A fresh cup of coffee in the morning is of habit to be now, whether it be brewed or instant I love the lift I get from the scent of freshly made coffee. I enjoy the warmth of it on a cold day and the ice filtered version of warm summer days.

Fresh & Easy 100% Arabica Instant Freeze Dried Coffee, is a great choice. The taste is very similar to that of Nescafe Classico Instant Coffe. I doubt I would be able to taste the difference, and as far as private label vs name brand goes I would want either equal or greater quality for my money, I believe that this product delivers!

The texture of this coffee is visually different than anyother instant coffee I have seen. The instant coffee mix is a light/medium brown color versus the usual dark brown coffee ground color on the Nescafe brand. Fresh & Easy Instant Coffee also has a larger “grain” for the lack of a better word. but in the end, your coffee is still dark, and as strong as you want it to be.

For best results the label recommends, storing in a cool dry place, and refrigeration after opening, and i would strongly agree!

Serving suggestions are 1 rounded teaspon for every 6oz of water, but this all does depend on how you like your coffee!

I hope that any of you interested in this product found this helpful, I too want to hear what readers like you might think about this product!

Reading About Instant Coffee @ Wikipedia

When Fresh&Easy first opened their selection of tea’s intrigued me! Never before had I been one for a cup of tea. Since ive been to this store I have aquire a collection of tea’s, thus I decided to review my favorite of the bunch!

The Ginger & Peach Black tea is one of the best flavored tea’s I have come to love, I do tend to pack my tea’s with sugar, but I have slowly been weening myself off of sugar.

When you first open the transparent tea bag, you can smell the pleasant aroma’s from the tea, they are sweet and bold. This tea taste just like it smells, you can sence the precense of peach and ginger, and I would suggest trying this tea first if you ever did try one at F&E. It makes an idea treat for any occasion!

Some Black Tea Facts:
+Made from the Camellia Sinensis leaves,
+black tea is often stronger in flavor and has a higher caffeine content than the other teas (green tea, white tea, oolong tea)
+Black tea is known as “crimson tea” in many Asian countries
+ All teas from the camellia tea plant are rich in polyphenols, a type of antioxidant.
Sources: Wikipedia + BlackTeaFacts.com

Some Tea Brewing Tips:
+Clean Good Tasting Water is the Best,  you dont want your to tea to have an unintended taste.
+Clean Dishes and Utensils are a must, built up minerals or sediments can taint the taste of your tea.
+Black Tea can be Brewed in Boiling water, and steeped for about 4-6 minutes, but how long it is steeped is a personal choice, depending how strong you like your tea!
+Ice Tea’s chilled with ice should  be made a bit stronger, as the ice will dilute the flavor.

These fresh & easy Bolillo’s were not very authentic or true to the Mexican Bolillo’s I am accustomed to.  These were sweeter in taste. The texture of the bread was “spongie” in my pinion, I think that this Bread needs to be refined, and made a bit different. The Shelf life of this type of bread seemed a bit long to me, This product would most likely be great with a sweet filling or for snacking purposes, but if you plan on stufing it with meat and other things, I would suggest some other type of bread.

Fresh & Easy has probably revolutionized the way the grocery industry will work in a way. This Market seems to put quality assurance as one of their priorities by placing an enjoy by date on all of their prepackaged produce.

Sure it might be a requirement by law, but by doing this are they not only being held accountable for “out of code” food on their shelves by public officials, but also by the general public. Anyone can walk into a store and be sure that their food is not being sold past is meant sell by date.

Let us suppose that you walk into a regular grocery store, how easy would it be to find the “enjoy by” date on their bulk items…Have you ever noticed any “enjoy by” dates on anything at a regular grocery store?

I must say from my experience’s with their produce, it has been great quality. Apart from the fuzzy tomatoes a couple months back, It has always lasted me several days past its sell by date, and so should it if it is stored correctly…maybe its the shop I frequent that handles the foor properly, but have any of you had any big downfalls with any of the produce?

Here a couple articles on sell-by/expiry/shelf life….

Sell By. Use By, and Expiration

Shelf Life - Wikipedia

Fresh & Easy Belgian Dark 72% Cocoa With Cocoa Nibs, is an excelent treat for chocolate lovers, this chocolate somes in a 3.52 oz pakage, and contains a bar of Dark Chocolate with crunchy Cocoa Nibs!

I devoured an entire bar in one sitting, without a second thought! I enjoyed it so much I decided to include the startling nutrition facts, I might not have consumed the healthiest snack but atleast I can say that I have recieved my fair share of Dietary Fiber, 4g equates to about 18% of a Daily Value, and not to mention the health benefits of Dark Chocolate!

Here are a couple of interesting pages in regards to dark chocolate;

How to Taste Dark Chocolate  - Wiki How

A Dark Chocolate A Day Keeps The Doctor Away - WebMD

I happened to have snaged a few of these at my local F&E on sale, so be on the look out!

I have concluded that Fresh & Easy Milk is quite acceptable quality. I have tend to buy more milk than I need and seem to always have plenty after the sell by date which might not be the best thing, but the milk I purchase seems to last pretty long after its sell by date, giving me time to use it up somehow before I really need to get rid of it.

Some noteworthy things about the milk at this store are, its wide availability of milk container ranges. From the Organic Milk quart to the full Vitamin D Gallon.

Fresh&Easy Milk states that it is from cows not treated with rBST. What is rBST you might be asking,

rBST stands for “Recombinant bovine somatotropin” also referred to as “recombinant bovine growth hormone” (rBGH) which is basically a growth hormone that is injected into the cow’s in order to increase milk production. It should be known that some rBST is naturally present in cow’s milk. (Wikipedia)

This website is a personal project of my own. Its purpose is to share how i feel about the products at ‘Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market’ and to gather any insights into what other fellow consumers might have experience with the product’s!

I will not only be sharing my feelings on the products but also some insight I have aquired through out my many consecutive visits to the Market. The employee’s often seem eager to share what they know about their products.

This will serve a tool to explain many misconceptions I have had first hand, and maybe provide insights to others and I hope other will be willing to share their experiences with me!

Thank You and I look forward to a future filled with insight as this Neighborhood Market grows and expands to meet our(the consumer) needs through private label products!