Dessert Blog

A rural Atlantic man is building a business based on crop residue. Using a 100-year-old recipe from his mother's side of the family, Randall Krogh is making edible jelly from corn cobs. This spring, Krogh Family Farms' corn-cob sweetened spread is making its debut at farmers markets in Ankeny and downtown Des Moines.

For Krogh, a former farmer turned auctioneer and factory worker, the project is a way to keep a hand in agriculture. He is part of a small but growing number of Iowa entrepreneurs developing niche food products. Krogh, 47, first made corn cob jelly for an Exira High School assignment. His classmates kidded him when he carried a bucket of corn cobs to class, but he had the last laugh. Years later and no longer farming, he was looking for another source of income. He decided to make the jelly again after he was unable to find the product in local grocery stores. Relatives and friends who tasted Krogh's sweetened spread encouraged him to produce it for commercial sale.

He tapped the Food Processing Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which runs a program that helps food entrepreneurs develop their ieas into marketable products. Krogh already had perfected his product. The University of Nebraska center helped him develop business and marketing plans. His parents, Charles and Charlotte Krogh of Exira, provided financial backing, and Frank Spillers, co-owner of Global Horizons Training and Consulting in Atlantic, helped Krogh develop the business.

Krogh uses red corn cobs, as well as white ones, to make jelly. He boils the cobs and uses extracted liquid to flavor and color the jelly. A 15-pound bag of cobs can yield enough extract for 150 8-ounce jars of jelly, he said.
The former farmer knows it will take time and patience to build the business, but he believes he has a unique product. Visit the DesMoines Register to read the full story.

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Who needs Napa Valley when wine is flowing throughout the Midwest? In two weeks, Minnesota will unveil its first-ever wine trail in an effort to boost tourism around the state's budding wine industry.

The Three Rivers Wine Trail of Minnesota includes seven wineries and vineyards that wind from Chisago City down to Lake City, along the Mississippi, Cannon and St. Croix rivers. The promotional campaign is meant to trumpet the state's growing wine industry -- now with 19 wineries throughout the state -- and to convince tourists to make a day, or weekend, of traveling from winery to winery.

Collectively, the wineries are producing brochures to promote themselves as a trail, and will each have live music the weekend of June 10 and 11 as the official kickoff of the trail. Similar trails in other states have helped brand areas as wine regions, and spurred further tourism growth. See bizjournal.com for the full story.

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WARREN BUFFETT munches his way through piles of See's Candies Inc. peanut brittle as he answered questions during Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb. Berkshire's Chairman Buffett bought See's in 1972 for $25 million. See's is taking a run at becoming as familiar across the U.S. as International Dairy Queen Inc., also a Berkshire unit, and Coca-Cola Co., whose biggest shareholder is Berkshire.

The company is cultivating Internet sales and operating more gift shops during the Christmas season, when See's gets half its revenue. The drive follows a failed effort 30 years ago to put See's black-and-white-tiled stores in malls from St. Louis to Houston. After 85 years in business, See's still has more than three-quarters of its 200 stores in California.

Some publicity is helping grow the business. Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres featured See's products on her Valentine's Day program. The company also had a two-day spot on the Wheel of Fortune game show, with a year's supply of See's candy offered as a prize. See's is one of the top sellers of premium chocolate candy in the US. Gourmet chocolate sales surged 14 percent in the U.S. last year to $1.6 billion, compared with less than a 1 percent rise for all chocolate to $15.2 billion,

See's successful strategy has been to operate seasonal gift shops for six weeks during November and December, in more than 30 states from Washington to Maine to Florida. By setting up kiosks in malls, See's attracts holiday shoppers as well as boosting its brand recognition, helping Web and catalog sales. The company plans to open 100 Christmastime shops this year, an increase from 90 in 2005, and to add 10 every year. See's candy has been sold year-round since 2003 at Lord & Taylor department stores in cities including New York and Boston.

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The Atlantic or Boston mackerel, part of a large family of migratory fish that travel in schools, is found offshore this time of year. A relative of tuna, the slender fish has dark blue-green skin with silvery markings, a white belly, and few scales. It is one of the darkest, oiliest fish on the market. Mackerel matures quickly and usually weighs in at 1 to 2 pounds each . Used for bait as often as for dinner, mackerel is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, a type of healthy unsaturated fat.

