table was provided with two little butter dishes to share, a local butter, topped with course ground salt.  The butter was really quite good, very rich, very fresh tasting.  I wanted to like the bread, just so I'd be able to eat more butter, without looking like a crazy person just licking butter off my knife (oh, you know you've done this too!)

Appetizer: Cow's Milk Burrata, Bing Cherries, Oats, Cress, Banyuls Vinaigrette. $17.

I love burrata, so I was excited to see burrata on the appetizer menu.  Emil is a cheese guy, so he obviously was happy to make this one of our selections.

It was served fairly plain, no crackers nor crostini to go with it.  This was fine with me, as I'm totally happy just feast on burrata.

Unfortunately, the burrata wasn't quite ripe.  I was a bit heartbroken, but it just really wasn't nearly as creamy as it should have been.  They seem to regularly feature burrata on the menu, with changing accompaniments, so I was shocked at the poor offering, as they should have known better.

The burrata was paired with a few sliced cherries on the side that were pleasantly tart, a drizzle of Banyuls for additional tartness, and was topped with a tiny bit of oat crumble for a pleasant crunch.  Garnished with micro cress.

It was a well thought out dish, nicely composed, but the cheese was just not ready, making this my second to least favorite dish of the meal.

Normally $17, or offered as part of the $32 2-course menu of the day.  It was a generous amount of burrata, but was not worth the price, as it just wasn't good.  I'd consider getting a burrata dish there again in the future, but perhaps would find a way to ask if the burrata was really ready to be consumed?

Appetizer: Kona Kampachi Crudo: Sesame Crème Fraîche, Cucumber, Radish, Dashi. $22.

The second appetizer we selected was the Kona Kampachi Crudo.

I'm not normally a fan of kampachi, but this was Emil's pick, and I was splitting with him, so I figured I'd give it a try.  Others in the group also ordered it and really enjoyed it, but it wasn't my thing.

The serving was 3 slices of fish, and I guess it was fresh tasting enough, but it tasted sorta fishy to me.  The garnishes were beautiful though, very thinly sliced radish and tiny cubes of cucumber.  I would have never realized there was cucumber in here, if I hadn't read the description.

The sesame crème fraîche was on the bottom, but was strangely watery, and not creamy.  It did have a fantastic sesame flavor however.

For $22, the dish seemed a bit pricey, particularly given that it was lunch, and there were only 3 slices of fish.  My least favorite dish, because I don't like kampachi, and I wouldn't get it again.

Main Dish: Wild King Salmon: English Peas, Roasted Spring Onion, Rosemary, Crispy Onion, Bagna Càuda.

The first main dish we picked was the king salmon, since it was just coming into season (protip: if you are even in the Bay Area when local king salmon is in season, by all means, get it.  And make sure they don't over cook it.  Best enjoyed mid-rare at most.)

Anyway, the salmon was cooked exactly as I like it, perfectly mid-rare, but with fantastically crispy skin.  Wonderful execution.

English peas showed up in two forms, whole peas and a coulis, both of which were light and flavorful.  The dish also included roasted carrots and creamy potato puree, not listed in the description, and I never found the roasted spring onion that was listed.  I loved the crispy onions on top, although the crispy salmon skin provided adequate crunch on its own.

We were told that it was finished with vanilla oil, but I didn't not detect this.

Overall good, although, not memorable after the fact.

This course was part of the $32 2 course lunch (along with the burrata), so it was an incredible deal since most of the seafood entrees normally cost at least $30.

Main Dish: Day Boat Scallops: English Peas, Roasted Spring Onion, Rosemary, Grapefruit, Crispy Onion. $34.

I didn't realize until I was typing this up just how similar the descriptions of the two dishes we picked were.  I just picked the scallops and the salmon as they are main proteins I was most interested in.  The descriptions of our dishes were were identical save one ingredient: the salmon was supposed to come with bagna càuda and the scallops with grapefruit.  Whoops.

The scallops were obviously the star of the dish.  Slightly sweet, seared, although I always appreciate a harder sear.

