Peet's Cold Brew On The Go

Peet's is my favorite coffee chain, for the quality of the most important product: the coffee.  Even their decaf is good, and the company-wide policy to never serve brewed coffee more than 30 minutes old really does lead to a better experience.  Other places may have more fancy drinks, or hawk better donuts, but, Peet's delivers on what I care about, and that is the taste of my coffee.  But you know that already anyway, as I've reviewed Peet's before.

Today I'm here to review their latest foray, as Peet's has joined a slew of other companies in the packaged ready-to-drink cold brew market, with three products.  The first is the cold brew itself, served in glass bottles, straight up.  The bean of choice is an East African Baridi Blend.  The other two are milk variants, served in little milk cartons.  The packaging is cute although not really practical, but, the product is fantastic.

All the products are available in grocery stores and Peet's stores.  They require refrigeration, and all the ones I've seen so far seem to have a Best-By date of ~2 weeks away, basically, like fresh milk.  So not exactly convenient to stock up on, but, I think worth it.

Dark Chocolate Cold Brew.

The versions with milk are served in cute little cardboard single serve milk cartons, like the kind I hadn't seen since elementary school.  Seriously, how cute is the packaging?  Opening one of these was serious nostalgia, although, I remembered immediately that I hated drinking out of them.  Mushy cardboard is not pleasant!  And, once I got to opening my second one, I also remembered why I hated OPENING them.  Seriously annoying.  So, cute, but, there is a reason we don't use these style carton anymore ...

Dark Chocolate Cold Brew.

"Baridi Cold Brew made even more irresistible with the freshest milk and rich, dark Guittard cocoa to bring out the coffee’s natural chocolate notes."

So I poured it into a cup, and added ice.  You can see the dark, rich color here.

This was a serious iced mocha.  Very rich and chocolately.  Chocolate milk for grown ups, aka, quality chocolate, and uh, caffeine.  It was delicious.

Not that the recipe was revolutionary: cold brewed coffee, milk, sugar, Guittard cocoa, sodium bicarbonate, salt, gellan gum.  Interestingly, the dark chocolate version is made with regular milk, the au lait with nonfat.  Besides the gellan gum and sodium bicarbonate, it really is just chocolate milk with coffee in it.

I greatly enjoyed this, it was rich, it was chocolately, and I gladly stock my fridge with these.

Coffee Au Lait Cold Brew.

"Bold Baridi Cold Brew paired with the freshest, rBST-free milk* and pure cane sugar."

I moved on to the Coffee Au Lait.  This one really is just coffee milk.  The ingredient list is simple:  cold brewed coffee, reduced fat milk, sugar, sodium bicarbonate.

As you can see, without the addition of the chocolate, it is a lighter color.  It was far less exciting than the dark chocolate version, since, well, it was just sorta sweet, cold, coffee milk.  Good, and likely refreshing on a hot day, but I'd rather just buy the pure cold brew, and add my own milk and sweetener of choice to taste. 

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All Star Donuts

Another day, another co-worker treating us to donuts.  Given my love for donuts, this is never a bad thing.

This selection came from AllStar Donuts, a no frills donut shop (and uh, cafe with burgers and Asian inspired rice plates ...).  I haven't visited myself, but given the location at 9th & Mission, I imagine it isn't the sort of place you really want to spend much time.  That said, they had good donuts.

Our co-worker brought a selection of raised, glazed donuts: chocolate glaze, maple glaze, and honey glaze.  Since the others were all chocoholics, I let them go for those, but I'll admit, the chocolate glaze looked pretty great.  I only got to try one donut, so, I can't comment on much else, but my donut was quite good, and if anyone showed up with All Star Donuts again, I'd gladly accept them.

Maple Glazed Raised Donut. $1.

I opted for the maple glaze, mostly based on the wonderful maple aroma.  Mmm, maple!

This was a shockingly good basic raised donut.  It was huge, no skimpy donuts here.  Fluffy, light as air.  It didn’t taste greasy or heavy.  Fantastic raised donut.

