When Joe Fee was in town earlier this year for the first San Antonio Cocktail Conference, the topic of conversation naturally turned to bitters. His family’s company, Fee Brothers, has been making bitters for four generations. In recent years, a number of flavored variations hit the market — mint, grapefruit, peach — and they’re all good. But the one version not to miss is rhubarb, which the label describes as follows: “Using flavors available in 1800s America, Fee Brothers developed Rhubarb Bitters for that authentic historical taste.”

The aroma harkens back to the past with a pleasant floral quality mixed with a strong sense of both cherry candy and maraschino cherries. Tart, delicious rhubarb mixed with bitter spices come in when you taste the bitters alone. Both fragrance and flavor suggest it would be great with bourbon or rye in cocktails as well as gin and even tequila. I tried it in a variation of the classic Old Fashioned called the Old Smashioned, which featured blackberries and a touch of orange flavor (see recipe below).

Don’t stop with the cocktails, though. Bitters add a welcome complexity to cooking as well. I tried the rhubarb bitters in a marinade for squash before throwing them on the grill. I could also see adding a dash or two to a vinaigrette to give it some life.

Just remember, when you use bitters, try a dash first and then build up to your desired flavor level. They are strong, and too much can be overwhelming.

Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitters can be found at Twin Liquors on U.S. 281 south of Bitters Road. The price is $5.99. All bitters should keep for as long as you own the bottle.

The Old Smashioned

The Old Smashioned

1-2 drops orange blossom water
3-4 blackberries, to taste
Bourbon
1-3 dashes Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitters
1/2 teaspoon agave nectar, or more to taste
Mint

Rinse your cocktail glass with a drop or two of orange blossom water.

In a cocktail shaker, muddle blackberries. Add bourbon to taste, a dash of rhubarb bitters and the agave nectar with ice. Shake and pour into glass (you can strain the berry seeds, if you choose). Add more rhubarb bitters to taste. Garnish with a sprig of mint.

Makes 1 cocktail.

Adapted from tastespotting.com

In the days before cupcakes upstaged cakes, red velvet cake was different from what it is now. It used to be a cake with a great layer of cocoa powder adding depth of flavor beneath all that red dye, and the frosting was meant to complement the cake, not upstage it. Back then, my mom even frosted hers with a seven-minute icing, coated in coconut, instead of cream cheese frosting.

Nowadays, the cocoa has disappeared, and, thanks to cupcakes, it’s more about the inches of cream cheese frosting on top than anything else.

So, when I first saw that Ben & Jerry’s introduced Red Velvet Cake ice cream, I never questioned whether I would buy it. The pint just jumped into my shopping basket.

But the question was, which style of red velvet cake would it be? Unfortunately, the answer was the latter. In fact, the supersweet ice cream was more about the cream cheese frosting, which was presented with a cheesecake flavor. It also featured bits of a cocoa-free cake batter, but the cake wasn’t the focus.

Yet, even if this ice cream didn’t match my preferred style of red velvet cake, I was won over to it after just a couple of spoonfuls. And that means whenever I want red velvet cake, I’ll make Mom’s old-fashioned recipe. But if I want a quick hit, I’ll take Ben & Jerry’s ice cream version over a modern cupcake version any time.

The price was $3.50 a pint at H-E-B.

Stacy's Simply Cocoa

Just in time for Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day both comes Stacy’s Simply Cocoa Pita Chips, a limited-time-only flavor.

As lovers of pita chips already know, Stacy’s makes some of the best pita chips on the market. But the best have always been the Simply Naked chips, those without flavor, while the others, such as Parmesan Garlic and Herb, can taste a little less than natural.

So, what besides cocoa is in these chips? That’s what I wanted to know before trying them — or any other new product. The list includes, in order, enriched wheat flour, oil, sugar, organic cane sugar, cocoa powder, semi-sweet chocolate, sea salt, and and a few other ingredients that you can pronounce.

What does that mean when you taste it? It means that you get a good hit of cocoa, sweet and wheat with a nice dose of salt for balance.

These could be addictive. Think of an adult version of a chocolate cereal. You could probably even add milk or spread Nutella on it.

Just don’t eat more than seven of them. Otherwise, you’ll be consuming more than one serving, which means too many carbs or calories. And you’ll love every moment of it.

A 7 1/3-ounce bag sells for about $1.99 at Sprouts.

Cream is a new product that feels like it should have been around for quite some time now: Alcohol and aerosol whipped cream combined.

That’s right, you’ve got the perfect topper for an Irish coffee in can. Or any mixed drink of your choice. Or on ice cream. Or orange poke cake. Or wherever your mind takes you.

It comes in six flavors: chocolate, cherry, raspberry, orange, caramel and vanilla.

