If there is one food I could eat for the rest of my life, it would be chips & dip. Hands down. Especially guacamole. I love a chunky guacamole, with loads of tomatoes and cilantro, just like Alton Brown taught me to make. One problem.. my husband hates cilantro 🙁 Some people have an allergy where cilantro tastes like soap. My poor husband is one of these people. We often clash on the subject of cilantro when I’m cooking dinner, so I have learned to work around it. If you think about it, a lot of the flavors in guacamole are found in Italian cooking; tomatoes, onions, garlic, and what herb goes better with those flavors than thyme? It’s thyme for guacamole :)…
“The only good thing about Saint Helena is the coffee.” –Napoleon Bonaparte
When I first started working at Starbucks in 2005, I was obsessed with the toffee almond bar. I think we all were. It was the most delicious blondie, with chunks of dark chocolate, white chocolate and toffee. It was, hands down, the best Starbucks pastry. Every once in a while, a conversation will come up about “What Starbucks thing do you miss the most” The list is long, but toffee almond bars (and valencia!!) are always number one on my list. So I decided to make my own, and pair it with the Paradeisi Blend from the Roastery.
Ethiopia Gedeb is one of the newer coffees at the Roastery, and will be hitting all Reserve stores in September. Have you ever had a coffee that you just couldn’t stop drinking? That is Ethiopia Gedeb for me. I have a doppio espresso of it every morning since I got it, and have been making small batches of cold brew to drink in the afternoon. It is one of those coffees that is just delightful any way you brew it.
Last year, my husband and I went to Portland for the weekend. We went on our usual coffee crawl, and one of our stops, Barista, had a new drink on their menu. A coffee shrub spritzer. Espresso cold brewed with balsamic vinegar, maple syrup and sparkling water. I am one of those crazy ‘apple cider vinegar cures everything’ people, so I had to try it out of my love for everything vinegar.
Brazil Fazenda California is easily one of my favorite reserve coffees that has launched so far this year. This low acid, medium bodied coffee has layered flavors of hazelnut and lemon. When I first tasted this coffee, I was instantly blown away by the hazelnut notes; so intense! Of course, when I think of hazelnut, I think of Nutella, so I wanted to do a nod to that.
Colombia Café Mujeres was the Starbucks Reserve subscription for the month of June, and I had a heck of a time trying to get this coffee to my house!