Granbury’s Best out of Granbury, Texas. The Triple Berry Preserves. This Company only uses Locally grown fruits and don’t add any artificial preservatives or flavorings which may interfere with the natural flavor of the fruit They are a small family based company. We really like the triple berry preserves. It was sweet but not overly sweet and had a fresh berry flavor .It is made with Raspberry, Blueberry, and Marionberry. You can really taste all the different berry flavors that combined, compliment each other well. Granbury’s Best also makes jams, jellies, and jalapenos. I really look forward to trying other flavors. Rated 4.85 out of 5-D
Granbury’s Best Triple Berry Preserves. A GO Texan product out of Granbury, Texas. It’s nice to see a preserve with a small ingredient list that packs an awesome favor. The raspberries, blueberries, and marionberries work so well together to bring us a wonderful and flavorful preserve! It does have seeds in it, so beware if that is something you don’t like. One of my favorites! It tastes great on anything from toast, to crackers, to PB&J sandwiches! I’d recommend trying it, and let us know what you think!? Rated 4.75 out of 5. -A

Shiner Prickly Pear Lager from Spoetzl Brewery out of Shiner, Texas. This beer was certainly different from most beers we have reviewed and enjoyed on our own time. When poured it had a clear, light amber hue with a smaller off white head. It was very, very aromatic with a 50/50 tart and fruity smell. It really had a great fragrance. The first sip was a bit of a shock; it was just how it smelled, very tart and sweet. As your palette gets used to the tartness it gets better. It did not taste malty and it wasn’t overly carbonated. The after taste is really where you can taste the prickly pear. It is a very light beer that goes down easy. It might not be everyone’s favorites, but I do recommend giving it a try at least once, it’s certainly a different kind of beer. Rated 3.7 out of 9 –A.
Shiner Prickly Pear from Spoetzl Brewery Shiner Texas. This lager is a limited edition brew. It has a strong citrus smell. When poured it has a light amber color to it and small to medium head. It head kind of a earthy wheat taste to it and a tart pear taste at the end , Due to the prickly pear. It wasn’t very strong tasting and had very little malt taste to it. It is very easy to drink due to its light beer taste. I think this is an average lager rated 3.5 out of 5-D

St. Lucia Bread Company Blueberry Bread out of Dallas, Texas! They have been around for 20 years making delicious handmade bread with natural ingredients. We had gotten a small sample loaf from the Texas State Fair. The bread had a wonderful amount of tasty blueberries and the bread itself was sweet, moist, and flavorful. It had hints of cinnamon and nutmeg and it went perfect with the blueberries. But that I enjoyed most about this bread is that it tasted homemade. It reminded me of things my mother would bake growing up. I can only imagine how awesome the bakery must smell after they bake a few batches of their bread! My only complaint was that I wish we had bought more and different flavors of the bread! But next time we are in Dallas, we are definitely going to get more! Rated 4.95 out of 5. -A

El Fenix Fire Roasted Queso. This Queso was good it was way better than the average jar of Queso. It had lots of spices and had almost reddish orange color due to the fire roasted herbs and spices. The cheese wasn’t too thick or runny. It had a slight heat to the taste and goes well with tortilla chips or poured over your favorite Tex Mex dish. We are a big fan of queso, and we both really enjoyed this one! Rated 4.65 out of 5-D&A

HEB Brand Texas Heritage 3 pepper sausage. This sausage is smoked with Texas pecan wood. It has 3 different types of peppers; hatch, serrano, and jalapeno packed into one juicy sausage. It is made with quality pork and beef. The casing of the sausage was on the thinner side, but nonetheless it had a good snap to it when bitten. It is very juicy and flavorful and is packed with spiciness of the three different peppers. I wouldn’t call it the spiciest sausage I’ve had, but it kept its heat throughout the meal. I would recommend giving it a try at your local HEB! Rated 4.6 out of 5-A
I really liked the taste of the Serrano pepper, it complimented the pork and beef meat in the sausage. The meat also had a nice amount of black pepper in it. I agree with what A said about the casing. I think this is one of the better HEB brand sausages. I recommend it to all if you like a 3 pepper type sausage. Rated 4.8 out of 5-D

Texas Squeeze out of Austin, Texas. Cranberry Juice. This juice tasted sweet and refreshing. It had a crisp, tart cranberry taste and they use filtered Texas water and concentrated Cranberry juice. This juice uses only natural fruit sugars and has no preservatives. It would like to try this drink mixed with some of our fine Texas Vodkas. If you want a good refreshing sweet but not too sweet cranberry juice give this one a try. Rated 4.9 out of 5-D

