NEAROF

Candies and chocolates that proudly proclaim themselves to be “no sugar added” intrigue me. Even though I’d had plenty of childhood run-ins with Sorbee hard candies from the neighbourhood health food store, I’d largely forgotten about the parallel world of sweets that avoid regular sugar in favour of alternative sweeteners (other than soda, that is). [...]

Tic Tacs are a strangely eccentric little candy. The signature compact boxes fit nicely in a purse (or man purse), and the flavours aren’t intense in the way other breath mints are. Pop a couple of Tic Tacs, and they’ll leave a nice taste in your mouth without leading others in the office elevator to [...]

Digestives are, to me, a quintessentially British invention. They’re sort of a scratchy hybrid of cookie and cracker often sold at U.K. import shops, and they typically pair well with a lovely cuppa tea. London Drugs continues to confuse and delight me. Their food section feels so beautifully random: an assortment of household basics with [...]

These three chocolate bars were all gifted to NEAROF! by my dad, who bought them during a trip to Seattle. All look to be delicious, flavourful treats, yet all are hard to find in this corner of Canada. Trying exotic foodstuffs with limited availability can be fraught with mental anguish. If you don’t like the [...]

My first experience with a Skinny Cow product was their tiny little frozen dessert single-serve cups, and it was downright terrible. With the first spoonful, I instantly regretted picking it over the tiny tubs of Häagen-Dazs in the same cooler. In the quest to find decent calorie-reduced treats, there are successes and there are failures; [...]

I don’t like taking pills. Never have, and I doubt I ever will. As a kid, chewable Flintstones vitamins were the solution to the vitamin problem; they tasted funny, but I didn’t mind. At least I didn’t have to down them with a glass of water. I’m not sure how old I was when I [...]

Is there anything they won’t milk? In the past couple years, I’ve sipped cow milk, almond milk, rice milk, soy milk … and those are just the milks I remember. But quinoa milk? This was new to me. If you read much about food, you’ll know there’s currently a love-in surrounding quinoa – the latest [...]

I’m not sure how common these are outside of Alberta, but in the past few months, I’ve seen a couple new growler bars freshly installed at liquor stores in this province. I found one at the massive new Wine and Beyond liquor store in south Edmonton last fall, and the newly renovated Liquor Depot in [...]