The peas were again fresh and light, very spring-y.  As was the spring onion puree, very fresh tasting and light, yet loaded with flavor (and yes, it actually showed up in this dish).  Speaking of flavor, the rosemary was also quite strong, not in an overpowering way, but it came though quite clearly.

The grapefruit segments made no sense to me.  Sure, some acid is necessary, and the grapefruit was fresh and light like the vegetable accompaniments, but, these flavors really didn't combine in a way that worked.

I loved the crunch from the crispy onions on top, but there were only a few of them.

Overall, a decent dish, no major execution errors, a nice exploration of spring, but not particularly remarkable.  The $34 price seemed a bit high for lunch.

Assorted sweeteners for the coffee.

After our meals, we opted to order coffee with our desserts, as we were headed to more wine tasting afterwards, and could use a break from drinking alcohol.

I was impressed with the array of sweeteners brought out with the coffee: regular white sugar (in granules or cubes), brown sugar cubes, and then at least 4 different types of artificial sweetener in packets.  Interestingly, although all these sweeteners were brought out, no cream or milk was offered.

Decaf Coffee.

I ordered a decaf coffee, while my dining companions ordered espresso or tea.  The espresso drinks arrived, as did the tea, but alas, my coffee was nowhere in sight.  No server said anything to me about where mine might be.  I wasn't sure if it was just slower, or, forgotten.  Since the tea person also received his drink, it wasn't just that they only brought out the espresso drinks.

After waiting quite a while, I finally got a server's attention and asked about it, and a while later it showed up.  I'm still not sure if it was forgotten or not.  Anyway, it was good, as you can tell from the photo, nice dark coffee.  Very little decaf funk, a good product, well brewed.

The coffee came with a small chocolate biscotti on the side.  It was dry, hard, and pretty boring, but, biscotti always is boring to me.  It didn't have much chocolate flavor.  But, I only had coffee to go with the main attraction, always a highlight of the meal for me: dessert!

Dessert: Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse: Cocoa Génoise, Caramel, Nougat, Milk Sorbet.  $15.

The chocolate peanut butter mousse is the one I had my eye on.  You may realize that I don't often pick chocolate desserts.  This isn't because I don't like chocolate.  I love chocolate.  But I don't usually consume chocolate in the evenings, which is when I most often go out to restaurants, so I rarely get to indulge in chocolate desserts.  And chocolate with peanut butter?  Yes!

Sadly, it wasn't very good.  Also, what kind of "chocolate peanut butter mousse" was this?  I'm all for interpretations and interesting spins on things, but, I expected to see creamy mousse somewhere.

The main element was the bar shape, with a crunchy base, which seemed to be the only component that had peanuts.  The layer above that was a cocoa génoise, basically, dry boring sponge cake.  Above that was a layer of promised chocolate mousse, and it was all topped off with chocolate ganache.  Of the layers, only the top two tasted good, but neither was as rich as I would have liked.  I was particularly disappointed since it was called a chocolate peanut butter mousse, and there was very little peanut component.

I'm also not sure where the caramel from the description was, perhaps the drizzle on the plate was a dark caramel?  The milk sorbet was a ridiculously tiny scoop, seemingly from a melon baller, but it tasted like icy ice cream, with no real flavor, and no creaminess, so I didn't mind that there wasn't more of it.  I like that they were presumably trying to have something light to cut the richness of the chocolate dessert, but since the chocolate wasn't actually a very deep flavor, it wasn't necessary.  The chunk in the front was a piece of nougat, crunchy, but again, not very flavorful.  It might have had peanut butter too?

This dessert was such a disappointment: not enough peanut, not rich enough, not really a mousse.  It was also fairly small, particularly for the $15 price tag, which is higher than most nice restaurant desserts.  I would not get again, and, in fact, would not bother getting any desserts here again.

Dessert: Warm Chocolate Tart: Peppermint Ganache, Garden Mint Ice Cream. $15.

The second dessert my group picked was a warm chocolate tart.  I'm not generally a tart fan, but, since I picked the first item, I let others pick this one.  Plus, peppermint ganache and mint ice cream sounded good.