Their high oil content means that like bluefish, mackerel spoil quickly and should be used as soon as they are caught or bought. Keep them on ice. ``They need to be super-fresh," says Steve Johnson, owner of Rendezvous in Central Square, Cambridge, where mackerel fillets are added to a Spanish-style fish stew with chorizo, saffron, haddock, and littleneck clams. With their manageable size and quick cooking time, mackerel are great on the grill, says Johnson. Grilling sets off the rich, sweet flavor, which stands up well to tomatoes, mustard, or soy sauce. Mackerel is also popular served as sushi or sashimi in Japanese restaurants, where it's known as saba.
Look for mackerel, typically sold whole, in fish markets with a reputation for freshness. The fish is usually abundant offshore in late spring, but the recent cool weather has lowered water temperatures and kept the mackerel from swimming close to shore. The result is a lower supply and smaller fish than usual for this time of year. Reprinted from the Boston Globe, written by Leigh Belanger.

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Chocolate lovers rejoice. A new study hints that eating milk chocolate may boost brain function. Chocolate contains many substances that act as stimulants, such as theobromine, phenethylamine, and caffeine. These substances by themselves have previously been found to increase alertness and attention. By consuming chocolate you can get the stimulating effects, which then lead to increased mental performance.

Previous research has shown that some nutrients in food aid in glucose release and increased blood flow, which may augment cognitive performance. The current findings provide support for nutrient release via chocolate consumption to enhance cognitive performance. See Yahoo News for the full story.

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Watch out, Egg McMuffin, there’s a new breakfast sandwich in town. On May 31, Starbucks Coffee Co. will start offering warm breakfast sandwiches in McDonald’s hometown.

The most similar offering to the McDonald’s mainstay Egg McMuffin is the sausage, egg and cheddar sandwich served on a toasted English muffin. The fare gets fancier from there, with a peppered bacon, egg and cheddar sandwich, a turkey bacon sandwich made with cholesterol-free eggs and reduced-fat white cheddar cheese, the Black Forest ham, egg and cheddar sandwich and the Eggs Florentine with baby spinach and havarti cheese.

For McDonald’s Corp., which derives about a quarter of its sales at breakfast, the encroachment of Starbucks poses a real threat. Indeed, McDonald’s introduced the Egg McMuffin in 1973. McDonald’s already has been fighting back with the introduction of premium coffee earlier this year. The Oak Brook-based chain is also testing breakfast burritos in some markets. The new Starbucks breakfast sandwiches will be available next week in 126 Chicago-area Starbucks. More Starbucks in the area will be outfitted with ovens and will have the sandwiches by the end of February.

Chicago is the fifth city to get the warm sandwiches. Seattle, where Starbucks is based, Portland, Ore., Washington, D.C., and San Francisco already have them. Priced at $2.95, the Starbucks sandwiches cost 32% more than the $2.02 Egg McMuffin. And they’ll be available at all hours, unlike McDonald’s beakfast service, which usually ends around 10:30 a.m. Also on May 31, Starbucks will start offering two warm lunch sandwiches – tomato mozzarella with basil and spinach and a southwestern turkey sandwich with pepper jack cheese. Once the Starbucks ovens are up and running next week, Starbucks also will encourage customers to warm up their pastries.

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New York-based Ramapo Valley Brewery manufactures gluten-free beer. The beer does away with barley and wheat, and instead is fermented with honey and Kosher-certified yeast. The gold-tinted kosher for Passover Honey Beer doesn't taste sweet, but it does possess a honey aftertaste. Though the brew uses hops --- the dry, ripe cones that gives beer its bitter taste --- Guinness beer fans are sure to find it leaves something to be desired.

So the stuff may not be up to snuff for hardcore beer enthusiasts, but when you want a beer and your only other choice is a glass of wine, you take what you can get. Gluten-free beer is the least of the worries for people with celiac disease, which is characterized by gluten intolerance. People must eliminate obvious foods like bread, noodles and cereals, in addition to reading the labels of soups, dressing and processed foods. No wheat, rye or barley --- not a crumb. It's not like some other diets, like diabetic diets, where there is some leeway.

