Nick Sands, the host of the podcast and YouTube channel “Nick Sands Presents,” had an idea. Looking back at it objectively, he said, it wasn’t necessarily a good idea, but like many things in the podcasting world the Oreo Dunking Project seemed like a good one at the time.
“It is exactly what it sounds like,” Sands said. “I take Oreos, I dunk them into anything but milk, and then I eat them and rank them on a scale of one to 10.” Milk, he said, because it is perfect for cookie-dunking, would be a 10. “A one would be inedible,” he said.
“I don’t really think too much about the things I do [on the podcast],” he said. “I just kind of do them and hope they work out. And I don’t know, everything’s so serious, so terrible right now, it’s just kind of nice to do something stupid and do it in such a way as to maybe make someone laugh.”
Sands said the dunking got adventurous pretty quickly.
“I haven’t had a ‘10’ yet,” he said, “but something that was surprisingly good was mayonnaise and Oreos. It almost ended up tasting like a cream cheese frosting. Sort of. It was a little like a chocolatey cream cheese frosting, which was a big surprise. I did not expect that. A lot of people said it was good, and I did not believe them for obvious reasons. Obviously, when you’re doing this kind of thing, people try to trick you into doing stuff. Unfortunately for them, I’m dumb enough that they don’t actually have to trick me. …”
Which is not to say that Oreos and mayo are a combination that Sands would deliberately seek out. “I gave it a 5 out of 10,” he said. Less enjoyable, Sands said, was Liquid Smoke. “It was awful,” he said. Sands’ initial run of Oreo experiments lasted just over a month.
“I think I dunked for 35 days,” he said. “I took a little break, and I’m coming back to it soon. …” Because he still hasn’t found a 10.
Oreo Dunking Project All episodes of Nick Sands Presents, including the Oreo Dunking Project, are available on most social media platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
If your restaurant is already considered a hidden gem, how do you go about adding something new without messing with a winning formula?
For more than 30 years Janie’s Uncommon Cafe has had a quiet reputation as a dependably excellent mom-and-pop breakfast and lunch joint in a shopping center in Londonderry.
“This is a place where families have been coming for two or three generations,” longtime employee Nathanial Finn said. There has been a conscious effort, he said, not to change anything very much. Which, he said, has put a lot of pressure on him as he has taken on adding an upscale coffee program to such a traditional café.
“Customers have been coming here for 20 or 30 years,” Finn said. “For [owners Johnny and Carly] to put me in charge of launching something new here, they really had to put a lot of thought into whether or not it was going to be beneficial for everybody, including those longtime customers. And so really, personally, I’m feeling some pressure just to make sure that they feel like the investment into launching this was worth it.”
Finn has taken the approach of viewing high-end coffee drinks as an added value to the Janie’s vibe, rather than a change of direction. Part of that approach, he said, has been using local resources.
“We get our beans from a company out of Manchester called Hometown Coffee Roasters that roasts all the beans and has provided the espresso for us,” he said. “We’re making a point of building good relationships in the local scene. Hopefully, by doing that, we can really lift the coffee scene of Londonderry and the surrounding areas. All the recipes are being made by me and the other employees here and we’ve been trying to get feedback from the community to make products that they’ll love. We’re planning on building a menu around the feedback that we get from customers.”
In addition to espresso-based coffee drinks, like lattes and cappuccino, Finn’s goal is to offer coffee- and tea-based beverages that stand out from other coffee places.
“We want to do things differently,” he said. “If everybody else is making a peppermint mocha around the holidays, we’re going to do something else. We’re really going to use different flavors that you might not hear about. So, instead of doing a raspberry mocha, I can do a strawberry mocha and then make the drink special with other things, like grinding up dehydrated strawberries and using those on top of the drink. The syrups that we use come from France. We’re the only ones in the area that I know that are using 1883 products. With spring around the corner, we want to be looking into matcha and other [drinks] that other people enjoy. Right now we’re serving chai lattes, but because our clientele is older generally, we’ve also added things like tea lattes. So we have a London Fog drink and things like that, so that hopefully we can draw in people that might not want strong espresso, and to take care of those people. It’s a menu that’s evolving and revolving.”
