Product review: Giannetti Artisans Chocolate Covered Italian Lemon Peels

 

I usually like the mix of chocolate with lemon, so I expected to love this candy.

The problem for me was the lemon. Instead of tasting tart and bright, it tasted mostly sweet with a little bitterness. Some of the chocolate coating had also come off, and in those spots the lemon pieces was dry and hard.

I was still able to eat them, but they were not what I was hoping for. The package also felt small for the price. I could not rate it higher than a three-star candy.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆

Review of Giannetti Artisans Chocolate Covered Italian Lemon Peels

Product review: Candied Lemon Slices Covered in Dark Chocolate

 

I love chocolate, and I love tart flavors. I thought the combination of two flavors I love would be terrific.

However, I did not like this as much as I expected. The lemon was very sweet and slightly bitter, with no real tartness. On the pieces where the chocolate had fallen off, the lemon underneath was very dried out.

Overall, this was disappointing, but it was still edible. The amount of candy was small for the price. So for me, this is a three-star rating.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆

Review of Candied Lemon Slices Covered in Dark Chocolate

Product review: Immortalitea White Mulberry Leaf Tea in tea bags

 

 Mulberry leaf tea has a flavor reminiscent of green tea, with a slightly earthy and bitter taste. The tea is packed into a foil-lined zip lock bag. The tea bags are triangular pyramids, but the material has a plasticky feel. I am not sure if they will compost fast. I like putting used tea bags into my composter, and I have had trouble with bags with this feel before (i.e., they did not compose in one season, which is what I need to use my compost in the garden each spring. They do compost eventually, just not as fast as I need ).

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★☆

Review of Immortalitea White Mulberry Leaf Tea

Product review: Coffee Roasting Kit by OurHands

 

The OurHands package includes six small bags, 1.7 oz each, of raw green coffee beans.
It includes 6 different raw coffee beans:
1. Old Brown Java from Indonesia (woodsy notes)
2. Columbus Excelso from Columbia (caramel notes)
3. Brazil Santos from Brazil (nutty notes)
4. Ethiopia Djimma from Ethiopia (berry notes)
5. Mysore Plantation from India (clove notes)
6. Yellow Bourbon from Brazil (chocolate and caramel notes)

The kit includes a de-chaffer (to remove the dried skin of the bean), a cotton bag, and a coffee color chart.
You need to provide an oven, baking tray, and spoons.

You can control the level of roast: 2 minutes for light, 4 minutes for medium (stirring every 2 minutes), and 6 minutes for dark roast (stirring every 2 minutes). The beans are ready to use in 24 hours, as they need 24 hours to degas.

Purchased September 2023, expires August 2025.

The total amount of coffee in the package is 10.2 oz, so it is expensive compared to other options for raw coffee that average about $8 a pound. However, it is a nice gift for a coffee lover to try roasting your own for the first time!

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★☆  

Product review: Durelife Monk Fruit Sweetener

 

 

Durelife Monk Fruit Sweetener is a zero-calorie alternative to traditional sugar, allowing me to enjoy sweetness and feeling good that I am consuming less sugar.

Monk Fruit sweetener is my favorite cane sugar substitute. It has the most "natural" flavor and does not cause me any digestive discomfort. It also has no after-taste.

However, you should know that it is less sweet than regular cane sugar. To my tastebuds, one teaspoon of Monk fruit sweetener is slightly less sweet than one teaspoon of sugar. The other obvious negative is that it is much more expensive than cane sugar.

For my morning coffee, I mix natural sugar cane and Monk Fruit sweeter to lower the sugar level and decrease the price of the sweetener I use for each cup.

Ali Julia review      

Review of  Durelife Golden Monk Fruit Sweetener

Very good flavor, but not 1 to 1 with sugar cane.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Disclosure: I fully paid for the purchase of the Monk Fruit sweetener, however if you follow my recommendation and use the link above I will receive a comission on the sale.

Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Food review: HelloFresh food service review

 

HelloFresh delivers a box with all ingredients needed to cook the recipe. You still need to cook, but I don't need to shop. You don't get to pick the ingredients, but the ingredients I received were of good quality. I selected three dishes for 2 (a total of 6 servings). Without a promotion, your cost is $70 and $6 shipping. Too much for what you get, in my opinion. However, with various promotions, you can get the price to be reasonable. I consider $5 per serving to be reasonable.

I was impressed with the packaging. HelloFresh was brought to me by a local delivery (not one of the big guys), they followed my instructions, and the package arrived on time. The box was insulated, and the bottom had a block of large ice covering the entire bottom of the box.

I ordered three proteins beef, pork, and chicken. Each came as a 4 oz package. The vegetable was fresh. The sauces were flavorful. Each meal came with a detailed recipe that was fairly easy to follow.

