Mayorga Coffee Roasters Americano
Price: $1.90 plus tax
Serving: 12 oz.
Calories: 10 per serving
Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 0%, 0mg
Protein: 0g
Carbohydrates: 0%, 0g
Fiber: 0%, 0g
Sugar: 0g
Caffeine: 150mg
Mayorga says: The perfect espresso will be delightfully sweet, have a powerful, potent aroma, be similar in flavor to freshly ground coffee, have a dark, reddish-brown crema that’s both thick and smooth, be one that you love to drink and inspires you to brew for those who share your passion.
We say: We have to admit that Mayorga’s biggest draw is the free wi-fi. Plus, they offer actual dairy-based creamers, a feature that the Vegan bakery across the street can’t match. Unfortunately, their baristas offer only general destruction when it comes to making espresso-based drinks. The only sure shots on the menu are iced beverages and we often the find the markup on iced beverages a bit much to bear. Well, that and we have lactose issues.
So this weekend, when we needed a place to chill out and browse the shoes at Piperlime (good for looking) and Zappo’s (excellent customer feedback on the shoes), we made the mistake of getting something hot.
The Mayorga Americano is simply so-so. Not brutally horrid, but just the average sort of drink that makes one think “Why did I have to go all fancy. I could have just made a cup of coffee at home.” There’s no clue that espresso was involved in the evolution of this drink. For all we know they brewed a bit of French Roast, topped it with some water, and decided to start charging more. The Americano is a bit bitter and lacks any of the subtle sweetness that should accompany fresh-brewed espresso.
We’re beginning to think that the only draws for this chain (free wi-fi and iced drinks) won’t have enough charm to attract us come winter.
Filed Under Coffee, Coffee, Fat Free, Four Stars, Mayorga, United States, Vegan
Sainsbury's Vanilla Bean & Honey Smoothie
Price: £1.29
Serving: 250 ml, 8.5 fluid oz.
Calories: 246 per serving
Total Fat: 6.8g
Saturated Fat: 4.8g
Protein: 9.0g
Carbohydrates: 37.3g
Fiber: traceg
Sugar: 33.0g
Salt: 0.3g
Calcium:30% RDA
Sainsbury’s says: Silky smooth wholemilk yogurt blended with rich vanilla beans and golden Argentinean honey.
We say: Yogurt smoothies are the halfway house between food and drink. They fill that low-blood-sugar gap that occurs in the late afternoon and taste delicious to boot. This drink is perfect for a ‘Leave me alone I’m having a moment’ comfort indulgence and should not be shared, even with one’s supposed life partner. Requests for sharing will likely be met with glaring and possibly violence as you defend this ambrosia of a yogurt smoothie.
When Sainsbury’s says their smoothies are “silky smooth” they aren’t kidding - if this smoothie was a human it would be the king of cool, hanging out in swank lounges and chilling with all of the fine ladies. Before you know it you’ll be at the bottom of the bottle wondering what happened to all of that deliciousness. Of course, when we got to that point we had a momentary lapse of sanity and considered pulling out a pair of scissors and cutting apart the entire bottle to lick out every last drop. Yes, we’re that desperate.
As an added bonus, Sainsbury’s went the natural route, using the simple ingredients of whole milk yogurt, apple juice (for natural sweetening and thinning the yoghurt), Argentinean honey, vanilla extract, vanilla beans.
We’re not sure why they needed to point out that the honey was from Argentina because it wasn’t sexy or dressed as a bullfighter. So, does provenance make any sort of difference? The non-Argentinean vanilla provides subtle but still strong flavor, combining with the South American honey to give this a comfort food factor of 10. At 246 calories, the size of a ‘diet’ microwave meal, this is an unfortunately hefty drink, but that’s what we get for enjoying something so unbelievably creamy.
Filed Under Five Stars, Probiotic Bacteria, Sainsbury's, Smoothies, United Kingdom, Vanilla
Krispy Kreme Rich Coffee
Price: $1.69 plus tax
Serving: 16 oz.
Calories: 18 per serving
Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 0%, 4mg
Protein: 0.6g
Carbohydrates: 0%, 0g
Fiber: 0%, 0g
Sugar: 0g
Caffeine: 230-350mg
Krispy Kreme says: A refined, aromatic coffee with balanced, rounded intensity. It’s a roast with a simple name, but a complex and robust flavor.
We say: Some people allege that we stop at the Krispy Kreme for coffee because it a) has doughnuts and b) is on the way to work. This is not true.
We stop at Krispy Kreme because their coffee is reliable. That and we have the willpower to resist the doughnuts from Krispy Kreme, especially since the ones at the Dupont Circle store are deep fried somewhere else, trucked to the store, and then simply glazed here. That sort of grossness is simple to decline.
