And..............I'm back

A lot has happened in this past month so far and attempting to find time to even get on here and type things up, is becoming difficult.  I have good news and bad news.  The good news, is that my other hobby, which is playing around with making jewelry, has apparently gotten some people to like it enough that I have items for sale at the Club Tattoo location in Las Vegas.  I did sell things in the St. Louis Curio Shoppe in downtown St. Louis, but the store in Las Vegas means that my items can be sold for more and I will get a lot more people to view my work.  I do know, that this site doesn't pay me at all, so at least the jewelry helps.

Now, as if designing and choosing 30 items, packing them up and shipping them to Las Vegas from the St. Louis area in 3 days wasn't close enough, try keeping the food writing going on while doing that.  So, I think the first thing that I have to spring back is a new energy drink flavor.  I am slightly addicted to energy drinks so when I see a new one, that isn't full of High Fructose Corn Syrup, I'll buy it and try it.  This is one such instance.  Also, since I have had a mojito in my life and have a friend from Cuba, I thought it would be fitting.

So what does it taste like?  Is it good?  No.  It tastes like the regular Monster fruity flavor with a strong fake lime flavor and it has something else.  I know what they were trying for, making a refreshing lime flavored Monster drink, but in the end, don't make new flavors if they are not good.

Now, while wandering the streets of St. Louis, particularly around the Hospital area, I saw a food truck.  It was one called Sarah's Cake Stop and the truck sold pre-made cupcakes, cakes and cookies.  You know, having a truck drive around, selling sweet sugary things from the side of it sounds like a really good idea. This company makes everything in their main location and then packs it up for moving and selling.  I felt hungry so I got a quick cupcake, of each kind they had.

So, the one in the upper right corner was a gluten free one, a flourless chocolate cake, which tasted fine to me.  What I liked about each and every one of these, is that the icing was more of a whipped cream icing.  It was light, fluffy and wasn't laden with this heavy-ness like regular powdered sugar and water can provide.  They were very moist as well.  The flavors were very spot on as there was a carrot cake one and a red devil cake and vanilla/maple flavored and so forth.   Even though I do make cupcakes at home from time to time, I wasn't filled with this feeling of "oh I can do that", which sometimes permeates my mind when looking at other people's versions of baked goods, but I can say that everything tasted really good for what it was supposed to be.  This isn't like another cupcake company in the area whose cupcakes are just not that tasty, because Sarah's Cake Stop isn't all about hype but instead about the flavor.  A lot of some of the best of St. Louis didn't make it to a television show or didn't pay to run giant ads and articles in periodicals.  A lot of the best of this city, is hidden and you have to brush aside the hype and the junk to see it.  This truck, and more importantly the people of the company, make very good cupcakes and for their price, I am happy.  I would give their cupcakes a 4 out of 5 stars, for being very good and if you see them on the street, you should take a stop and try them out.

A Monster Disaster

Not too long ago, I did a fun review contest of some energy drinks, or at least those which did not use High Fructose Corn Syrup as their main form of concentrated energy.  I tend to like or grew accustomed to the flavoring selection of the Monster brand energy drinks.  Soon I was drinking them every day.  A 24 pack from Costco, set me back $28 and I was happy as a clam.  I use energy drinks as the pick me up as I don't drink coffee.

So, everything was going fine at work.  I bought a 4 pack of regular Monster drinks and then was enjoying one of them one morning at work.  As I was finishing a can around 10am, I felt something solid hot my lips.  I went from okay, normal dull day at work, to "oh my god what was that?"  I took the can and what drink was left inside to our kitchen at work and poured it into a glass and noticed a brown circular object at the bottom of my glass.  I was shocked as it was brown, wrinkly and looked like something that I did NOT want in my drink or near me at all.  I poured it into the sink and with a carefully placed butter knife, I sliced the object in two to discover that it was nothing more than a raisin.

I was curious and sent an email to Monster asking if raisins are used in the manufacturing process at all.  Now, I wasn't trying to find the secret recipe but try to figure out if raisins went in Monster somewhere or if it was because some random worker on the line dropped it into a can.  After some back and forth emails, Monster sent me some coupons for some free Monster drinks.

Now, I'm not going to get any more Monster drinks, so why did they bother to send me these?  I compare this whole experience to one that you are enjoying a box of cracker-like snacks only to discover that they are made of dead people: and called Soylent Green.  You are disgusted and you don't want any more of those things and want to keep them away from you as far as you can.  Then you know what happens?  The manufacturer gives you a free box of Soylent Green.  You know that it is made from people, and you expressed your dislike for wanting to consume any more, so why do they give you some more?  Some people would take it, I would not.  Thanks Monster, but I take back all of the nice things I have said about you or your drinks. 

