Recently I was sent a care package by Balance Bar Cafe. An interesting new product trying to establish itself as a high energy health conscious snack. The cafe title is not meant to be taken as a traditional Energy Bar with caffeine included, but rather the name is a subtle suggestion to eat this when coupled with coffee, as you would a more unhealthy snack.
Balance Bar Cafe’s are a product designed to be enjoyed as a healthy snack along with your morning coffee, or afternoon pick me up. It doesn’t mean that they are a meal replacement. Nor are they Diet Food. Does that mean you would eat this instead of lunch dinner or breakfast? No it doesn’t. But if you are going to try a snack during your coffee break wouldn’t it be nice if the snack was a high in protein, overall balanced alternative? Why yes… yes it would be.
As per usual all products submitted are run through the same process.
The Journey
Smell: If it doesn’t smell good How can you eat it?
Taste: Obvious and penultimate
Aftertaste: Food is done, but is the flavor?
Claims: If a product claims to be faster than a speeding bullet we’ll shoot it.
Smell: Popping open the package and I was greeted with a wonderful nutty chocolate smell. While I could smell both the chocolate and the almond i guess the biscotti was just icing on the bar. The smell was quite sweet and inviting.
Taste: While the Cinnamon Bun bar tasted mildly sweet this bar is quite sweet and has a smooth finish to it. Wile I wouldn’t say the almond was evident it did have a smooth taste to it. There was a definite complexity to the overall taste that was missing from the Cinnamon Bar. The taste rounded out nicely when paired with a good dark cup of coffee. but on its own it was a little complex. I think maybe just a cinnamon almond would have been enough. The bar itself is layered with real almond slices, and chocolaty drizzle, so you know it isn’t all chemicals and trickery. You are tasting almond because they are staring right back at you.
Aftertaste: This is the one area that kind of let me down a little bit there was a slight aftertaste to the bar as a whole. While Icouldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was it was there. however if you drink it with coffee it wasn’t there at all. So Coffee Up!
Claims: I was satisfied, and though I’m not in the habit of snacking with my coffee this treat did seem to fill a gap in my day when I was running around without being junk food. (Weight Watchers people, the bar is 5 points, I calculated it) Full nutritional information here. Balance bar claims that their bar follows the 40-30-30 plan, which means 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein and 30 percent fat.
Conclusion: This was a tasty snack, and filling. Unlike most diet foods which sell you on a snack without calories or fat or anything this snack sells you on the fact that it replaces worthless snack with something healthier, a bit of a balanced snack. I like that. If you are eating something with no calories and no fat… what IS it? At least with this you know you’re getting filled with 40-30-30. And it does fill you up, and hold you over. I found it great as a snack while i was running around doing errands and chores. Throw back a mug of coffee and a bar and you’re ready with energy and fuel.
Overall this is a well rounded snack. Sticking to a diet plan and trying to manage the snacks while still feeling a little indulgent is hard work. its nice to know there are foods on the market for people with a sweet tooth and a coffee snack habit. Although I’m not a sweets kind of guy this was quite good.
*Full Disclosure: I was sent a lovely care package at no cost by the fine Folks at Balance Bars for the purpose of writing this review. This in no way affected my opinions of the product nor was a desired outcome asked for or agreed upon.
So the game among games has debuted and we are left here standing atop the smoldering rubble of fourteen years, three ( plus ) game studios, and a crazy development cycle. Now that the game is out, and in consoles everywhere. it almost feels like we should put the delay to bed. It has been mentioned… and the wait is now over. But the delay and the players involved did cause some game decisions to be made. The final developer Gearbox tried to stay as true to the original vision of the game as possible.
I firmly believe that you cannot make a perfect game, on purpose. Games are perfect because they have attention to detail, easy controls and predictable outcomes for the use of those controls, ie no glaring weakness in making the game play work. Games also need to be released at the proper time, this is not an indictment of anything but if a genre is popular you go with that look and feel. Could you imagine releasing a similar game to the Original Guitar hero right now? No, people want more instruments, more control. Does it make that game better or worse? No, but it can affect what people expect it to be.