The maple glaze was generous but not overwhelming.  Sweet, with a nice maple flavor.

I usually go for more decadent creations like fritters or jelly donuts, but, this was an excellent raised donut.

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Club Europe, BA954, LHR-MUC

The flight: BA 954, LHR-MUC
Travel class: Club Europe
Departure time: 4:35 PM,
Meal served: Afternoon Tea.
Previous BA Club Europe meal reviews: Tea service on ZRH-LHR, tea service on LHR-BCN, lunch on MUC-LHR

Another day, another afternoon tea flight on British Airways.  Since I've reviewed it several times before, I'll skip all the general details this time around.  The offering was exactly like every other time: 3 little sandwiches, a scone and clotted cream, boxed cake.  And, just like every single time I've ever had tea service, I've instantly regretted not requesting a special meal, as many others around me had done.  They all had salads.  The rest of us?  Stale tea sandwiches.  Ugh.

Afternoon Tea.

The first one looked like curried egg salad.  Now, I like egg salad actually, but I was suspicious of the curry.  I asked Ojan, "Is it curried egg salad?" and he said yes.  So I took a big bite.  It wasn't egg.  It was CHICKEN.  I really hate chicken, and this was very "chicken-y" chicken.  I didn't really taste the curry at least?  The bread was a soft, hearty grain bread with some seeds in it, not bad.  Perhaps this was actually a decent sandwich ... if you eat chicken.

I moved on to the safer option, the middle one, which was clearly cucumber and cream cheese, on white bread.  A simple classic.  The cucumber was wilted, if that makes sense.  It turns out, thin sliced cucumber can actually wilt, when prepared days in advance.  This was pretty lackluster.

Finally, salami and pickles, on wheat.  The salami actually wasn't bad, and I did like the pickles.  If only it had some cheese too, or, really, if it were just a charcuterie plate rather than a sandwich.

Overall, it was possible to salvage some proteins from the sandwiches, but I was glad I had snacked so heavily in the lounge and wasn't counting on this "meal".

Scone service was as it always is, a basket passed without tongs, into which each person dipped their hands.  There were plain and fruit scones, I opted for the fruit one, which seemed to be raisin.  It also tasted like orange.

The scone was ... ok.  It was warm, and the top was actually nicely toasted, but the bottom was hard and soggy at the same time.  The jam was ok, not particularly good nor bad.  The clotted cream was standard too.   Overall, just, standard.  Yes, if you slathered plenty of jam and cream on the scone it was ok, but, no component was very good on its own.

And finally, the "Sweet Treat".  It was the same pistachio madiera cake I've been served many times at hated, so I didn't bother try it.

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Home Plate Boba, AT&T Park

Update Review, September 2016

Last time I attended a ball game at AT&T Park, I discovered Home Plate Boba, and I was pretty excited.  I like bubble tea, but it is a treat I rarely splurge on (and, maybe TMI, but, my body doesn't always, uh, agree with non-dairy creamer commonly used).  On that visit, I didn't actually get a bubble tea.  It was hot and sunny, so I opted for a taro smoothie instead (and I grabbed a fruity tea to take home with me).

Both were ok, but, on this visit, I decided to mix things up a bit.

Menu / Ordering Area.

The menu at Home Plate Boba looks relatively unchanged, still featuring hot and cod milk teas, fresh fruit teas, and smoothies (I'm still confused why the hot taro milk tea has caffeine, and the cold one does not).  Options for flavors aren't extensive, and toppings only include boba, passion fruit popping boba, mango stars, and lychee jelly.  They still include one topping in the base price for every drink but drink prices have gone up $1-2 since last year.

Oreo Smoothie with Boba. $8.

Since it was a remarkably hot, sunny day, I picked a smoothie.  Last time I had a taro smoothie, and although I thought it was well made, but I made a note to get another kind next time, since the taro powder used wasn't very flavorful.  My options were strawberry banana (meh), honeydew (allergic), matcha green tea (which I'd love but I didn't want caffeine), or Oreo.