So the bottom line is that this approach is more expensive than shopping yourself; you still do the cooking. However, it is more convenient, especially for the less confident cooks.

Ali Julia review

Review of Hello Fresh

Product review: Black & Red Caviar for Restaurant & Catering Events (Salmon caviar)

 

 The black caviar jar arrived with a broken seal and was partially opened. The jars were well-packed in bubble wrap, but the bubble wrap was oil soaked as the unsealed bottled leaked. The red caviar jar arrived fully intact.

Caviar can be kept unopened in the fridge for up to four weeks. Once the caviar jar is opened, it should be consumed within a few days and stored refrigerated. It is unknown when the jar became unsealed, it could be a manufacturing defect since other reviewers had the same issue.

As far as taste, the caviar was not salty and did not have the slightly fishy taste I usually taste when eating good quality caviar. As a background, I am familiar with various caviar from my extensive travels and living in Europe for several years.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★☆☆☆☆

Review of Black & Red Caviar from Salmon Roe from Whole Caviar

Product review: Herbs Botanica Calamus Root Loose Dried Herb Tea

 

The roots are very hard, and I must seep them for over 10 minutes. The flavor and the scent are unique, but I can't say I like it. I am not noticing any effects yet, so I am unsure if I will continue. You do get a big bag, and it is resealable.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆

Review of Herbs Botanica Calamus Root for Tea

Product review: Tronadora Retama, 4 oztronadora tea, resealeble bag, yellow elder herbs, tronadora hierba

 

 This tea comes in a nice-quality resealable foil-lined bag. The tea is coarse; it chopped up stems as well as dried flowers and leaves. The tea does not have a strong flavor even after 15 minutes of seeping in freshly boiled water. This tea is an acquired taste; I am not a big fan so far. The quality of the packaging and tea is high, the flavor is okay.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆

Review of Tronadora Retama, tronadora tea

Product review: GINGKO Organic Raspberry Leaf Herbal Tea

 

Raspberry leaves tea taste much like mild black tea but does not have caffeine. It does not taste fruity. I seep it for 10 minutes and sweeten it with sugar. I prefer to drink it warm, not cold. The tea bag material is not my favorite; this material does not compost in my composter in one season. I learned this last spring as I spread my compost in the garden; I had to fish out similar tea bags one at a time as they stayed totally intact. I would have preferred a paper bag.

Purchased April 2023, expires April 2025.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★☆  

Review of GINGKO Organic Raspberry Leaf Herbal Tea

Product review: Copina Co. Vanilla Beauty Vegan Collagen Booster Creamer

 

 I purchased the Vanilla Beauty flavor. The vanilla flavor is light and pleasant. Vanilla Beauty Power is slightly sweet. The description says that natural sugar is not added, but it does not state the source of the sweetness. The powder does not dissolve well; as you can see in my photos, there is a bit of power floating in the cup after mixing.

The box contains 10 single-serving tubes. The manufacturer recommends taking 1-3 servings of these collagen support blends daily for 30 days for the best results. So one would need to purchase at least three $30 packs to see results. At the current price of 2.99 per serving, the price is pretty steep.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★☆  

Review of Copina Co. Vanilla Beauty Vegan Collagen Booster Creamer

Product review: Duru Extra Coarse Bulgur (food review)

 

I use Bulgur in stews (works great in an Instant Pot) and tabbouleh salads.  I thought this Bulgur had a nice nutty flavor.

Bulgur Wheat comes in four different grinds: fine, medium coarse, coarse, and extra coarse bulgur. A fine or medium grind is good for salads and baked goods, and medium or coarse grinds are better for pilafs or stuffings.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★★    

Review of Duru Extra Coarse Bulgur

Product review: Cascadian Farms Organic Cereal, No Added Sugar, but added Salt

            

                                                                            

  I like:

⭐ Not over sweet
⭐ Flakes are crunchy
⭐ The bits of dehydrated fruits are tasty

I do not like:

⭐ Very small amount of fruits in the box, maybe two pieces for each bowl
⭐ I detected a salty flavor, which I did not enjoy.  After thinking it was saltier than any cereal I have tried in the past, I looked at the ingredients and saw that it included sea salt.

After adding my own fruit, and then it tasted good.  However, I will not buy it because I prefer cereal that does not taste salty.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆

Review of Cascadian Farms Organic Cereal, No Added Sugar                         

Product review: DALAMHARI Super Kombucha Tea Powder

 

Taste: slightly tart, sweet, with a bit of bitterness. It tastes like citrus but sweeter than a lemon, tarter than an orange, with the bitterness of a lime. The flavor is very strong using recommended proportions but could be made less powerful by adding more water.