Changing the drinks menu regularly will provide an opportunity to highlight foods that Janie’s is already known for, Finn said.
“Every time our menu changes,” he said, “there’s going to be a special treat with each of them. So right now we have a gingerbread latte, and we have a couple of the women here that run the front, they’re baking all the time, and so right now if you get a gingerbread latte you’ll also get a home-baked gingerbread cookie with it.”
“We love that people come here and they know exactly what they want to get every time they come here,” Finn said, “because they’ve been coming here for so long. If you want a regular hot coffee, that’s not going to change. But if you want something special, this is going to also be the place to do it.”
Janie’s Uncommon Cafe Where: Crossroads Mall, 123 Nashua Road, Londonderry Hours: open daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. More: 432-3100, janiescafe.com; order online from the Café’s website
• Blind tasting with wine experts: As part of New Hampshire Wine Week (NHWineWeek.com), the State Liquor Commission has launched a new event. The Wine Week website describes Sommelier Select as “an intimate, one-night only, blind wine tasting experience. … guests will sample a mystery lineup of wines — from bold newcomers to timeless favorites — guided by our expert sommeliers. You’ll learn how to identify flavor, aroma, and structure as you sip, compare, and share your impressions, all without knowing what’s in your glass.” This event will take place Wednesday, Jan. 21, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., at the Grappone Conference Center (70 Constitution Ave, Concord, 225-0303, grapponeconferencecenter.com). Tickets are $65 through eventbrite.com. Spaces are limited.
• Beef lawsuit: As reported by Manchester InkLink on Dec. 29, New Hampshire residents may be eligible to file claims in an$87.5 million beef lawsuit. “New Hampshire is one of 26 states and Washington, D.C.,” the InkLink article read, “in which residents are eligible to make claims in an antitrust suit filed in U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota. The suit claims several beef processors entered into a market allocation agreement to stop competing against each other for market share. The purpose was to increase their margins, but it also meant consumers paid inflated prices for beef.” If you bought beef between Aug. 1, 2014, and Dec. 31, 2019, you might be able to submit a claim. Visit overchargedforbeef.com/en/Claim.
• Brunch and Beats: There will be a Brunch and Beats event at the Derryfield Restaurant at the Derryfield Country Club (625 Mammoth Road, Manchester, 623-2880, thederryfield.com), this Sunday, Jan. 11, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Enjoy brunch with some back-in-the-day millennial music, featuring DJ Justin Jordan. Tickets are $23.18 through eventbrite.com and include a brunch buffet and a mimosa.
• Zero-proof wine: There will be a free Alcohol-Free Wine Tasting on Friday, Jan. 9, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com). Emily Holbrook Jennings from Vinilandia New Hampshire will lead a tasting of non-alcoholic wines from around the world. The store will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Mocktails and non-alcoholic spirits and wine offer grown-up flavors without the booze
By John Fladd jfladd@hippopress.com
Until relatively recently, your non-alcoholic options when out on the town were fairly limited. You could order iced tea or soda, or maybe some fruit juice. According to bar owner Dan Haggerty, that situation has evolved over the past few years; there has been an upswing in customers looking for alcohol-free options.
“More and more people have started saying, ‘You know, I’m not really drinking tonight,’” he said. Haggerty is the co-owner of two bars in downtown Manchester, Industry East (28 Hanover St.) and its sister establishment Stashbox (866 Elm St.), as well as a soon-to-open dry bar called Without.
“We’ve definitely seen an uptick in people who are cutting down [their drinking] to once a week or whatever it might be, but more and more people have been asking for drinks without alcohol. Maybe they’re trying to be more healthy. I think there’s been a bit of a shape shift in just the societal view.”