I didn't try the tart itself, as it didn't even look good, and after the last dessert, I was a bit brokenhearted.   The mint ice cream was nicely minty, although again, it came as fairly small serving (although about twice as large as the one that came with the previous dessert), and again, it was icy rather than creamy.  The peppermint ganache did have a strong mint flavor that I enjoyed.

And again, a fairly small dessert for the price.  I actually liked the size of the desserts, not overwhelming, and the right size to end a meal, but the prices for desserts were far too high for what they were.

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Executive Lounge, Park Plaza London Victoria

During my recent trip to London, I stayed at the Park Plaza London Vitoria, conveniently located close to my office.

But of course, this is Julie's dining club, not a hotel review site, so I'm not actually here to review the hotel itself.  I stayed only two nights, but my room included executive lounge access, so I checked out the evening canapé selection both nights, and enjoyed my breakfast there each morning.

The evening canapés were less than impressive.  There was basic snack mix and finger sandwiches one night, spring rolls the other.  Not a single sweet treat!

I had low expectations for breakfast after the first night of canapés, and was pleasantly surprised.  The spread was extensive, including hot items, baked goods, fresh fruit, really good muesli, assorted yogurts, meats, cheeses, and more.  I gladly returned the second morning.

Little Tables.

Furnishings weren't luxurious, but they were good enough.  Padded chairs, wooden tables, and place settings laid out.

Drinks.

The first station had a machine for making espresso drinks, instant decaf coffee packets, and an assortment of Twinings tea, with a selection of sweeteners.  A good enough mix.

On my first visit, I was offered fresh coffee, so I didn't use this area, but on my second visit, even though I was greeted, no offer of coffee was made, so I used the machine instead to make an americano.  It was unremarkable.

Cereals.

Next was an assortment of cereals, plus some mix ins like banana chips, dried apricots, and raisins.  Certainly not my thing, so I skipped these.

Fruit, muesli, cheese, meats.

I was really impressed with the next section.  It contained several varieties of cold sliced meat, and a decent enough smoked salmon.  Only one variety of cheese, and it came in little packages, but I didn't expect to see any of these items in a simple buffet.

For fruit there was a fruit salad, mandarin orange segments, and chunks of pineapple, as well as a fruit coulis.

And muesli.  I love muesli, so I was thrilled to see this.  It was good muesli.  Creamy, well spiced, my style for sure.  I enjoyed a bowl each morning I was there.  The first day, I added the fruit coulis to it, but on my second visit, I decided it was good enough just on its own.  Highlight of the breakfast spread!

Watermelon, smoothies, yogurts, condiments.

The next area had ... WATERMELON!  I have no idea why the watermelon was on the side, rather than with the rest of the fruit.  But, since I have a deathly watermelon allergy, this made me quite happy.  I was actually able to eat the muesli from the previous station, and I would have needed to skip it if the watermelon was located inside the same serving area.

The yogurts were Loseley brand, not one I'm familiar with in the US, and came in an interesting assortment of flavors, including caramelized pear and fudge.  I obviously had to try that.

Caramelised Pear and Creamy Fudge Yogurt

Fudge? In yogurt? Caramelized fruit?  How could I NOT try this?

The yogurt had an ok creaminess, but was not as thick as Greek style yogurt.  I don’t actually like pear that much, but I was too intrigued by this flavor to not try it.  The pear bits were plentiful, in good size chunks.  They were sorta caramelized I guess.  But I didn't love them.

The fudge was the more interesting part.  I tasted chocolate.  But I never saw any.  No chunks, no swirls, no coloring to indicate cocoa.  I tried to find it, but I never could.  I tried to figure out if I was making up the fact that I could taste chocolate, thinking perhaps my brain was tricked because it read "fudge".  But, it was there, I swear.

Anyway, this was interesting, but not something I'd get again, only because I prefer a thicker yogurt, and, I don't like pears.  I'm glad I tried it though.

Hot Foods: scrambled eggs, bacon, beans, mushrooms, etc.

The hot buffet area had all the classic makings for a full British breakfast.  I didn't take notes, but I know there was at least scrambled eggs, baked beans, mushrooms, bacon, and sausage.  I think there were a few other items as well.

None of these were appealing to me, so I skipped them.

Danishes, muffins, rolls, fruit.