I tried the chocolate version on the recommendation of a clerk at WB Liquors & Wine, 9801 I-10 W. I enjoyed the chocolate flavor and the ease of use. Then I took it to a party and watched people really enjoy it with everything from fruit to coffee. One woman even gave herself a shot in the mouth she liked it so much.

And who can resist a product with the tagline, “Get whipped”?

The can costs $12.99.

Whatever you do, don’t refrigerate the can, the checkout clerk told me. And that warning is written all over the can, too.

Here are a few ideas from the Cream website to help you get started. All are great without the Chocolate Cream, but each is made better with it.

Chocolate Monk

1/3 part Frangelico hazelnut liqueur
1/3 part Kahlua or other coffee liqueur
1/3 part Bailey’s Irish Cream
Chocolate Cream

Shake the liqueurs with ice. Pour into a chilled martini glass. Top with Chocolate Cream.

From Cream

Chocolate Milk

1/2 shot milk
1/2 shot Droste or other chocolate liqueur
1 dash amaretto almond liqueur
Chocolate Cream

Put the milk in the bottom of a shot glass, pour the liqueur on top and add the dash of amaretto. Do not mix. Top With Chocolate Cream.

From Cream

Peppermint Perth

Hot chocolate
1 ounce Rumple Minze
1/2 ounce white chocolate liqueur
Chocolate Cream
Shaved chocolate
Cocoa powder

Fill a mug with hot chocolate and the liquors. Top with Chocolate Cream and shaved chocolate, then sprinkle with cocoa powder.

From Cream

Oprah favors Graeter’s Ice Cream as does Bobby Flay, we’re told. So, SavorSA ice cream enthusiasts decided to try it for ourselves.

After careful sampling, our response was: very good. And please give us more.

Graeter's Ice Cream now at H-E-B stores. There are 24 pint flavors and 5 rotating seasonal flavors.

Back in the 1800s the Graeter family pioneered the French Pot process of making only two gallons at a time with all-natural ingredients like heavy cream and pure cane sugar, according to the labels.

As the company press material rightly states, the result is a “dense, creamy texture and massive chocolate chips.” Look for regular and seasonal flavors (which rotate throughout the year.)

I agree with all of the above, and will add that the flavors are more intense without tasting artificial and without leaving any heavy, sugary aftertaste. In fact, though the ice cream was sweet enough, I didn’t find that I had to race off for a glass of water right after eating it.

The chips: The Graeter’s chocolate chips, which we had in the Mocha Chocolate Chip, Mint Chocolate Chip and the Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip (our favorite) were more like broken up, good-quality dark chocolate candy bars. No waxy taste. No searching your palate for something that really did taste like chocolate.

The Vanilla flavor was excellent, and Strawberry was also really good, offering up the occasional frozen strawberry. The Butter Pecan was the best example of that flavor that I’ve had in a long time.

Give Graeter’s a try. We went to a regular H-E-B to be sure they were in stock (they were) and to check on the price. At our store they were marked down from $5 a pint to $4.50. And, we discovered what we’ll try next —the Coconut Chocolate Chip.

Featured photograph by Bonnie Walker

If you don’t have special wine glasses or friends who have invested a small fortune in the same, you may want to skip this post.

But if you have plunked down a chunk of change on some really good glasses, you know that putting them in the dishwasher can cause spots that don’t easily wash away. Plus, the stems on some are just too fragile for some machines.

That means the thrill of having fine wine glasses brings the chore of having to wash and dry them by hand. That, too, can be a slight problem because of how thin the bowls can be.

That’s where The Original Dish Drying Gloves come in. Slide your hands in and slip them into the bowl of the glass and you’ll be surprised at how quickly the glass is dried, and without any fingerprints or smudges.

The secret is supposedly the absorbency of the material used, which the manufacturer, Schroeder & Tremayne, says can hold three times its weight in water. How many glasses that would be I haven’t a guess, but in a few tests, I’ve been pleased at how quickly and thoroughly I’ve been able to dry my glasses. I haven’t tried them on other dishes yet. I may just grab another pair for that.

Caring for them is easy. Just wash them separately in cold water. And I love anything that bears the words: “Do not iron.” (Not that I would iron dish towels.)

Pay attention to a few other words on the label, too: “The Original Dish Drying Gloves should not be used as a potholder or oven mitt.”

The gloves sell for $9.50 a pair at the Boerne Wine Company, 302 S. Main St., Boerne. Call (830) 331-9424.

Why go to all this trouble, you ask? Because top wine glasses are engineered to showcase wine at their best. And if you’re going to drink great wine, you should be drinking it from a great (and spot-free) wine glass.