Andrew Solis has a theory that, like so many things, attitudes toward drinking changed noticeably in the wake of the Covid epidemic. He said being isolated during lockdown gave many people an opportunity to change habits. Solis is the co-owner of Cut Above Zero-Proof Spirits, a line of alcohol-free spirits. He noticed a cultural shift during the pandemic.
“I’d say most people didn’t keep their habits pre-Covid during Covid,” Solis said. “They either went one way or the other. We saw a lot of consumers drink more alcohol.” At least at first. “But all of us were looking at ourselves in Zoom screens and our mirrors more often than we would before that. I think perception of our appearance and our health was shifted slightly because of that. And so I think we see that carrying over after Covid, [not drinking] has become a socially acceptable habit. It lost that stigma, I think, that existed always, which is if someone’s not drinking and they used to, there would be whispers: ‘Do they have a problem?’ ‘What’s going on?’ ‘Are they sick?’ Now it’s seen as a positive and a proactive choice.”
Brittany Gagnon is the owner of Blossom and Vine Creative in Goffstown and leads monthly workshops teaching home entertainers to make alcohol-free drinks.
Spro-less, the espresso martini mocktail. Photo courtesy 815 Cocktails & Provisions in Manchester.
“What I try to get across to people,” Gagnon said, “is that if you’re choosing not to drink, whether it be long-term or whether it be just for that one event, there are other options if you’re interested in something more than simply sparkling water and juice mixed together. There are nice options that you can put together and feel like you’re having something special because you are having something special and something that’s high-quality without feeling like your only choice is alcohol, if that’s not something that you want. I try to introduce people to some of the options so that they can try some and get an idea of what they might like, what they might want to look into more.”
Familiar cocktails with alcohol-free spirits
It wasn’t too long ago that finding non-alcoholic spirits was a challenge.
“I don’t want to say they weren’t even around,” said Joseph Mollica, Chairman of the New Hampshire Liquor Commission, “but they weren’t on anyone’s radar 10 years ago.” He said the state liquor stores have been working with the hospitality industry in New Hampshire to serve non-drinking consumers better. “We’re kind of a tourist state,” he said. “People want to go out and celebrate with their friends whether they’re having an alcohol cocktail or a nonalcoholic cocktail. It’s keeping people in the restaurants. [Non-alcoholic beverages] have really come a long way and we’re pretty excited about it.”
New Hampshire’s liquor stores now carry a range of non-alcoholic products, Mollica said.
“Our top 20 stores have the full selection — Ritual is the name of one of the companies. They have a whiskey alternative. Cut Above is another company; they have a gin, a whiskey, and they have a blanco [tequila]. We probably have 100+ [items] out in the stores that are available to purchase the whole year round.”
Andrew Solis from Cut Above said his company makes zero-proof spirits with flexibility in mind.
“We know that the majority of people who consume adult non -alcoholic beverages may also consume alcoholic beverages,” he said. ”So Cut Above was designed to be a one-for-one replacement in their favorite cocktails. But it’s also designed to be used with traditional spirits. The example I like to give is I like to make a gin and tonic when I’m preparing dinner. Now I just use half of the gin that I always used, then sub in our gin for the other half, and now it’s 50 percent less ABV [Alcohol By Volume], 50 percent less alcohol content in that cocktail, and I don’t really, like I say, miss that other ounce. It’s a way to put the consumer in the driver’s seat when it comes to the amount of alcohol they’re consuming.”
Brittany Gagnon depends on zero-proof versions of familiar liquors that the people in her workshops are familiar with.
“So there are two non-alcoholic drinks that are my go-to when I’m entertaining,” Gagnon said. “One is the non-alcoholic margarita; that tends to be a crowd-pleaser. Most people enjoy margaritas. And so that one with a tequila alternative is always a good choice. Another one that some people like the strong taste and some don’t, but for those that like gin, I do a non-alcoholic gin and tonic and I use, there’s an organic brand called Olive Nation. They make a juniper extract. If you put one eighth of a teaspoon of juniper extract, lime, and a nice tonic water, it tastes exactly like a real gin and tonic. You don’t miss the real thing at all.”