At the end, even more fruit, including whole bananas, oranges, apples.  A basket of sad looking rolls.  Mediocre looking danishes.

And a handful of muffins, none labelled.

Juices.

 Finally, juices.  I didn't try any.

Pot of Coffee.

On my first visit, once I entered, I was greeted and offered fresh coffee.  Once I sat down, an entire individual pot was brought to me.  It was good enough, better than what I made in the machine.

Mini-Muffins, Day 2.

On the first day, the muffins were all full size, and were drizzled with something.  They didn't look like anything special, but they turned out to be absolutely delicious.  I wish I'd taken photos!

I started with one that seemed to be a carrot/raisin/pumpkin seed/cream cheese muffin.  It was moist.  It had a good carrot flavor, not overwhelming.  It was very well spiced.  It had a lot of plump raisins throughout.  I loved the crunch from the pumpkin seeds.  There were a lot of good things going on in the muffin, in terms of flavors and textures.  But the best part was the cream cheese.  A little was drizzled as icing on top, and then the center was stuffed with sweetened cream cheese.  I wasn't expecting to find it in the center, and it was a great surprise.  It added even more moisture and a bit of sweetness.  I really liked this muffin.

I liked it so much, that I went for another.  The next looked like a blueberry muffin, again with a little cream cheese drizzle on top.  Like the first one, it was nicely moist.  I liked the sweetness of the drizzle on top.  It was loaded with blueberries, all large size, juicy.  The muffin base wasn't particularly interesting, but only because I was comparing it to the carrot one, which was just loaded with so many goodies.  But again, the winning part was the cream cheese filling hidden within.  I just loved how much moisture it added.  My second favorite, but I still liked it quite a bit.

On the second day, I went rushing in for breakfast, very excited, only to find that my large muffins had been replaced with small muffins.  Not wanting to judge the muffins just based on size, since the first batch hadn't looked that great either, I tried two.  They weren't good at all.

They didn't have a cream cheese drizzle.  Or cream cheese lurking inside.  They were not moist.

The first one had a crunchy sugar topping that I liked, but it was a dry lemon flavored muffin, with lemon goo in place of my cream cheese filling.  I dislike sweet lemon desserts, and muffins are no different.

The next was blueberry, and the berries weren't large and juicy this time.  No cream cheese.

I have no idea how they could serve such radically different muffins.  It was like they came from two entirely different vendors.  One set was really quite impressive, the other, worthless.

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IHOP ... again.

This review has been merged into my other IHOP in 2014 review.  Go read it there!

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Sambazon Smoothies

You may recall me mentioning that for health related reasons I was on a liquids-only diet for several months a few years ago, and it left me pretty much never wanting another smoothie in my life.

So why am I reviewing smoothies today?  Well, sometimes, I get to try products, just because I write this blog.  Sambazon sent me coupons to try their smoothies, and I couldn't just let them go to waste, could I?

I also decided to share the wealth, and brought a large assortment of flavors to a brunch a friend hosted.  It was fun sampling them with all the participants at the brunch, and I gave out coupons for more to anyone who liked them.  My mom came to visit when my fridge was filled with these, so I also had a sampling party with her and Ojan, although their reviews were far from stellar.

Anyway, I tried products from Sambozon's entire smoothie product line, starting from their basic açaí juice, through their protein and energy enhanced ones.  I really did not like most of them, but did find one flavor that I did quite enjoy, and found very, very satisfying after a workout.  I probably wouldn't go buy more now that I've run out of coupons, but it was fun to try something new.  Sambazon also does make açaí powder and sorbet, but I didn't try either of those products.

Açaí

The base of all of Sambazon's products is their açaí, so I started with the basic açaí drinks, available in original, or with Blueberry and Pomegranate added.

The Original.

"Our Original Amazon superfood juice has a delicious cocoa-berry flavor that’s bursting with powerful antioxidants and healthy omegas".

This is basically just sweetened açaí juice, with 1 gram protein, 28 grams sugar.  It was sweet.  A bit fruity.  And just totally not my thing.  Perhaps açaí isn't for everyone?

My mother and Ojan also did not like this.

