Back in the late 1990s, one of my favourite Starbucks drinks was the Mocha Valencia. It was an entrancing combination of orange syrup, mocha syrup, steamed milk and espresso, with some whipped cream topping and special orange sprinkles on top. […]
Tag: warming
Review: Starbucks Via Caffè Mocha
The last in our series of hot chocolate reviews is actually not quite a hot chocolate. Instead, it’s a caffè mocha mix, which is sort of a hybrid between a latte and a hot chocolate. It’s part of Starbucks’ line […]
Review: Kirkland House Blend “Roasted by Starbucks” coffee
Unless you have a reasonably tuned palate, a very large number of Starbucks coffees taste pretty much the same. It’s not the fault of the beans, no sir. It’s all about the Starbucks roasting process, which, in the traditional Starbucks […]
Arbitrary: Why I bake bread
Bread is cheap. For a little more than a buck, I can buy a sale-priced loaf of basic white bread at my local grocery store. If I boost my budget to a couple of bucks, my choices increase. And for […]
Healthy January: Café harm reduction
Weight gain is a funny thing. Over time, it’s the little habits that add up to become big problems. The small daily indulgence can turn into a long-term calorie splurge. Counting calories, which I talked about in the last two […]
Recipe: Simple Spiced Apple Cider
Near as our calendar app can tell us, it’s Christmas Eve. That means it’s time to hunker down in front of the fireplace, snuggle up with your special someone, and enjoy a warm mug of spiced apple cider. This recipe, […]
NEAROF!’s 3rd Annual Christmas Gift General Ideas
It’s that time of year again, isn’t it? It’s hard to believe this is the third annual NEAROF! gift guide. Every year, it’s getting harder to write this thing, probably because I’ve included all sorts of great stuff in prior […]
Review: Rickard’s Cardigan autumn spiced lager
“Waaaaarm up with an ice-cold beeeer!” hollered a tray-carrying vendor at a particularly chilly autumn CFL football game I attended last year, if memory serves. I loved his pitch, mostly because it’s so perfectly outlandish you can’t help but laugh, […]