Amazing Clubs Beer of the Month Club once again included 4 different types of beer from 2 different breweries.

The first brewery, Pennsylvania Brewing Company in Pittsburgh, included 2 German-style beers: Penn Gold and Penn Weizen. Penn Gold is light-colored and Penn Weizen is a bit heavier with a tangy clove flavor, typical of a weizen style beer. I really enjoyed the Penn Weizen. I wasn’t as crazy about the Penn Gold.

The second brewery, Mercury Brewing Company in Ipswich, Massachusetts, offered a Stone Cat ESB (Extra Special Bitter) and Stone Cat Blonde Ale. I didnt’ care for the Stone Cat ESB at all. Offered a bottle to a friend, and he didn’t go back for a second. Asked another friend to try the third and final bottle, and he didn’t care for it either. Thought it was just me – perhaps not liking the bitterness – but 3 for 3 said “no go.” Oh well, we enjoyed the Blonde Ale.

The beer arrived in sturdy packaging and all bottles arrived perfectly in tact.

And from the 1-page flyer, we learned that Mercury Brewing Company produces 47 different beers as well as 19 soft drinks. And Penn Brewery is both a brewery and restaurant. They use only the 4 classic ingredients to ensure their beer complies with the German beer purity law: malted barley, hops, water, and yeast.

For more information on this Beer of the Month Club, visit the Amazing Clubs website.

Check out a previous review of the Amazing Clubs Beer of the Month Club

Here’s another shipment of Amazing Clubs (aka Flying Noodle – they are the same company) Hot Sauce of the Month Club. This month included a bottle of Jamaica Joe’s Genuine Red Hot Sauce and Semper Fi Gourmet Hot Sauce.

Jamaica Joe’s Genuine Red Hot Sauce and Semper Fi Gourmet Hot Sauce

What did we make with this month’s selection of Hot Sauces???

We combined the Jamaica Joe’s with the Semper Fi to make a spicy and flavorful batch of Buffalo Chicken Wings. Yum! Yum!

Of course, we didn’t use ALL of the sauce. So we still have some leftover to use on scrambled eggs, sandwiches, and other snacks that need a little pizazz.

Here’s what this shipment looked like when it arrived:

Two bottles of red hot sauce, packaged securely, with a supplemental newsletter with detailed information about this month’s hot sauce selections

Get more information on the Hot Sauce of the Month Club from Flying Noodle / Amazing Clubs.

This month’s Chocolate of the Month Club from Gourmet Monthly Clubs included an assortment of six biscotti with different flavors of dark and milk chocolate, as well as two boutique-type chocolate candy bars.

Now this “Biscotti” was not at all like what I think of when I envision Biscotti – it was 98% chocolate, with just a bit of crunch to it. The crunch was similar to the krispies in Krackel bars. Very light and airy.

The varieites of milk chocolate and dark chocolate was nice. Each had a subtle flavor to it, such as mint, raspberry, and apricot, and the chocolate is rich. The candy bars were exceptional – rich, smooth chocolate. Just what you would expect!

And of course, the newsletter accompanying the package was fun and informative as usual.

All in all, this would be a real treat to receive every month. A Chocolate Lover would absolutely LOVE it! It’s nice to try varieties of chocolate that you normally would not have access to or think to purchase for your self.

For more information or to sign-p for this Chocolate of the Month Club, visit the Gourmet Monthly Clubs website.

“Bacon is Meat Candy” – that’s the motto at BaconFreak.com. This post is for bacon-lover’s only (or anyone who is shopping for a bacon-lover)… vegetarians should move on!

How many different ways can you really make bacon? Well, at BaconFreak.com – a LOT! There’s Bourbon Street Cajun Style Hickory Smoked Country Bacon, Vanilla Bourbon Hickory Smoked Country Bacon, Smoked Jalapeno Bacon, Apple Cinnamon Bacon, Boss Hog Honey BBQ Bacon, Boss Hog Hickory Smoked Brown Sugar Cured Bacon, Baby Bubba’s Butcher Block Hickory Smoked Peppered Bacon, Rocco’s Private Reserve Country Pepper Bacon, Rocco’s Private Reserve Sun Dried Tomato Bacon… the list goes on. The folks at BaconFreak.com LOVE their bacon!