Sugar free Lightning flavor...?

Yeah, lightning really is a flavor and it does taste pretty good.  The drink, Amp: Sugar free lightning, tastes like a sweet and tasty soda, like a mix between a 7-up and an orange soda packed with good stuff.  But as I see more and more of this stuff, what are these things?

I understand what ginseng is and guarana, caffeine and taurine, and the B vitamins, which it is nearly impossible for you to OD in.  I have had people ask me about this and like so many things, B vitamins are water soluable.  This means that if you have too much in your body, your body removes the excess in water: you pee it out.

As I said, Amp: sugar free, doesn't have the sugar which is great so you don't have to worry about those added calories.  It does really taste like a good citrus soda and that helps make up for the fact that it is technically good for you.  Despite what I have seen others say, about how energy drinks are bad or addictive, I am trying to look at as much as I can to see if there are really any that are pretty good for them.  I mean, what is so bad in one of these drinks?  It may have no sugar and it may have twice as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, but I think that is about it.

Amp: sugar free lightning is good and perhaps better than the Monster drinks and as good as the Venom one.  I'd give this one a good 3 out of 5.

What does venom taste like?

Here's another one, this energy drink is called Venom.  I have a thought on this, again with the naming schema, why would anyone want to ingest venom?  The list of energy drinks that I review is a small one.  Yesterday while buying one of each at the grocery store, I noticed that a few of the other energy drinks have high fructose corn syrup in them.  How is placing things that are considered unhealthy, into an energy drink, considered a good idea???  So, no NOS or anything else.

Venom, is Black Mamba flavor, which is the name of one of the most poisonous snakes in the world.  The mortality rate of one who gets bit with the venom is 100%, so I guess I shouldn't have taken that first sip of this drink.........

However, like so many other companies, I am willing to bet that the average person who drinks Black Mamba flavored Venom energy drink, has no idea that if you get venom from a Black Mamba, you die.  I'm sure there are a bunch of rednecks sitting around a fire somewhere saying "yeah, black mambas are super deadly and we want to be like them so lets drink this up."

So, what does it taste like?  I have to say that it is tastier than a Monster, has about as much sugar as a regular Monster, has more calories than a regular Monster and has something different: extra vitamins.  With a regular Monster, per can, you get 200% of your B3, B6 and B12 along with 200% of your daily Riboflavin.  With Venom:Black Mamba, you get 210% of each of the above mentioned.  Is it enough to switch? Probably not.  The one thing to look out for in energy drinks, besides high fructose corn syrup is corn syrup and sugar.  People don't understand that sugar, by itself is actually relatively harmless.  People have eaten sugar in sweets and so forth, in moderation for thousands of years.  What is bad, is when you start making mutant sugars like corn syrup, which is a more concentrated sugar and high fructose corn syrup, which is a plant sugar that your body doesn't recognize mixed with corn syrup.  All of these three will give you energy, but the real sugar one, is the least likely to cause the worst damage to your body.  Overall though, the Venom: Black Mamba tastes like some ninja dropped a strawberry Jolly Rancher into my regular Monster energy drink.  The fruitiness is unexpected and does taste good.  I would be interested in seeing if they are able to pull the same flavoring off using their sugar-free brand.

 I'd give this drink a 3 out of 5 and would buy it again if I needed a buzz....

Time to unleash the Khaos?

No spelling mistake on my part: Khaos is the name of another flavor of energy drink from the brand Monster.  This energy drink is different than the other Monster drinks in it that this one is mostly made up of Juice. This tastes like a mix of soda and OJ.  It says, in the ingredient list, that it contains apple, orange, peach, tangerine, pineapple and white grape juice.  Boasting vitamin A and C, this drink has more energy in it, or at least more vitamins than a normal Monster drink.  I give this one a 2 out of 5 as well as the fruit mix doesn't taste that good to me.

I think I found my calling.....(insert choir music here)

I remember going to Catholic school and being told that the all-powerful being has a calling or a vocation for each one of us.  Well, 30 something years later, I find that I have an easy time doing things that others, even professionals, have a hard time doing.

What I have here for you all to see?  Well, the first thing is when a friend of mine in Texas (Ms. Campos), wanted me to make a low-calorie tres leche cake.  Well, think of that, how do you make a tres leche cake lower calories?  It already is a basic yellow cake, then you poke holes in it and pour sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and whole milk all over the top.  As the cake sucks that up, you make some whipped cream using heavy whipping cream and then cinnamon on top.  But that is a lot of fat(whole milk, heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, butter and sugar in the cake.)

So, what did I do?  I made it sugar free.  I was told that it was "impossible" and it sounds like it would be, but I did it anyway.  How, you may ask?  Simple.

