Day 67 - Rockstar Hardcore Apple

I'm home this Friday night but that doesn't mean I can't run around and get a little crazy!  I am planning to be up for a while, drinking Rockstar Hardcore Apple while wearing some fun slippers that look like Chuck Taylors!  These slippers are awesome!

Rockstar Hardcore Apple is tasty.  It is quite sweet but better than a lot of energy drinks, doesn't have the medicinal flavor that some do.  It reminds me of a Jolly Rancher apple candy or Pucker Sour Apple liquor.  It has 240 mg of caffeine per can and is 260 calories.  It contains no juice.  It is a very natural toxic green color (judging by the toxic waste I have seen in movies)

I decided to mix it with some booze (like I said, weekend with the woot-woot and whatnot!)  I don't have any vodka, that would be good.  I tried some mixed with Evan Williams 1783 bourbon, not great.  Then, I mixed it with some Paul Masson Apple Grande Amber Brandy (see my Day 65 review) quite tasty.  Finally, I added some Fireball Cinnamon Whisky.  That was ok but I recommend going very light on it, the hot cinnamon taste easily overwhelms the apple flavor and we need to taste the apple.  If it was Skittles, we would want to taste the rainbow but I digress.

I don't drink energy drinks too often but when I do, Rockstar Hardcore Apple is not a bad way to go Mutherfucka!  Next time, I review Apple Toaster Strudel.  Crunch on!

Day 66 - Apple Jacks

A is for apple, J is for Jacks, cinnamon toasty Apple Jacks.  According to a recent review by Tony the Tiger, "They're grrrreat!"  After reading more of the famous tiger's reviews of other products I noticed all his reviews declared, "They're grrreat!"  He is very enthusiastic but I don't know if I can trust his opinion.

Apple Jacks is a brand of cereal produced by Kellogg's and introduced to the US in 1965 as Apple O's.  In 1971, the name changed to Apple Jacks.  Originally, all cereal pieces were orange and O-shaped.  In 1998, O-shaped green pieces were added.  The product is described by Kellogg's as a crunchy, sweetened three-grain cereal with apples and cinnamon.

Being a cereal targeting children, there have been some interesting mascots over the years.  In the 1960's, it was the crude and terrifying Apple Guy.  In 1971, the Apple Jacks Kids became the mascots.  As of 2004, the mascots are a care-free Jamaican cinnamon stick named CinnaMon and an accident-prone apple named Bad Apple.

Anyway, I like Apple Jacks.  I wasn't sure if they had any actual apples in 'em but dried apples are listed as an ingredient.  To make my Apple Jacks more apple heavy, I added some crushed up Seneca Apple Chips and it was good!

I am a fan of cereal in general.  I eat it most mornings, trying many types and sometimes mixing two or three kinds together.  I tried my Apple Jacks combined with a new cereal that just came out, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Blasted Shreds, boom and it was da bomb diggity!  This stuff has more cinnamon than I have ever seen on cereal and with 26% of your daily dietary fiber, it'll help to keep you regular.  That means poop.                                                                                                                                                   












Next time, I compare three different types of Seneca Apple Chips, the Original, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith style.  Crunch on and get yer chip on!

Day 65 - Apple Brandy Challenge

The people have spoken, at least the voices in my head.  They said Apple Brandy!  Today I taste and compare 3 kinds, Door County Distillery, Calvados Morin, and Paul Masson Apple Brandy.

As you can see, they each have a distinct color, from clear to dark amber.  Here is some info about all three.

Door County Distillery Apple Brandy is made in Wisconsin from apple wine and fresh apples.  It is 35% ABV and semi-sweet.  A bottle retails for aprox $19.99.  I really enjoy it.  It has a nice aroma, an authentic apple flavor and just the right amount of sweetness.

Calvados Morin has been making brandy in the Calvados region of Normandy, France since 1889.  It is derived from apple cider from a variety on tannin-rich apples.  This stuff is aged in Limousin Oak casks for 3 years.  It is 40% ABV.  A bottle retails for aprox $24.99.  It does have a decent apple flavor but zero sweetness and high alcohol content gives it quite a bite.  It is quality stuff but comes across a bit harsh to me.  I do think it would make an excellent mixer, I wrote and then, therefore mixed said spirit with some Ocean Spray Cranberry Pineapple juice.  It wasn't the best combination but I did finish it for science.  I think it would mix well with apple cider and I will surely try it.

