World Market's Cinnamon French Toast

It's Sunday, so it's time for a post about coffee I've recently consumed.

Summer mornings are perfect for drinking coffee outside.
It's okay to not have the willpower to make it across the yard.

WORLD MARKET COFFEE: CINNAMON FRENCH TOAST

This is another one of those flavored coffee blends that surprised, because the aroma of the pre-ground beans doesn't quite line up with the resulting brew.

When first opened, the coffee in the package presented a strong and unmistakable scent of maple syrup, which, was indeed a flavor mentioned on the package: "Warm cinnamon and premium maple syrup blended with sweet buttery notes." Given how strong cinnamon often comes through in flavored coffee blends, I assumed that it would be detectable as soon as I got ready to pour coffee in basket for brewing. Since it wasn't, part of me began to think that maybe they'd missed the mark and that the coffee wouldn't deliver on the complex mix of flavors promised. I fully expected this to taste like someone had poured maple syrup in my coffee.

(As a sidenote, I don't know for sure whether the foundation of this blend is a light-roast or medium-roast, as the package didn't say. Based on the look of the grounds and the taste of the resulting brew, I am guessing it's a medium-roast.)

As the Cinnamon French Toast blend brewed, there was no detectable aroma other than coffee. When I poured the first cup, a non-definable sweet scent met my nose, mixed in with that of coffee. When I took my first sip of this blend black, I was surprised by the fact that it didn't taste like someone had poured maple syrup in my coffee... it tasted like someone had dissolved some French Toast in the coffee pot when I wasn't looking.

The flavors of this coffee were 100 percent on point! The cinnamon is there, the maple syrup is there, even a hint of buttery, egg-soaked bread can be detected. The flavors are mild but still very much present and they blend delightfully with a great-tasting coffee to the point where I could have finished a whole cup without adding any milk or creamer. (I only had a 2-oz. sample pack, so I didn't...)

Another great thing about this blend is that the flavors remained constant as I put the blend through my usual tests--mixing it with Unsweetened Almond Milk, then Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, and ultimately sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer. All the flavors blended nicely with the basic french-toastiness, adding a varying degree of sweetness to the blend, but not causing the initial flavors to shift or alter too much. This was also a little surprising to me, given how mellow the flavors of this blend are. Surprising in a very good way.

World Market's Cinnamon French Toast blend was as tasty at room temperature as it was hot. I preferred it with the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, but all of the ways I consumed it were highly enjoyable luke-warm. 

When consumed iced, the mellowness of the flavors worked against this blend. When I tried it black, it tasted like a slightly sweetened iced coffee with a hint of cinnamon. It wasn't unpleasant, just bland. I didn't try it iced with the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, but with both the vanilla and plain unsweetened almond milks, any flavors but the coffee and the milk were washed out. At least the flavor didn't turn salty as happens with many flavored coffees when they are chilled and iced.

The Cinnamon French Toast blend is considered a seasonal, Christmas offering by World Market. As a result, this blend is only available as I post this in the World Market Holiday Sampler which features five different 2-oz. packs of Christmas-themed coffees. Perhaps it's another hole in my understanding of American culture, but I don't see how cinnamon or french toast are in any way Christmas-related. If you ask me, this blend would make a perfect breakfast coffee any day of the year. I recommend keeping an eye out for it come November or thereabouts when it undoubtedly makes a return to retail outlets.

It's a Fantastic Friday with She-Hulk

During John Byrne's excellent run on "Fantastic Four" during the 1980s and 1990s, She-Hulk joined the team (covering first for the Invisible Woman's leave of absence, than the Thing's). Today, we bring you few illustrations in memory of those days (and in celebration of the new show on Disney Plus, "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law").

 

 

An Out-of-the-Inkwell Origin Tale

The Ouija Board (1920)
Starring: Max Fleischer and Anonymous Fleischer Studio Employees

Director: Max Fleischer

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

While studio staff members play with a Quija Board, the Animator (Fleischer) draws a haunted house from which the ghostly inhabitants emerge and strike fear in the heart of KoKo the Clown.