Açaí with Blueberry + Pomegranate.

"Açaí berries, blueberry and pomegranate combine forces to bring you the ultimate antioxidant juice experience."

Next I moved on to one enhanced with blueberry + pomegranate.

It really just tasted like mixed fruit juice.  I didn't taste açaí distinctly, just lots of assorted fruit.  Apple and grape juice are listed in the ingredients before the promised blueberry or pomegranate, and I they really just made it taste like generic fruit juice.

So, not as bad as the original, but, no real reason to drink this.

Protein

Next I moved on to the protein enhanced drinks, still with an açaí base, but mixed with soy milk for protein, available in chocolate and vanilla.

Chocolate + Almond + Coconut Milk.

"Delicious blend of açaí berries (over 90 in there!) with chocolate, coconut milk and a hint of almond".

I really didn't like this one.  It was kinda gritty (from the almonds?) and the coconut flavor was too strong.  I like coconut, so it wasn't that, but for some reason the coconut cream was just cloying.  It did have 8 grams of protein from the soy milk, but also 22 grams of sugar, so I couldn't really force myself to drink it based on health reasons alone.  It was also very thick, which should be good, like a milkshake, but just seemed strange in this form.  It also just had a slight funk to it, that I can't really explain.

Chocolate, coconuts, and almonds sound like they should combine together well (Hello, Mounds Bar!), but here it just didn't work.  My least favorite of anything I tried.

Açaí + Vanilla.

"Delicious blend of açaí berries (over 100 in there!) with vanilla soymilk and hemp protein".

I'm starting to disagree with their whole "delicious blend" marketing.  I did not like this.  It was crazy sweet, 22 grams sugar to the 8 grams protein provided by the soymilk.  Maybe I don't like açaí?  I dunno.  It was thick and a strange texture, too sweet, and I didn't taste any vanilla.  I was hoping for something resembling a vanilla milkshake and this was sadly not it.

Ojan and my mother thought this was the best flavor they tried.  Ojan still didn't want more than two sips, but my mother took at least three (sips that is).

Energy

Next up, enhancing things further, is the energy line, with yerba mate added, along with the classic açaí base and soy milk.  Available in the mocha flavor I tried, but also in one with guarana, that I was never able to find, no matter how many different stores I checked.

Mocha Java: Açaí + Chocolate + Fair Trade Coffee.

"A powerful blend of chocolate soy milk, yerba mate, and fair trade coffee".

This was one of my favorites, and everyone at the brunch agreed.  The thick consistency reminded us of a milk shake, and was best when super cold.  The chocolate flavor overpowered the coffee, so I did taste more chocolate than "mocha", but the flavor was good.

This product lives up to its "Energy" name, with 80mg caffeine per bottle, as someone who doesn't drink much regular coffee, it provided me quite the jolt.  The caffeine comes from both the coffee and added yerba mate.  There is also the signature açaí juice in here, but I didn't really taste it as there were enough other ingredients to mask it.

Since I liked this so much at the brunch, I picked up this flavor a few more times.  I found it to work really well for post-workout recovery, helping me ride out that crash post-workout high, providing me some needed protein, sugar, and energy.  Each bottle has 7g protein, which isn't a ton but isn't bad, although it also contains 22g sugar.

I'd continue to get this flavor, and it turned out to be the only one I'd regularly purchase.

Blended Breakfast

You'd think that they couldn't add many more things to basic açaí juice, but, they can.  The final line is "blended breakfast", which mixes in grains and seeds, along with the açaí and soy milk.

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Blended Breakfast: Strawberry + banana + chia + ancient grains.

"A delicious blend made from whole fruit, ancient grains, chia and non-gmo verified soy milk"

This was a strange one.  It reminded me of a liquid peanut butter and jelly, even though there is no peanut butter.  And, it turns out, liquid pb&j isn't actually a good thing.

Thick and gritty from the grains (quinoa and amaranth), and little bits of strawberry and banana, it was one of my least favorites, but the flavor was intriguing, so I did keep going back for more.  But I certainly wouldn't get another.

Supergreens

And finally, supergreens.  Only available in a single flavor.

Kale + Ginger.