Duke Nukem Forever is a great game, it is a very entertaining game. It is not a game meant for right now, with open battlefields, advanced crouching mechanics, intricate in-game interactions ect. It is a game where you blow things up and make silly jokes. You kill final Bosses and you smoke a cigar. You may very well visit a strip club, have a couple beers and eat some popcorn. And I missed this kind of game, i love boss fights. I hate snipers, and I really and truly have the sense of humor of a 15year old boy some days.
The Good:
A breath of fresh air. Duke Nukem Forever is a game I love playing but i never touched it before. I love games in this genre, blow things up go in guns blazing and don’t worry about the tiny details. The bosses are HUGE, the jokes are dirty and so are the women. Quite literally I don’t think there is a single level without some type of off color reference joke or quip. The game made good on my expectations in this regard. From front to back this is the Most Duke Nukem you have ever seen, and he is just as much of a Badass as you think he would be.
The controls are intuitive and simple. The guns are epic and fun to play with. I only wish you could hold more than 2 at a time. because i love having the shotgun, i quite simply can’t drop it.
And you know what else is missing from today’s shoot em ups? Puzzles! That is right Duke Nukem has stretches of the game where you need to solve a physics puzzle, move things around or navigate a crazy landscape just to continue. The obstacles are unavoidable and quite fun.
The Bad:
Fun Gameplay aside, the load times are annoying and a bit long even on the 360. For as short as the different segments are, the load times are about 20 – 30 seconds in between scenes or deaths. I don’t know what technical problem this is a result of, but I really hope that maybe someone just forgot to carry the one in some equation somewhere and a software update can fix it. Because if the load times were shorter the game would run a whole lot better.
The only other detractor I have seen is in the 2 player game. I love having friends over, doing a split screen and killing some people online or even in a head to head match. Duke has multiplayer, but no split screen, so it was a little disappointing.
The Ugly:
Loads of ugly Aliens! And by ugly I mean that while I don’t look for crystal sharp crystal clear graphics all the time there is a button on the controller for zooming in, to aim or look a bit into the distance. When you use it the picture is fuzzy… It just seemed a bit off.
The Conclusion:
I love the game, but I understand it for what it is./ It is a concept game from a differernt era when baddies didn’t have really massivly challenging AI, bosses were huge and the guns went boom. There is absolutly nothing like a shotgun and a cold beer IN a game to make a level seem just right! Should you buy it? Well if you loved Duke then I would suggest a trip down memory lane. If you haven’t played and Duke Nukem before I would still give it a shot. it isn’t the most innovative game, it isn’t the most eye popping, nor complex. But man alive is it fun. From start to finish the game is one long explosion.
This ame had to be made, enough work had gone into it that it had to be made and had to be made now. And now that that dev cycle is over we hope that the team does more. In fact now we expect more, a more modern duke would be Sweet!
Rating:
How do I rate this game? Well since we rate games with a bean scale around here i give it 3.5 beans out of 5. A good solid game from a bygone genre and style that is missing from today’s lineup.
Duke is a guilty pleasure, there is no way that a guy with a family, and a nice neat little job and a child safe family friendly podcast should ever enjoy this game, let alone wait with bated breath, but man oh man am I waiting. I can’t wait to throw down with some insane guns, ugly alien hordes, massive battles, walk into strip clubs blowing urinals off the wall with a shotgun… why because I can. The game is a tongue in cheek poke at every last action hero that ever walked, it is a walking trash talking stereotype that will blow your minds up like they were sweet sweet bubblegum, except we’re all outta gum. Only one thing left to do.
Kick a little Ass and Find some gum.
The game will come in three flavors for the normal users. Xbox, PC, and PS3. But for the Hard Core Fan there will also be Balls of Steel, collectors editions released as well.
Regular Can of Whoopass
A 6 Pack of Whoopass
*Full Disclosure: all Amazon Links are Affiliate Links
Recently I was sent a care package by Balance Bar Cafe. An interesting new product trying to establish itself as a high energy health conscious snack. The cafe title is not meant to be taken as a traditional Energy Bar with caffeine included, but rather the name is a subtle suggestion to eat this when coupled with coffee, as you would a more unhealthy snack.