We were treated to a sample of Rocco’s Bacon of the Month Club – and it was definitely out of the ordinary!

The shipment looks like any other shipment…..

Inside the box, there are a couple “goodies” to accompany the bacon… a “Bacon is Meat Candy” t-shirt with a huge pig on the front and a bacon-scented air freshener. Yeah, these folks love bacon alright! And the bacon is wrapped in what else but bacon wrapping paper!

The bacon flavors this month included Boss Hogg Honey BBQ Rubbed Hickory Smoked Bacon and Smokey’s Savory Select Dry Cured Maplewood Smoked Bacon.

We fried up some of the Honey BBQ bacon right away. Good stuff! Meaty, smokey, and full of flavor! This is not the bacon you’d buy from your grocer’s freezer.

If you know a bacon-lover, send them this Bacon of the Month Gift Club and they’ll love you forever!

For more information or to order, visit the Bacon Freak website.

View more Bacon of the Month Clubs

Say “Cheeeeese!” Yummy…
We received 3 truly gourmet blocks of cheese in the first shipment of Gourmet Monthly Club’s Cheese of the Month Gift Club. The three varieties included a Vermont Cheddar, Percorino Pepata, and a Spanish Tetilla.

The package arrived nice and snug in an insulated envelope with a reusable ice pack inside a cardboard shipping box.

Each of the blocks of cheese is approximate a half pound, for a total of 1 and a half pounds of cheeses.

The accompanying Tasting Notes suggested using the Spanish Tetilla cheese in recipes that call for a stuffing or melted cheese coating. So we made Chicken Cordon Bleu. It was delicious! We didn’t even need to use a whole lot of the cheese because the flavor was so strong and distinct. It was a perfect choice! And the Tetilla is good to eat plain, too!

The Vermont Cheddar was described as being “creamy, smooth and gentle” as opposed to having a “strong, bitter bite” like many cheddars. They were so right! Such good flavor, still sharp, but not overly so. We have used the cheddar in many ways already… straight up on crackers, melted in scrambled eggs (although in hindsight it’s really too good to be used like that), and crumbled in a salad. Like the Tetilla, a little goes a long way. So you don’t have to use as much as you would a common grocery store variety.

We have not tried the Pecorino Pepata (pepper cheese) yet. It’s the one pictured above. But we look forward to tasting it soon!

This would make a great gift for someone who enjoys high quality, gourmet food and / or cooking. It’s one of my favorites! The cheeses featured in the Gourmet Monthly Club’s “Cheese of the Month Club” are usually varieties you won’t always be able to find easily on your own.

Photos of the newsletter:

For more information or to order, visit the Gourmet Monthly Clubs website.

We just received our first monthly shipment of beer from Amazing Clubs (also the parent company to Flying Noodle). The monthly beer selections included 4 different types of beer from 2 different breweries.

The first brewery, the Shipyard Brewing Company in Portland, Maine, included Prelude Special Ale – a full-bodied ale with a deep amber hue – and Longfellow Winter Ale – a hybrid between a Porter and a Scottish Ale. Both look to be hearty beers.

The second brewery, Sherwood Forest Brewers Limited in Marlborough, Massachusetts, offered the Archer’s Ale – similar to an English Pale Ale – and Maiden’s Blueberry Ale – described as “a colored pale ale with the subtle flavor and aroma of fresh blueberries.” Hmmm… we’re not quite sure what to think about that one, but will find out soon enough!

As you can see, the beer arrived in sturdy packaging and all bottles arrived perfectly in tact.

There is also a 1-page flyer that tells a little about the breweries and each of the beers. It’s nothing fancy – just an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper that looks like it was photocopied (and some of the ink is smeared). The backside just contains sales info.

We have not sampled the beer yet. Will post again once they get nice and cold! Stay tuned…

For more information on this Beer of the Month Club, visit the Amazing Clubs website.

Just a quick post today… photos of the cigars received from Gourmet Monthly Clubs’ Cigar of the Month Club. 5 cigars in various sizes and varieties. Comes packaged with a small humidification device to keep the cigars fresh. So we won’t open the package until they are ready to be smoked!

Visit the Gourmet Monthly Clubs website

Packaged in sturdy cardboard cylinder packaging. Delivered via US Postal First Class Mail

Informative newsletter….