Mostly a mix of juices, with apple, grape, ginger, and acerola juice, plus banana and mango purees, and of course, the supergreens: wheat grass, barley grass, alfalfa, spirulina, chlorella, and kale.

I didn't like this at all.  But then again, I'm just not in to juicing.  I tried it just to fully experience the entire product line Sambazon has to offer.

The consistency was strange.  The purees made it thick.  It was sweet and bitter at the same time.  The ginger was way too strong.  I absolutely did not like this.  I don't care how good for me it was!

Ojan and my mother both tried this, took a single sip, and got some priceless expressions on their faces.  My mother pondered if it was the last thing left on the planet to drink, if she'd really bring herself drink it.  Do you wonder where I get my dramatic side from?

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Mr. Holmes Bakehouse @ Coffee Cultures

Last week, I reviewed Epicenter Cafe, specifically to discuss the tasty scones from Sandbox Bakery.  This week, it is time to visit another cafe, Coffee Cultures, again to focus on the baked goods.  They are open only M-F, so I haven't had many opportunities to visit.

I did actually try the coffee (Counter Culture Coffee), and it was fine, but, you know me, I'm all about baked goods.

Coffee Cultures is unique in that they have a very curated set of baked goods from a variety of suppliers, rather than picking just one provider for all their items.  And, as you can probably imagine given this fact, they don't use City Baking, like seemingly everywhere else (like Prima Cafe, and many others).  Don't worry, a full review of all of City Baking's products will be coming soon.

But back to Coffee Cultures.  The baked goods all look amazing.  The croissants (plain, almond, chocolate, or ham and cheese) come from the famous Patisserie Philippe.  The cookies, from my favorite cookie place in the city: Anthony's Cookies.  And the muffins, which I was there to try, from Mr. Holmes Bakehouse.  This was my first time tasting goods from Mr. Holmes, and I assure you, it won't be my last!

I didn't try it, but they also serve Straus froyo.

Mr. Holmes Bakehouse Blueberry White Chocolate Muffin.  $3.50.

The first item I tried was a blueberry white chocolate muffin.

It sounded amazing.  Blueberry muffins are always decent, but then add in white chocolate to sweeten it up?  And, it looked to have a streusel topping?  Yes!

My first reaction upon tasting it was that it was more of a coffee cake than a muffin.  The streusel topping really pushed it in that direction.  But, it wasn't dry like a coffee cake.  It was more like a moist blueberry coffee cake.  Loaded up with really plump, juicy, flavorful berries. There were a few white chocolate chips, but they didn't sweeten it up quite as much as I hoped.

The whole hybrid coffee cake-muffin style did work for me, but it was a bit burnt on the edges.  If it wasn't burnt, I would have been pretty happy with it.

I shared my muffin with Ojan, who loves blueberry muffins, and his first comment was basically identical to mine, "this is half coffee cake, half muffin".  We both liked it, but wished it was slightly better than it was.

$3.50 was a bit pricey for a muffin, and the baked goods did not have prices listed at the cafe, which is a bit lame.

Mr. Holmes Bakehouse Gluten Free Raspberry Muffin.  $3.50.

On my next visit, I was again drawn to the pastry case.  Everything looked phenomenal, and, the selection was largely different from what was there last time.  I almost went for the ham and cheese croissant, or the almond croissant, from Patisserie Philippe.  They looked marvelous.

But, when the person behind the counter asked, "do you have any questions?"  I blurted out, "yes, which is the best?"  Without hesitation, he pointed at the Gluten Free Raspberry Muffin.  I wasn't even considering that one.  But if he said it was the best ...

It was a good muffin.  Dense, but not in a bad way.  Incredibly moist.  Unlike my previous muffin, it was perfectly cooked, no burnt edges.  It was loaded with raspberries, which added pops of even more moisture to the inside.  And to cap it all off, it was sprinkled with large chunks of sugar for a bit of extra crunch and sweetness.  It was very good, and I'd certainly never guess it was gluten free.  I also appreciated that although it was sweet, it was clearly a muffin, not a cake.