Balance Bar Cafe’s are a product designed to be enjoyed as a healthy snack along with your morning coffee, or afternoon pick me up. It doesn’t mean that they are a meal replacement. Nor are they Diet Food. But does that mean you should throw a candy bar down your throat because it’s there? No it doesn’t. But if you are going to try a snack during your coffee break wouldn’t it be nice if the snack was a high in protein, overall balanced alternative? Why yes… yes it would be.
As per usual all products submitted are run through the same process.
The Journey
Smell: If it doesn’t smell good How can you eat it?
Taste: Obvious and penultimate
Aftertaste: Food is done, but is the flavor?
Claims: If a product claims to be faster than a speeding bullet we’ll shoot it.
Smell: Upon opening this bar the wonderful smell of a cinnamon bun wafted up to my nostrils. Not only is Cinnamon one of my favorite food smells, next to coffee and BBQ, but it honestly smelled like the real deal and not a chemical equivalent.
Taste: The bar was sweet without being overly so, had a wonderful Cinnamon flavor going, well rounded and satisfying. You honestly can’t ask for anything more than that!
Aftertaste: None! The only reason this category is here is because some foods, no matter how processed they are tend to linger on the palate. I was left with a wonderful taste experience and no “Hangover”
Claims: I was satisfied, and though I’m not in the habit of needing anything with my coffee this treat did seem to fill a gap in my day when i was running around without killing my Diet. (Weight Watchers people, the bar is 5 points, I calculated it) Full nutritional information here. Balance bar claims that their bar follows the 40-30-30 plan, which means 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein and 30 percent fat.
Conclusion: This is a great satisfying snack. And while I’m no nutritionist it isn’t candy, its better than the traditional donuts, bagel or cheese Danish. I’m happy this wasn’t a fat free product. Way too much of my adult life has been spent fighting the Fat Free product craze. They throw in Protein to keep your engine going. And though i’m not too sure about the balance between all the different factors it hasn’t hurt my diet after eating them the past couple of weeks.
Overall this is a well rounded snack. Sticking to a diet plan and trying to manage the snacks while still feeling a little indulgent is hard work. its nice to know there are foods on the market for people with a sweet tooth and a coffee snack habit. Although I’m not a sweets kind of guy this was quite good.
*Full Disclosure: I was sent a lovely care package at no cost by the fine Folks at Balance Bars for the purpose of writing this review. This in no way affected my opinions of the product nor was a desired outcome asked for or agreed upon.
After all the talk we were doing about “Zombie Apocolypse”, I started thinking about what I would need to survive such an event. The first thing that came to mind was food. Who needs a weapon when you can run…zombies hate fast food.
While looking through ThinkGeek.com, I found something that sounded delicious, Tactical Sammich. I was intrigued, so I decided to get one of each to try out (Pepperoni & Honey BBQ Beef). After trying both of them out, mixed emotions come into play.
Now I know that they were not going to be like a full course meal in a hot pocket, but if I was going for one, it would be the Honey BBQ Beef. It wasn’t too bad. The bread was a little chewy, but who would complain when running from zombies. The plus side was that the inside was filled with beef. I can not say the same for the pepperoni. The bread was just as chewy as the other sammich, but it was the inside that gave disappointment. It looked like they just stuck a small stick of pepperoni, the size of my ring finger, inside and shipped it out. Of course, who would complain at a time like that. However, for $5.99 each, at least fill it up a little more.
The next thing I had sent in was, of course, Stay Puft Marshmallows. The only thing special about these, other than the box it comes in, is that they are caffinated. I couldn’t wait to give these a shot. I was shocked to find out that they were not that bad.It tasted just like a marshmallow. You did taste the slight hint of caffeine, but they were pretty satisfying. They are a little pricey, $19.99 to be exact. But if you have a some cash to spend for yourself, give these marshmallows a try.
This is not a normal review. I have used this machine for 3 years, and it is still going strong. The problems that were there in the beginning are still there, but they were never enough to force my hand at upgrading.