So, Oreo it was.  I'm not generally a fan of Oreo.  At least, just not the cookies.  Which I know makes my dad sad, as he loves them, and my house was always stocked with them growing up.  But, "cookies and cream" or other Oreo products I do like.  So, Oreo flavor good, form factor bad, as I just don't like cookies in general.

The Oreo flavor in this was good, and I saw bags of Oreos back in the preparation area, so I'm pretty sure they really do throw in real Oreos.  The ice was nicely blended too.  It was creamy and nicely flavored, and I liked the bits of texture from the ice and cookie.

Since I had one included topping, I wanted to add something fun, but, really, I just wanted it to be like a milkshake and have whipped cream on top.  I didn't like the boba last time, so I wanted something different.  Passionfruit popping boba seemed like it would totally not work with Oreo, and mango stars also seemed crazy, so I ordered it with lychee jellies, but the guy taking my order acted like that was crazy.  "With Oreo?", he questioned.  He talked me out of it and told me to get boba.  So I did.

The boba was not a success.  Just like last time, they were mushy and poorly cooked.  And they added tons of them.  And you just can't avoid boba once it is in a drink, they come up the straw no matter how hard you try to avoid them.

Overall, this was great, except, ruined by boba.  I'd gladly get it again and just leave the boba out entirely, sacrificing my "free" topping.

The $8 price is more than it was last year, but still seems pretty reasonable for a huge smoothie, with topping, at a ballpark.

Taro Milk Tea, No Ice, Lychee Jelly. $6.50.

As last time, I decided to grab a second drink to bring home with me, since I had a bunch of credit on my ticket.  The fruity tea last time was fine, but not particularly exciting.  I obviously couldn't bring home a hot drink or smoothie, so, regular milk tea it was.  I opted for no ice since I was bringing it home, which they questioned multiple times when I ordered.

For milk tea, I had 5 choices of flavors, but only one wasn't caffeinated (coffee, thai tea, black tea, and chai were the others).  Since I love taro anyway, that is what I would have picked, but, since I knew they use powder like in the smoothies, I wasn't super excited for it.

For a topping, I put in the lychee jellies, since enjoyed them last time, clearly didn't want boba, and lychee seemed to go better with taro than mango.

It was a very standard, made from powder, taro milk tea.  Creamy, way too sweet (they do not allow you to specify sweetness), and vaguely taro flavored.  I liked it well enough, but, it wasn't anything special.

The lychee jellies were good, ridiculously sweet, lychee flavored, and had a nice chew.  They went well with the taro, except for the fact that it was all really quite sweet.  They seemed to have made up for my lack of ice with adding even more jellies, there really were quite a few of them, but, I liked them, so I didn't mind.

I added ice and some regular milk to mellow it out when I got home and enjoyed it a bit more than way.

I'd get this again, although it was really not particularly remarkable.  I think my next version should be a taro smoothie, with lychee jellies?

Original Review, October 2015

AT&T Park has been known for having far better food options than your standard ballpark for a long time.  Several years ago, I visited for my first time, and reveled in the amazing crab salad at Crazy Crab'z.  Yes, amazing crab, at a ballpark.  I also tried many of the fan favorites, like the Chicago dog and the Gilroy garlic fries, although those didn't impress quite as much.  And of course, I had my share of margaritas from Lefty O'Doul's and wine from the slightly upscale Vintage 58 Wine Bar.

But on my visit this year, I had my sights set on something else.  Bubble tea.  Yes, bubble tea.  At a ballpark.  OMG.  You know how obsessed I get with bubble tea ...

The Space

The Stand.

It took me a while to find Home Plate Boba amongst all the concessions, but once I turned the corner and saw the sign, it was clear I had found the right place.  Bright, colorful, whimsical.  It didn't quite fit in.

Menu.

The menu includes basically everything you'd expect from a bubble tea shop.

For an all-too-typical San Francisco chilly day, they have hot drinks of coffee, tea, milk tea, and hot cocoa, all $6.

