holidays

Starbucks Juniper Latte Schooled Me About Gin

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You may have heard all the fuss about Starbucks new holiday drink — the Juniper Latte.

Our signature espresso and steamed milk mingle beautifully with juniper syrup. This beverage has a light, pine-like flavor with delightful citrus undertones. We cap this latte with velvety foam and accentuate the remarkable flavor with a dusting of pine-citrus sugar.

As soon as I read the description, I wanted to try it. Then I started looking for reviews on Twitter to get an idea of how people liked it.

Opinions were all over the place and frankly I was confused. So many of  comments were about it tasting like gin. Gin?! What?! What did juniper flavor have to do with gin?

Let me tell you. I was today years old when I learned that juniper berries are used to make gin. Learn something new everyday! Researching this post is how I found out! I’ve never been a fan of gin. I’ve had it in a few cocktails, but never go out of my way to drink it. I’ve never bought it and probably never will.

From what I could differentiate of the flavor in mixed drinks, gin seems to bring the flavor of what it’s mixed with down a notch and make it more dry. Why would I want to do that? I prefer the opposite. More flavor and sweeter!

Luckily, I didn’t learn about the gin connection until after I had already tried the drink. Otherwise I might have opted out.

So what did I think? I liked it! It was sweeter than I thought it would be. The flavor was understated. Think about the smell of a pine tree and the sap that you see dripping down the tree. Imagine what that would taste like. Then take it down a notch. That’s the flavor. Just the right amount of Christmas tree. I’ll definitely buy it again.

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*Updated 12/12/2019* Sadly, Starbucks didn’t bring back the Juniper Latte this year.

Holiday Baking Recipe: Swedish Spritz Cookies

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It’s December, so holiday baking season is in full swing! This was the first Thanksgiving in decades that I didn’t cook or bake anything. And I was perfectly fine with it. But I had a few good reasons to bake these Swedish Spritz cookies today.

One of my brother’s housemates lost his mom a few years ago and she left him her cookbook. Out of the blue one day, he shared one of her recipes with me. I was so touched. A family recipe is a treasure.

He gave me the recipe this past summer, but I hadn’t had a chance to bake them.  Well, time just kept passing, as it’s known to do. He asked me a few times if I had tried them yet and I promised myself that I would make them soon. My family has Sunday dinners each week and I thought these would make a festive dessert. Plus, I was in a baking mood today!

As I was looking at the recipe and comparing it to other similar recipes, I realized that I didn’t have a cookie press. His family is Swedish, so his mom’s recipe didn’t have the part about needing the cookie press, because it was probably pretty obvious to her.

Luckily I have no problem improvising when I bake, so I used a cookie stamp to get a similar effect.

There were some cookies leftover from our family dinner, so I gave them to my brother’s house for everyone to share. His housemate had such a smile when I told him that I finally made the cookies and he gave me the biggest hug. Which he has never done before. Ever.

My mom said that baking these cookies was a way to keep memories of his mother alive. I have to agree. So much about food, especially around the holidays, is about family, memories and love.

These cookies are very good and I will definitely bake them again. Simple, tasty and not too sweet. They are practically as quick as using ready made cookie dough. Perfect for this time of year.

Here’s the adapted recipe below if you’d like to try it. I received permission to blog it.

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Swedish Spritz Cookies (makes a dozen and a half cookies)

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick butter (softened)
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. almond extract
1 cup plus 2T flour
pinch of salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

Set aside an ungreased cookie sheet or place parchment paper on sheet. Set oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, stir together butter, sugar and egg yolk. Add extract, salt and flour. Stir until combined. Batter comes together nicely and will be a dough that is easy to handle. If you have a cookie press, use as instructed.

I rolled the dough into small balls, then baked for 10 minutes. Remove sheet from the oven and use cookie stamp to press design onto the top of each ball. Bake for another 5 minutes for total baking time of 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cook, then serve or store in a container. Enjoy!

15 Black Owned Beauty Brands

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Black Owned Beauty Brands

Cannot believe that Thanksgiving 2017 is already a thing of the past!

Well, today is Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday is coming up in a couple of days. So we’re officially in holiday shopping season! With each purchase we make, we are also showing who and what we support.

Supporting small and local business is important to me. And being a Black woman, I like to support women, Black people and other Black women in particular.

After Retweeting a list of black owned lingerie brands by She Tweets Truth, Izzie responded asking  if there was a similar list for cosmetics. I had already been thinking about possibly blogging a list like this, but our Twitter conversation pushed me to do it.

Izzie mentioned Juvia’s Place and I learned about Faith’s Naturals from my cousin. While searching, I found a few lists from prior years and a post that seeks to correct some of those other lists. There are companies that focus on Black beauty products, but are not Black owned. Some of these companies are mistakenly listed as having Black ownership.

It’s easy for this to happen, because sometimes they may have originally been Black owned, but the Black founder no longer has a controlling interest or the company was sold outright to another company that is not Black owned — like what happened with Carol’s Daughter. Lisa Price founded the company, but in 2014 it was sold to L’Oréal USA.

From what I can tell, these companies listed below are currently Black owned in 2017. But who knows how things will change in the future? So if you’re reading this list in 2020, you might want to double check the ownership.

Also, I found that some of the companies in other listings no longer seem to exist. I figured with my new additions and corrections, another list would be helpful to me. Hopefully for you too!

This list is certainly not all inclusive or the end all of lists, but it’s a start. Happy shopping! Oh and there are actually 16 brands, because an additional one was added soon after the post was published.

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Danessa Myricks Beauty

Faith’s Naturals

Ginger + Liz

Glow by Melodye

Gold Label Cosmetics

Hanahana Beauty

Jacque Mgido Cosmetics

Juvia’s Place

KA’OIR Cosmetics

Laws of Nature Cosmetics

The Lip Bar

MDMflow

Mented Cosmetics

Pink Stiletto Cosmetics

Plain Jane Beauty

Vera Moore Cosmetics

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Image Credit: Collage created from Hanahana Beauty, MDMflow and Plain Jane Beauty website photos.

Hey Boston! Time To Shop Farmers Markets!

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Green bush with small white flowers, like flowers you can buy fresh at farmers markets.

Hope you’re enjoying the start to the Memorial Day weekend! Since this is the unofficial start to summer, it’s time to start thinking about summery things.

For those of us in New England, we don’t have year-round outdoor markets like those of you in different parts of the country. For us, it’s a real treat when we can start shopping outdoors for fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers and other locally grown and made items.

Some area farmers markets have already opened. Copley Square’s Farmers Market, which is closest to where I’m working now, opened on May 12th and will be open until November 21st.

Take a look at the Federation of Massachusetts Farmers Markets website to find a farmers market near you and for the opening date. It doesn’t seem to be fully updated yet, but keep checking back.