However, their coffee is not easy to turn down. First because it $1.69 for a 16 ounce coffee. While this is a bit much to make the beverage a daily habit (we’ll suffer through the free stuff available at work most days), it is enough to guarantee that one is getting something of a bit higher quality than your standard gas station fare.
You might think that 4 stars is a high reward for providing consistent better-than-gas-station coffee, but if you’ve ever had a job that involves waking up at 4:45 a.m., you understand the importance of routine.
Filed Under Coffee, Coffee, Fat Free, Four Stars, Gluten Free, High Fructose Corn Syrup Free, Krispy Kreme, United States, Vegan
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Lemonade
Price: £0.99
Serving: 250ml
Calories: 64 per serving
Fat: trace
Sodium: trace
Protein: 0.1g
Carbohydrates: 14.8g
Fiber: 0.2g
Sugar: 12.8g
Caffeine: 0mg
Sainsbury’s says: Lemonade made from freshly squeezed lemons. Sharp yet refreshing.
We say: Summer means summer drinks and you don’t get more summery than old fashioned lemonade. Sadly, society has become accustomed to chemical drinks rather than good ‘ole squished lemons. This drink harks back to a finer age when grandma squashed the lemons from her own back garden. One pleasant surprise in these times of complicated ingredients you need a degree to understand is that this lemonade contains only water, freshly squeezed lemon juice, sugar and lemon pulp.
Sainsbury’s lemonade is sweet initially (but not sickly), with the sour finish expected in all good lemonades. It reminded us a bit of the aromatic honey and lemon one would use to treat a cold. Plus, we were pleasantly surprised to find they’d not sieved it, leaving the elixir au natural with bits of lemon pulp. Reaching the bottom of the bottle we experienced a refreshing sour shiver from that pulp sediment. Due to the strong flavour this is not a down in one gulp drink - and savoring rather than gulping is the point of this lemonade. It’s only ‘fizzy’ nature is the slight zing from the fresh lemons, so you’ll need to look elsewhere for something carbonated.
Instead of the laborious squeezing of tons of lemons you’d need for decent lemonade Sainsbury’s bottled product really does reach the spot. And the complete lack of artificial sweeteners ensures that the taste is pure and fresh, not the chemical aftertaste found in other lemonades. Too bad it’s not a very large serving and didn’t refresh our thirst so much as make us want to drink 2.
Filed Under Four Stars, High Fructose Corn Syrup Free, Juice Cocktails, Lemonade, Sainsbury's, United Kingdom, Vegan
Dannon Light & Fit Mixed Berry Smoothie
Price: 95¢ for one bottle
Serving: 1 bottle, 7 fluid ounces.
Calories: 70
Alcohol by Volume: None
Fat: 0%, 0g
Cholesterol: 1%, <5mg
Potassium: 7%, 230mg
Sodium: 4%, 85mg
Protein: 5g
Carbohydrates: 4%, 13g
Fiber: 0%, 0g
Sugar: 12g
Phosphorus: 15%
Dannon says: Want a deliciously easy way to maintain your balanced lifestyle even when you’re on the run? Enjoy a DANNON™ Light & Fit Smoothie™! No smoothie is lighter than DANNON™ Light & Fit™ Smoothies. With a great taste and only 60 calories per 7 fl oz bottle, you can drink them every day. Do something good for yourself today - have a Light & Fit™ Smoothie.
We say: On summery Saturday mornings we enjoy walking to the local farmer’s market to pick up peaches, a fresh baguette, and a chocolate croissant. When it is cool we go for a small cup of coffee. When it is boiling hot outside (as it was this last weekend), we pick up experimental drinks from the bakery cold case.
Today, the 95¢ sign advertising these smoothies caught my eye. After all, what could be better on an intensely hot and humid day than a yogurt-based smoothie? It turns out that there are approximately 18 zillion items more palatable that this drink.
Dannon’s Light & Fit Smoothie is the sort of beverage that makes you feel virtuous for being on a diet. That’s how awful it tastes. The flavor is nothing but pure artificial intensity, the entire smoothie is only 3 percent fruit, and the color is approximately the shade of a jaundiced version of Grimace. The major culprit in this drink disaster is overuse of Splenda. Just because the marketing folks say it tastes like sugar doesn’t mean that it actually tastes like sugar. And even if it did taste just like real sugar, there is far too much of it in this beverage.
We drank approximately half the bottle before deciding that if long life and health meant surviving off of Dannon smoothies, we’d rather be slightly plump and dead.
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