Next are classic milk teas (black, green, or jasmine tea based), plus flavored milk teas (almond, mint, taro, thai, coffee).  These all use nondairy milk.  I appreciated that they clearly marked which ones were caffeinated or not.  These are also $6.

Next come fruit based teas, all with caffeine.  They must use black tea as a base?  Or green?  No option was given, but when I asked, I was told they all definitely have caffeine.  Fruit teas are made with syrups, plus some cubes of fruit, available in lychee, mango, passion, peach, and strawberry, all $6.50.

Tempting sounding smoothies round out the drink options, available in coconut, honeydew, matcha green tea, mint oreo, oreo, strawberry banana, and taro.

All drinks included a topping for free, with a choice of standard boba, lychee jelly, or flavored popping boba.

Finally, they also offer up a few desserts: ice cream sandwiches (which one co-worker had and said was great), macaron ice cream sandwiches, and just ice cream with boba on top.

Straws.

Once you make the hard decision of choosing your drink, anther decision awaits.  The choice of straw.  Orange and black for the home team, assorted colors for visitors.  What if I just wanted a purple straw, because it matched my drink?  I didn't want to be judged for rooting for the away team, but I really would prefer a non-black or orange straw ...

Life is hard.

The Drinks

Taro Smoothie, with Boba. $7.50.

I adore taro, so my choice was fairly simple.  I wanted a taro based drink.  As for a milk tea or smoothie, that was dictated by the weather.  It was sunny and warm, thus, a more chilly smoothie seemed in order.

It was very well blended, no chunks of ice.  It had a decent light purple hue.  Not tons of taro flavor, but, what do you expect from powder?

The boba was nicely prepared, soft, not clumpy.  Clearly sweetened with honey.  For some reason, I didn't actually like the boba in my drink, and choose to drink it like a milkshake, and purposely kept my straw closed too tight to suck up boba.  But once the smoothie was gone, I gladly slurped up all the boba, like pudding.  The boba was sweet and tender, quite enjoyable.

I liked this well enough, particularly once I separated it into two parts: taro icy dessert and boba dessert.  I'd get another, but would actually likely try something different, like the mint oreo smoothie.

The $7.50 price was reasonable compared to other prices in the ballpark, but is higher than your average Quickly.  Speaking of Quickly, it reminded me a lot of the taro slush I had there once.

Mango Fruit Tea, with Lychee Jelly. $6.50.

I still had some money left on my ticket near the end of the game, so I grabbed a fruit tea to go.  With the sealed top, I could throw it in my purse, stick it in the fridge when I got home, and just add ice the next day, and enjoy it in the sun.  I'm always planning ahead.

There were 5 fruit tea choices, all of which sounded good: lychee, mango, passionfruit, peach, or strawberry.  I would have been happy with any, but decided mango sounded the best.  I haven't had much fruit tea, but way back in the day I used to enjoy the mango iced tea at Pizzeria Uno, so it inspired me.  I added lychee instead of boba, as it seemed more appropriate with the fruit based drink.

I asked for no ice, since I wasn't drinking it right away, and didn't want to dilute it.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw chunks of mango in the drink.  I expected it to just be made with a syrup (which, I'm sure it was), but the additional fruit was most welcome.

It was sweet, fruity, with a not too bitter tea based finish.  Perfectly refreshing on a hot day.  The mango wasn't the freshest, ripest, or most flavorful, but I still give them points for putting bits of mango in it in the first place.

I really did like the lychee jelly, sweet, slimy, and easy to suck up with my big straw.  I think jellies might be my new favorite bubble tea add-in.

The $6.50 price was $1 less than a smoothie, but $0.50 more than a milk tea.  It seemed perfectly reasonable for the large size and ball park location.

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Club Europe, BA951, MUC-LHR

The flight: BA 951, MUC-LHR
Travel class: Club Europe
Departure time: 1:50pm
Meal served: lunch
Previous BA Club Europe meal reviews: Tea service on ZRH-LHR, tea service on LHR-BCN

This was my first time having lunch on a shorter haul BA flight, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  The answer?  Salad and dessert.

