Tomato Soup Suggestions?

Our next tasting will be tomato soup on April 30th.  Shalee, Vanessa, Amanda and I will all be bringing our mothers to act as our "guest tasters."  We're going to do this tasting a little different... we are going to take suggestions on where to get our tomato soup from and we are going to making this a blind tasting.  Both are going to be enacted to help prevent preconceived notions and biases.  Please comment below to make your suggestions for where to get good tomato soup.  As always, we want all local establishments and one corporate entry.  Get suggestions from friends and family and post them below.

Thank you sooo much for reading!!!

Heart,
Amelia Cameron

How turned on are you?

By: Amelia Cameron


Let's get to the brass taxes here...what is an aphrodisiac?  Well according to all the smarty pants out there, an aphrodisiac is a substance that increases sexual desire.  The name comes from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sexuality and love. Throughout history, many foods, drinks, and behaviors have had a reputation for making sex more attainable and/or pleasurable.
This is the Taste Buds here though, so lets focus on the food and drink aspect of aphrodisiacs.  What are some of the more common food and drink aphrodisiacs?  Among them are: asparagus, coffee, grapes, honey, ginger, oysters, avocado, libations, figs, chiles, basil, strawberries, black beans, rosemary, pine nuts and chocolate.
Since this tasting was being held February 12th, we thought we'd honor Valentine's day and taste one of these tongue tickling tantalizers.  We went with chocolate brownies.  This was a no brainer though, since every year in preparation for every Valentine's day over one billion dollars is spent on chocolate alone.  Our infatuation with combining chocolate and love began over 2,000 years ago when Aztec ruler Montezuma would routinely drink a cocoa bean mixture before entering his harem, thus increasing chocolate's popularity with romance.

We decided the brownies we tasted had to be in the simplest chocolaty form possible.  No peanut butters, cherries or cream cheeses allowed.  Who was pure enough to make the cut?  Bread & Chocolate, Sara Jane's, Wuollet's, Good Earth, Bars, Mississippi Market and Starbucks were our contenders.

With Betsy moved to Texas, we brought in our first "guest taster" Jessica (Johnson) Larson.

  

Jess attended high school with the Taste Buds and hangs in our friend circles, but it's not that easy to qualify as a possible "guest taster."  You also have to an immense love and enthusiasm for food and food conversation, which Jess possesses.  Jess' perfect brownie? A dense, dark chocolaty morsel that is a little crunchy and a little chewy.  Let's see if any met her standards.

Let's start with Good Earth.  (***Disclaimer: after purchasing my brownie at Good Earth, I found out their baked goods are NOT made on site.  Although there are only two Good Earths in existence, they are owned by Minnesota parent company Parasole Family of Restaurants.  Parasole owns a string of local restaurants such as Chino Latino, Salute and Burger Joe's.  Although all local, Parasole has one bakery that makes the goodies these restaurants serve.)  Good Earth's brownie was frosted with no nuts.  It got high marks on its visual appeal, but medium to low on value, texture, aphrodisiac qualities, flavor and overall from everyone but Amanda.  This was one of her favorites!  

Next up, Wuollet's who got mixed reviews.  It was on the completely opposite end of the spectrum from Good Earth's style.  Unfrosted and filled with walnuts and chocolate chunks it earned high texture scores from most.  It's visual appeal, aphrodisiac qualities and flavor were all over the board.  It's value was scored lower due to it's smaller size and higher price.  Shalee and Jess both were fans of it's crispy outside and moist inside.  It seemed to be a "love it or hate it" kind of brownie.  

Sara Jane's definitely had the cheapest brownies at an amazing $0.75 per brownie, but they also had the smallest brownie at about half to 1/4 of the size to everyone else.  Maybe a three biter...  Sara Jane's ran the median for the majority of categories and for the majority of tasters.  I really liked the fudgey frosting and small bits of nuts, but they were reminiscent of Little Debbie's Fudge Brownies.

Starbucks's was our corporate entry and it didn't disappoint!  With it's simple but elegant chocolate chunk style it received rave reviews for it's visual appeal and texture.  It ranked medium to low on it's flavor and aphrodisiac qualities, which was unexpected because it incorporated a second aphrodisiac, coffee.

Next was Bread & Chocolate.  It was drenched with chocolate frosting and stuffed with chocolate chunks.  A full brownie would have earned a "two glasses of milk" rating.  It's soft cakeiness hit both high and low ranking as did it's flavor.  It ranked high on it's visual appeal and value.  Bread & Chocolate's overall brownie experience received solid ratings as well.

  

Mississippi Market had a hard time winning over hearts right from the start.  Although packaged the day of the tasting, it looked dried out.  Then when we cut into the bar, it's chocolate "frosting" crumbled and fell off.  It received mixed reviews on its crunchy outside and chewy middle texture, but it won back some hearts with it's deep chocolaty flavor.  We all agree though, overall we could find something better somewhere else.

Last but not least, was Bars.  Its plan brownie with light frosting received medium to low scores in visual appeal, as did it's aphrodisiac qualities (except for Jess).  It's texture ran the gamut of really low to really high.  It's flavor rated pretty average.  This brownie received Jess' highest ranking.  She said she found her ideal brownie.

Who won you ask?  Bread & Chocolate.  They didn't completely win anyone over, but they played a solid game.  The other shops had lovers and haters, but Bread & Chocolate pleased everyone's palate and stayed right on course.  Go get a gallon of milk, two brownies from Bread & Chocolate for you and your love and your sure to have a pleasurable evening!  

With Chocolaty Love, 

The Taste Buds (and Linus the dog)