Eva

Category: Food

  • REVIEW: Pukka teas

    REVIEW: Pukka teas

    I received some Pukka teas and I liked them a lot.

    This is what I got:

    All of these teas share a sweetish taste, especially the “Love”, “Detox”, “Night time” and “After Dinner” ones. They all leave on the back of the tongue this sweet taste, which dominates all the other inflexions.

    “Three chamomile” is very nice, feels “healthy”. It tastes as if a nice forest lady gave you a cup of tea and you drank it in her cottage… right before she would murder you and mix your blood for witchcraft purposes. Joking 😀

    The only Pukka tea I didn’t like was the turmeric one. But I don’t think it is Pukka’s fault. I just don’t like turmeric.

    I also don’t really understand where the “sweetish” taste comes from… I’ve read the ingredients and none of these teas has added sugar or some kind of other sweetener. For instance, the “Night time”, which I like A LOT, and is indeed sweet, says that “t’s a combination of a sleepy crush of oat flower, soothing lavender, and silky-sweet limeflower together with the magic of valerian”. So, supposedly, the sweet taste comes from the limeflower, but I do have generic limeflower tea and it isn’t sweet…

    I also noticed that all teas from England tend to be sweet. I really don’t know what the English put in their teas, they do taste awesome, but I am a little bit worried. Maybe I’m just paranoic… (P.S. This is because I don’t like to consume sugar).

    Anyhow, I do recommend Pukka teas, I really liked them. They are a little bit different than other teas, they feel more “healthy” and sweet, they have a more rustic taste.

     

  • How to Stay Fit During (and After) the Holidays

    How to Stay Fit During (and After) the Holidays

    Hi there! If you’re reading this article you’re probably concerned about your looks and how Holidays will affect them.

    It is very good to want to stay healthy and fit and it is also good to have fun and enjoy yourself. This is definitely not going to be that type of article saying stuff like “3 best exercises to lose 20 pounds in 2 hours”. So, here are my tips:

    It’s not like Christmas lasts a whole year long

    First of all, I want you to know that Christmas and New Year food is not helium and you will not inflate like a ballon just from eating a lot of yummy food for one week. If you’re going to have a weight problem in your life, it will definitely not be because you ate some cake for Christmas.

    Enjoy yourself and don’t overthink it

    If you really but really love food and you can’t wait to get to your grandmother’s house to eat those cookies, then do it. Don’t stress about it. Enjoy yourself. You don’t have to be a maniac to get up at 6 a.m. in Christmas morning to do some jogging. In the new year you’ll have plenty of time to exercise. As I said before, a few days of fun won’t count. If you like Christmas cookies, you should check this funny post: Creative Christmas cupcakes with a hilarious twist.

    It’s winter. Do some winter stuff

    Don’t forget that it is actually winter and there are these funny activities you could do to burn some calories. Needless to say that if you go skiing you will probably come back more fit than before. If you won’t leave town, you could always go ice skating or build a snowman or something. Winter activities are great for toning your body.

    Come back to your normal life

    When the holidays are over, don’t forget to come back to your regular life. If you ate cake on a daily basis during Holidays, you should stop it after New Year. If you didn’t exercise, well, it’s time to start exercising. Just come back to whatever your life style was and everything will be fine. Even if you gained 2 pounds, you will quickly loose them if you eat healthy and exercise on a regular basis.

    Until then, enjoy your Holidays and have a Happy New Year!

    Now you can go finish that awkward looking Chocolate Santa!

  • It’s not Christmas until you eat German Lebkuchen

    It’s not Christmas until you eat German Lebkuchen

    For me, there is no other country where you can feel as Christmassy as in Germany. Germans are crazy about Christmas. They have very beautiful festivals, Christmas fairs, decorations and tons of specific foods and drinks.

    Among these foods there are the German Lebkuchen – similar to gingerbread, but more “german”. My favorite Lebkuchen are from brands such as Bahlsen or Schulte. This year I’ve bought Schulte.

    I usually don’t find these in shops all year round. They are specific to Christmas and each year I can’t wait for them to appear on the shelves of stores in Germany. This year I’ve bought three different types of german gingerbread:

    1. Gingerbread with chocolate and nuts (Lebkuchen Nuss-Tortchen)

    This sortiment consists in cute little mountain-shaped gingerbread, with dark chocolate on the back and white sugary thin coat on top. With this coat, they really look like mountains full of snow.

    Inside the dough of the gingerbread you can see tiny pieces of nuts. This type of Lebkuchen is the softest of them all, a little bit moist, and has the most interesting taste. Unfortunately I, personally, don’t like the white topcoat. I would have preferred it to be made from chocolate. But anyhow, I still love them!