Meal service began shockingly fast once airborn, given the less than 2 hour flight time.  The FA came through row by row offering up trays with the salad and dessert on them already, plus a cup for coffee later.  He took drink orders at that time, returned with a bread basket moments later, and delivered the drinks soon after.  Very efficient for our small cabin.

Asian Style Chicken Salad, Chocolate and White Chocolate Mousse Cup.

The entree was described as an "Asian style chicken salad".

It had three pieces of sliced, chilled chicken, that I did not try, as I hate chicken.

The greens were standard BA greens, not very good, but, at least assorted greens.  They weren't dressed, and no dressing was provided, although other elements on the plate had some flavor.  The other basic salad components were a single cherry tomato and chunk of red pepper.

The more interesting components were a side dish of marinated, slimy, mushy eggplant, mushy cucumber slices in thick yogurt, and some kind of extremely bitter, slimy greens with perhaps tahini on them.

Clearly, I wasn't so into this, but I had done my research and expected a salad, so I packed other food for myself.

The dessert however was another story.  I can't say I've been impressed with BA desserts in general, particularly the "sweet treat" offered during tea service on Club Europe routes, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a "real" dessert, a layered creation of chocolate and white chocolate mouse, with chocolate cake crumbles on top.

It was ... actually really tasty.  Both layers of mousse were light and fluffy.  It wasn't the richest, chocolatiest mousse ever, but, it was good.  The cake crumbles on top did get a bit soggy, but, this also kinda worked.  I enjoyed it with my coffee I brought on board.

Overall, with my own cheese and charcuterie platter and this dessert, I was happy enough.

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Hi I'm Skinny

Yes, this company is called "Hi I'm Skinny".  And they make healthy snacks, aka, munchies made with whole grains, 40% less fat than regular chips, and, uh, "no nasty's".

The products are all snack sticks, thin things that look sorta like fries.  They make two flavors of quinoa sticks (sweet onion or sea salt), two flavors of "Superfood" sticks (mean & green or sweet potato), and one type of protein sticks (mesquite bbq).  I honestly don't recall where I found these, as I certainly didn't seek them out, so I only got to try one item.

They were too healthy for me.  Guess I like "nasty's"?

Sweet Onion Quinoa Sticks.

"Hi, I’m Skinny! I'm the all new Quinoa based snack stick packed with REAL Chia Seeds that makes me PERFECT for guilt free snacking!!  I’m loaded with all kinds of whole grains and seeds of all kinds and have just the right amount of seasoning! I’m "phat" on flavor, but I won’t make the scales or your skinny jeans a scary thought!!"

Um, yeah.

I opened my bag of quinoa sticks with some hesitation.  I had plenty of dips standing by to dunk them into, assuming I wouldn't really want to just eat these things.

From a distance, they sorta liked like fries, thin, and crispy, yet airy.  However, they certainly didn't taste like fries.  They tasted like Sun Chips, aka, like a healthy blend of whole grains.  Which, I guess is what they were.  They are made with quinoa flour, as expected, plus corn meal, white rice flour, brown rice flour, and chia seeds, and then sugar, salt, garlic, and onion for seasoning.

The flavor was ok, although I didn't really taste "sweet onion".  But really, just far too healthy of an item for me.

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Svenhard's

Update Review, April 2016 (and July 2017)

You know how I said I'd never try another Svenhard's pastry again, after my previous review?  Sometimes I fail at taking my own advice.  Particularly when there is a free pastry involved.  Sometimes that isn't the worst thing.

The context: Walk to work day.  One of the walk to work stations was giving out free coffee (why I stopped) and ... Svenhard's pastries!  They had a large assortment, including a cheese horn that I almost went for, but, somehow, at last minute, I decided to grab a cinnamon horn.

And ... I liked it.  Sigh.  Guess now I'll have to try more?

Update (July 2017): I did try more.  And they were just as bad as I remembered.  Ok, no more of these, really.