Ingesting gluten triggers an autoimmune reaction in people with the disorder, which destroys the villi in the small intestine. Villi are small, finger-like projections that absorb nutrients. When people with celiac disease eat gluten, some may show little or no external symptoms, while others will experience bloating, headaches or fainting episodes. Sometimes the effects can be extreme. People with the disease are more likely to develop osteoporosis and suffer damage to the nervous system and internal organs. Left untreated, celiac disease can be fatal.

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John Harison has been an ice cream taster for Dreyer's Ice Cream for 25 years. Harrison's passion for ice cream is comparable to Willy Wonka's love for chocolate. In those 25 years, he's sampled about 200 million gallons of ice cream and developed about 75 different ice cream flavors, including cookies and cream — the fifth most popular ice cream flavor.

Harrison even tested the old wives' tale that pregnant women like pickles and ice cream. He mixed the two ingredients together and served it to a sample group of 1,500 women in three different cities. "Many of them came back for seconds and thirds," he said. "But the bottom line was, 'We like our vanilla and we like our pickles, but not together.' So that one never got off first base."

Each day, he assesses 60 packages of ice cream for appearance, flavor and texture. He samples each ice cream like a wine taster, but he never swallows. "I've got to be as fresh on that 60th package as I am on the first," he said. "I don't swallow because if you swallow you get full, and if you get full it's like a Thanksgiving turkey dinner, and who wants desert?" On top of that, Harrison needs to keep his taste buds — insured for $1 million — in prime condition; that's why he avoids alcohol, tobacco products, caffeine, spicy food and anything else that could numb his taste buds.

"Friday night, I can let the hair down and have a little pepperoni pizza and garlic mashed potatoes," he said. "I back off on Sunday and get ready for that Monday morning tasting."

Keith Johnson, Deseret Morning News
John Harrison is official taste tester for Dreyer's ice cream.

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A stand of American chestnut trees that somehow escaped a blight that killed off nearly all their kind in the early 1900s has been discovered along a hiking trail not far from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Little White House at Warm Springs. The find has stirred excitement among those working to restore the American chestnut, and raised hopes that scientists might be able to use the pollen to breed hardier chestnut trees. Experts say it could be that the chestnuts have less competition from other trees along the dry, rocky ridge. The fungus that causes the blight thrives in a moist environment.

The largest of the half-dozen or so trees is about 40 feet tall and 20 to 30 years old, and is believed to be the southernmost American chestnut discovered so far that is capable of flowering and producing nuts. The rugged area known as Pine Mountain is at the southern end of the Appalachians near Warm Springs, where Roosevelt built a home and sought treatment after he was stricken with polio in 1921.

The trees, which could grow to a height of 100 feet and a diameter of 8 feet or more, were almost entirely wiped out by a fast-spreading fungus discovered in 1904. Visit Yahoo News for the full story.

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Two servers at Ozzie's Diner, 1700 Lexington St., said they had an unexpected guest Friday night. While on her way to the airport after the University of Oklahoma's commencement, Today show anchor Katie Couric made a quick stop in for cheesecake.

Tara Mosley of Oklahoma City said Couric complimented the cheesecake and invited them to visit her in New York City. "I was really happy to be able to meet her," Mosley said. At first, they were surprised to see her that late at night, said Taffney Bardgett of Norman. However, she said it was a neat experience. "She was very nice," Bardgett said. "Most celebrities can be stuck up, but she was nice."

How nice? OU President David Boren announced that Couric donated her entire speaking fee, $115,000 from private funds, to cancer research at her alma mater, the University of Virginia. The donation was made in honor of Couric's sister, Emily, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2001 and was a former state senator.

"We thank you for your support of cancer research," Boren said. Reprinted from normantranscript.com.

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Baked Alaska is a dessert made of ice cream placed in a pie dish lined with slices of sponge cake and topped with meringue. The entire dessert is then placed in an extremely hot oven just long enough to firm the meringue. The meringue is an effective insulator, and in the short cooking time needed, it prevents the heat getting through to the ice cream.