This review has been a long time coming. I often have people ask me what is the best espresso machine to start out with? Well I myself don’t have a huge budget, so technically I’m still with my starter Espresso Machine. And it is a beast. By Beast I mean this little machine has a few quibbles and just works, and works well. Especially when you consider the price point it comes in at.
Will I still upgrade down the road when funding isn’t as much of a object as it is right now? Why yes… yes I will. Will this machine earn a place of honor in my office as the espresso machine in my remote coffee campus? Why yes… yes it will.
Well You wanted it, here it is the Fairly incompletely rather badly illustrated Portal 2 review. Since I am a fan of putting my bias on display I have to tell you upfront I Love the original game, the ambiance, the dialog the… well everything.
If you haven’t played the original portal you have done you gaming self a major disservice. It breaks genres to create its own. Quite simply this game is what happens when a 1st person shooter tries to really immerse itself in a puzzle. In fact the developers threw this game in as an add-on to a collection, Part of the original Orange Box, Half life 1, 2 and team fortress. Sweet fancy fun, this package is still a steal on the discount rack.
There is only 1 gun, and it only does one thing. Shoots either entry or exit portals. using gravity, ingenuity and luck you need to navigate through countless levels of complex and mind bending puzzles. You begin to wonder if a 2 player version would even be possible. Fans of motion sickness, and Nausea need not apply. In fact that was probably the orignal title of the game.
Did there need to be a Sequel?
When a sequel for a great movie or game comes out you need to ask yourself is the story workable? Does it continue or break the other continuity to make this game even happen? Is this a Matrix 2, or heaven forbid Highlander 2…. Or did it go the way of other great sequels Rock IV and Ghostbuster 2. Come on maybe a happy little carpathian kitten is lurking somewhere around here. Yes this game needed to be made. It didn’t break the first story, it added to it. Without ruining any of the story beyond the first 2 minutes. Yes you are Chel the protagonist from the first game, GLADDoS is back, and I don’t think there will be cake, because the developers got tired of cake jokes. I did find one single cake reference in the game, let’s see if you catch it. At this point I’ve beaten it twice on single player, and am going back for more. I’m working on the next level of awesome.
Co-Op: Before we start this, let me tell you the Co-Op campaign comes AFTER the single player campaign in the overall timeline of things. So pleasure delayers be aware that you should probably play the First person player-mode to get all the awesome jokes in the multi-player mode. Co-Op is fantastic, there are moments when one of you will crack and send the other into a pit of acid, just because. This is truly a team game, although if there was a … “Battle Mode” that would be pretty fun too! Most if not all of the puzzles NEED to be completed as a two player set. I can think of only one so far that you really didn’t have to work together.
The Good: More Portal, More Science, More Better
The traps… er tests are fantastic, the story is what steals the show. Continuing from the first game the witty dialog, straight laced insult humor and overall polish on the game is the same only… better. There are less standard puzzles and more off kilter broken ended tests of your portal-ability. In fact I completed the single player game by a non standard means without even realizing it, which is why I played through it again. Pay attention to your surroundings they can lead to some fun surprises.
The Bad: If there really is anything bad in the game its that there seems to be a lack of extras, like challenges from the first game. I would have loved to see the first portal game as an include on the disk just for fun. The replay value also leaves a good deal to be desired as well. If you have played through once and have a good spatial memory then you’ll be set!
Leave me Wanting MORE: Some minor bits of fun from the trailer don’t appear in the came, like suction tubes. Sadly they didn’t appear once in the game. I am a Portal Junky though and love the game as a whole. We also had some pretty awesome use of gels in demo content that didn’t quite make it into the final version. but I can’t complain they showed you the solution… what fun is that! Hopefully some of the awesome tech demos are getting pushed into the DLC coming this summer… oh by the by…. it will be free! So I can only think they rushed to have all the awesome story in the game and are adding in the extras after the fact. Sweet Fancy Science this is going to be cool.