Cinnamon Horn (April 2016).

"Cinnamon folded in sweet dough, & glazed with our delectable icing delivers old-fashioned goodness, reminiscent of Grandma’s house."

This looked just as bad as the breakfast claw.  It was kinda smushed, the icing was all over the inside of the packaging, and, well, it looked like a packaged baked good.

But I tried it anyway.  I took a tentative first bite.  It was soft, it was fluffy, it was sweet.  No, the dough was nothing like a fresh pastry, but it had a really lovely sweetness to it.  I took a second bite.  There was plenty of cinnamon within the folds.  The glaze on top, while not evenly distributed and rubbing off all over the place, was pleasantly sweet and went nicely with the cinnamon.  I took a third bite.  I stopped for a sip of coffee.  And then I went right for the center piece, always the best part of a cinnamon roll.

And I liked it.  Soft, sweet, moist, a bit gooey, and not in a fresh way at all, but, I liked it.  I realized as I neared the last bite that it reminded me of a Little Debbie product, which I'd never think of as anything like bakery items.  If you frame it in that context, then it really just isn't so bad ...

Cinnamon Horn (July 2017).

I had another, again, a freebie given out at an event.

While I still enjoyed the icing on top (it really was tasty), and even the cinnamon between the layers, the pastry itself was just so lackluster that it made the whole thing not very enjoyable.  I need to stop trying these.

Original Review, September 2015

Svenhard's is a "Swedish Bakery" located in nearby Oakland.  However, they aren't a traditional bakery, as they make packaged baked goods and do not have a storefront.  I've seen their items at Target, Costco, and even on Amazon.com, so I think they run quite a large production.  I wouldn't normally be that interested in packaged baked goods like this, but they have been around since 1893.  Clearly, they have staying power, so perhaps their products really are tasty?

Svenhard's makes "claws", "curls", and "horns", all different varieties of croissant-like products with fillings.  The "claws" are basically bear claws.  "Curls" are just pastries in curled form, aka, cinnamon rolls and raisin snails.  And the "horns" are danishes with different fillings.

I've only tried one item, but, well, it was a packaged baked good.  I had no desire to try another.

Breakfast Claw.

"Served warm, or eaten fresh from the package, Breakfast Claws will melt in your mouth, and bring delight to your taste buds! Our special icing and secret filling formula garnishes every bite."

I went for the fascinating sounding "breakfast claw", since, well, I was having it alongside a coffee for breakfast and it sounded like the most decadent of all the choices.

Sounded good to me, even though I must admit it looked a little sad ...

Breakfast Claw: Revealed.

Well, first I tried it "fresh from the package".  "Fresh" was rather questionable.  It was a bit scary looking.

The pastry was about as bad as you'd expect.  Sorta spongy and gummy.  Not flaky.  Not buttery.  Greasy.  The oil slick left on the napkin I set it down on for literally 20 seconds to take a photo was impressive.

So far, gross.

On the plus side, the icing on top was sweet and rather tasty.  The little brown crumbles looked promising, but didn't deliver much flavor.

Breakfast Claw: Inside.

Inside was a cinnamon sugar filling that was tasty enough, but, as you can see from the cross section, it wasn't exactly generously filled.

Next, I tried warming it up, which did make it marginally better, but it was nothing like the magical transformation of the 7-Eleven cinnamon roll, and I still would certainly never get another of these.

Breakfast Claw (July 2017).

I had another of these given to me at an event.  It was rather mushed, but, I still tried it.

I again thought the topping wasn't too bad, icing and cinnamon crumble.  The cinnamon filling was also ok.  But the pastry?  Just, ugh.  Spongy, oily, just not good at all.

Breakfast Claw (Waffled).

I scraped out the cinnamon filling since I liked that, and then got bored and decided to throw the rest (now in two halves), into my waffle iron, since, waffling leftovers often transforms them.

This did not transform.  Yes, the texture improved and it got crispy, but the flavor of the horrible pastry was just impossible to get away from.

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