Paul Masson Apple Grande Amber is up next.  It is 27% ABV.  A bottle retails for aprox $8.99.  It is made with premium grapes distilled in California and then aged for 3 years in Oak barrels and bottled in Kentucky.  The brandy is then mixed with apple liquor or flavoring.  I wasn't able to find any info on this part of the process.  Paul Masson Apple Grande Amber is the cheapest of the three by far.  It is the thickest and the sweetest.  I do like it, although sweet, it is not as sweet as Pucker or Amaretto for example.  The aroma is more like a candy apple than a fresh one.

In conclusion, my favorite of the three is Door County Distillery Apple Brandy.  It is a Wisconsin product made with nothing but apples.  It has just enough kick to get ya where you're going, just a little sweetness, a good consistency and it represents the apple the best.  Calvados Morin has the best aroma and I appreciate their long tradition of excellence in distilling but at $25 a bottle, I won't be getting it again.  Paul Masson Apple Grande Amber is surprisingly good.  At only $8 to $10 a bottle, if you like apple booze, give it a try.

Alright, in my next blog, I will answer the age old question, long contemplated in mathematics: A is for apples + J is for jacks = ?  Stayed tuned and crunch on!

Day 64 - Rockit

Today's apple is the miniature Rockit.  They are sold in recyclable plastic tubes of 3 to 5 apples with a rocket shaped logo.  Going with this theme, I though it would be fun to send a bunch of these to Mars.  You could fit aprox 350,320 of these little guys in the payload bay of a space shuttle.  That would feed a lot of hungry Martians! 

I bought a big container with 3 lb of Rockit apples at Sendik's but I only found info about the tubes online.

The Rockit was launched in 2010 from Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.  It was bred to be small using crab apples mixed with other varieties.  They are pre-washed and marketed as a convenient, snack sized alternative to more unhealthy snacks.  The tube packages were designed so they could be displayed outside of the produce section.  The company slogan is, "your daily fruit blast" and they claim 65% more potassium and 10% more fiber than the average apple.  The fruit has a long shelf life.  The ones sold in the US are grown in Washington state.

The picture above show the size difference compared to an average sized apple.  I like the Rockit.  Unlike a crab apple, it is very sweet.  They are are crisp and juicy, pretty much everything you would want in an apple in a small package.  I think the Martians would like them unless they prefer humans.

Next time, I get my serious drink on with the Apple Brandy Blog!  I will compare 3 different kinds, Door County, Calvados Morin, and Paul Masson Apple Brandy.  It might take several shots to get the review right but luckily, apples are healthy!  Crunch on...

Day 63 - Organic Green Dragon

Chasing the dragon, eating an organic Green Dragon and listening to Nick Nutter's podcast, The Top Albums of 2017.  See below links to part 1 and 2.  Witness some spiky, edgy, fluffy and funly commentary on the music or 2017 that was the music of 2017!

 https://soundcloud.com/nick-nutter/the-top-albums-of-2017-part-i
https://soundcloud.com/nick-nutter/the-top-albums-of-2017-part-ii

The Green Dragon originated in 1920 at the famous (I'm sure you heard of it, dah!) Aomori Apple Research Center in Japan.  It is a cross between the Golden Delicious and the Indo, apples that also yielded the Mutsu and Shizuka.  

Green Dragon apples resemble a lime green Golden Delicious dotted with very small brown freckles. The skin is thinner than most green apples, yet also resistant to bruising.  It is one of the most aromatic apples on the market due to a plentitude of chemicals know as fruit esters.  Refrigerated, they will last for 2-3 weeks.

The flavor is very sweet, not too tart with some exotic fruit undertones of pineapple and pear.  At first, I found the inner flesh lacked crispness but as I continued eating, I realized it reminded me of the texture of a pear and it was good.  

Green Dragon, roar, twas' good!  Next time I hope for sky rockets in flight, an afternoon delight with the Rockit apple.  Crunch on!

