Looking like a typical 12 fl oz can, the contents is only 9.6 fl oz so the can is light and you can tell there’s space inside.

Not very sweet, minimal nitro bubble feel to the drink.

Am I supposed to shake this? The directions on the back say to “Gently tilt can once…”

Nitrogen is on the ingredients list, albeit last.

Consistency is thin and definitely not creamy like an Ito-en canned drink. The entire can is only 45 Calories though.

Cost is high, around $4 per can?? Or was it 2 for $4? I would only get again if it were on sale.

Here’s a quick video of what it sounds like when the can is opened.

Here’s my filling Mexican Loco Moco.

The food was so satisfying that we ventured to the Humane Society and almost adopted a dog, Reebok. Say what?

I submitted my mini review to Zappos for my recent purchase of the Nike Zoom Wildhorse, and it goes like this:

Lightweight and great looking but very snug. After a few wears and runs, the shoe still feels tight. It’s okay for short runs, but I’m not sure if the snugness will affect longer runs. You’ll notice the 4mm differential, but it’s not extreme. You do feel closer to the ground compared to regular running shoes. Keep in mind, these are not Nike+ shoes and don’t have space for the running sensor.

Yeah, I don’t know why but these shoes are bordering on tight. If you’re running with thicker socks, then definitely go up a half size. These trail shoes talk about the height difference between the heel and forefoot being 4mm. You can tell these shoes feel flatter and lower than traditional running shoes, but they don’t feel that different.

The rounded anatomical heel seems gimmicky especially with the angular lugs, but it looks cool. The Wildhorse isn’t well cushioned to keep that lean 4mm differential, but the tradeoff of feeling what’s underfoot is worth it. The outer layer hides dirt well so these shoes won’t look trashed after a few runs.

My only misgiving with the Wildhorse? It’s not a Nike+ shoe. There’s no space for the Nike+ running sensor that works with diminutive iPods. So if you want to track your runs, you’d need to use an iPhone or something else.

Some pictures of the Nike Zoom Wildhorse in black spruce, total orange, and flash lime.

Here’s my very first TripAdvisor review – “Changed my view of fishing!”

Read my Yelp review for the non-Starbucks in Skagway, AK.

More coffee experiences captured in Coffee While Cruising – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

So anyways on Yelp, there’s a mix of good and bad reviews for Tam’s Shoe Repair Shop. Overall, I had a good (no great) experience so I gave my review. I’d recommend using Tam’s Shoe Repair Shop for luggage repairs but your mileage may vary. And yes, I can live with a blue handle on my black suitcase.

Read my Yelp review of Tam’s Shoe Repair Shop.

1. Buyer Beware the TVPad
2. I Want to Draw the Linsanity!
3. Belkin Grip Candy Sheer Black and Green
4. Making Sense of Your iPhone 5 Order Status
5. Vote for Vawer!
6. iOS 6 Install Frozen?
7. iPhone 5 Screen Flicker Problem
8. Thunder and Lightning Olympic Jordans
9. Dwyane Wade, Why Are You Leaving Team Jordan?
10. Itâ€s Winter Online!

Yeah, pretty tame stuff so I can see how these posts didn’t rate highly against my older material. I mean how can iPhone 5 problems, a complaint with the TVPad, and news from the house of Jordan compete against Hawaiian slang, a ghetto latte, Abercrombie & Fitch, LEGOs, Club 939, Taylor Lautner, and a moose knuckle?

Now, I don’t know if there is a correlation between posts and revenue earned from ads on Pulpconnection. But here’s a comparison for this past year. The number of posts is indicated by the green bars while advertising performance is the red line.

I don’t spot a trend, but I like what happened in October. For the month with the least amount of posts, it looks like my second highest earning month. I need to look into this, early Christmas shopping perhaps?

