More than your neighborhood grocery store
Many of you in Cincinnati know of Whole Foods, and many of you have visited their store in Mason (Deerfield Towne Center), but do you know about their new Grab ‘n Go menu? The Cincinnati TasteCasting Team had the honor of meeting and eating from the new Grab ‘n Go menu at Whole Foods on Thursday, June 11th and it was fabulous!
Introducing…
When we arrived, Paula Mangold, the Marketing Director of the Whole Foods Mason, met with the Cincinnati TasteCasting Team. She had set up tables and individual menus for each taster and gave us an introduction to their new addition to the store – their Grab ‘n Go menu! Whole Foods wanted to give their customers something that that they could pick up for a quick lunch or dinner that was already prepared for the most part (maybe just a little heating is all that would be needed).
- The table set up for the Cincinnati TasteCasting Team!
What’s for dinner (or lunch)
From the first glance, the menu looked amazing – soup, burrito, quiche, nuggets, desserts…what more could you want! We started with a cold soup, a Roasted Vegetable Gazpacho Soup. It was thick and a bit spicy and very satisfying. It reminded me almost of a salsa, but thinner. Whole Foods sells this soup by the quart and it is only $5.99. After the tasting I went to the back of the store to grab a quart to take home and found another soup that I will have to try next time – a Peach Soup!
- Roasted Vegetable Gazpacho Soup from Whole Foods Market in Mason
The second thing served to us was the amazing Black Bean & Cheese Burrito. The tortilla on this was a spicy tortilla and added so much flavor to the burrito. The cheese melted in the burrito were Pepperjack and Cheddar. Again, this was a little on the spicy side, but not bad at all. I am not a person that can take much spice, and I was perfectly fine with this. When you purchase this, it is about 1 pound (6″) and you just need to heat it for 10 minutes. You can grab one of these for lunch for only $5.99. Very filling!
The third item we were served was the Quiche – Spring Vegetable Quiche and a Broccoli & Cheddar Quiche. If you are a quiche lover, then you will want to grab one of these for your next meal! Very light and fluffy and even though we only sampled a small slice, it was fulfilling. The Spring Veggie one had celery, carrots and red peppers in it and the huge pieces of broccoli in the Broccoli & Cheddar one gave it a wonderful texture. Each of the quiches are sold either by the slice ($2.99) or by the pie ($9.99)
- Two flavors of delicious quiche
The final item served (before the desserts, that is) was the Vegan Nuggets. There were three flavors – Curried, BBQ and General Tso’s. These are each sold by the pound ($9.99). I have to admit that I was a little hesitant to try these because I knew that if they were vegan, they couldn’t be really chicken. I asked Paula about them and she told us that they are made from TVP (Texturized Vegetable Protein). I wasn’t really sure what that was, but when I looked around and saw everyone else trying them and making “yum” noises as they ate them, I decided to give it a try. Wow! That was a surprise! I absolutely loved them! Seriously – they tasted just like chicken, if not better. None of the flavors were very spicy and I honestly can’t even tell you what my favorite was because they were all three great. I liked them so much, I thought I would even test them on my picky-eater 4 year old. I took them home, heated them up and she enhaled them. Never questioned it at all. I will definitely be grabbing these on the go again! (These nuggets are made at the Whole Foods Market Commisary in New England and then the sauces are applied at the individual stores.)
- Vegan Nuggets – much better than I ever anticipated!
The Finale
The moment I had been waiting for finally arrived – the serving of the desserts. Each team member was served 5 different samples of desserts. OMG! There was the Turtle Pecan Bar, the Black Raspberry Cheesecake Bar with Filbert Crust, the Peanut Butter Bar with a Chocolate Crust, a Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bar with a Linzer Crust and a Lemon Curd Bar with a Linzer Crust. All of these bars are sold for $1.99 each and are about 4″x4″ and at least an inch deep. Pure goodness – that is what I call it. Pure Goodness. The Turtle Pecan Bar was my favorite. It was similar to a pecan pie which is one of my all-time favorite desserts. The Lemon Curd Bar was sweet and lemony and buttery and almost melted in your mouth. The Peanut Butter Bar tasted like a mix between a Reece Cup and a Buckeye – does it get much better than that? Everyone had their favorite at the table, but we all definitely agreed that they were amazing! It was a perfect ending to a wonderful “meal”. On top of the amazing taste of these, you can walk away knowing that they are all-natural as well. Unfortunately, all-natural doesn’t mean “good for you”, but it does ease your mind knowing that they are loaded with tons of chemical products to make them taste good – they just do, naturally.
- Pure Goodness.
Thank you!
Thank you very much Whole Foods Market in Mason and a big thank you to Paula Mangold for having us in to taste your new Grab ‘n Go menu! The team loved it and had a wonderful time at your wonderful store. We also truly appreciate the wonderful reusable bags that we all received! Mine will be on my shoulder the next time I walk through the Whole Foods doors!
- The Whole Foods Market Reusable Bag
Find out more about Whole Foods in Mason by clicking here. Follow them on Twitter at @WFM_Mason.
Written By: Audrey Keyes, Cincinnati, OH
*Note – The TasteCasting Team Members are not professional food critics. TasteCasting combines socially networked people and the social media platforms and applications they use to help establishments build awareness, announce grand openings, introduce new menu items, distribute special offers and encourage people to visit the establishment.
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Cincinnati TasteCasting Team Members who got a taste were: @AudreyKeyes, @ColeImperi, @vimperi, @JesyHerron, @debbahaupert, @jencasperson, @foodhussy. (Plus the brother-in-law and sister-in-law of @AmyInOhio.
Want to join Cincinnati’s TasteCasting team? Go here.
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Disclosure: TasteCasting is a promotional review site. We are treated to the food we taste at no cost. Team members are encouraged to share their experience good, bad or indifferent via the Social Web and to state their own, genuine opinion.
“The Peanut Butter Bar tasted like a mix between a Reece Cup and a Buckeye” Love the discription and photo. My mouth is watering.
Link to my blog review of the Taste Casting.
http://foodhussy.blogspot.com/2009/06/taste-casting-at-whole-foods-mason.html
Yum! Here’s my post with photos: http://coleimperi.tumblr.com/post/122968608/wholefoodsmason
Great post and pics, Can’t wait to buy the burrito for dinner!
Here is a link to my post:
http://jesyisms.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/i-love-the-too-busy-for-meals/