What’s your spice level? 🌶
Along with the latest trend in the beverage industry!
Good morning. Today is herbs and spices day, making it a perfect occasion to learn the difference between the two. Herbs are leafy things, like basil, tarragon, thyme, and cilantro; and spices are seeds, either whole or ground, like coriander, cumin, and anise.
Taking matters in her own hands, my wife rearranged all the labels on our spice rack. I haven’t spoken to her about it yet but the thyme is cumin.
Check out this weeks quiz ands see how spicy and herby you are. Get an 8/8 to receive the coveted title of “Spicy Sage” from us along with all the bragging rights.
In the food world
Rock n roll: Chasing good cheese? These “athletes” have taken their quest to the next level after competing in the cheese rolling extreme sporting event in England last weekend. Competitors from around the world hurled themselves down a hill for the glory of becoming the first to capture the 8 -pound Double Gloucester cheese wheel, which can roll at speeds up to 70 mph.
Shrinkflation: Smaller is better for the waistline but not for consumer goods. Shrinkflation, or the phenomenon of companies sneakily shrinking the size of their products while keeping prices the same is rampant. Rising raw material costs and consumer aversion to fork out more dough, are the main factors behind this rise. When you go out this weekend, you will notice:
Gatorade ditched 32-ounce bottles for a 28-ounce version.
Folgers downsized from 51-ounce to 43.5-ounce containers.
Domino’s and Burger King’s have both shrunk their wings and nuggets from 10 pieces to 8.
The future of drive-thrus: Taco Bell has the answer with their new concept launched this week in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. “Taco-Bell Defy” as the new concept is called, adds a second story to their store. The primary feature is
the ability to fly your vehicles to the window for their Mexican pizzafour drive-thru lanes, three of which are dedicated to pickup orders, dropped to cars via a cylindrical proprietary vertical lift to reduce service times to under two minutes.
The “buzzy” new drinking trend
Drinking has definitely moderated since its heyday in 1830, when the average American drank 7.1 gallons of alcohol a year (2.3 gallons/year now). Not the sexiest way to do a roast, but big alcohol companies might need a drink after seeing sales of beer and wine fall 4% and 6% respectively, in the year ending May 14. And this is because of a new trend in the alcohol industry - Non alcoholic “boozy” drinks.
How did we get here?: Non-alcoholic alternatives to booze have been around for a while. But this sector has been booming lately, largely driven by younger “sober curious” consumers who aren’t necessarily abstaining from alcohol but are drinking lesser because they are either:
Observing Dry January.
Recovering from or fearing a hangover.
Looking for cheaper alternatives because they are invested in dogecoin.
Health conscious and have realized that beer pong does not burn calories.
What next?: Be it your locally craft brew, favorite wine or specially crafted cocktail, there’s an alcohol free option available. So much so that major alcohol companies including Heineken, AB InBev and Molson Coors have started offering more zero alcohol options causing a 116% jump in sales of non alcoholic beverages to $4.5 million last year. Despite this rapid growth, this industry accounts for only a small share of the $178b beverage industry and mass scale adoption is still further away.
Hangover Cures
If you plan to hit the bars just a little too hard tonight, here are some hand curated magical remedies for you.
Vegan eggy tofu breakfast sandwich: Eggy tofu slice sandwiched between two English muffins and topped with creamy avocado, lettuce, tomato.
Avocado + Kimchi Toast: Probiotics and vitamins from Kimchi will revive you in minutes.
No cook overnight oats: Add prepping these as part of your pre game ritual. Takes only a minute but your suffering self will thank you the next day.
What are you your favorite hangover healers? Reply to this email or leave a comment.
Scan & go
Lick your nails: If you've ever been halfway through a bowl of Velveeta Shells and Cheese, dipped your finger into the gooey “cheese” sauce, and briefly thought that shade of yellow looked great on your nails, then you're in luck! Velveeta has announced the launch of its first-ever nail polish collection. The limited edition two-polish set retails for $15 and is available exclusively on the Nails.INC website.
Almond joy: Blue Diamond added two new almond snacks to its portfolio - Elote almonds and Korean bbq. The elote-flavored almonds are topped with chili pepper, cheese and lime and the Korean barbecue almonds are covered with the flavors of soy, garlic and gochujang. Both flavors are available for $4.19 at Walmart.
Did you know?
Ingesting nutmeg in large doses can have mind-altering effect. Due to a natural compound called myristicin, it can work like a hallucinogen and can make you go nuts.
Astronaut John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich onto his spacecraft for a six-hour mission - not something NASA endorsed being more of a BLT fan. The sandwich, in zero gravity conditions could have had grave consequences.
Cooking Tips
To peel ginger easily, use the front of the spoon to scrape off the peel instead of peeler or paring knife. After-all, everyone loves a good spooning.
To prevent herbs from flying all over the place when chopping, sprinkle a bit of salt onto the board. This will keep them grounded.
Cutting onions should not be like watching Mufasa’s death scene in The Lion King. Keeping the core on while peeling and chopping will prevent the waterworks and reduce the mess.
Media watch
“Wine and cheese are ageless companions, like aspirin and aches, or June and moon, or good people and noble ventures.”
- Robert Redford
Copykat has reverse engineered some of our favorite restaurant recipes including Starbucks Passion Tea Lemonade and Chipotle Cilantro Lime Rice.
While this simmers…
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