    2. Gingerbread with chocolate in different shapes

    This ones are my favorites. It comes in 3 different shapes: a Christmas tree, a heart and a falling star. So cute…

    Even though the gingerbread itself (the filling) is better with nuts, this one has the perfect taste. The dark chocolate with the spicy gingerbread create a very unique feeling.

    3. Gingerbread with chocolate and persipan (Prinzess Lebkuchen)

    This is another interesting gingerbread with a very cute naming: Prinzess Lebkuchen which means princess gingerbread. All shapes are similar: round gingerbread with chocolate on bottom and persipan on top.

    For those who don’t know, persipan is similar to marzipan but consists of a mixture of apricot or peach kernels, which are used instead of almonds. Although these gingerbread cookies are very tasty as well and the persipan should be a delicacy, I, personally, yet again, don’t like the top coat. I would have liked it better if there was no topcoat, just the gingerbread and the chocolate bottom. But this is just my taste…

    I will continue to eat these german gingerbread cookies through all December and January because I love them and I feel “festive” eating them. One day I also drank some ginger beer with these gingerbread cookies and it was fun. 🙂

    Have a Merry Christmas and beautiful Winter Holidays!

  • REVIEW: A nice little champagne – JP Chenet

    REVIEW: A nice little champagne – JP Chenet

    I gave a try to this little guy at a family party: JP Chenet Demi-Sec.

    It costs somewhere around 4 EUR (but the bottle is really small). Obviously it is not an expensive champagne, it is pretty affordable and you can find it in any supermarket, but it is not the cheapest either, so I had some hopes about it.

    Fortunately, my hopes were fulfilled. The champagne was really good, it had a great aftertaste and the sparkling effect was the best.

    I also liked about it that it had it had a screw cap. If you are a clumsy person, this little bottle comes in handy. 🙂

    Although my experience with this champagne was very good and I highly recommend it, next time I will purchase the sweet one. I think I would like it even more.

     

     

     

     

  • The Al Bundy way of drinking beer

    The Al Bundy way of drinking beer

    Al Bundy is notoriously known for coming home from work and drinking a nice cold beer.

    You could almost feel the man’s need to chill, sit on the couch and drink that beer. He was tired, life was complicated, beer was a tasty confort.

    Al Bundy drinking beer

    As a child, watching this show, I never really realized how relaxing it would be to drink a beer after hard work. But now I know.

    Me and my friends got the habit to come home from work and just relax and drink a beer. And we just talked about how much we resemble with Al Bundy.  But there’s a catch. We drink non-alcoholic beer!

    So we still relax on the couch, open a beer, put up the legs and just contemplate life… with a non-alcoholic beer!

    A while ago I wrote an article about my favorite non-alcoholic beer. You might want to check it out.

    Also, for those who prefer wine, always remember:

  • REVIEW: Lindt Pralines Classic

    REVIEW: Lindt Pralines Classic

    Lindt pralines have been for a long time my favorite! I tried various Lindt chocolate boxes and I even made a bookmark out of one 🙂

    This chocolate box from the image below is very popular and you can find it in the majority of stores. I bought this box several times.

    I wanted to take photos of half eaten pralines, so you could see what’s inside them, but then I realised it would ruin the surprise. Half of the experience of eating these pralines is the surprise. Even if you read the little book, you will be still surprised by the taste and ingredients and consistency.

    What I liked about these chocolates

    • I like their motto: “Fur Kenner”. It makes me feel like a chocolate expert 🙂
    • All these chocolates are extremely tasty and very refined. I like that the majority of them are in pairs because it is nicer when you share them.
    • What surprised me was the caramel praline, because I usually don’t like caramel, but this one was really, really good.

    What I didn’t like about Lindt Pralines Classic

    • They are very energizing and I wouldn’t recommend eating more than 3 pralines a day.
    • They are a little bit too big. I definitely prefer the Lindt Mini Pralines box, where the pralines are half size.

    Anyhow, these will always be one of my favorite chocolate. It is also a really good chocolate box to give as a gift or to receive 🙂

  • REVIEW: Petrus Aged Red Belgian Beer

    REVIEW: Petrus Aged Red Belgian Beer

    I got this Petrus Aged Red Belgian Beer because I was trying new beers and I thought this one sounds funny… “Aged Red”. It is kind of expensive (around 3EURS) and I expected a good quality beer.

    It was indeed of good quality. It had a nice smooth foam and the perfect consistency. I also liked the fact that it isn’t extremely sweet. What I absolutely liked about it was the color: really red. Red as the blood of your enemies.

    The only thing that bothered me about it was that it is a VERY strong beer… it has 8.5% alcohol concentration… too much for me.

    Some people said that it has a powerful cherry taste. Although you can certainly feel this taste, I personally don’t think it is so powerful.

