Saturday, April 21, 2012

A-Z Challenge: S is for...

STRAWBERRY- they are my favorite fruit, I love a delicious, perfectly ripe strawberry.  I like them dipped in chocolate or powdered sugar.  They are fabulous all blended up into a margarita or daiquiri, even sans alcohol.  They make wonderful sauce or syrup to top a variety of foods- pancakes, waffles, angel food cake, cheesecake and more.  They are also my favorite fruit to make jam with, I love the beautiful shade of pink that fresh jam makes in the canning jar.

So I am just baffled at the current Starbuck's controversy with their strawberry smoothies.  I'm sure you have heard all about it, but in case you haven't they were looking for a more "natural" source of pink dye for their strawberry smoothies.  They went with something called cochineal extract, which comes from smashed up beetles.  Vegans and vegetarians were outraged, as I guess they find killing bugs unethical, so they were protesting.  When the news came out the rest of just about everybody was grossed out about them using bug extract so now Starbucks says they have found a new dye and will be switching to it this summer.  The new dye source: lycopene, a vegetarian-friendly tomato-based dye.

WHAT?  Tomatoes? Come on Starbucks, you have a STRAWBERRY drink, what on earth is wrong with coloring the drink with STRAWBERRIES?  Not only do you get a beautiful pink color, but you also actually add STRAWBERRY flavor, what a concept!!! 

So I guess I'll skip the tomato flavored smoothies at Starbucks and make my own smoothies with, drumroll please... STRAWBERRIES and yogurt!

3 comments:

  1. Bugs! Yuck. And, tomatoes, I want mine with salt of spaghetti not in a smoothie!

    I really don't go to Starbucks all that often but I'm with you I'd vote for Strawberries, Yum-O.

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  2. strawberries are also delicious in a salad bed of spinach drizzled with a raspberry vinigrette. I am certain your smoothie tastes better made with strawberries instead of tomatoes, yuck.

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  3. I hadn't heard that Starbucks story. I can't believe they used bugs, period! I know we unknowingly eat bug parts in our food - hello chocolate! - but to have a major chain selling it to you in your smoothie? Ew!

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