The notion of cooking a dessert with ice cream as its core ingredient within an insulated covering seems to have originated with the Chinese, who used pastry for the casing. It was introduced to Europe in the mid-nineteenth century when a Chinese delegation visited Paris. The use of meringue was then introduced in 1804 by the American physicist Benjamin Thompson. He investigated the heat resistance of beaten egg whites; the results demonstrated that while pastry would conduct the heat to the ice cream, beaten egg whites would do so to a lesser extent. The dished was named omelette surprise or omelette à la norvégienne; the Norwegian epithet was used due to its arctic appearance and cold centre. This title transformed into "Baked Alaska" in 1876 when Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City named it in honour of the newly acquired territory of Alaska. It was popularised worldwide by the chef Jean Giroix in 1895 at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo. The dessert was once a popular choice for dinner parties, especially throughout the 1960s, but its popularity has waned in recent years.

A variation, called Bomb Alaska calls for some dark rum to be splashed over the Baked Alaska. Lights are then turned down and the whole dessert is flambé while being served.

Another version calls for raspberry filling to be substituted for the ice cream, or even for the filling to be added along with the ice cream.

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Recently a blind taste test took place pitting 5 national brands and their respective coffees. Restaurant giants, McDonalds and Burger King, have entered the coffee fray in a very big way. Both fast-food joints recently introduced new higher-end blends, hoping to cash in on Americans' growing thirst for caffeine to go.

And the move by the two food superpowers has not gone unnoticed by their coffee-purveyor counterparts. Dunkin' Donuts continues to move upscale, remodeling its stores and adding the kind of fanciful coffee drinks pioneered by Starbucks, while Starbucks moves downscale, adding drive-through windows and mini-coffee bars inside stores like Target.

The effort by fast-food joints to improve their brews comes at a time when we're buying more coffee at restaurants and other outlets. The U.S. coffee market reached $26.2 billion last year and that number will jump to $34.4 billion in 2010. All the coffee war combatants, including smaller convenience stores, continue to roll out a slew of variations to battle each other and to stave off soda and caffeinated drinks like Red Bull. Flavored coffees, lattes, and coffees that look more like desserts are available everywhere. There's even coffee within a coffee -- Dunkin' Donuts' Turbo Hot is an espresso shot added to its regular brew.

Burger King launched its new coffee -- BK Joe -- in October and McDonald's responded in March with a new premium blend. Both restaurants hope that better coffee will boost sales of their breakfast sandwiches and lure those customers who just want their morning java. In the past, coffee was not exactly a bright spot for either restaurant. McDonald's coffee was perhaps best known for a high-profile court case in which a customer claimed she was scalded when a cup of McDonald's coffee spilled on her lap.

And Burger King used to let individual franchise owners choose the type of coffee served and the machinery to produce it, delivering brew that varied restaurant to restaurant. Burger King restaurants now sell BK Joe in three strengths, using a coffee machine that makes the 100 percent Arabica blend from concentrate.

The big coffee kahunas aren't exactly sitting back to wait for their market share to drop if the fast-food restaurants begin to take a bite out of their revenues. Both companies recently went beyond their typical coffee and a doughnut or coffee cake fare, hoping that customers with a hankering for an Egg McMuffin will think twice. In January, Dunkin' Donuts introduced an omelet sandwich and Starbucks also began to roll out warm breakfast sandwiches in select locations.

Any way you look at it, consumers have plenty of java choices these days. And if the battle heats up further, we might see even more. See NorthJersey.com for the full story.

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A 43-year-old woman is charged with helping her daughter and two other teenage girls bake cookies laced with a laxative that were then given to a teacher. The Mom appeared in Skowhegan District Court on Monday and pleaded innocent to a charge of misdemeanor assault.

The accused was arrested Friday after a police investigation into the attempted prank at Carrabec Community School in Anson that sickened four seventh- and eighth-grade children. The cookies, which were baked with Ex-Lax, were left on the teacher's desk on April 10 with a note saying, "We made these cookies just for you, hope you enjoy them."