Alcohol-free beer or wine
Emily Holbrook Jennings is a sales representative for Vinilandia New Hampshire (vinilandianh.com), a wine importer and distributor. Her theory is that the demand for non-alcoholic drinks isn’t as new as it seems.
“I think that the demand has probably been there,” she said, “but the products haven’t been there to support it.”
Jennings said alcohol-free wines have become more complex in recent years.
“[Consumers] want something that tastes, I say nice,” she said, “as in having like maybe some more bitter flavors — more like an Amaro base. People like vermouth and they like that kind of style, but they don’t want anything sticky sweet and they don’t want soda. I think sweetness isn’t generally in the adult palate. We work with a lot of producers that grow organic grapes and they take like the highest level of control of quality that they can so they’re producing a better-quality product. I think they’ve come a long way. [The producers of a] lot of the wines that we carry use reverse osmosis so the alcohol actually spins out, versus pasteurization, which before that sort of cooked the alcohol out so you can imagine that didn’t taste very good. Now these are all coming from true winemakers who have figured out how to do the de-alcoholization part.”
Another advantage of zero-proof wines, Jennings said, is that they allow drinkers to stretch out the time they spend drinking with friends.
“They allow people to enjoy session drinking [this is a term wine enthusiasts use to describe staggering their consumption of different types of wine]. They can have a fun sparkling wine or something like that and still feel festive but not be actually drinking, you know, prosecco or Champagne. The non-alcoholic wines allow them to celebrate all day without getting drunk, kind of like taking a break in between, so say you do have a Champagne or prosecco to start with, and then the next drink that you had would be a non-alcoholic sparkling drink. So you’re kind of balancing it out, taking a session of this and a session of that, kind of just slowing down your alcohol intake.”
Mocktails
“Mocktail” is a term that has become popular in recent years to describe a mixed drink specifically designed without alcohol. These have become especially available at high-end cocktail bars. Sarah Maillet, co-owner of 815 Cocktails & Provisions in Manchester, said her staff takes a lot of time and effort to design mocktails for guests with sophisticated tastes.
Handsome Squidward. Photo courtesy 815 Cocktails & Provisions in Manchester.
“The biggest priority,” she said, “is that it doesn’t feel like a downgrade. Adult alcohol-free drinks need complexity, balance, appeal and intention. You have to think about bitterness, acidity, texture, aromatics — not just sweetness. We think about mouthfeel, presentation, glassware, garnish and how the drink fits into our overall menu. It ends up feeling just as deliberate and elevated as any other cocktail. Our job is to bring the same level of creativity and respect we give any other drink on the menu.”
Dan Haggerty from Industry East and Stashbox said he and his staff always have several mocktails on the menu and rotate them frequently.
“We like to switch them up,” he said. “Like we do with any menu item, if there’s one that’s a really big hit, we’ll keep it on [the menu]. But we do like to rotate them. That’s kind of the fun part [of designing] mocktails is you don’t have to come up with deciding whether or not this should be a vodka drink or a tequila drink. Whatever the flavor of the drink is that you came up with, that’s what it is. The pressure is off essentially, right? So it lends itself to being extremely seasonal and also you can kind of switch them up whenever you want really, right? People are looking, you know, specifically speaking to Stashbox and Industry, we are a bar that serves alcohol. So we don’t want to put a million choices on the menu. Again, having a smaller number available does also lend itself to switching them up more often, you know? And we keep a lot of those ingredients on hand anyway, so if there’s one that might not be on the menu at that time, we can probably still make it.”
Mocktail recipes
Tamarind Fizz
Inspired by a recipe from A Cut Above, drinkcutabove.com. Andrew Solis and Blanca Silva-Solis, the owners of Cut Above, describe this as “a perfect blend of sweet, tart, and botanical.”