Oliver’s Fine Foods Downtown Fort Worth, Texas location. I had ordered the Rueben sandwich. First off, this restaurant in downtown Fort Worth is extremely quaint. It’s a great place to stop for great, reasonably priced food while you are walking around downtown. It even has a little section for quick groceries if you need something. The Rueben is one of my favorite kinds of sandwiches and Oliver’s has a delicious one! The corned beef was flavorful and super tender and the sauerkraut was delicious! The marbled rye wasn’t bad either. It’s definitely one of my go to sandwiches at Oliver’s Fine Foods. And the service has always been quick and pleasant every time we go there. Let us know what y’all think if you have been to Oliver’s Fine Foods! Rated 4.8 out of 5- A

Venison Jerky from Taste Texas out of Austin, Texas. This is also a product of their private label. This Jerky had a great venison and beef taste that gave it a lean yet meaty flavor. It wasn’t too dried out and has a nice chew to it. The amount of pepper in the jerky itself was what I really enjoyed about it. There are specks of coarse pepper all over the jerky and it gives it that little punch and compliments the jerky perfectly! Rated 4.8 out of 5-A ! Follow @TasteTexas on Facebook for exciting Texas news and food! For ordering information please contact Taste Texas via Facebook at www.facebook.com/TasteTexasAustin or contact by Phone (512) 215-8671, Email nick@taste-texas.com Also check out their website for this and other Texas made products. Website http://www.taste-texas.com/

Fried Thanksgiving Dinner at the 2013 Texas State Fair in Dallas, Texas. Winner of the Most Creative at the 2013 Big Tex Choice Awards. It’s a big ball of delicious turkey pieces, stuffing, and creamed corn rolled in corn meal and fried to perfect! It’s also served with turkey gravy and cranberry sauce on the side (it would'nt be complete without the gravy and cranberry sauce) It was surprisingly delicious and despite being deep fried, it wasn’t overly greasy. All the ingredients meshed perfectly well together and presentation was also a plus. If y’all are heading to the Texas State Fair, give it a try and tell is what y’all think! Rated 4.79 out of 5 –A
The Deep Fried Thanksgiving Dinner. I really like this! It tasted great it’s no wonder why it won the most creative award. I liked the cornmeal and the stuffing taste, I could taste all the herbs and spices and it had I slight celery taste. It had a nice amount of turkey pieces and I liked the cranberry and turkey gravy(which had small chunks of turkey in it) dipping sauces. Their only fault I could find was they weren’t big enough. I liked this so much I may try to make this with our thanksgiving left over. Rated 4.85 out of 5-D

Venison and Pork Spicy Snack Stick from Taste Texas out of Austin Texas. This is one of their private label jerkies. This is by far my favorite snack stick style jerky. It had a great taste and good amount of heat from the jalapeno powder and red pepper. They used quality ingredients in all their jerky products. The meat had a great consistency and a wonderful snap to it. I also liked the slight garlic flavor that complemented the venison and pork flavor. Also, the pieces are much thicker and bigger than your average store bought sticks and definitely have a much better taste. I would recommend this to anyone that loves snack style jerky- Rated 5 out of 5-D & A! Follow @TasteTexas on Facebook for exciting Texas news and food! For ordering information please contact Taste Texas via Facebook atwww.facebook.com/TasteTexasAustin or contact by Phone (512) 215-8671, Email nick@taste-texas.com Also check out their website for this and other Texas made products. Website http://www.taste-texas.com/

Blue Bell Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream. Blue Bell has rolled out a new flavor y’all! Chocolate and peanut butter has got to be one of my favorite flavor combinations, ever, so I was pretty excited about this one; even if it seems dull against flavors like blueberry cheesecake and birthday cake. Though it was very good, if you are looking for a solid chocolate and peanut butter ice cream, this may not be the one for you. There are plenty of creamy peanut butter swirls throughout, but even when there weren’t peanut butter swirls, it totally blocked and overpowered the rich, chocolate ice cream. The chocolate ice cream was very subdued in this particular flavor. It is a flavor I would personally get again because I am a fan of peanut butter anything, but again, if you are looking for a solid chocolate peanut butter ice cream, in my experience it lacked in the chocolate that Blue Bell always does so well in. Let us know what y’all think if you’ve tried it! Rated 4.6 out of 5 –A.