According to a police affidavit, Mom told the girls how to crush the laxative pills and mix them in with the cookie batter. The girls, who are 13 and 14, used an entire box of pills, the affidavit says. The principal of the school called police on April 24 after hearing two girls talking about the incident.

A Maine State Police Lt. said that the girls were not facing criminal charges. The affidavit said all three girls were suspended by school officials.

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Margie Greenberg, the creative partner in the Flour Pot, offers these tips for decorating basic sugar cookies:

Fondant, traditionally used on cakes, is a clean, easy coating for cookies. Color it with gel paste, roll it out thin (it's sweet) on parchment, and then cut it to the shape of the cookie. Use a dressmaker's pattern-marking tool to etch "stitch" details on fondant used for shoe- or purse-cookie designs.

To add dots or lines to fondant, roll a base color fondant a bit thicker than desired. Place pea-size balls or thin ropes of an accent color fondant on the base and roll them together, working the rolling pin different ways to retain the desired shapes. Use textured fondant rolling pins for special effects such as a basket-weave design.

Brush corn syrup onto the cookies as an adhesive to hold the fondant. White royal icing is more forgiving than colors for novice decorators. While it is still wet, you can wipe off mistakes. For colored icing errors, let it dry, then gently lift it with a pick.

When piping the icing, fill the pastry bag only halfway. Release air from the bag before twisting the top to avoid spills. Be creative. Use small colored and shaped candies or cereals to decorate cookies.

For decorating supplies - fondant, meringue powder, gel paste colors, cutters and more - visit www.flourpotcookies.com, www.cakedeco.com, www.kitchengifts.com or www.sugarcraft.com. Supplies also are available at Fante's, Kitchen Kapers, and Sur La Table locations. Reprinted from Philly.com by Marilynn Marter.

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Food contains an amazing amount of energy. The energy in food is typically released when, through a complex biochemical pathway, sugars, starches and fats react with oxygen from the lungs. It’s a form of slow-motion burning that, thankfully, rarely involves fire.

But you can liberate the same amount of energy in much less time by mixing a Snickers bar with a more concentrated source of oxygen—say, the potent oxidizer potassium perchlorate. The result is basically rocket fuel. Ig­nited on an open fireproof table, it burns vigorously, consuming an entire candy bar in a few seconds with a rushing tower of fire.

Oreo cookie filling works very nicely in standard model-rocket engines. With food-grade potassium nitrate as the oxidizer, the result is high-power rocket fuel that you could feed to the kids—although I don’t recommend it. See the Popular Science site for the full story.

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Mario Batali is an Italian-American chef and restauranteur. He attended Rutgers University where he double majored in Spanish Theater and Economics, graduating in 1982. He also started working as a dishwasher at Stuff Yer Face restaurant in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

He quickly moved up from dishwasher to pizzaman during his college years at Rutgers. He spent time at Le Cordon Bleu in London and three years as a chef's apprentice in Northern Italy. With his partner, Joe Bastianich (son of Lidia Bastianich), he went on to own the restaurants Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca (1998), Lupa (1999), Esca (2000), Otto Enoteca Pizzeria (2003) Casa Mono (2004), Bar Jamon (2004), Bistro du Vent (2004), and Del Posto (2005) as well as a shop called Italian Wine Merchants (1999).

He has starred in four Food Network shows and appeared in commercials for GladWare containers. In 2005 he won the James Beard Foundation's "Outstanding Chef" award. He currently lives in New York with his wife Susi Cahn (daughter of Miles and Lillian Cahn, founders of Coach Leather) and two sons, Leo and Benno. His father is Armandino Batali, owner of Salumi in Seattle.

Batali is often identified by his constant wearing of orange clogs. It has become one of his symbols, and a pair appear on the back cover of his 2005 cookbook, Molto Italiano.

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Crème brûlée is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel, created by burning sugar under a salamander or other intense heat source. It is usually served cold in individual ramekins. The custard base is normally flavored with just vanilla, but it can be flavoured in a number of ways, with chocolate, liqueur, fruit etc.

