Do you ever try something new and it's either so great or so terrible that you just have to share? Are you looking for tips on new goodies to try? Do you have a strange fascination with reading other folks' opinions on hearth & home-related products?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above, this is the thread for you! :D

(( reserve for future thingers ))

Hi guys! So, the product that's burning my mind today is this "Sipping Chocolate" from Trader Joe's. It's a powdered drink mix.

I got some on a whim yesterday supposing it would be too sweet for me & that it'd just wind up being devoured by the kids. But I ACTUALLY LIKE IT. It's not too sweet.. in fact it's barely sweet at all. It's not "creamy" (I made mine with water rather than milk, mind you) but rather really tastes like chocolate. It's really good!

I'm probably going to go back and grab a couple more tins as it's one of their seasonal items and won't be around after the holidays.

Has anyone else tried anything noteworthy lately, for good or ill? :)

Ohhh I love the idea for this thread! *wonders if the inspiration came from the beauty boxes*

Is this just the food stuffs that we are reviewing, or just anything home related? I'll have to keep it in mind to pop in and post on my experiences. I'm trying hard to think of anything new home related I've tried recently. I think I'm drawing up blanks.

It can be anything. :) And I think the beauty boxes thread did inspire me! I figured it would be nice to have somewhere to ramble about things like this without having to totally derail a thread.

What I'm really needing to find now is something that actually gets rid of hard water stains. On my third lame cleaning product and there's still water droplet ghosts all over my shower.

Cool! I'll have to keep my eyes peeled. I love giving mini-reviews, and I love trying new things. :3

For the hard water stains I initially thought of CLR...it's an all pupose heavy duty cleaner, and my husband has literally cleaned a coffee pot with it. (I personally don't like the thought of using something like that for something you prepare food or drink in...though.) I know up in my state our water is really hard, and we have horrible limescale deposits on everything. Is it like a mineral deposit you're cleaning up, or what is it exactly? O_o;

You know speaking of cleaners...I've always wanted to try an all natural general purpose cleaner. I've tried Meijer brand and Lysol...I want to go to something a little more eco friendly and smells good. I don't know if you have one you'd recommend? (BTW the Meijer one smells HORRIBLE -- after a couple years of collecting dust in my cupboard I finally dumped it...It was nasty, and the spray nozzle was cheap and broke.)

In what ways did you find the sipping chocolate to be different from standard hot chocolate?


At work we use this glass cleaner called Gleme to clean the doughnut and bagel cases (omg, we have tissues there for you to grab the doughnuts with - don't grab them with your gross fingers and then smear doughnut glaze all over the glass doors! Come on! ) and I'm in love with it. It cleans really easily, without much scrubbing, doesn't streak, and it smells very nice. From what I saw when I looked it up online, it's just a foamy type of alcohol, no creepy chemicals (I mean, it's been approved for us to use in cases that hold food, so). The only downfall is that if you leave the glass really wet, it will leave spots. You need to wipe it until it's not so wet anymore. But the spots disappear with another quick wipe or two. Also, it doesn't seem like you can find it in stores. I guess it's mostly just sold to businesses, but I found it on Amazon and such. Considering buying myself some. Cleaning my mirrors with vinegar is just getting tiring (and smelly).

@Izumi - It's not limescale exactly (at least not what I think of as limescale, which is thick and chalky deposits - though we do get that stuff too.) Just water droplets that have dried and left remains behind forever. The shower is like a box with glass/plexiglass walls & no matter how "clean" I get it, it still looks dirty because of those darn things. I'll take a pic after I make dinner if I remember.

@Cherry - it's thinner, doesn't have that 'powdered milk' texture/flavor that hot cocoa mixes have, tastes more like a quality baking chocolate than the sweet cheap-chocolate-candy flavor of most hot chocolates.

Sounds delicious! I'd be interested to know how it is prepared with milk. I'm all about creaminess. If you try some with milk, do let me know how that goes!

i got a sample of eye drops i have yet to try
the little bottle is teal and cute
i hope the drops help
=)

i love trader joes!