Tamarind Fizz. Courtesy of Cut Above Spirits.
1 ounce Cut Above Gin, Cut Above Mezcal, or a 50/50 blend 4 ounces tamarind soda 1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice Lightly cracked ice Fresh mint for garnish
In a mixing glass, combine the zero-proof spirits, lime juice, tamarind soda, and cracked ice. Stir gently for 30 seconds to chill completely.
Strain over fresh cracked ice in a tall glass.
Bruise the fresh mint — you can roll it between your palms, slap it against your wrist, or crush it against your countertop with the heel of your hand. Garnish the drink with it. The aroma of fresh mint will boost and improve the flavor of your tamarind fizz.
Raspberry Dreams
From the New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlet’s New Hampshire Mocktail Month Guide, available online at liquorandwineoutlets.com/responsibility.
2 ounces homemade raspberry puree (see below) 1 ounce simple syrup ½ ounce fresh squeezed lime juice 4 ounces carbonated water
To make raspberry puree, thaw a bag of frozen raspberries. (Frozen berries will work as well as or possibly better than fresh ones. Because you are pureeing them, the sometimes sad texture of prefrozen berries will not be an issue.) Run the berries through a blender for a full minute, then strain the puree through a fine-mesh strainer; raspberries have a truly shocking amount of seeds.
In a mixing glass, add ice, raspberry puree, simple syrup, and lime juice, and stir to combine. Add the carbonated water, and stir very gently, so that everything is well mixed but the seltzer hasn’t lost its fizz.
Strain over fresh ice in a tall glass, and enjoy with a straw.
In a large container with at least a gallon capacity, whisk the lime juice and syrup together. Gently stir in the tonic water and seltzer. If you are serving this in a punch bowl, float a large decorative block of ice. I have a small Bundt pan that I like to fill and freeze for a ring of fancy ice.
Cucumber Syrup with maddeningly vague measurements
Wash a couple of cucumbers, and chop them into half-inch dice. Don’t worry about peeling them. Freeze the cucumber pieces until they are solid — a couple of hours or overnight.
Transfer the frozen cucumber pieces to a medium saucepan and add an equal amount (by weight) of white sugar. Cook over medium heat. This mixture will seem too dry until the cucumbers start to give up their juice. The freezing process will have pierced all the cell walls, and there will be a surprising amount of juice. Stir occasionally. At some point you might want to encourage the process along with a potato masher. Bring to a boil briefly, to make sure that all the sugar is completely dissolved.
Remove from the heat and let the mixture cool for half an hour. Strain with a fine-meshed strainer and bottle. This will keep for a month or so in your refrigerator. Aside from its use in drinks, this syrup is really good mixed into your morning yogurt.
Featured image: A Breakfast Nook. Photos on this page and page 9 are of drinks crafted by Sian Quinn, the creator of mocktails at 815 Cocktails & Provisions in Manchester. The cocktails and mocktails can often be formulated to add or take out alcohol, depending on the drinker’s preference.
So you find yourself with half a dozen fresh pears on your hands. What does one do with Too Many Pears?
Pear Crisp
Filling
6 ripe medium-to-large pears, peeled, cored and chopped
½ cup (107 g) brown sugar
1 Tablespoon corn starch – This filling will be very liquidy, particularly if your pears are super-ripe and/or juicy. A full tablespoon of starch will help everything pull together as it bakes.
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
2 teaspoons bourbon – optional
Zest of 1 orange – This too, is optional. Bourbon and orange both get along extremely well with pears, but a love triangle of all three is a bit chaotic. You should probably pick one and give the other a lovely parting gift.
Crust
¾ cup (67 g) rolled oats – not instant or steel-cut oats
¾ cup (90 g) all-purpose flour
1⁄3 cup (71 g) brown sugar
½ cup (65 g) chopped nuts – Walnuts or pecans are traditional, but if you wanted to use hazelnuts, or even pistachios, who could argue with you? “Why, yes, Helen, I did use hazelnuts in the crust. **steely gaze** Thank you so much for asking.”
