Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Taste testing with K

I came home from the grocery and a mall stopover to find a full yahoo messenger board open. So many people online, but not everyone is a prime candidate for a late afternoon chat. I also had a box of something new and wanted to share the "experience" with someone I knew would appreciate it. So I clicked on K, who we keep pestering to open her own blog, even as another blogger put, a blog of comments about other people's blogs.

Instead of retyping the entire dialogue, here is the discussion sans some irrelevant stuff or two:

(I had texted her that I saw the new product options of cupcakes at Gonuts Donuts, and she had expected to hear back what they were like)

Me: i have 6 cupcakes/i will photo and taste throughout the day/we sure need to organize a tasting day for cupcakes
K: Yay! Live, real-time report!
Me: ok, lesssee now, which little cupcake is going to be eaten first...
K: What are the 6 flavors? I like to go from mild to sweet.
Me: they all look sweet/frosted
ok, here's the list
i have the danish buttercake (basic, no frosting)
mexican mocha
dulce de leche
chiffon rosette
chocolate peanut butter
strawberry shortcake
do you want the descriptions per the Gonuts cupcake handbook?
K: Oohhhh... Are those all 6 flavors, or do they have even more?
Me: There are a total of 16 choices in all
K: They have a handbook? Whoa! 16!!!
Me: most of them look like they have a butter/chiffon base or a chocolate base
And since they are sold in individuals (P35), pack of 3, pack of 6 and pack of 12, there is a nice holder in the box so you don't get mushed cupcakes. not quite magnolia bakery style of frosting
ok, here's my first bite into the danish buttercream, described as sugar crystals over buttercake (ie taisan? hehehe)
K: So was it more like Taisan light, or Vargas butter cake havy, or like pound cake?
Me: Taisan light with the mild crunch from the sugar crystals
K: Like those butter cookies with sugar on top!
Me: yes, but no coconut aroma
chocolate pb: moist cake, the pb is all in the frosting/not a bad combination, although the pb too sweet
not enough chocolate to counter the pb
ok, mexican mocha: again, same cake base, all the flavor is in the frosting
sort of the like the mocha frosting of goldilocks ; not a bad thing, just not infused into the cake
of course that's why it's so darn cheap
K: Oh...but I like that frosting! I wish P----'s Brown Derby had the Goldilocks frosting.
Me: strawberry shortcake: sniff, i smell strawberry essence and i'm about a foot away from it
i bite and see - strawberry jam!
too sweet, but a good option for pink afficionados; would be perfect for a girl's bday, or a drag queen that I know....
K: LOL, we are too funny, doing this live, virtual tasting!
Me: chiffon rosette. Other than the pink rose decor, nothing to really crow about. ok, am on the last cake. feeling full actually
i've only been taking small slices of these things but am already feeling the effects.
so far, the cakes have been moist, and the flavors ok. More commercial than the homemade stuff, but not a bad deal for P35
K: How big are they, compared to S----'s?
Me: they're about the same size. Am disappointed with dulce de leche. description is custard filled chocolate cake topped with white chocolate. first custard is not really perceptible, and this ain't no white chocolate!!!! it's marshmallow cream with a fancy caramel topping
K: Hmm...there's no dulce de leche in that description. Custard isn't the same thing.
M: so other than the misnomer on that last one, the cupcakes rate a 3.5 out of 5. Points for price, accessibility (assuming theyre availalbe in all gonuts), packing for ease of transport, and having 16 kinds to choose from. flavors aren't that intense, but then pinoys veer towards sweet, not subtle.
K: I like intensity AND sweetness. Strong flavors always do it for me. Would you buy them again?
Me: If I had any, i might want to top the first one (the buttercake) with mm's kalamansi marmalade. I think i will only buy them for myself if I am desperate for a sugar rush and don't want to buy a slice of cake, but probably not in the immediate future. This taste test was enough.

Thanks K! and hopefully you'll see her on her own page, same blogtime same blogchannel!

8 comments:

Socky said...

This is cool! How about a video cast of a taste test, a la Gary Vaynerchuk?

Katrina said...

Hehehe...it's like we had our own "Table for Two," except that only one of us could taste the food! There's a game show idea here... ;-)

ChichaJo said...

Thanks for the full report Mila! And K for all the opinions and feedback...yes, definitely a game show idea in the works! Haha!

Lori's post on Sonja's and now this has put me in a cupcake frame of mind...my favorite has always been those chocolate cupcakes in Pasteleria in San Antonio...that is an ultimate "taste of childhood" for me :) Do those cupcakes still exist?

Watergirl said...

Hahaha, PODCAST!

Or a Japanese game show (er, I have a low threshold of pain!)

Joey, i haven't seen cupcakes at Pasteleria. Canonigo, choc cake, but no cupcakes.

ChichaJo said...

They used to be there when I was a kid...sigh...

christine said...

Ok that was GREAT! haha. It was like a news anchor and a field reporter discussing cupcakes. You just might be on to something here! :)

P said...

Hey there, K&M! I just realized how low-maintenance I can be when it comes to dessert - the mention of taisan, shortly followed by vargas butter cake, made my heart skip a beat. It doesn't help that I'm doing a cleanse now - no sugar or flour, among other things. But butter cake/taisan totally works for me. (And where did I recently read something about rum cake being a pinoy fave, albeit an 80s thing? Can't recall but I also relish rum cake memories) Loved this post, very engaging. Catch you later!

Watergirl said...

Hey poch, good to see you too, although a no sugar cleanse is too high a hurdle for me. I feel for you! I think the mention of rum cake was in Lori's recent post about cupcakes.

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