I'm wondering if I should split into my own little thread or not...I just got a huge handful of health food products and samples that I'm slowly making my way through. I'm thinking about blogging my impressions and what the ingredients in each are supposedly good for. I'm starting a new job working for customer support for a vitamin company...and I had to do an internship yesterday. They loaded me up with all kinds of samples to try. Everything from protein powders to a couple of beauty samples. I'm super excited to try, and using this as a learning experience. :3

I don't know if anything I have I'll be shouting over the moon about, but I bet there's got to be some health nuts in mene that might get a kick out of my findings. :3

I say do it! I'll def read it. :)

Congrats on the new job, that sounds like a sweet perk that's right up your alley!

Well I went ahead and split it off into it's own separate thread, as I thought it may make it more organized...since it's kind of a health/fitness kinda thing?...I'm assuming you're more about house products, foods, etc? I mean it would work either way but I broke it off thinking it may make it less cluttered. The link is here:

http://www.menewsha.com/forum/lifest...ation-etc.html

I'm just keeping to a vitamins/supplements theme...maybe other things you'd find in a health food store.

I'm really enjoying everything thus far, and really looking forward to working here long term. Just hoping I can keep the samples flowing in. I loooove my samples!

I got some is this hot chocolate from Ebay, I was intrigued to know how different Spanish in from British.

Turns out it goes super thick. I had to eat it with a spoon As I was making it I tasted it and I was afraid, like Belly, that it would be very sweet, but it tasted good. Not especially different to regular hot chocolate, but the thickness made it a different experience to that.

This is what the Spanish dip churros into (I'd really like to try those one day!). It really felt rather decedent, spooning up this lovely thick, satiny-smooth drink, was very comforting, way more so than drinking normal hot chocolate to be honest. You'd be able to create your own pretty easily, the ingredients show that it's thinkened with cornflour, would just take some experimenting to find out how much to use. I want to get some more, but like any import it's expensive.

Ooh, I might put it on my Christmas list, maybe Santa will buy me some =3

More nice drinkies!

Got some of this in my delivery from Tesco's today!

It's yum! Juru sent me a tub of chai mix a few years back, I'd not seen it over here, but it's about more now. I treated myself to this tub, and am going to have to limit myself to how much I have, or I'll drink it all in less than a week

What I like about this is it says 3 teaspoons, and that was enough for a mugful. It's a fine powder that doesn't make huge heaped spoonfuls either, so you're not using too much. So often you need 4 or 5 spoons to make a powdered drink tasty so it's used up in next to no time, so I'm feeling less guilt than I might have otherwise for trying this.

That Spanish hot chocolate sounds so delicious.

I looove chai lattes. I see the powdered mixes here too, but they're so ridiculously high in fats and such that I won't let myself buy them. I know they'll be delicious, but at what cost? I don't know, maybe I'll give in. It's not like I'm not stuffing myself with sweets as it is.

I'm going to drink it more as an occasional treat, I'm good about not eating much sweet stuff, so I'll allow myself the odd indulgence, and as the weather gets colder, more naughty hot drinks definitely rise in appeal!

I've been drinking a lot of Traditional Medicinal's Throat Coat tea:
Herbal Tea | Organic Throat Coat Tea | Traditional Medicinals

I have been an advocate for this for a few years now. Working on the phones with a scratchy, sore throat sucks! This has something in it that really helps sooth the irritation (at least in my personal experience) and makes it that much easier to get through work when my throat is feeling irritated.

It's funny as another colleague of mine heard I had a cold and she actually recommended it to me, swore by it.

The company does a medley pack with a couple of their other teas good for a cold. I just ran out of the other teas. I may need to pick up another box. Those I don't see the same instant effect as the throat coat, but they're suppose to be good for helping support a healthy immune system.

Herbal Tea | Seasonal Sampler Teas | Traditional Medicinals

I will warn you that Throat Coat has Licorice Root in it, so if you're not big on that taste you will not like it much...that being said I am not a big licorice fan and I will still take this as it feels so good on my throat.

---------- Post added 11-27-2013 at 10:51 AM ----------

I just thought I'd throw that in as it is kind of on the fence with it being a supplement and/or drink. They taste good even if you don't have a cold...Well maybe that's subjective...

I love Traditional Medicinals teas! Except for the nettle leaf.. that stuff is slimy.