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted (about 1 minute in your microwave)
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease an 8”x8” baking pan liberally with butter. I like to smear a full tablespoonful around with my fingers. You know, for thoroughness.
Combine all the filling ingredients. Stir and set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine all the crust ingredients except for the melted butter. Add the butter, and stir the mixture with a fork, until it all pulls together into a lumpy, streusel-y texture.
Pour the pear mixture into the buttery baking pan, then top with the crust mixture. Place the baking pan on a lined baking sheet, in case of a bubble-over situation, then bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
Remove the pear crisp from your oven when it looks golden-brown and gloppy. Let it cool for 10 minutes or so; at 350°F, the brown sugar/pear syrup is dangerously hot. Aim for “warm and comforting” rather than “hot from the oven.” Top with vanilla ice cream, or serve with a milkshake. You won’t be sorry.
Walking down Elm Street in Manchester, you notice a new pizzeria next to Cat Alley, and you stop short. Wait a second, wasn’t that the new—?
Yes, owner Dionysius Lemos said, it was the Statesman Diner.
“We had an occupancy permit for 21 days. Out of 21 days, we only opened for nine days.” This problem, he explained, was with the Statesman’s kitchen’s exhaust system. “We kept triggering off the fire alarm in here. What was happening, the exhaust was going up the ductwork, but it was bellowing out because we have an open concept kitchen into the dining room, and it was affecting the patrons, and then the fire alarms would go off.”
This led to a quick redesign of the restaurant, one not built around an exhaust system. Lemos installed ventless pizza ovens and changed his restaurant’s focus to traditional Greek pizza. “We use a Greek recipe,” Lemos said. “It’s a Peloponnesian recipe for pizza. It comes from southern Greece. It’s been around for hundreds of years. Greeks’ public position [is] they recognize the influence that the Italians have had with pizza, but they’ve also played a major role with pizza since the 1600s. So this recipe is well over 300 years old. It’s a recipe that nobody uses anywhere around us.”
What makes Hellenic’s pizza special, Lemos said, is the dough.
“It’s a thick crust,” he said. “But the difference is in our fermentation process. We sit on the dough for two days. The longer you sit on that dough, the tastier it is.” The dough is cold-proofed, which means it is left to rise in the refrigerator, so the yeast in the dough has time to develop flavor.
“So we specialize in 10-inch Greek pies. Everything’s fresh. Our own dough, our own sauce, our own cheese, which we shred ourselves,” Lemos said. “We use a blend of cheddar and mozzarella.” The pizzas are baked for a short time at a high temperature. “We’re running at about 800 degrees, and we’re running seven-minute pies.”
While the Statesman had a long and ambitious menu, Lemos said, the change in concept has led to a smaller, pizza-focused range of dishes. But that leaves a question hanging in the air: What about the french fries?
Hellenic Pizzeria is next to Cat Alley, an alley covered on one side with murals of cats made by area artists, which has become a cultural landmark in Manchester. During renovations to the restaurant in its diner iteration, Lemos installed a walk-up french fry window on the non-mural side of the alley. The goal was to make top-quality fries available to late-night customers leaving concerts or downtown bars. There has been a lot of excitement about the french fry window among late-night foodies.
“The french fries are gone,” Lemos said sadly. “But the window is being repurposed. It will still be open, but it will serve rotisserie hot dogs. In deference to the cat people, it’s going to be called Cat Alley Landmark Dawgs. There will be a hot dog [available], a cheese dog, a chili dog, or a chili cheese dog. I’m really sad to see the fry station going — on weekends we’re selling 50 pounds an hour, some days — and that was when we were only open for nine days.”
Hellenic Pizzeria Where: 836 Elm St., Manchester, 932-2751 Hours: Open seven days a week 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Hours of operation for the walk-up hot dog window are still being determined.