Conclusion: Should you buy this. YES! I’m Paul Muller and we’re done here
My husband, Paul asked me a while back if I wanted to review the book “Prophecy.” I was a little hesitant at first because I am not a big reader. He forwarded me the synopsis and I thought why not? I’m a Catholic and this book seemed to play on a story from the Bible. I should put my 13 years of Catholic school to good use, right? In all honesty, I am not exactly the best Catholic going. I’m more of what you call a “C&E” Catholic – that is, I go to Church on Christmas and Easter. I really have no excuse aside from laziness. Hopefully, one day I’ll get that motivation to get back in gear. But enough about me and on to this book.
When I started reading it, while it didn’t exactly spell out that it was going to play on the story of Mary and Joseph, that’s basically what jumped out at me as I read. The book’s idea was interesting. It seemed to bring the ancient Bible story to more modern times. It was definitely intriguing for me to imagine this happening in a future Nashville and I can totally envision that the scenarios that were described in the book would probably happen should this actually come to light. I would say that the book as a whole was a light read, although I would have liked a little more substance toward the end of the book. It had a good storyline through about 75% of the book and then the end seemed a bit rushed for me. I wanted to read more about their journey and I would have liked there to be a little more elaboration on the state of affairs in Nashville at the end of the book rather than just having that rushed in the Epilogue.
Using a 5 Star Method, I would give this 3 out of 5 stars. An entertaining read, but I was left wanting a little more details in the story.
*Full disclosure: I was sent the Book Prophecy by Deborah Jaeger, at no cost for the purpose of review. The Book was provided without any assurance of given rating or reception.
Ask around my office, or around Podcamp, or a technology centric podcast or recording area. People can’t help but compliment Audacity, the free software program does everything you need to do to produce professional recording and media. The best thing about free software is the price, the worse thing is that there usually aren’t good directions for what to do with it. Enter The Book of Audacity by No Starch Press. No Starch press offers a line of books that take a relaxed approach to presenting good information. they have a tendency to publish technical books that are, gasp! Easy to read. Imagine that.
Carla Schroder, the author spends time to segment the information into each platform discussing candidly with little fandom attached to good things about each platform, be it Windows Mac or Linux. The graphics charts, and helpful hints are expertly placed to break up the flow of text and make the book easy to consume. Carla’s voice can clearly be heard throughout the text, so that it sounds less like a white paper and more like a discussion from an expert point of view.
How does it Read?
Dry subject matter is dry, but a complex concept explained in good detail with frequent examples and bite sized chunks of relevant information is always the best way to go. When you pick up a tech book, do you want to go from soup to nuts? Or do you do what the rest of us humans do, flip right to the section you NEED at that point. This book is designed to make both approaches easy t understand. A short introduction and focused chapters make the information compartmentalized and accessible for users of any platform.
I’ve been using audacity both in work and at home for over 5 years at this point and I picked up tips and tricks which I hope will make my future recordings, mixes and podcasts that much cleaner. I am constantly called upon to teach sessions on using Audacity. love helping others realize the value of a free program, you just have to provide the sweat equity to make it yours. With this book the time spent sweating is reduced and the time spent making good audio is increased!
I judge all books based on whether or not you should buy them or take them out of the library. I would file this book in the Own category, not only is it a good reference for experiences users to eyeball when they are stuck on removing the last little bit of fuzz from a track or getting the most out of their setup. But this book is an essential tool for the new Audacity user.
Book Information
Record, Edit, Mix, and Master with the Free Audio Editor
by Carla Schroder
March 2011, 384 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-59327-270-8
$34.95 Print Book and FREE Ebook
$27.95 Ebook (PDF, Mobi, and ePub)
Consider Supporting the CaffiNation By purchasing this book from Amazon
* Full Disclosure: I was sent this book by No Starch Press, at no cost, for the purpose of reviewing it.
Today I had the pleasure of trying out the new offering from Bai Brands the Bai5 Congo Pear. Bai means pure in Chinese, and the Founder of the Company Ben Weiss has worked to craft a set of beverages that leverage the long unused fruit from the Coffea Arabica plant, better know to you as coffee. Bai’s mission is to create good tasting all natural healthy beverages. the Bai5 line specifically is the low-calorie line from Bai Beverages.