But ... I wouldn't get another.  Why?  You see, I hate seeds.  Remember last week's review of the blackberry scone?  I grew up with blackberry bushes in my yard, and my grandmother would make blackberry pies all summer long.  I'm sure they were great, except I never wanted anything to do with them, as I just can't stand the seeds.  They ruin anything for me.  And, although raspberries don't normally have seeds that bother me much, this did have more seeds than I could stand.

I had such a love-hate relationship with this muffin, as it really was good, but with every bite, I'd have a moment of joy, followed by the realization that there was a seed in between my teeth, which would ruin everything.  And then I'd see the sugary top staring back at me, and dig right back in.  Rinse and repeat.  So much potential, but alas, my own serious hatred of seeds will prevent me from getting another of these.

Again, $3.50 felt a bit pricey for a muffin, but Coffee Cultures selects products from fantastic bakers, and you are paying not only for the baked good itself, but also for that curation.

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Fearless Coffee

In my review of Red Dog Restaurant last week, I mentioned that the coffee I enjoyed came from their neighboring cafe, Fearless Coffee.

Fearless is the final installment in Chef Lauren Kiino's trio of establishments in the neighborhood.  Il Cane Rosso is the original, a fast-casual restaurant in the Ferry Building serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily, which I reviewed a few weeks ago.  As I mentioned last week, Red Dog is a full service restaurant, open for lunch and dinner daily, and brunch on weekends.  Fearless is the most casual of them all, a coffee shop, open daily for breakfast and lunch.  Located next to Red Dog, but in a separate space, and with a totally different decor.

The fact that Fearless and Red Dog are actually open on weekends is their first selling point.  The neighborhood has seen rapid expansion, of housing particularly, yet the coffee shop and restaurant scene has really lagged behind.  As a resident of the neighborhood, I am thrilled to have more options available on a weekend, and casual ones at that.

The food philosophy at Fearless is the same as Chef Kiino's other establishments, with a focus on local, organic, fresh, seasonal cuisine.  At Fearless, there is an emphasis on grab-n-go items, as it is designed to be a quick option for office workers nearby, which makes sense, given the location inside an office park.  These items are available in coolers for self-service, and a few other things can be ordered at the registers.  They also have a small marketplace of assorted packaged goods from local vendors, including my favorite coconut chips (Dang!, which I just realized I have never reviewed.  I'll have to fix that soon!).

The breakfast menu includes a few breakfast sandwiches, a healthy quinoa bowl, and a couple items also featured at Il Cane Rosso or Red Dog, like their cinnamon toast or a yogurt parfait with housemade granola and fruit.  A few pastries round out the offerings, including a savory sausage roll, several types of muffins (strawberry-streusel, bluebery-meyer lemon, and banana pecan), and coffee cake (the muffins and coffee cake are available for brunch at Red Dog too).  For lunch, the menu is soups, salads, and sandwiches (hot or cold), which sounds similar to Il Cane Rosso, but the selection is much, much larger, but (gasp!), Fearless does not have the signature warm egg salad.  The most exciting part of the menu, for me at least, is the dessert selection, since, as you may recall, I was saddened by the fact that Il Cane Rosso has only a single cookie available.

On all my visits, service was friendly.  And they had samples of baked goods at the register, which is always a bonus for me, as I love trying everything.  I took my items to go, but they did have a few tables inside and out, along with plenty of seats around the fountains in the office park.

Coffee

Decaf Iced Americano, Small.  $2.25.

Since I was at a coffee shop, I had try the coffee, even if I was mostly eying the dessert.  It was a hot day, so I went for iced.  If I were a regular coffee drinker, they have special cold brew, but since I wanted decaf, an iced americano was my only option.

It was delicious.  I added just a hint of milk and sugar since I tend to like my iced coffee that way, but it didn't need it.  No decaf funk to it at all.  I can't wait to try the hot coffee next time.

$2.25 was a standard price for a quality americano, and I'd gladly get another.

Decaf Americano, Medium. $2.75.

On another visit, I finally went for a hot americano.

It was really quite good.  No decaf funk, not sharp or harsh, very balanced.  I didn't even want to add any sweetener or cream to it.

Dessert

Banana Pudding.  $4.