Today’s review is for one of the most popular Gift of the Month Clubs around… a Wine of the Month Club! We received 2 bottles from Gourmet Monthly Club’s Collector Series, their top-level membership. One bottle is red, and the other is a bottle of champagne!

The red is “Dehesa La Granja Vadillo de la Guarena – Zamora Seleccion 2000″ from Spain. Sounds fancy! And the champagne is “B. Deville-Chevallier Brut – Grand Cru Champagne N.V” from France. Both were very well-packaged and arrived in perfect order.

As always, Gourmet Monthly Clubs includes a high quality, informative newsletter. this edition tells about the monthly wine selections, includes Tasting Notes, Accompaniments, and Recipes. Everything you need to know about your wine selections is in there!

We haven’t opened the wine yet, as we want to save it for a special occasion! But I’ll post again once we’ve had a chance to sip the vino and champagne, and tell you all of our impressions!

The Collector Series costs $78.95 per month. There is a two-month minimum commitment. Featured wine selections in this club retail between $30 and $60 per bottle. This Wine Club reaks of quality and would make a great gift this holiday for someone who appreciates fine wine.

Gourmet Monthly Clubs also offers a Premier Series for about half the price of the Collectors Series ($42.95 per month). Bottles in this club retail between $15 and $25 per bottle. Or you can compare and contrast wine quality by joining the Master Series and receiving one bottle from each of the other two clubs. The Master Series costs $58.95 per month.

Visit Gourmet Monthly Clubs for more information or to join.

We tried the “Blind Betty’s HOT Caribbean Concoctions” hot sauce – it was yummy! Spicy, but not uncomfortably hot (and my palette is a bit sensitive!). We added it to rice & beans and it gave it a nice Caribbean flavor. It had a tomato-y base with an intriguing blend of other subtle flavors. Just the right amount – nothing was too overpowering.

I think I’m going to try it out next mixed with a little mayonnaise and use it as a sandwich spread…..

Two bottles of Hot Sauce arrived in the mail today. I have not tried them yet, but they appear to be pretty spicy!

Two bottles of red hot sauce

The first is called “Deathwish” and is a red jalepeno sauce. The other is called “Blind Betty’s HOT Caribbean Concoctions” and is a blend of Caribbean spices and flavors. The ingredients are intriguing…. pumpkin, apple juice, tomato juice, carrot, onion, habanero pepper and some other stuff. Doesn’t sound TOO spicy, huh? Guess I’ll find out!

Good packaging – maybe a little excessive for such small items

Newsletter is simple – just an 8.5″ x 11″ black and white paper. One side is about the sauce. The other side is marketing stuff to try and get you to buy more.

I’ll post again once I’ve had a chance to try out the sauces.

Get more information on the Hot Sauce of the Month Club from Flying Noodle / Amazing Clubs.

The first official review for FindGiftClubs.com is for the International & Domestic Variety Beer Club from Gourmet Monthly Clubs. It’s always exciting when a package arrives – but even more so when that package contains 12 bottles of domestic and imported BEER!

The shipment arrived secured in impressive packaging to ensure none of the bottles broke during transit.

Sturdy packaging and the newsletter right on top!

Upon closer examination, we discovered four interesting selections of brews…

• Butt Head Bock from the Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs, Colorado
• Red Rack Ale from the Woodstock Inn Station & Brewery
• Hobgoblin Strong Dark Ale from the Wychwood Brewery in Central South England
• Golden Pheasant – made from 100% barley – straight from the Slovak Republic

What a fabulous assortment of beer we would probably never buy for ourselves from the local liquor store

While we waited for the beer to chill in the fridge, we perused the newsletter to learn a bit more about the tempting beer selections that awaited us. They packed in quite a bit of info into a little newsletter!

All in all, we were impressed with the quality of beer included in our Beer of the Month Club. It would certainly make great gift. Keep it in mind when the holidays arrive and you just can’t think what to get dad, or brother, or boyfriend… or sister… and so on. Anyone who enjoys a cold brew now and then is going to LOVE this special gift!

Get more info and pricing for the International & Domestic Variety Beer Club or check out more great Gift of the Month Clubs from Gourmet Monthly Clubs