    Will I repurchase? Yeah, maybe. But I really have to drink it after a big nice steak or something like that, since it is so strong. 🙂

  • REVIEW: Macarons de Pauline Assorted Box (Strawberry, Chocolate & Pistachio)

    REVIEW: Macarons de Pauline Assorted Box (Strawberry, Chocolate & Pistachio)

    Hi guys! Ever since there is this hype about macarons, I’ve tried some here and there but, except one time, I never really liked them. I don’t understand this craze about macarons, they are just sweet, puffy, fruit flavored biscuits… I know, I know, they should be good when of good quality, but they are not (in my opinion). They look good though… very photogenic little cookies.

    This time I’ve bought one box of Macarons de Pauline Assorted with the following flavors: Strawberry, Chocolate and Pistachio. They are made in Belgium. They are pretty expensive considering there are only 3 macarons (around 3 euros).

    Unfortunately, I didn’t take very good photos of the macarons that I’ve bought, but anyway, here they are:

    Supposedly, the experience of eating it is the whole secret. The key. They should be crispy, but just a little bit, and puffy and soft on the inside with a velvety and creamy filling, just like in this image:

    The Macarons de Pauline were, a little bit like that (but just a little bit, not like I wished). I would never buy them again, even though they look cute. I liked that they aren’t extremely sweet, but the flavors are fairly fade, nothing extraordinary and the cream is not very good. Maybe in the distant future I will buy some other macarons, just for fun and because of their cute colors, but that’s all they are about.

  • REVIEW: Some teas from Twinings

    REVIEW: Some teas from Twinings

    A friend brought me from England a couple of different Twinings tea bags. I was so excited to have so many tea flavors. All of them are fruit and herbal teas (infusions) with no caffeine. I tried them all and here is what I think about them:

    1. CAMOMILE, HONEY & VANILLA Twinings Tea

    This one I loved! A perfectly balanced taste. It feels very natural. It is velvety. A little bit sweet. It makes my tummy feel good. The smell is very pleasant, but not too powerful.
    I must admit that it was strangely sweet… I hope it doesn’t contain artificial sweetener.
    I liked it very much, I found it calming. This tea is perfect to calm down, read a book, surf internet before going to sleep.

    I read the reviews about this tea on the Twinings website and a guy said that he liked it but the CAMOMILE & SPICED APPLE . I wonder how this one is…

    2. MANGO & STRAWBERRY Twinings Tea

    This tea has a very fresh taste. The smell is pleasant and fruity, but not too powerful.
    You can definitely feel the citrus.
    The Mango and Strawberry tea is a good tea to drink in summer, I guess, since it is so happy and refreshing. I also liked it very much.

    3. BLUEBERRY & APPLE Twinings Tea

    Well, there was a song, a famous one. Very romantic. Do you remember it? It describes so perfectly my feelings towards this tea…

    Yeah, as you might already figured it out, I fell in love with the BLUEBERRY & APPLE Twinings Tea.

    It is amazing! It smells great and has a powerful smell, which will leave the entire room smelling great.
    The feeling is like eating a cookie, even there is nothing sugary.
    It feels very soft in mouth, very velvety.
    Definitely one of my favorite teas ever.
    The color is also interesting, dark blue. Beautiful!

    Its ingredients: Hibiscus, Natural Apple and Blueberry Flavourings with Other Natural Flavourings (14%), Apple Pieces, Rosehips, Liquorice Root

    4. PURE LIQUORICE Twinings Tea

    And now… the DISASTER! The horrifing, terrible monstruozity that is the LIQUORICE tea!!! How can anyone drink THIS?! I’m sure the Liquorice Tea has some health benefits, but why would anyone in this world drink something so disgusting just for fun?!

    I am exaggerating. I know people have different taste, but I really disliked this tea…. It was like drinking vomit infusion… it was sour and extremely sweet in the same time. I definitely coudn’t drink it and unfortunatelly I threw it away.

    Well, that’s it. Hope this review helps. Now go get yourselves a nice cup of tea / fruit infusions 🙂

    Love and Kisses! 💋💋💋

  • Non-alcoholic punch problem in american high school (or college) movies

    Non-alcoholic punch problem in american high school (or college) movies

    Punch is a cocktail drink originating from India and it is served in a large bowl. It is popular in many European countries, but I think it got world wide famous through american high school / college movies where kids drink punch at parties.

    In Germany we have a similar drink, a little bit more interesting I’d say. It is called Feuerzangenbowle and it is served in flames.

    Punch usually contains ingredients such as: alcohol, fruit juice and, optionally, tea and spices.

    In american movies, especially high school movies, there is this recurring scene with some kid pours alcohol in the non-alcoholic punch that is being served at the party. The other kids drink it and everyone gets unintentionally drunk.

    The problem is that I really can’t understand how people drink something without realizing it is alcohol…

    Alcohol pinches your tongue. It burns your throat. It makes you dizzy.

    How come they don’t realize they are drinking an alcoholic punch?!