But I was there for the sweet treats.  You know I love desserts, and in particular, puddings.  After all, my blog has a label just for my reviews of puddings.
I was delighted to see that Fearless offers several pudding-style desserts, including a very tempting chocolate pudding with espresso whipped cream and a panna cotta, but I went for the banana pudding.

Pudding cups are a great idea for Fearless, since they focus on grab-n-go items, and this was easy to take with me.  Plus, homemade pudding is so much better than grocery store pudding, and most restaurants do not serve pudding, as it isn't upscale enough.  So, it is both convenient and fairly unique.

Top View.

The pudding cup was a layered creation.  The bottom layer was banana pudding, next came a few slices of banana, followed by whipped cream, and then, a crumble top.  It was like a banana cream pie, turned into a pudding cup.  Yes!

The pudding itself was thick and fairly creamy, although the consistency was a bit strange, it was almost gritty.  It wasn't just plain vanilla pudding though, it did have some banana flavor.

The slices of banana were just that, simple banana slices, but fresh, and not turning brown or anything.  My cup didn't have many though.

Next came the whipped cream, which sorta reminded me of Coolwhip.  I think that perhaps because it wasn't freshly applied, it deflated a bit?

And finally, the crumble top.  I'm not entirely sure what it was, it seemed perhaps like a crumbled oatmeal cookie?  I was going to say it was granola, since it had oats for sure, but, it was more sweet and buttery than granola usually is.  The crumble on top was my favorite part, I always enjoy a bit of crunch with my creamy desserts.

I loved the idea of this dessert, since I love puddings, and I love banana cream pie.  It didn't quite come together for me though.  The biggest issue was the ratios: the majority of the cup was the banana pudding, and I really wanted more whipped cream for that amount of pudding.  Just adding more whipped cream probably wouldn't work well though, because when eating out of a cup like this, if the whipped cream layer was thicker, then you'd get many spoonfuls of just the whipped cream.  So, maybe it would be better with multiple, thinner layers, parfait style?   I also would have liked more banana slices.

When I got a perfect bite of all the layers, I really quite enjoyed it, but, I was left with lots of extra pudding at the end.  Of course I devoured that too, but, I probably wouldn't pick this dessert again.

$4 was a fine price for the size of the dessert.  I'm very excited to see what else they add to the dessert menu!

Baked Goods

Caramelized Apple Pecan Tea Cake. $3.

My receipt may say "lemon raspberry tea cake", but I believe this was caramelized apple pecan tea cake, with a cinnamon top.

I went to Fearless intending to finally get a muffin, since their streusel topped muffins always look so amazing, but I'm never there at the right time of day for a muffin, so I haven't tired one yet.  And then ... I saw the tea cakes.  They had several varieties, one was banana nut, the other lemon poppy, and then there was this one.  I heard "caramelized apples", I heard "pecans", and I heard "cinnamon on top", and ... it just sounded good to me.  I don't know why.  I don't really like apples, I don't like quickbreads or cakes ... I blame the word "caramelized".

Anyway, this was very moist, dense cake.  Not exactly dessert-style cake, not as sweet and obviously sans frosting, but it also clearly wasn't bread.  There were generous chunks of well cooked apples.  Lots of nuts for crunch.  I didn't detect much cinnamon.  Nor did I tasted anything "caramelized".  Yes, the apples were cooked down but ... I was hoping for something different.

So I didn't care for it, and gave it to Ojan, who gobbled it up.  I think this was just poor choice on my part, as it was a generous slice, loaded with stuff, and super moist.  Just not my thing.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie. $2.

By now, you probably know I don't really like cookies, but Ojan does, so he picked this up one day.  He's been on a peanut butter cookie eating spree these days.

So, as I said, cookies aren't my favorite dessert.  But if I'm going to eat a cookie, I want it to be a thick, soft, slightly underbaked one.  This was not that.  This was crispy, very crispy.  Complete opposite of my style of cookie.

But, the peanut flavor was quite good, more flavorful that most peanut butter cookies, and the combination of peanut butter and chocolate is always a winner.  If I liked hard style cookies, I'd probably like this, a well made cookie, just not for me. 

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