In this order, I received 12 pouches with powder. The powder is sweetened with Erythritol and Sucralose (often marketed as Splenda). Both of these artificial sweeteners have a laxative effect on me, so I have to be very careful how much I can consume before the negative side effects become intolerable.

Ingredients

Citric acid, Sodium bicarbonate, Yuzu juice extract powder 10%, Kombucha tea powder 10%, Yuzu flavor, Erythritol, Black tea extract powder, Fruit powder, Beet powder, Sucralose, Vitamin and mineral mix [Seaweed-derived calcium, ascorbic acid, Vitamin E (alpha-tocopheryl acetate), Iron (Ferrous fumarate), Niacinamide, Vitamin A (Retinyl acetate), Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Vitamin B1 (Thiamine Hydrochloride), Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Folic acid], Probiotice blend [L. acidophilus, L. reuteri, L. lactis, S. thermophilus, B. longum, B. breve, B. bifidum, B. animalis subsp. Lactis, L. salivarius, L. casei, L. paracasei, L. bulgaricus, L. helveticus, L. plantarum, L. fermentum, L. rhamnosus, L. gasseri, E. faecium, E. faecalis]


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆

Review of DALAMHARI Super Kombucha Tea Powder

Product review: Mr. Lau's Version Authentic Chinese Take-Out BBQ Sauce

 

The flavor of the sauce is slightly salty and sweet. We like this sauce! Works well on a variety of meats and even just veggies.

One serving size is two tablespoons, and the bottle has 12 servings. Each serving has 90 calories. One serving of this sauce has 16 grams of sugar and 2 grams of fat. The bottle is labeled as "Product of USA."

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★☆

Review of Mr. Lau's Version Authentic Chinese Take-Out BBQ Sauce

Product review: Peaceful Squirrel Variety, Tao Kae Noi Thai Crispy Seaweed

 

Incredibly delicious. I have had seaweed many times in the past, but never like this set, flavored with different seasonings. This seaweed exceeded my expectations in flavor. All crispy, non-broken, and of excellent quality. The only thing I could see improving is putting them into a resealable package. I try not to eat the entire package in one sitting, even though, I admit, it is hard.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Review of Peaceful Squirrel Variety, Tao Kae Noi Thai Crispy Seaweed

Product review: 5-hour ENERGY Extra Strength Berry Energy Drink (overly sweet)

 

I purchased the Berry flavor of a 5-hour Energy drink. Berry flavor is Cherry flavor. The problem I have with the flavor is that it is extremely sweet. Overly sweet. So sweet that I can't drink it straight. To get to the tolerable level of sweetness, I need to add water in an amount of 1 to 3 (1 oz berry drink to 3 oz water). By adding that much water, I lose the fizz and the tartness.

I received twelve 16 oz cans. Each can has 0 grams of sugar. It is sweetened with Sucralose. Sucralose is marketed as Splenda. One can also contains 230 mg of caffeine (compare that to 34 mg of caffeine in a 12oz can of Coca-Cola or 142 mg of caffeine in a 12oz mug of coffee).

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★☆☆☆

Review of 5-hour ENERGY Extra Strength Berry Energy Drink

Product review: Peaceful Squirrel Variety, Tao Kae Noi Thai Big Sheets Seaweed Snack

 The package contains four boxes, each containing different flavors of seaweed. Each box has 12 sheets of seaweed. They taste terrific! Each sheet comes in its own seal package, and none of the big sheets were broken.

Each piece is a very thin and crispy wafer of seaweed. The seaweed sheets have a slightly salty seaweed flavor. The spicy flavor is slightly spicy and not too hot. They crunch and then dissolve in your mouth.

The product is made in Thailand, and the label is entirely in Thai; I could not even figure out how many calories each seaweed sheet is.

I purchased these packages in July 2022, and the expiration date is March 2023.

Great tasting, very addicting!

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Review of Peaceful Squirrel Variety, Tao Kae Noi Thai Big Sheets Seaweed Snack, 4 boxes

Product review: Kaze Keto Cheese Bites

 These cheese balls surprised me with their pleasant taste.  They are crunchie and cheesy and not too salty.  Each claims to have six servings(about an ounce) at 180 calories, but it is hard to stop after just a few puffs.  I love cheese, but cheese snacks often taste artificial to me, but not this one.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Review of Kaze Keto Cheese Bites

Product review: Iya Foods Hibiscus Flower Tea 1 lb pack

 People claim all kinds of health benefits from the tea often when people believe something it helps them, as proven with placebo pills. However, I like Hibiscus tea for its flavor. It is delicious cold, so I drink a lot of it in the summer instead of lemonade. I enjoy it unsweetened. That alone is a health benefit because it lowers my sugar consumption.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Review of Iya Foods Hibiscus Flower Tea 1 lb pack