Oma’s Choice Blueberry Pie out of Schulenburg, Texas. We purchased this miniature pie at the Go Texan Pavilion at the Texas State Fair in Dallas. The pie was appealing with a cute little cut out shape of Texas on top. While the pie was good, I was looking for a more homemade taste to it. I was a little disappointed that the blueberry filling didn’t have any actual whole blueberries in it. It was more like a blueberry jam or filling you see in a generic store bought pie. It was sweet and the crust was flaky but I would have definitely liked to see whole blueberries inside! Let us know if y’all have tried any of Oma’s Choice products! Rated 3.7 out of 5. –A. D rated it a 4 out of 5.

Spicy Buffalo Jerky from Taste Texas out of Austin, Texas. This jerky is from their private label line. This gourmet jerky has a slight jalapeno spice to it that compliments the buffalo meat without overpowering it. It has a nice tender consistency and slight sweet taste from the brown sugar. I really like the buffalo meat mixed in with the beef it kept the jerky moist and flavorful. This is one of the best tasting buffalo jerky I have tasted. This packet had a decent amount of jerky in it. Rated 4.9 out of 5-D. I can’t wait to try more! Follow @TasteTexas on Facebook for exciting Texas news and food! For ordering information please contact Taste Texas via Facebook atwww.facebook.com/TasteTexasAustin or contact by Phone (512) 215-8671, Email nick@taste-texas.com Also check out their website for this and other Texas made products. Website http://www.taste-texas.com/

Texas Squeeze out of Austin, Texas. Grapefruit Juice. This grapefruit juice tasted great. It had a powerful grapefruit taste. I liked that it wasn’t too sweet like other juices I have had. It had a natural sweet taste and they use filtered Texas water and concentrated Rio Red grapefruit juice. This juice uses only natural fruit sugars and has no preservatives. I would recommend this juice to anyone that likes a refreshing grapefruit drink. Also it would taste great as a mixer. Rated 4.9 out of 5-D

Pecan Lodge at the Dallas Farmers Market Shed #2 in Dallas, Texas. We had gotten up early to enjoy the fall temps and head down to the Dallas Famers Market. We had arrived and gotten in line early, around 9:50-55ish (we knew that Pecan Lodge was a very popular BBQ spot) so we were prepared to wait! We had previously tried their chopped beef brisket sandwich at the Untapped Festival in Fort Worth a few months ago and loved it! When they opened up at 11am, we arrived at the counter hoping they didn’t run out of our favorite, beef brisket and beef ribs. Unfortunately, they had just ran out of beef brisket, beef ribs, and pulled pork just two orders before us( oh no!!!!!!) But since we waited in line all that time, we decided to give their sausage and pork ribs a try. Their sausage was very juicy and flavorful once you get past the heavy smoke flavor. I love smoked meats, but the sausage had just a little too much smoke, but it is something I would get again. The pork ribs were awesome! Very, very juicy and flavorful with a lot of meat on the bone and the spice rub was perfect, it didn’t need a drop of sauce! We had also gotten the fried okra, which was fried perfectly, and wasn’t slimy. Good amount of breading to okra ratio. By far my favorite place to have okra. We had also gotten the southwestern beans, which reminded me of black bean soup, because of the choice of seasons put in. It was delicious! Can’t wait to head back out there and camp our around 9am to get our hands on their brisket and beef ribs! Sausage rated 4.1 out of 5, pork ribs rated 4.95 out of 5, fried okra rated 5 out of 5, and the southwestern beans rated 4.7 out of 5. -A
Pecan Lodge Dallas, Texas. We arrived at 9:55am and there was a line of about 40 people ahead of us. They don’t open till 11am. At noon, we got up to the counter to order. The beef ribs, brisket, and pulled pork was sold out. We knew this may happen so we thought getting there when we did would be a good time to still get to try their great brisket. We ended up getting the 2 meat combo with 2 sides. The combo we chose was pork ribs and smoked sausage. The two sides were fried okra and south western pinto beans. Even though we were disappointed that we didn’t get any brisket the meal we had was good. The pork ribs had a nice smoke ring and taste. The ribs were tender and juicy. The smoked sausage was good too, but had too much smoke flavor. The first bite I could only taste the smoke. The sausage had a nice casing and good quality meat. Now to the sides. The fried okra was good and wasn’t fried too much and tasted good. The southwestern beans were good also. They had a different flavor than your usual pinto beans they had a lot of spices and almost a black bean soup kinda taste. Guess next time we try Pecan lodge again we will have to get there sooner. Ribs rated 4.8 out of 5. Sausage rated 4.0 out of 5. Fried okra rated 4.8 out of 5. Southwestern pinto beans rated 4.75 out of 5-D