 "The Ouija Board" is an early entry in the Out of the Inkwell, a series that merged animation and live-action footage to create situations where our world and the cartoonworld collided in more or less surreal (but always chaotic) ways. Fleischer and his team were clearly still finding their footing with the technology, as the interaction between the animated characters and the live-action footage is minimal, and the rotoscoping of an actor (Dave Fleischer, most likely) that forms the foundation for Koko is more obvious and hamfisted than in future installments.

Although this is by no means the best of the Out of the Inkwell series, it's still lots of fun. The variety of ghosts that emerge from the haunted house have got to be the most diverse group of spooks to ever appear together in a single animated film. Despite Koko's terror and aggression toward them, they are also among the nicest--they even cook him breakfast at one point.

I also found this to be a fun installment in the series because it triggered a thought in my head that may or may not have been the intention of the creators: This was the first time that Koko left his two-dimensional world and entered the three-dimensional one... and it was triggered by the magic (or the curse) of the Ouiji Board the staff members were playing with. This may not have been the first in the series by release date, but in my personal Koko Canon, it's the first time the Animator and his staff encountered living cartoon characters. (Watch their surprise when they spot Koko... and compare it to later episodes where it's commonplace for him to run wild in the studio.)

Maybe someday, I'll do a post with a "suggested viewing order" to tell the complete, epic tale of Koko and the Animator. After all, the entire world is destroyed in one of them, so now I have a beginning and end to the saga.

The overall weakness of "The Ouija Board" can be taken as perhaps the clearest example of my repeated assertions that Walt Disney's Alice in Cartoonland (aka The Alice Comedies) series is an inferior and borderline inept attempt at capturing the magic Fleischer created in Out of the Inkwell. I encourage you to watch the cartoon embedded below, and then click on the link in this paragraph and pick any of the Alice cartoons you'll find there. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who agrees or disagrees with my assessment.

Meet Jennifer 'She-Hulk' Walters!

Tatiana Maslany, best known for playing several roles (because her character is one of many clones that are running wild) on the "Orphan Black" sci-fi series, has joined the Marvel Galaxy of Stars as She-Hulk! 

Maslany is starring in "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law", a new Disney Plus series. She plays the title character as Jennifer Walters, a successful attorney, who, as the title implies, becomes a female version of the Hulk. The character has gone through several iterations since first being created by Stan Lee and John Buscema in 1979, but the streaming series is based on the long-running comedic 1990s comic book series that was mostly written and drawn by John Byrne, but which was at its finest for the half dozen or so issues scripted by Steve Gerber.

Today, we add Ms. Maslany to the Shades of Gray Galaxy of Stars, with some photos and a wish that her new series is successful enough to bring us all a second batch of episodes!

Musical Monday with Andrew Bird

Singer/songwriter Andrew Bird is a man of many talents and musical genres. His songs and performances run the gamut from folk music to indie rock to swing, and whatever genre he and his four-piece band are tackling, it is done masterfully.

His recent video and single, "Atomized", is no exception. It's a quirky tune with lyrics that speak powerfully to the current state of our culture and the impossible situation professional creative people are in (and even increasingly just regular people). The video underscores the message perfectly... and it also serves as an illustration of the unifying theme around here!

Check it out by clicking below. (And if you like it, consider supporting Mr. Bird by getting a copy of his latest album, Inside Problems.)

Atomized (2022)

Starring: Andrew Bird

Director: M.D. Siskin

Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

The art of Sergio Toppi

Today, it's ten years since the passing of the great Italian illustrator Sergio Toppi. Here's s small gallery of his drawings in memory.

Barnie's Cafe Mocha Truffle

Welcome to Sunday and another coffee review at Shades of Gray! I have, once again, expanded my consumption horizons by adding a blend from Barnie's Coffee & Tea Company to the list of brands whose wares I have sampled and reviewed.