Izze fruit sodas in slim cans and cool flavors.

These fruity little sodas are better described as “cool” than hot. Friends tell us they’ve been around for years. But, Izze Sparkling Fruit Beverages are new to us, discovered this weekend at Costco.

For about 50 cents per 8.4 fl. oz. can, you get carbohydrates, yes, but the flavors of sparkling clementine, blackberry and apple are distinct, and the sugar all comes from fruit juice. (Contents are 70 percent fruit juices.) Each contains 90 calories, but they have been fortified with vitamin C, B6 and niacin.

We bought a flat of them (24 cans) and stashed them in the fridge. We don’t drink sodas, or even keep them around the house, so we’re breaking a house rule. The heat finally got to us. But, as an occasional option to ice water, iced tea and beer —we like them!

Wasabi Pepper and Salt

Do you love the flavor of wasabi but find it just a little too hot? Then you may want to try Wasabi Pepper and Salt, an Asian seasoning blend from Caravelle that can be found at Tim’s Oriental Food Market, 7015 Bandera Road.

The combination of wasabi powder, pepper and salt with a touch of monosodium glutamate gives dishes a richer mouthfeel as well as a minor kick without setting your taste buds on fire. Use it on meat before grilling, use it in a mixture of tossed sautéed vegetables or use it in place of salt and pepper on already prepared food.

My favorite has been on grilled pattypan squash that has been brushed with olive oil. It has also been good on just-seared tuna and fried calamari.

The cost is about $2.99 a bottle.

A deep-fried Twinkie with a deep-fried Oreo on the side.

At Big Bob’s Burgers, 2215 Harry Wurzbach, the stars have always been the flame-broiled burgers and the fries. But there’s a new item on the menu that is gaining in popularity: deep-fried Twinkies.

Owner Robert Riddle and his staff dunk the cream-filled confection in funnel cake batter, then fry it until golden brown. The final version is served on a stick, fot from the fryer, with a dusting of powdered sugar on top.

But why stop there? A deep-fried Oreo, also topped with powdered sugar, appears on the side along with a chocolate syrup dipping sauce.

The dessert sells for $1.95, and it seems to speak to something deep inside people, because it has proven to be a big hit.

Big Bob’s sells more than 200 a week, Riddle says, adding that one customer came in last weekend and picked up 10 orders to go.

For more information, click here.

Das Lolli lollipops

Looking for a candy that’s corn syrup-free yet full of flavor?

Keep an eye our for Das Lolli lollipops, which come in several unique flavors, such as Maple Bacon, Naughty Ginger, Fab-O-Pom and Caramel Me Happy. The flavors mean these treats are more likely to appeal to adults, than youngsters.

Naughty Ginger proved to be quick favorite, if only because the ginger had a strong, cleansing burn that was well-matched with the sweet-tart of added lemon flavor. It’s made with sugar, rice syrup, citric acid, crystallized ginger pieces, citric acid, lemon oil and natural ginger extract, according to Das Food’s website.

Caramel Me Happy promised to be a salty caramel, but it was more sweet than salty, though the caramel flavor was exceedingly rich. Fab-O-Pom is a combination of orange and pomegranate, and it made the mouth pucker in delight. If the Maple Bacon was the least of the four treasures, it was because the flavor was more maple and smoke than anything remotely porky, even though the ingredient list includes both bacon bits and natural bacon flavor.(That’s right, this is not a vegetarian lollipop.)

The lollipops sell for about 50 cents apiece at Central Market.

Sweetriot chocolates

Sweetriot is a chocolate pick-me-up that packs more flavor than you could imagine in each tiny “peace” (the owners are hippies, the company’s website says, so they can spell however they choose). This is, after all, “all-natural, anti-oxidant-rich, dairy-free, kosher, gluten-free cacao with a mission.”

That mission is to give your mouth great flavor while giving your body better health, all in a recyclable container filled with equitably sourced chocolate from Latin America.

That’s all well and good, but how does it taste? Super. I bought the 100 percent dark cacao nibs dunked in 70 percent dark chocolate with espresso, and one or two candy kernels explode in the mouth with a burst of intense chocolate flavor. And the lingering aftertaste means you won’t have to keep popping more in your mouth every few seconds.

No corn syrup here, either. At least I don’t think so. The label says they are made from “cacao mass, sugar, cacao beans, cacao butter, soy lecithin, natural vanilla, natural coffee flavor, glaze and lovin’.” I’ve never seen a harvest of “lovin’” before, so I’m not quite sure how much is needed per tin, and I’ll have to trust them on the glaze.

The candies come in tiny tins that won’t take up much room in pocket or purse. The price is $3.99 a tin at Central Market.