The Fruit of the Coffee plant is extremely perishable and for years has been regulated to being the byproduct of my favorite habit. The Coffee Cherry is usually discarded as the bean is harvested, roasted and sent to my stomach. According to the information provided the fruit of the coffee cherry is apparently extremely high in antioxidants. And these beverages were designed as a good tasting all natural delivery system for this new form of antioxidants
The Bai5 product line uses an all natural sugar substitute called Stevia, which is touted as being sweeter than sugar. It allows for the beverage to still be sweet while only containing 5 calories as opposed to the regular version which contains around 70. Either way these beverages are well below the equivalent amount of fruit juice in terms of caloric impact.
As per usual all products submitted are run through the same process. And with non coffee beverages I like to enlist an elite team of tasters. Specifically the focus group this time consists of my wife, myself, our good friends Marianne and Dave. Marianne and My Wife Jen are both non coffee drinkers, Jen being an expert in diet foods I figured this would be a good group to try these beverages out. Specifically we strive for honesty when we taste things at the Caffination, and these are some of the most honest and direct people I know.
The Journey
Smell: If it doesn’t smell good How can you drink it?
With all the new video games coming out, I figured I should try out some demos, an let you know how I felt about them. So instead of you finding out it was a waste of time, let me take that pain away from you. This week I tried out two games recently released, Bulletstorm and Stacked.
With the release of Bulletstorm, I had a chance to play a demo of the game before the release. To be honest, I was not satisfied with the outcome of the game. I was getting bored with it after about 15 minutes.. This game is developed by Epic Games, who is well-known for the Locust stomping Gears of War franchise. Epic wanted this game to be completely different from Gears, and they achieved it by a long shot.
The storyline in basic terms is that you are a space pirate hunting down your-ex commander on a planet of mutants and monsters, with a side of criminals. The reason for the big hype for this game is the “skillshot.” This gives the player the opportunity to kill an enemy in many different combinations, and earn points for doing so. Now these points are added up and used at a “dropkit”, which is basically a pit stop to spend points and check on achievements. Another jolt to the game is, of course, the vulgar behavior and obscene language. If you have played Gears of War, this should be old news to you.
In the end, Bulletstorm turned out to be flop, at least for me. The graphics turned out fantastic, even though there wasn’t much of an interesting storyline. However, trying to find out all the different kill combinations was getting pretty boring. Personally, I would save my money and wait for Epic’s next game to be released.
Another demo I decided to try out was a game called Stacking. This is an adventure/puzzle game which the characters are nothing but Russian matryoshka dolls. The whole point of the game is to solve different puzzles by stacking up all sorts of russian dolls.
The story takes place during industrial times. The Baron is forcing the Blackmore family children to work as slaves to pay off debt, and it is up to Charlie to save his family. Although that is the main objective, there are other tasks and puzzles that can be solved in the game. What got me interested was the fact that each doll had a certain ability. Charlie is the smallest of all the dolls. So when he would hop into a doll one size bigger, he takes on the power of that doll.So with each doll in the game having a different ability, all the puzzles could be solved in different ways.
I think the best part of the game, at least for me, were the cutscenes. They are shown in the same fashion as silent films. So when the cutsecenes start up, it looks like it is all on stage. Although the main stage of the whole game is at a train station, you have the freedom to wander off to other places in the game. In the end, Stacking gave me more than what I was expecting.
So in the spirit of Coffee, I feel obligated to keep you caffeinated, even with the ratings. Instead of Stars, how about we use Coffee beans.
I would have to rate Bulletstorm 2 out of 5 coffee beans. Even though the graphics were well produced, the storyline as well as the “skillshot” just couldn’t bring interest to the game.
For Stacking, I would have to rate it 4 out of 5 coffee beans. Although the graphics were not as good as Bulletstorm, the storyline as well as the whole concept of the game brought a great amount of enjoyment to the table. I had a great time playing the demo, and I am definitely considering getting the full version.
Today I had the pleasure of trying out the new offering from Bai Brands the Jamaican Blue Berry. Bai means pure in Chinese, and the Founder of the Company Ben Weiss has worked to craft a set of beverages that leverage the long unused fruit from the Coffea Arabica plant, better know to you as coffee. Bai’s mission is to create good tasting all natural healthy beverages.
