Unfortunately I have not acquired a taste for wine as of yet, but I really wanted people to know what to expect when/if they wanted to try one of Fresh & Easy’s wine’s The Big Kahuna Chardonnay, or the Shiraz/Cab. blended wine.

Here are some things user on other website have said about these wines;

Big Kahuna Chardonnay

A Ripe, round white wine with fresh, vibrant melon and apple fruit flavors. (On Wine label)

Peach and tropical fruit in the nose, along with oaky vanilla. Woody, citrusy taste, round & slightly oily. Decent Chard, at a great price. I’d like to compare it side-to-side with Charles Shaw - I think they’d match pretty evenly. Great value from Fresh & Easy market.

-bjwdad 83.0/100 on corkd.com

while tommers207 on cellartracker.com had this to say;

A little too oakey for my tastes. Would do in a pinch but there are a lot better Chards for just a few dollars more.

Big Kahuna Cabernet - Shiraz

A smooth, ripe red with delicious black fruit flavors and a hint of spice. 76% Cabernet Sauvignon,  24% Shiraz. (On Wine label)

Strong flavor and nose on the first night. Second and third nights the nose got fruitier and the wine smoothed out too much. Enjoyable though

-tommers207 rated 85/100 points on cellartracker.com

Anise is prominent, with some spicy berry and alcohol. Taste is a bit thin with noticeable alcohol - odd for a 12.5% wine. Some nice hints of cherry & berry. Some pepper, too. Not bad, not great, good value.

- bjwdad 83.0/100 on corkd.com

Strong fruit forward aroma with strawberry.
Burst of strawberries right of the bat followed by blackberries.
On the sweet side, but not too sweet or jammy.
Simple thin and light with a medium finish.

-JustaGrape.com

There is another review out there on the internet posted about these wines that went into further detail,  but I am unable to find it at the moment, I will definitly post an update once it is found, but for now please share your thoughts on this $1.99 Wine (California)!

Our fellow Enthusiast over at Temple of Fresh & Easy has writen about the Roasted Banana Gelato, and this is what they had to say;

You know how some “banana flavored” stuff tastes way too banana-y?

Well, not this little pint of deliciousness.

The roasted banana gelato yields a creamy, yet light, taste that is exactly like how it should: Fresh banana caramelized with brandy and brown sugar, blended into milk and churned to perfection. No chocolate chips or any other fillers to spoil the fun.

Whose ever idea this is to pretty much blend a banana foster into a gelato, it’s BRILLIANT.

If I don’t watch it, or if my lactose intolerance stomach doesn’t protest, I would’ve eaten the whole thing in one session.

Verdict: Nirvana.

I would have to agree with what they had to say about the Roasted Banana Gelato, unfortunately I am not a big fan of banana Flavored food, so I would probably not go out and buy this item on a whim. But I did find it very tasty and sweet.

Article on “Berto’s Sweet Success” - Roasted Banana Gelato Supplier

The article aslo hints at new flavors arriving this month, which might include: cappuccino and chocolate-hazelnut gelato and pineapple-orange and blackberry-rum sorbets.

During My last visit to my F&E I noticed that the usually more less than empty pudding section was full! I took a look and noticed four of the Gelatin flavor’s in their arsenal, So I decided to take it upon myself to review these items.

All four of these flavors had the same type of consistency, and characteristics for their taste, They all had a sweet/sour/tart flavor I would associate with Gummy Bear/Worm candy! These would be great for kids or people who might be fond of sweet/sour candy. Each had their own distinct fruit flavor, and I found that they were all very aromatic.

Staying inline with their claims, the label on the Gel’s has a seal, indicating No Artificial Flavor, or Colors.

These Gel’s are also Gluten Free!

Mango Gel: Mango+Citrus like aroma. (Nutrition Facts Click Here)

Berry Gel: (Raspberry, Blackberry, Blueberry)/Strawberry Aroma (Nutrition Facts Click Here)

Pear Gel: Sweet Pear/Pineapple Aroma (Nutrition Facts Click Here)

Cherry Gel: Sweet Cherry Aroma (Nutrition Facts Click Here)

Wikipedia On Gelatin

Wikipedia on Gluten

I particularly enjoyed these Gel’s and the Mango Gel stood out as the best for myself, while we will all probably have our own favorie!

