About once per month or so, Brian Henderson from BBQ Sauce Reviews is going to send us his top pick. Brian has an awesome website, and reviews a ton of sauce. We’re going to learn about the best of the best! Brian does a lot of cool contests and sauce giveaways so I really encourage you to add his site to your favorites.

This month, Brian recommended Draper’s BBQ Sauce.Brian has this to say to me, when he recommended their sauce:

You’ve got to highlight Drapers… a really tasty sauce.

Shane Draper has a good thing going.

Instead of providing the world with yet another traditional KC style BBQ sauce, he’s added a few unusual spices (at BBQ Sauce Reviews unusual is good).

What I mean is that there’s a few additional spices in the sauce that most people don’t normally get exposed to at the grocery store BBQ aisle.

This includes cinnamon, nutmeg, ___, and ___ (I asked but promised not to tell).

This gives the sauce a more festive flavor, one that reminds you of the holiday season with it’s spiced coffees, cakes, and beers. This mystery flavor combination is reason alone to give the sauce a shot.
I really like this category of sauce – the whole festive flavor reminds me of a Harpoon Winter Warmer beer – which reminds me of the holidays. When a sauce can conjure up a sentimental feeling of the holiday season but also transport you into the summer at the same time – it’s an amazing thing. Drapers Smokin’ Sauce delivers a best in class example of this category.

Brian

Please take a look at the full review here: Draper’s BBQ Sauce Review. Brian does a very thorough review and they are always enjoyable and informative.

If you’re looking for something different, consider Drapers.

Well, if you haven’t yet done so, go ahead and read my review of the Queen Creek Olive Mill. The QCOM is a great operation and a cool place to visit for sure. While roaming the place last week, I was delighted to find that the coffee counter tucked into the back corner is operated by a local roaster – Superstition Coffee.

These folks were friendly and knowledgeable and had the roaster fired up right there where you could watch the process. I drink about a pot of coffee per day which doesn’t make me an expert but certainly provided a good enough reason for me to grab a cup while there. I don’t like dishwater, and I don’t like tar – I guess I lean towards more dark, but certainly the dark side of a medium roast. Thus, I ordered a cup of their Superstition Blend.

Here is how they describe this blend on their website:

“This is a blend of Costa Rican El Indio Tarrazu and Sumatra Aceh Gold. This is a medium to slightly darker roast. Flavor profile is deep, rich, full body, complex flavor with a satisfying aroma and nice finish”

It’s important in this economy to support local businesses as much as we can and I hope if you like coffee, you’ll check out Superstition’s hand-roasted small batch coffees. You won’t be disappointed. You can learn more about their products or order online here: Superstition Coffee Product Info. This is a cool, family-run business; the entire Mohrweis Family is involved. Check them out – the Superstition Blend at least, gets a thumbs-up from me!

My wife’s sister and niece were in town from Maine, and we were wondering what to do. They were only going to be here a couple of days, and the only tourist attraction they had requested was the Phoenix Zoo. We live in Queen Creek, about 35 miles southeast of Phoenix.My wife and I had never been to the Queen Creek Olive Mill and it’s only 5 minutes away, so we figured “What the heck, let’s go!”. What a great decision!

First off, spring the 5 bucks for the Olive Oil 101 Tour. Our tour guide Laurie was funny, friendly and very knowledgeable. It is clear that the staff don’t just memorize a script – they enjoy this stuff and like sharing some pretty darned interesting facts about olives and how they are made into oil. You get to see the trees, the processing equipment and taste lots of samples as well.

A very interesting part of the experience was “olive oil shots”. We were skeptical, but glad we tried. We were able to taste the subtle differences between Meyer Lemon Olive Oil, Chocolate, White Truffle, Blood Orange and Mexican Lime, for example. Of course, Chocolate was a hit, but I’m partial to the lemon and orange flavors.

The Olive Mill also has a full-blown lunch counter as well as a gift shop and a coffee counter operated by the folks from Superstition Coffee. We didn’t eat lunch but the gelato, coffees and prickly pear lemonade were all spot-on. The store really is quite amazing. More types of olive oil than you could ever imagine. Tapenades that will make you drool, stuffed olives of a variety of flavors, olive oil skin care products – you name it.

Seriously, if you’re an Arizonan I encourage you to take a trip to the Olive Mill in the southeast valley. This makes for an awesome family outing, it makes a great day trip for your visiting friends and relatives too. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Finally, if you’re particular about your ingredients and olive oil in particular – consider using the fine products from the Olive Mill. You can shop online and they ship anywhere in the world.

Tummy rumbling now and need some ideas? The Queen Creek Olive Mill offers great free recipes as well!

Friends, customers, loyal readers – today my computer suffered a near-fatal virus. Long story short, I had to do a full restoral, re-setting it back to when it was new. I recovered most of my documents and photos but my e-mail was not so lucky. All of my folders are gone, and years of e-mail correspondence.

If you’re someone I have corresponded with in the past, I’d ask you to shoot me an e-mail using the “Contact” button at the top of the page. Thanks!

Thank you for visiting my site. I appreciate the support from readers, vendors and all who help me along in my endeavors. This video has some awesome footage.

Wishing all of you a healthy and prosperous 2012