Category Archives: New Products

Thai Tea — Any Way You Like It

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Enjoy Thai iced tea at home -- sweetened or unsweetened, and with your choice of milk or milk substitute.
Enjoy Thai iced tea at home — sweetened or unsweetened, and with your choice of milk or milk substitute.

Who doesn’t enjoy sipping up a creamy, fragrant Thai iced tea with spicy Southeast Asian food?

Now, you can make your own in a jiffy — and customize it however you like.

Heather Howitt, the founder of Oregon Chai, has developed Thaiwala, billed as the first brand of authentic Thai tea concentrate.

Just combine equal parts Thaiwala concentrate with whole milk, half and half, condensed milk, almond milk or any other dairy alternative in a tall glass with ice. You can even go fancy and add your own tapioca pearls to make bubble tea.

The concentrates come in two varieties.
The concentrates come in two varieties.

The concentrate is vegan and gluten-free, and can be enjoyed either cold or hot.

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What I’ve Been Drinking of Late, Part 21

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Summer was made for these easy-breezy piquettes.
Summer was made for these easy-breezy piquettes.

Piquette Pinot Noir and Piquette Chardonnay

Meet piquette — quite possibly your favorite new summer sip.

This traditional French drink, whose name means “little wine,” is actually made by adding water to grape pomace (the skins, seeds and stems of the grapes left over after pressing), and fermenting the residual sugars.

It makes for a light tasting, low alcohol beverage.

In June, Une Femme Wines launched two canned piquettes that I had a chance to sample.

The brand was founded by Jen Pelka, owner of the now shuttered the Riddler, a Champagne bar in New York City and San Francisco, and her brother Zach.

Its intent is to produce only Champagne and sparkling wine made by women. In fact, for every bottle sold, the company makes a donation to a charity benefiting women.

With 8 percent ABV, the piquettes come in 250ml pull-tab cans.

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Plant-Based Scrambled Eggs

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A scramble that's not quite what you think.
A scramble that’s not quite what you think.

It looks all the world like scrambled eggs.

But in reality, it’s the new Hodo Vegan All-Day Egg Scramble.

It’s the newest product from the Oakland-based purveyor of artisan tofu.

The plant-based product is made with organic soybeans, with turmeric giving it the eggy color.

It boasts as much protein as a real chicken egg and no cholesterol.

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Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late: Eataly

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A whole ball of burrata atop Roman-style pizza at Eataly.
A whole ball of burrata atop Roman-style pizza at Eataly.

The Bay Area’s first Eataly opened last month. And it’s a doozy.

Spanning three floors and 45,000 square feet of the Westfield Valley Fair shopping center in San Jose, it is the eighth Eataly in the United States and the 41st in the world.

Having visited the ones in New York and Las Vegas, I had a sense of what this one would be like. But it definitely dwarfs those two in scope and size.

Even on a Tuesday at 4 p.m., the place was hopping with plenty of folks checking out the wares.

On the top floor, you’ll find La Pizza & La Pasta, and Terra, Eataly’s two restaurants. Having heard how impossible reservations are to come by, I bypassed them.

A mere portion of the second floor that's devoted entirely to wines, beers, and spirits from Italy.
A mere portion of the second floor that’s devoted entirely to wines, beers, and spirits from Italy.

The third floor is also where you’ll find more than 1,000 gourmet specialty food products — everything from house-baked bread, handmade pastas and fresh-pulled mozzarella to shelves of olives oils, cheeses galore, tinned seafood, cured meats, and fresh produce.

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Shake Your Groovies Thang

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Turn-Up The Heat plant-based snack made of sorghum, flavored with beets and paprika -- and made for kids.
Turn-Up The Heat plant-based snack made of sorghum, flavored with beets and paprika — and made for kids.

Mom and entrepreneur, Saskia Sorrosa, may have not enticed any sharks to bite when she appeared on TV’s “Shark Tank” in 2019.

But she’s sure shown them now, raising more than $4 million and getting her Fresh Bellies into 4,000 stores nationwide.

Her New York company makes plant-based, allergen-friendly snack foods, especially geared to toddlers, pre-schoolers, and beyond.

The daughter of a banana farmer and agricultural entrepreneur in Ecuador, she wanted to create crunchy snacks with the type of bold flavors she grew up on.

Fresh Bellies' line of plant-based, gluten-free snacks.
Fresh Bellies’ line of plant-based, gluten-free snacks.

Her Groovies are made from sorghum, sunflower oil, and just a handful of other flavoring ingredients such as paprika, onion powder, or dried rosemary. They are vegan, gluten-free, and have no artificial flavors. The sodium count weighs in at 110 to 125mg per 1-ounce serving.

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