Artisan Foods

Fever Tree sodas, Ginger Beer & Bitter Lemon /

Fentimans soda, 6 flavors including new Dandelion & Burdock

Confused? Not the semi-deciduous tree, that grows to about 2o meters tall and has a light, lime-green bark. Not that Fever Tree!

We’re excited about two soft drinks or mixers from Fever Tree. Drink them alone or mix them in cocktails. They’re pure & not overly sweet.

The new Fentimans Dandelion & Burdock, with dandy leaves and burdock root, is a slightly fermented (0.05% alcohol content) drink tasting of a hint of cherry…like a more adult Dr. Pepper…earthy & sweet, at the same time. (Alert: we carry six flavors of Fentimans!)

Don’t wait for that persistent offshore flow to reach us in five months! Try these now, in the shade of a shady day, in the darkness of our rain storms.  They’ll burst through like – cliche!  - sunshine.

Just buy ‘em.

Stirs the Soul raw chocolate bars & covered fruit

What’s another chocolate bar? What’s another bag of fruit-covered chocolate?

Chocolate maker Daren Hayes, a graduate of the Oregon Culinary Institute, stone grinds and slowly tempers the chocolate. The cacao beans themselves – high in magnesium and antioxidants – are from the finest wildcrafted and organic beans – shade-grown with tropical native plants to sustain the ecosystem.

Bananas, Figs & Currants is a recipe of moist, chewy organic fruit dipped in luscious date-sweetened dark raw cacao.

The scrumptious chocolate bars are sweetened with dates or with coconut palm sugar.  Each bar has its specific spice-to-sweet ratio, and own smooth & delicious character.

Rancho Gordo Heirloom Beans / Prepared Hominy (Posole)

The story is this: Steve Sando opened his heirloom bean shop in Napa Valley  after being fed up with using produce from thousands of miles away, or even overseas. So on the subject of beans – instead of general dried beans, what about connecting with the farmers in Mexico and  importing heirloom beans, paying the farmers a fair wage to support their living? And that’s what Steve did.

What’s the big deal – beans in a bag? I could get dried pinto beans from the bin for far less money, you’re thinking. Oh, you could. But the taste would be inferior to Rancho Gordo’s New World beans! Once you eat heirloom beans, your life will have turned upside-down. You’ll eat these beans for the rest of your life.

And we haven’t even gotten to hominy (posole) yet! Posole – a staple in many Mexican stews, sides & main dishes. If you’re thinking that this is tasteless, mushy hominy from the 1950s that your mother had to eat at the dinner table, well – don’t think that. It’s glorious, delicious, tasty dried corn!

You can visit the store in Napa. You can go to the Ferry Building in the city. Or you can stop at Other Avenues – where we have a small selection in our grocery aisle. Ask us – we’ll trot you over to the Rancho Gordo subsection.

Fentimans Old Time Sodas, $2.09 each (choose from 6 flavors)

Stimulating and slightly fermented – with sugar and yeast, there’s less than 0.5% alcohol.  Each brew offers a different and exciting botanical recipe. For example, the delicately invigorating Rose Lemonade has rose extracts from Bulgaria.

Ask us where these sodas live.  We’ll show you, and chat about our favorite flavors. All? It’s hard to decide!