I became aware of Barnie's while I was poking around for suitable items to review in place of the Bones Coffee varieties that had been the mainstay of this post-series since it began in mid-2021. (I have mostly  run out of Bones offerings to review!)

I liked the look of Barnie's packaging and their flavors sounded tasty, so I ordered a combo trio of bags. I went the opposite direction with Barnie's as I did with Coffee Beanery; I didn't even look to see if they had sample packs, because of needing to watch myself with every drop of items from the one-pot Coffee Beanery sample packs, I wanted to be sure I had plenty for my established taste-testing regiment.

 

Who Is Barnie's Coffee & Tea Company?

(If you want to get straight to the review, scroll down to the picture of Johnny Cash about to enjoy a cup of coffee. Otherwise, read on for a little bit about Barnie's.)

Barnie's Coffee & Tea Company is a Florida-based coffee retail outlet that opened its first shop in 1980 and eventually expanded to 150 outlets across the U.S. and around the world. They occupied the same specialty coffee shop space as Starbucks, and, like so many other firms, they eventually felt the pressure of the Starbucks juggernaut. Eventually, Barnie's shrunk back to a dozen or so retail outlets--with many of its locations acquired by Starbucks and converted into Starbucks stores--and the company's main focus shifted toward putting their name on bags of coffee for sale in grocery stores. Reportedly, the founders of the firm recently re-entered the picture, and they are hoping to rebuild Barnie's as a retail chain and once again offers unique coffee drinks to customers in friendly, cafe-style environments.

Johnny Cash sang that he's been everywhere. That must include a Barnie's store!

Time will tell how successful they will be. Meanwhile, I've been brewing and drinking one of their branded blends...

BARNIE'S COFFEE & TEA COMPANY: CAFE MOCHA TRUFFLE

According to a label on the back of the bag, this blend is a medium-roast made with Arabica beans and nothing but natural flavors. The promise of chocolatey goodness wafts up from the pre-ground coffee once the bag is opened. That promise is not fulfilled, however.

Once brewed, this blend has a very mild touch of chocolate in its flavor profile, but it's a bitterness that dominate every cup that I drank. Whether I tried it hot, room temperature, or chilled and over ice, this coffee was dominated by a bitter and borderline sour flavor. It wasn't the sort of bitterness that one might associate with cheap, unsweetened dark chocolate--which I actually could have appreciated--but just a straight-up, undefinable flavor that could have arisen from a variety of badly roasted coffee I've not encountered before, or perhaps just from a badly done attempt at making a chocolate flavored coffee.

As I said, the bitterness dominated no matter what temperature I tried the coffee at. It also dominated no matter what I mixed it with, be it Unsweetened Almond Milk, Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, or sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer. I was also unable to tease anything but the faintest hint of a chocolate flavor out of the mixtures. Basically, this blend was unappealing to me no matter which of the standard mixers I used.

Since I had an entire bag of the Cafe Mocha Truffle blend, I had an opportunity to give it a few extra chances. I tried it with sugar-free Rice Krispies Treat creamer, hot and room temperature and iced. The creamer flavor almost overcame the bitterness of the coffee, so it was something of an improvement. 

I also tried it iced with Unsweetened Chocolate Almond Milk and vodka, as well as with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and vodka. Finally, the drink seemed "decadent, rich, and chocolatey"... at least when I mixed it with the chocolate almond milk. Seriously, though, the vodka did mitigate the unpleasant bitter flavor that dominated and ruined every other attempt I made to enjoy this coffee. So, the only use I can see for this blend is as a component of my half-assed, homemade takes on Black or White Russians (where a "Black Russian" is coffee, vodka, and chocolate milk and a White Russian is coffee, vodka, and vanilla almond milk. Sometimes, I just skip the coffee and just do the vodka and milks...).

Barnie's says on their bags of coffee that "no one does flavor like us." If my first experience with their offerings is any indication, we can all count ourselves fortunate for that!