It is first attested in France, in Massialot's cookbook, in 1691. The French name was used in the English translation of this book, but in the early 18th century, it was called 'burnt cream' in English. In Britain, it is associated with Trinity College, Cambridge, where it is called 'caramel cream' and where the college crest was impressed on top of the cream with a branding iron. It was introduced to Trinity College in 1879, though some cookbooks claim a much older origin. Indeed, an increasing number of culinary historians now maintain that Massiolot's cookbook is a nineteenth century forgery and the dessert was invented in Trinity College, Cambridge towards the beginning of the eighteenth century.

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Those leftover chocolate morsels from your Valentine's Day hearts and easter baskets are finding their way into livestock feed in Nova Scotia. The leftovers from the food and beverage industry are mixed into the animal feed to sweeten the flavor.

The chocolate and candies go into a chopper, where they're mixed with other byproducts, such as barley and wheat dust. The recycled blend offers farmers a cheaper alternative to traditional grain feeds. The chocolate replaces sugar found in other grains. The cows love it and there's a substantial savings as well. The mix also helps the environment. Last year, 3,200 tons of organic waste were diverted from the dump in Nova Scotia.

This sounds like a great shortcut in the production of chocolate milk!

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HeraldToday.com reports, house lawmakers were locked in a tense debate that Wednesday threatened to rock the chamber. Voices rose. Fists went into the air. Brows were furrowed. The question: what should be Florida's official pie?

The bakers' battle came down to two contenders, sweet potato pie and key lime pie. One lawmaker fought bravely for his favorite dessert - and he didn't hold back any punches. "Ol' nasty key lime pie," said Rep. Dwight Stansel, R-Live Oak. "I can't understand how anyone in the world can present a bill making a state pie from a fruit that's not even grown in Florida."

Stansel's passion aside, the tangy green dessert prevailed, 106-14. "Let's bring key limes back to Florida - and bring sunshine back to the state," said Rep. Mitch Needelman, R-Melbourne. As the bill moved through the Legislature this year, Florida pie lovers also took up the debate.

On March, 30 people in Broward County signed a petition to defend the dessert, and bloggers logged in to join the key lime ranks. Some wanted to add pecan pie to the mix, but legislators said that tasted too much like Georgia. The Senate has already voted for the dessert, so now the bill goes to Gov. Jeb Bush for signing. There's no official word on whether he's a key lime man.

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The comic strip character whose eating habits are legend will lend his name to a chain of sandwich shops. Dagwood Bumstead's real-life creator, Dean Young, will be opening a chain of sandwich shops soon, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

Young, who works from a studio on Clearwater Beach, has had a team of 15 fast-food restaurant veterans quietly working in their "secret hideaway'' for months on Dagwood's Sandwich Shoppes. Bumstead, the comic strip's bumbling son of a railroad tycoon who was disinherited and sentenced to a modest life after he married a libertine flapper named Blondie in 1933, has been synonymous with sandwich-building for decades. He's always piling up cold cuts and cheeses precariously balanced in one hand. In fact, the Dagwood sandwich is a word common enough to be found in many dictionaries.

Dagwood's licensed cartoon face appears on everything from lunch boxes to coffee cups. He has done endorsement duty for A&W root beer, Sargento Cheese, FedEx and a line of cold cuts. There's even a small Blondie's theme restaurant at the Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando.

Individual stores will be small, 32-seat affairs decorated with themed characters from the Blondie strip. The menu is dominated by $4 to $5 fresh-made sandwiches and wraps including a signature pressed Cuban, New York deli-style pastrami, New Orleans roast beef "Po' Boy" and a chicken curry sandwich on toasted raisin swirl bread. All the breads are partially baked, then finished on site.

Started in 1930 by Young's father, Chic Young, Blondie today appears in 2,300 publications in 35 countries that have a potential audience of 280-million. But Dagwood's entry in the fresh-made sandwich business will be in the fastest-growing segment of the quick-serve food business. It's a corner already jammed with Subway, http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/index.aspx and Quizno's. Other entrepreneurs are flocking there, too, including some of the creators of Hard Rock Cafe. Their entry enlisted the British Earl of Sandwich for their Earl of Sandwich that opened recently in International Plaza in Tampa.