Fresh & Easy has recently put out some new items on their ready to heat meal’s section. Amoung these items is the new Chicken Fajita Burrito!

Like many of their meals, this one also Contains No Artificial Flavors, Colors, of Preservatives. and comes with full heating instructions wich indicate: Heat Only in Microwave, with the package plastic packaging opened at one end, for aproximatly 3-4 minutes, rotating the burrito half way through heating.

I would like to say that I have had a much  better experice heating these fresh and easy burrito’s out of the plastic pakaging. If you do decide to heat your burrito in the package, your tortilla will more than likely be wet, and soggy.

Having heated the burrito 2 minutes and turning it around and heating one more minute worked out beautifully for myself.

First bite! At the very first bite I took out of the burrito I was greeted with a mouthfull of the their Fajita Pepper blend and some spanish rice, The filling at that point was tasty, and a quite a bit on the spicy side!

In this particular burrito the flavor of the spanish rice blended in very well with the rest of the burrito. And the pepper blend had a slightly “chipotle-ish” flavor.

As I countinued to eat my burrito, I did noticed, that there was very little chicken, until I got to a bit past half done. At this point the burrito took on new life, as the flavor of the chicken came through and added something more to the burrito.

I would probably have this burrito, but only if I had some avocado around or maybe some sour cream. I was satisfied with it, but I feel that it still needs something!

Suggestions:

+I would highly suggest that F&E add more chicken to this burrito, or somehow make it so that it does not all sit in one “section of the burrito”. as well as some sort of topping to balance the flavoring.

+i would suggest, if available, add some guacamole, plain avocado, or sour cream as they would make great additions!

+Take burrito out of plastic pakaging to heat, your burrito will be less soggy, and a bit easier to hold!

Hello Out there!

I do feel extreamly honored to hear that a fellow blog, has writen about my small humble website, you can read the information here,

http://www.freshneasybuzz.blogspot.com/

And in regards to a few questions that have arose from this, I have decided to answer them here on this site so that visitors who visit will have access to the same informattion.

1. I am not associated with fresh&easy, and this website is not sponsored by fresh&easy neighborhood market. (Google ad sense gladly sponsor’s this website )

2. I am a simple man trying to move up in the world, and this has been a project put together, so that I may sharpen my skills, and I am trying to make my way into the Web/Graphic Design & Web Development industry, with a focus on LAMP, xHTML, CSS,Javascript and major CMS along with custom Content Management Solutions. This website will actually be my testing grounds for some of my work. At the moment this is website is running on WordPress….. feel free to ask any questions about this site, or about me.

Thank You for the interest in the site, and hope to hear from all of you. In the near future visitors will have the ability to write a review of an Item, that has not been reviewed if they like, so it will (hopeully) not always be myself writing about the products (and yes it will be moderated :-)!)

I have also found a couple of people who are interested in writing reviews, so you will definitly see a more diversified reviews in the near future!:-)

The pastries section at my local Fresh and Easy has quite an assortment of different goodies to pick from, amoung them are the pack of Eight Chocolate Chip Cookies, each being about a 2-3 inch diameter. The cookies are rich and soft like the label states! I enjoyed biting into the sweet and soft dough filled with chocolate chips all throughout!

While the label explains that the cookies contain “No Artificial Preservatives, Flavors or Colors“, and also states that they are made from “scratch“, so in turn i decided to include the ingredients list for this item.

Ingredient List:

Chocolate ChipsEnriched Bleached Flour, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Palm Oil, Eggs, Soybean Oil, Water

Contain 2% or less of;

Vanilla Extract, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Salt, Potato Starch, Raisin, Lecithin, Beta Carotene(for color), Natural Flavor, Retinyl Palmitate(Vitamin A)

The ingredients list on the label goes into detail about the ingredients of a few of the ingredients. so it might look longer and more intimidating on the label. But one ingrdient on there worries me, and that is “Natural Flavor” what is this? Well I decided to investigate, and have come across these couple of sources which will explain the mystery, or part of it…but it really does make me question their integrity on the “No Artificial Flavors“….

What is the Ingredient “Natural Flavor”

Wikipedia On “Flavor”

I think these cookies are great! They live up to my personal taste test! They are truely soft, and rich and it would be a phenomenal snack with a glass of milk.

It should be noted that the cookies contain an estimated 200 calories each, with roughly 15% of your Daily total fat, and 24% of your daily saturated fat recommendations! So dieters beware of this tasty but possibly show stopping snack!