1. 21 Slang Words You Should Know Before Visiting Hawaii (Part 1) (2009)
2. Starbucks Red Eye, Black Eye, and Ghetto Latte (2007)
3. Starbucks Gold Is Now Starbucks Rewards (2009)
4. Buyer Beware the TVPad (2012)
5. 21 Slang Words You Should Know Before Visiting Hawaii (Part 2) (2009)
6. Abercrombie & Fitch Ruckus (2008)
7. Lots and Lots of Legos (2009)
8. Was That a DWTS Moose Knuckle, Gilles? (2009)
9. Possible Day Biz Model for Club 939 (2009)
10. Taylor Lautner, the Next Calvin Klein Underwear Model? (2009)

From these stats, it seems that my blogging peaked in 2009 with 7 of the top 10 posts written in ’09. The only post from 2012 in the Top Ten was my Buyer Beware the TVPad post.

Accordingly, the top search terms drawing in viewers mirror the most viewed posts. Here are the top Pulpconnection keywords for 2012.

1. hawaiian slang
2. starbucks gold card
3. starbucks red eye
4. tvpad
5. starbucks black eye
6. red eye starbucks
7. hawaii slang
8. hawaiian slang words
9. moose knuckle
10. cafe lu

First off, this cream looks watery, pouring a little too freely from the bottle. My so-far-new-favorite, Italian Sweet Creme, pours “thicker” making it look richer and creamier. You can definitely taste the hints of black cherry in the cream, but its flavor is forced. There’s the coffee then there’s the fruity black cherry. The streusel part doesn’t bridge the two tastes.

I’ve been on the lookout for a good, fruity coffee cream since they sound so refreshing. The best I’ve had so far have been the Chocolate Raspberry and Coconut Creme. I won’t be adding Black Cherry Streusel to this list.

I went with a Doubleshot on Ice + Energy which contains vitamin B, ginseng, and guarana for some extra mental sharpness. At first, I thought this drink was a cop out using the canned Starbucks Doubleshot drink as its base. The barista corrected me and said they make the drink fresh.

It seemed like I was the first one to order this drink, at least for the workers on this shift. The cashier didn’t know how to ring up the Energy extra. Then the barista didn’t know that SD written on the side of the cup stood for Starbucks Doubleshot. And while assembling the drink, she had to repeatedly look at an instruction sheet. But she did have one great suggestion, telling me to go with the soy milk. Next to mom, I figured barista knows best so I agreed and was not disappointed.

The concoction is shaken and looks good when put together. It’s already pre-sweetened, and the espresso base has bold flavors, but the soy milk soothes the overall taste. With the caffeine, ginseng, and guarana, my caffeine-meter was pegged. Afterwards, I swear my pee was a fluorescent yellow brighter than a highlighter. Ewww, but true.

Anyways, I’d definitely get this drink again. I might try it in its classic form with 2% milk just for comparison sakes. While the Doubleshot on Ice + Energy doesn’t sound tasty, it is pretty darn good.

Technorati Tags: caffeine, coffee, Starbucks

Cost of the Pike’s is not exorbitant. And I may have actually seen the Pike’s roast advertised previous to this while in the Land of FAT. I now see that a misto has been added to the Hawaii menu while I’ve already had a misto on my trip. I thought I remember seeing a Pikes roast on a FAT Starbucks menu… too bad I didn’t take a picture of the menu.

Oh well, here’s my free sample early in the morning.

The cup’s logo went old school but a little edited to censor the mermaid’s boobies.

Technorati Tags: caffeine, coffee, Starbucks

The other day I get an email from Starbucks announcing their new summer drink, a raspberry mocha. Hey, a good combination – raspberry and chocolate! Just like the chocolatey, fruity goodness.

So I finally made it to a Starbucks to try out this new drink with high expectations. At first sip, my impression was yuck!

Starbucks describes the iced version of this drink as:

the cool tastes of raspberries and rich chocolate mingle with our premium espresso and milk, poured over ice and topped with whipped cream and raspberry drizzle.

And there’s the problem I think, the raspberry drizzle. So basically this drink is a regular iced mocha with a raspberry syrup layered on top. That’s why it tastes, well, like a mocha with raspberry flavoring added in. The chocolate and raspberry flavors aren’t mixed together to fuse the flavors. You taste chocolate. You taste raspberry. But you don’t taste chocolate raspberry if you know what I mean.

Maybe I overhyped the drink for myself, so I’ll have to give it another shot. As a comparison, I’d rather drink the Starbucks Orange Mocha. Although similarly made, the orange and chocolate combo is funky to drink. I wonder if the Orange Mocha is still available with the introduction of the Raspberry Mocha?