Ranger Creek Brewing and Distilling out of San Antonio Texas. Small Batch Series #2. This is a Texas Farmhouse Ale. I really like the taste of the Ale. We tried it at a local texas bar that had Texas beer night.It was usually 11 dolars a beer, but this night it was only 3 dollars. It is 7.7% ABV . It was a nice burgundy color. The top of the bottle is cover in wax. I have never seen this before on a beer bottle. This Ale is is marketed as “a traditional Wallonian-style saison brewed with spelt that has been smoked over 4 Texas fruit woods. The use of peach, apricot, apple and plum woods add a subtle smokiness” It has a nice underlining smokey fruit taste. It is a nice summer type ale. Small Batch Series No. 2 was recognized in DRAFT magazine as one of the Top 25 Beers of 2012! Their website explains “Small Batch Series releases are meant to age well over time, so drink a bottle now and save others to enjoy later. They will cellar best in a dark place around 50 degrees. Each batch is brewed and bottled by hand and undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle. Pour carefully so as not to rouse the yeast.” Like I said before I really liked this Ale and recommend it to Anyone that wants to try a really unique Texas farmhouse ale and has a little more money to spend on a Great tasting Ale. Rated 4.9 out of 5-D

Texas Texas Salsa. ”Perfect Hot” style. This salsa company is owned by Sanderson Foods out of Austin Texas They started making salsa in 1997.. This salsa was ok. It wasn’t hot enough for my taste. The label says perfect hot, but it wanst. It does have nice sized chunks out tomatoes, onions and peppers. They use all natural ingredients. It had an average taste and low medium heat to it. I would rate it somewhere in the middle of my favorite Salsa’s. It wasn’t bad but didn’t stand out either. Rated 3 out of 5-D

Revolver Brewing out of Granbury Texas. Sidewinder Ale. This Pale ale was great tasting. One of my favorite Texan pale ales. It had a nice citrus smell and citrus taste to it. It had a light golden color. It is made with regional flavors like Agave nectar. Maize, citrus hops, spices and citrus. It was very smooth and refreshing. The agave nectar gave it a nice slightly sweet taste. It has a 6% abv and doesn’t weigh you down after drinking it. I cant stress how much I like this Ale. Rated 5 out of 5-D Revolver Brewing from Granbury, Texas Sidewinder Ale. We first got a taste of this company at the Fort Worth Untapped Beer Festival earlier in the year and we liked what we tasted. We look forward to everything this Brewery puts out. The Sidewinder Ale is delicious pale ale that was definitely pleasing to the palate. Hints of citrus really jumped out to me with a bit of a salty, herby taste. A good salty herby taste. It was a beautiful light golden color and had a wonderful citrus/herb smell. I recommend giving this beer a try. It’s definitely one of my go to beers for an all-around great tasting beer. Rated 4.95 out of 5 -A

Blue Bell Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream. This ice cream is heaven. I’m all for anything blueberry and Blue Bell does this spin on blueberry cheesecake perfectly. It has cheesecake flavored ice cream that is of course is very smooth, rich and creamy. Generous amounts of cheesecake pieces with graham cracker crust attached (yum). And copious amounts of the sweet blueberry swirl sauce. Every bite had some of the delicious elements to it. It is very rich, so it can get filling very fast. Blue Bell always does such an awesome job on cheesecake flavored ice cream (and pretty much everything they make). Give it a try and if you already enjoy this flavor, let us know what you thought of it! Rated 5 out of 5. -A

Spoetzl Brewery out of Shiner Texas. Shiner Bock. It dawned on me that I have been drinking Shiner for years and haven’t done a review on it. So here it goes. I really like the taste of Shiner Bock. It has a nice light and refreshing taste. It has a medium malty taste and a slightly smokey flavor. It pairs well with any type of BBQ or on its own. It is one of the popular Texas beers. Spoetzl was founded in 1909, and is the oldest independent brewery in Texas. Rated 4.85 out of 5-D