1.  I first made my own sweetened condensed milk; http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/129/Sugar-Free-Sweetened-Condensed87845.shtml

2.  I then bought some evaporated skim milk, it is low fat and sugar free.

3.  I then followed this recipe, basically: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/tres-leches-milk-cake/Detail.aspx

I made my own whipped cream by just whipping the cream and adding some almond flavoring as it reached soft peaks.  I put everything together and then, BAM, it was done!

Now, the cake worked really well, because of the almond flavoring I put in the whipped cream.  That flavoring helped to hide and add sweetness to the end product while retaining the sugar free element.  Now, while it isn't considered fat free, it is very close to sugar free.  The reduced sugar or my substitutions took sugar and added calories out of the cake, whipped cream and sweetened condensed milk.

I did Monster caviar.  As weird as Monster caviar sounds, like fish eggs so a monster must have eggs too, right, I did make some. 

I did the normal process, which even though they sell whole starter kids, not everyone who has tried this has been successful.  After mixing Monster, which is a 2.7PH, with the sodium alginate, I dropped the solution into a bath of the 'salt' water.  I got my Monster caviar as a result.  Because Monster already has such a sweet and concentrated flavor, the beads still had a strong Monster flavor. I also had to add some food coloring and they turned out nice.

Unleashing the monster

 I have to admit it, though I have given up soda, or strongly carbonated beverages that have no nutritional value, I do support and drink the lo-carb version of the Monster energy drink.  Now, most energy drinks contain sugar and caffeine and while that may be the norm for them all, the low-carb Monster energy drink seems to be at least somewhat healthy and good for you.

Unlike other energy drinks, Monster actually has vitamins and other chemicals that are considered antioxidants.  One can of Monster gives you twice of your RDA for B12, for instance.  This chemical is essential to your immune system and your health.  Taurine is listed as an ingredient and this chemical has been shown to act as an antioxidant and help the body run better.

Now the first energy drink was likely Irn-Brew, which was introduced in 1901 in Scotland.  Iron Brew, as it became known as, contains as many as 32 secret ingredients and while I would love to find out why it is so popular and what it did to become the first 'energy drink', it has such a large secret that only two people know of it at any one time and they cannot be at the same place at the same time; for safety.

Now, what are some issues with the other drinks?  Well, in particular, the largest competitor with Monster is Red Bull.  What is in a Red Bull and can it really give you wings.

Red Bull is adapted from a Thai energy drink that when the name is translated into English, gives you "Red Bull".  It was introduced worldwide in 1987 and is considered the most famous energy drink of the world.  Red bull contains Taurine, caffeine, B vitamins, Glucuronolactone, Sucrose and Glucose.  There is 110 calories in a single 8.3 oz can.  It has 27 grams of sugar, 100% of your daily Niacin(B3), 80% of your B12, 250% of your B6 and 50% of your Pantothenic Acid(B5).

Taurine is an antioxidant which has been shown to also help lower bad cholesterol levels in the blood
Caffeine is the thing that gives us that buzz
B Vitamins are important for a healthy metabolism and immune system
Glucuronolactone is a sweetening agent that helps to detoxify the body
Sucrose is your basic table sugar
Glucose is the simple sugar that is produced by plants during photosynthesis
Pantothenic Acid is vitamin B5 which is important for a healthy metabolism of fats, carbohydrates and proteins

Now a Monster drink, in particular, the regular Monster drink, since I looked at the regular Red Bull, is 2.5 servings in a single can.  Red bull only lists but a small number of ingredients on their site or anywhere else while Monster lists as many as 15-20 ingredients.  A serving size of Monster will let you have 27 grams of sugar, 100% of your B2, 100% of your B3, 100% of your B6 and 100% of your B12. Also, it is not listed on the Nutritional table, but Monster does list Pantothenic Acid(B5) as an ingredient.  So, it does in fact contain the B5 that Red Bull has as well.

So, Monster has more B12, less B6 and B2 and some B5.  So, what is the difference?

B2 is important in the creation of energy from metabolism.  So, having this is ideal.  Monster wins.
B6 is a major co enzyme for reactions that help with the metabolism.  Red Bull wins.
B5 is for metabolism of fats, carbs and proteins. There is a tie.
B3 is for DNA repair. Tie for both.
B12 is for the brain and nervous system.  Monster wins, as it has more.

From what it looks like, B2 is actually more powerful than B5, so having the ability to get a greater amount of energy from foods is better than being able to metabolize the foods at all, I think.  Also, with the additional 20% of your daily B12, Monster seems to take the win.

Again, I prefer the low-carb Monster which doesn't give me the sugar and gives me the vitamins and nutrients that my body needs.