The Fruit of the Coffee plant is extremely perishable and for years has been regulated to being the byproduct of my favorite habit. The Coffee Cherry is usually discarded as the bean is harvested, roasted and sent to my stomach. According to the information provided the fruit of the coffee cherry is apparently extremely high in antioxidants. And these beverages were designed as a good tasting all natural delivery system for this new form of antioxidants
As per usual all products submitted are run through the same process. And with non coffee beverages I like to enlist an elite team of tasters. Specifically the focus group this time consists of My Wife and Myself, and our good friends Marianne and Dave. Marianne and My Wife Jen are both non coffee drinkers, Jen being an expert in diet foods I figured this would be a good group to try these beverages out. Specifically we strive for honesty when we taste things at the Caffination, and these are some of the most honest and direct people I know.
The Journey
Smell: If it doesn’t smell good How can you drink it?
There is nothing better than getting to sample a new coffee. Well there is one thing, getting to sample a new coffee and share it with others. Today I had the pleasure of trying out the new offering from Weaver’s Coffee., The Astral Blend. This coffee is special for a couple of reasons. first off it is Fair Trade Certified, Organic and has a conscience. 5 % of all sales from the Weaver’s Coffee will go to Breast Cancer Research. As per their own website…
“By purchasing this product, you are supporting breast cancer research, funding for local hospitals and community organizations that provide breast health education, breast cancer screening and treatment. This special coffee also supports a better life for farming families through fair prices, community development, and environmental stewardship.”
You Can’t argue with that type of commitment to changing the world a little bit with each cup of coffee you drink. But all of that doesn’t mean any extra warm fuzzies when it comes to taste,. If a coffee doesn’t taste good, it won’t have too much of a chance to make a difference.
As per usual all coffee’s submitted are run through the same process a nice coarse grind and a 4 minute steep in the trust french press, this time however my first experience is via drip brew in my office. The French Press came later, and only served to reinforce my experiences. Sometimes necessity demands that i bring large samples into work to share with other coffee lovers and this was one such time.
The Journey
Smell: The Start of your journey
Taste: Obvious and penultimate
Mouthfeel: Besides the taste how does it feel while drinking
The wrong settings can ruin a cup for french press, destroy an espresso machine or make your autodrip nice and weak. Enter the latest item to cross my desk. The wondrous Breville Smart Grinder, BCG800XL. Breville was nice enough to send me the unit to review. I wanted to put the machine through a real world test, and that meant drinking a lot of coffee. I tried them all from French press to cold brew, espresso to Greek coffee.
I work alone, so as a coffee addict I lack certain opportunities that other people who work in a communal setting have. no talking around the water cooler, no chatting over coffee… But the real problem is that I make all the coffee and I drink all the coffee. I also have the clean the coffee pot. There is a lot more work involved both in consuming and upkeep when you are the only one responsible. First off let me state that I keep all of my coffee equipment at home in pristine shape. Things are always clean and the water fresh. But in the office were quantity weighs out over quality… standard for what is acceptable slip a bit. So my office coffee pot is a bit dirty… I a lot dirty in fact. I clean it roughly once a month, and even then it looks bad.
I was given the opportunity to try out a Product from Urnex, called Cleancaf. The fine folks at Urnex sent me a sample at no cost to review. The idea behind this product is that it cleans your coffee machine and carafe with minimal fuss. I blocked off a lunch time period where I could both clean the machine and take some pictures of the product in action. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently I was sent a care package by Balance Bar Cafe. An interesting new product trying to establish itself as a high energy health conscious snack. The cafe title is not meant to be taken as a traditional Energy Bar with caffeine included, but rather the name is a subtle suggestion to eat this when coupled with coffee, as you would a more unhealthy snack.
Claims: I was satisfied, and though I’m not in the habit of snacking with my coffee this treat did seem to fill a gap in my day when I was running around without being junk food. (Weight Watchers people, the bar is 5 points, I calculated it) Full nutritional information here. Balance bar claims that their bar follows the 40-30-30 plan, which means 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein and 30 percent fat.
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