And, yes, that was probably an unfair cheap shot, but I brewed and drank several pots of their Cafe Mocha Truffle blend and the best thing I can come up with to say is, "well, at least they make it with all natural ingredients."

I don't like writing negative reviews, and I like writing negative coffee reviews less than any others. I get the coffees I review with the intend of enjoying them, and I hope to share that enjoyment with all of you out there. I have two more bags of Barnie's varieties in the cupboard. I feel confident that I will have a better experience with those than I have with this one. After all, this is a company that's been around for more than forty years. Most of their coffee has got to be good, right? Right?!

Here's to a more positive review next week, my friends!

A Moon Girl at Work!

 The expert astronomers and astrologers at the Shades of Gray Observatory have used our powerful telescope to capture another image of a Moon Girl keeping the phases of the Moon on schedule.

It's another disappointing trip to Cartoonland...

Alice Gets Stung (1925)
Starring: Virginia Davis

Director: Walt Disney

Rating: Four of Ten Stars

A cat chases a rabbit while bears make music and dance. It just another day in Cartoonland until Alice (Davis) decides to help that cat and then go bear hunting.

The "Alice in Cartoonland" series was an early effort from Walt Disney and a studio of animators. It's similar in concept to Max Fleischer's "Out of the Inkwell" series in that it merges live action footage with animation, but where Fleischer had animated characters invading the Real World, Disney had a young girl have adventures in the animated universe. Sadly, the Disney effort appears to be inferior to the Fleischer films it was modeled after. In fact, the ones I've seen so far are so weak that I am astonished more than fifty were produced and distributed. 

"Alice Gets Stung" is both one of the best entries I've seen in the series so far, as well as one of the worst.

On the plus side, the animation in this installment is very playful and there's some fun and creative use of cartoon physics during the action scenes. Alice also interacts with her environment more than in most of the others in the series I've previously seen, such as picking up and moving a fire hydrant and even getting in on the cartoon physics action (although in a minor, but still quite creative and visually exciting, way). The level of looping and dragging out gags until they stop being funny is also minimal when compared to previous efforts.

On the negative side, the film is little more than a jumble of disconnected visual gags and set pieces. While they are more innovative and wild than in other outings, there needed to  be a little more of a narrative thread tying them together. Then there's the fact that once a story-thread begins to emerge, Alice ends up as the villain in her own series, attacking bears that are doing nothing more malicious than playing music and dancing in the woods. At least, after Alice tries to murder them, one of the bers is able to turn the tables on her... which leads to the event of the film's title. (I can only assume that Walt Disney was traumatized by a dancing bear as a child, because he seems to have a serious hatred for them.)

I know that I am not the audience for the "Alice in Cartoonlands", as I am not a six-year-old in the 1920s, but I am fairly confident that six-year-old me in the 1970s would have strongly disliked Alice. I keep hoping to find timeless, commercial savvy that Disney displayed later on in these early efforts, but so far I'm not seeing it. Life is too short to spend on things I know I'm not going to enjoy, so Alice will get one or two more views before I decide they are best left in the compost heap of cinematic history.

In the meantime, though, you can watch "Alice Gets Stung" by clicking below. You can also tell me if you think I'm being too harsh or have completely missed the point with my review in the comments section. (You can also agree if you like!)

Announcing a new venture!

With crime on the rise everywhere, and it still being fashionable to hate police officers in many quarters, we have decided it's the right time to launch a new company: The Ballerina Security Corporation (BS Corp)!

 
Whether it's guarding the door at a worksite, a nightclub, a sports event, or your private residence, the ladies of BS Corp will make sure only those who have permission to enter will do so. Our slogan is You Shall Not Pass, and it's not just empty words for us!

In addition to guarding doorways, the highly trained staff members of BS Corp will also patrol the sites and venues, leaping into action if they find anything suspicious!

BS Corp: You Shall Not Pass, Because We're Always On Our Toes!