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Cold Stone Creamery has its eyes on a famous bull's-eye. The premium ice-cream franchiser inked a deal with Target Corp. to open four test stores inside the discounter's doors starting this fall. Locations have not been determined.

The Scottsdale-based treatery is venturing into new venues to boost sales. In March 2005, it opened inside US Airways Center to serve Phoenix Suns fans. In April, it came to Chase Field to indulge ice-cream lovers at Arizona Diamondbacks games.

The company also has started to expand into airports and amusement parks. It plans to open 25 non-traditional sites this year, including inside Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and at HersheyPark in Hershey, Pa. Other potential targets: resorts, universities and military bases. As reported in azcentral.com.

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Every day, Americans drink more than 300 million cups of coffee, according to the Specialty Coffee Association of America. Dr. Cyrus Rangan, medical toxicologist at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, said: "Among teenagers and preteens, we're seeing a lot of coffee drinkers, more than we've ever seen. There are 12-year-olds going to Starbucks and coming out with these huge drinks."

And the sales growth shows no sign of slowing. The market research firm Mintel expects the specialty coffee retail market to top $18 billion by 2010. In addition to chains like Starbucks, Caribou Coffee and Peet's Coffee and Tea that deal primarily in coffee drinks, fast-food establishments are stepping up their premium coffee offerings as well. Dunkin' Donuts recently announced plans to revamp its 5,000 stores to include espresso bars and more upscale offerings. McDonald's unveiled a premium coffee in March, and Burger King has had a premium coffee on its menu since last fall.

Starbucks' milkshake-like concoctions, Frappuccinos, are particularly appealing to young customers. They lack the bitterness of coffee or espresso and get topped with tasty whipped cream clouds. The taste may be more appetizing, but the caffeine is still there.

According to nutrition specialists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, short-term side effects of caffeine can include heartburn, headaches, stomach troubles and a jump in blood pressure. Caffeine can also aggravate heart problems or nervous disorders, and children and parents might not even be aware of the risk. Since caffeine is a stimulant, it can also produce symptoms like jitters, irritability and hyperactivity. See the full story at TwinCities.com.

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Parrano, an aged Gouda-style Dutch cheese, has enjoyed double-digit sales growth in the United States every year for the past decade. That's impressive and perhaps an indication of the kind of cheese that appeals to Americans, although sales had nowhere to go but up.

Parrano (Pah-RAH-no) is a relatively new cheese, created about 12 years ago by UnieKaas, the largest Dutch cheese company. Curiously, the marketers of this cheese go to some lengths to imply that Parrano is Italian-made. It is not. It is made in Holland, from pasteurized Dutch cow's milk.

Made in 15-pound wheels and aged for five months, Parrano has a wax-coated natural rind and a semifirm, dense golden paste that is smooth and creamy on the tongue, with the occasional crunch of a protein crystal. It smells of caramel and its flavor is balanced and mellow, with a sweet finish. It offers little complexity, just that interplay of sweet and salt that so often seduces the American palate.

Despite its sweet impression, Parrano contains no measurable sugar. All the natural milk sugar, or lactose, has been converted to lactic acid, as in all aged cheeses. The sweet sensation we get from aged cheeses is the result of the breakdown of fats and proteins as the cheese matures.

Enjoy Parrano as a dessert cheese, with some toasted hazelnuts and a glass of Sercial or Verdelho Madeira.

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New York chef David Burke has invented a new line of flavor sprays that imitate the taste of some of our favorites such as cheesecake, blue cheese, barbecue sauce - even root beer float - without the fat, calories or carbs.

A simple spritz is intended to replace sauces and toppings on anything from chicken to baked potatoes to nonfat yogurt. The theory behind the flavor sprays is that, given a choice, health-conscious consumers will be willing to give up the crispy crunch of fried bacon for a nonfat, guilt-free, spray-on substitute. In other words, the sprays are for those prepared to replace actual food with merely the taste of food.

The sprays are made from an FDA-approved blend of water, natural and artificial flavors, and preservatives, and no actual foodstuff is used to create them - so even the smoked bacon spray is vegetarian and kosher. See the Philly.com site for the full story.

Posted by Ira at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)