Every time I visit my friendly neighborhood store, the employee’s always seem eager to give out coupons to the customers! They only accept their own store coupons, and reject any manufacturer coupon’s, who could blame them there are probably thousands of manufacturer coupons which would all need some sort of keeping track of…it would be so labor intensive.

Any who, I have just received a flier in the mail from fresh&easy containing a $5 off $20+ purchase. So I thought it would be great to share my experience with the “Coupon Policy” I have experienced.

In the store I have been asked to please only use one coupon per transaction, as it affects the employee benefits in a way, and I am understanding to that, but here are the key points I have gotten from Reading what the coupon actually has on it.

+Dairy does not count towards $20 purchase (In CA and NV)
+Alcohol does not count towards $20 purchase
+Taxes (CRV or Sales Tax) does not count towards the $20 total.
+Limit One per Transaction
+Coupons not valid on previous purchases. (forgot to scan coupon, out of luck? maybe)

Those are the basics of it all, other than that I have seen other customers use multiple coupons, so maybe the company as a whole is still refining their process and policies…but it is a nice discount, if you do split up your purchase into different transactions!

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has set the bar by making many products with “No Artificial Preservatives, Flavors, or Colors” and their Creamy Peanut Butter Lives up to that standard.

The listing of ingredients is an astonishing number of 4, which goes hand in hand well with their “keeping it simple” philosophy. The ingredients listen on the label are as follows, Dry Roasted Blanched Peanuts, Sugar, Palm Oil, and Salt!

As soon as you pop open a jar of their creamy peanut butter you will notice that its texture is different than any other such as Skippy, the peanut butter, and Palm Oil have separated from each other and you will need to blend them back in together.

The Peanut Butter is very smooth and creamy to the point that it is extremely easy to spread. In the process you should take precautions not to spill as this can be done very easily with this peanutbutter, it does not have or retain “thinkness” to keep it in the jar, unless you refregirate it, wich will also help the Palm Oil and Penut Butter stay well blended!

As the taste test goes this peanutbutter was not as “sticky” as others, and it tasted very authentic to the Penut Butter taste, Very Creamy, and I would highly suggest refrigeration after blending, so that you have a thinker textured peanut butter.

These fresh and easy pastries read, “Our moist, home-style brownies are made with Belgian Chocolate and Dutch cocoa.”  along with the eye catching, No artificial preservatives, flavors or colors.

The wording on these says much, to make my mouth water, and not make me feel as bad about the snack I will consume. Keeping in mind that these brownies do contain roughly 310 calories each (80g or 2″x2″x1″ cube) and about 20% of my daily fat and cholesterol recommended daily intake. They do live up to my expectations in regards to taste.

The brownies are thick, rich and very chocolaty. be warned that they are very think and it would be best to have something to drink. I was not disappointed with my taste test, and it will definitely be one of my special treats for myself once in a while. It is very easy to over indulge with these brownies! Enjoy and keep moderation in mind!

I recall a while back when Fresh&Easy replaced Nestle Pure Life Water with their own store brand. At first I was skeptical about the possible quality of the water, but I soon acquired a taste from the very helpful and enthusiastic Kitchen Table staff.

The Water not only taste crisp, clean and refreshing as I took a great first drink, but as I drank my way to the bottom of the bottle, the water tasted very crisp and refreshing. The store I normally visit samples the larger one gallon version of the Fresh & Easy Pure Water with mint leaves and sliced lemons to add an even more refreshing taste. I frequently purchase a 24 pack for myself, as it is one of the lowest price’s in town for bottled water!

I have also recently been informed at a grand opening, that many of the new stores will be having a grand opening “offer” which might include 24 pack of water at an even lower price than normal! Which I think is phenomenal!

The water is Processed by;

Ozonation : Ozone(0₃) is an unstable gas comprising of three oxygen atoms, which will degrade into oxygen gas(0₂).Ozone has a greater disinfection effectiveness against bacteria and viruses without compromising scent and taste. (http://www.water-research.net/ozone.htm)

Reverse Osmosis: This process refers to the forcing of water through a membrane which prevents certain unwanted elements(dirt, particles ect.) to not pass. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_osmosis)

Fresh & Easy Pure Water is Bottled by Niagara Bottling, LLC