Blueberries and coffee? That’s not a typical combination I think of, but that’s the latest Coffee-mate creamer to enter the market. I saw the Coffee-mate Blueberry Cobbler creamer at Safeway and had to try it out.

Fruity flavors must be the theme for summer with Starbucks’ orange drinks and now this blueberry creamer. What does it taste like? Imagine a piece of blueberry cobbler. Now dunk it into your coffee cup, and you got it. This creamer smells authentic, but for me, the taste took a little getting used to since I’m not used to blueberries and coffee. Raspberry, yes. Orange, yes. Coconut, yes. Blueberry, not yet.

Coffee-mate has mastered the scent of their creamers which greatly influences taste. You smell blueberry cobbler, so you think blueberry cobbler, then you taste blueberry cobbler. Same with their chocolate raspberry flavor (which I haven’t seen around for a bit).

So if you want something a little bit different for your morning cup, have some blueberry cobbler with your coffee.

At first, the orange flavor hits you like a citrus kick in the pants, but then it’s a weird contrast of fruit, chocolate, and coffee. Each flavor is pretty distinctive and doesn’t really blend together. You taste the orange, you taste the mocha, and you taste the coffee… all separately. I prefer drinks with a blended taste, smoothed out like Maxi Priest’s Groovin in the Midnight if you know what I mean.

Anyways, the drink will last through the hot summer, and I’ll probably give it a second shot. The wintery Peppermint Mocha is still Starbucks’ seasonal drink to beat.

9.5 oz, 200 calories, 6% of your daily fat, 12% of your daily sat. fat. Forgot how much it costs.

My first sip… ah, so so. Creamy. Doesn’t taste very dark though haven’t compared to the other Godiva drinks. I would try the other two flavors (milk chocolate mocha and French vanilla latte) but probably stop after that. Nothing exceptional about this drink.

Just for background sakes, I’m not a fan of sweet frappuccino drinks either. I prefer iced coffee/latte-based drinks over ice blended drinks. Though Coffee Bean and Tea’s Ice Blended Mocha is an exception since they’re the OG of ice blended drinks.

Update: 15 minutes have gone by, and I’m starting to feel a caffeine buzz bordering on a headache. Not sure what the caffeine content is – this drink isn’t yet listed in the Caffeine Database.

Technorati Tags: caffeine, coffee

Saw this new bottled iced coffee, Jablum Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, at the nearby Nene Goose Bakery so I gave it a try. Labeled as “The Coffee Experience Beyond Compare,” the drink started out good but didn’t finish well. It’s kinda sweet and creamy and tastes really good in the beginning. At the end though, it was too much creaminess and not enough coffee flavor.

A bottle of Jablum costs about $2.40 for a 9.5 FL oz. bottle which is expensive. Since this coffee experience is beyond compare, I won’t be comparing it to other coffee drinks and in fact, I won’t be getting any more.

I also sampled Coffee-mate’s new creamer flavor, Coconut Creme. The coconut flavor is pretty mild, but the aroma is great. Before you sip your coffee, you can smell that coconut and anticipate the taste. I think Coffee-mate learned this with their Chocolate Raspberry flavor. Same deal, great smell that enhances the flavor as you take a sip.

Lastly, I never did try my Wolfgang Puck Gourmet Latte in a self-heating can. I was holding on to it for just the right moment (like a power outage when I needed a caffeine fix), but now, I read this article talking about defects in the can that can cause serious damage to the consumer. Unofficially, about one in every five cans has some type of problem – not heating properly, funny taste, or even an exploding can. Yikes! Maybe I’ll hold on to my can and sell it on eBay in the future.

Joining the Double Shot, Starbucks is introducing a new canned drink, simply named “Iced Coffee.”

A light, refreshing Iced Coffee drink made with Starbucks Italian Roast coffee and just a hint of milk and sugar.

Starting May 1, local Starbucks is supposed to have samples of this new drink sold in grocery stores.

So before you go in to ask your boss for a raise, be sure to pick up a few cans, offer one to your boss, and hope the persuasive effects of caffeine kicks in.