Day 62 - Ginger Gold and Weihenstephaner Vitus

Ed Sheeran is doing a STADIUM tour!  I met this famous ginger just a few years ago when he was an up and coming singer/songwriting.  He performed on the Wakeup News at WITI, the Fox affiliate where I work.  He may be a more famous ginger but I was more excited when we had a rock star of fruit, Bob Barthel from Barthel Fruit Farm on the show in Sept of 2017.  He brought a couple apples I had never seen before, the Pippin (see my Day 43 blog, the biggest apple I had ever seen, big as a baby's head) and the Ginger Gold.  I tried a Ginger Gold that day and it was killer!

Ginger Gold is famous as the apple that Hurricane Camille brought forth. Camille brought devastating floods to Nelson County, Virginia in 1969, and the orchards of Clyde and Frances "Ginger" Harvey were badly washed out.  In recovering the few surviving trees around the edge of one Winesap orchard, another tree was found which Clyde Harvey recognized as being different. It was planted with the rest, but was found to produce yellow rather than red fruit.  An extension agent identified the parents as Golden Delicious, Albemarle Pippin and some other unknown variety.  The variety was eventually named after Clyde Harvey's wife.

I really enjoyed this early season apple, they start to ripen in August.  My Ginger Gold had a uniform shape and bright gold skin.  It was juicy and crisp with a mild but complex flavor, not too sweet but with tartness and even some spicy notes at the end.  It thought it had a slight ginger quality to it.

I will definitely get out to Barthel Fruit Farm in Mequon next season, as their website shows some apples that are new to me.  Now a beer review...

Weihenstephaner is the oldest brewery in the world, almost a thousand years old.  Weihenstephaner Vitus is one of the best beers I have ever tasted.  It is a wheat beer and a Bock beer (a Weizenbock) but unlike any Bock I have tried.

It has a complex character due in part to an extra long storage time.  It has a creamy mouth feel with some good head.  There is a strong aroma of bananas, cloves and citrus.  It has a high alcohol content of 7.7 % ABV with an IBU of 17.

Weihenstephaner Vitus yes, maybe Ed Sheeran would like it?

Next times, I review the organic Green Dragon.  Crunch on and get yer drink on!

  

Day 61 - Pazazz and Bean Flicker Coffee Blonde Ale

Today's apple is the Pazazz, whose company slogan is, "Wow Right Now".  Also, a beer review of Bean Flicker Coffee Blonde Ale.  It's my blog and if I want to include a beer review, that's my business dammit!

The Pazazz is a new variety that was formed from the parentage of the Honeycrisp and an unknown variety. It was created at an experimental (and possibly secret and/or evil) fruit farm near Eau Claire, Wisconsin. They rely on bees to cross pollinate the trees, a process which results in a new variety of apple of which only one of the parents are known.  Of thousands of apple varieties created in this method only a handful make the cut. The Pazazz was selected for its exceptionally sweet flavor and its ability to be successfully grown in a variety of different climates. 

The Pazazz is part of a group of apples that are being commercialized in a new fashion by Apple Varietal Development LLC. This new process involves a club model where growers in the club are the only ones permitted to grow and sell the variety. This transfers control of supply from the tree nurseries to the growers and keeps the market from becoming oversaturated with a specific variety. It also ensures the apples being marketed under a specific name such as the Pazazz meet a certain standard in terms of quality. 

Pazazz is a large apple.  The skin is greenish yellow with a red brush stroke pattern overlay.  It is very crisp and juicy (juicier than a Juici) with a nice sweet/tart flavor.  I think this guy has pazazz and I predict this will become a more well-known apple in the future.  Wow right now?  Yes!

Bean Flicker Coffee Blonde Ale is made by Odd Side Ales out of Grand Haven, MI.  I found this beer to be a pleasant surprise.  It tricked my brain drinking such a light tasting beer with coffee.  It didn't seem like it should work but did.  I have had coffee Porters or Stouts and they can sometimes be quite bitter.

It poured a golden yellow with a fair amount of carbonation.  The head dissipated quickly but there was a nice, creamy mouth feel.  The ABV is 4.5%.  It had an aroma of coffee, vanilla and cream.  I found Bean Flicker Coffee Blonde Ale refreshing but with substance.

Next time I review the Ginger Gold apple and maybe... another beer.  Crunch on and drink up!