Found an amazing place right outside of Siena where they grow sangiovese, olives, fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts… all in balance or promiscuo as they say. Not a vineyard, not a farm… I call it a taste palace, maybe there’s a better name out there. I might work with them to install a major solar setup and some biohydrogen generating algae ponds. In my dreams, right?

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I was trying to find a way to keep tracking of a shopping list for all of my grocery shopping, and stumbled upon this facebook page..   My girlfriend and I have been eating a lot of healthy foods, and I’ve found the need to have a list so I can remember things like “Organic Brown Rice Miso Paste” and “organic nutritional yeast”… which by the way taste much better than they sound!

I ended up using a couple of different services to try to manage our grocery grocery shopping lists, especially since prices are really varied and we have to shop at Whole Foods, Weaver Street Market, and Trader Joes, depending upon which items we want to get…  FYI Trader Joes has the best prices on Raw Organic Crunchy Almond Butter ($5 vs. everyone elses $11).   I wasn’t happy with the functionality in many of the services, but found that List2Shop was a pretty good service, as they allow you to organize your shopping lists by the store that you want to shop.

You can easily create a shopping list and print without signing up, but if you create an account, you can save your lists, and if you have an iPhone, login to your account and view the list while you are in the store.  What type of shopping list services do you use, and why do you think it would be better than List2Shop?

With all the smoothie bars opening up and the natural supplements and herbs flooding the market, I’m starting to wonder if we’ll even need solid food in the future. They say that modern day man evolved at the point of creating fire, because it allowed us to cook our food, thereby using less energy on digestion and more energy on mental development and awareness. Could this trend continue to the point where we don’t even need food anymore and get all of our nutrition from liquid energy?

I personally love smoothies and protein shakes. They give me almost everything my body needs. I get vitamins, anti-oxidants, and amino acids (whey protein concentrate and/or whey isolate protein), all of which are the key building blocks to growth, energy and vibrant health. Lol, add in a little metamucil and carbs, and I’m good to go.

However, this new way of eating would obviously take away one of life’s greatest pleasures, that of the taste experience. There’s really nothing better than eating a fresh piece of salmon or some creamy italian gelatto… it’s the texture variety mixed with the blend of tastes. Regardless, I have my juicer and I love my smoothies and  whey shakes. I could definitely see my diet moving more and more to liquid energy as the days go buy. Better for evolution? That’s for you to decide.

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With the holidays approaching, Tastevine is getting back in action. We’ve been letting the site breath for the past 6 months, allowing it to gain organic traffic and start paying for itself. The holiday cheer is feeling good and we’re ready to pair some great wine and great food for the full sensory experience.

One pairing I’ve never had that I’m excited to try is wine andchristmas cookies. A nice cab with a spicy ginger cookie or a chilled riesling with an iced sugar snap. Definitely would serve as a nice treat. Here’s a cool site that gives great christmas cookie recipes. Mom’s Who Think… you gotta love it. You’ll find every imaginable cookie recipe under the sun. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to pair different wines with different types of cookies instead of just having the boring ‘dessert wine’ category.

If you have a moment go through the recipes and make some cookies for your family this holiday season. I think I’m going to try out the German Chocolate Bars and pair it with a Dornfelder, an obscure but popular red grape from Germany. Looking for that inspiration to develop our own portfolio of delectable delicious Tastevine elixirs.

Finally, came across a website that has big potential in the online food space. Foodzie is bringing in specialty gourmet food producers and creating store fronts or hubs for them. Their design is beautiful and minimalist and the pictures make my mouth water . As they say, the point is to romance the food. As far as making money, Foodzie takes a cut off the transaction when food is bought.

I love the artisan producers that they’re working with too. Their alpha producers are Seth Ellis Chocalatier and Boulder Popcorn from Boulder, Co as well as The Dough Nut from Greensboro, NC and Teatulia Teas from Denver, Co.  Shows they see the organic food movement building and how its coming out of these small producers that focus on quality, health, and offer at a reasonable price when connected to consumers through a portal like Foodzie. And with the aggregation strategy, Foodzie will gain great search rankings and bring attention to these small producers who would otherwise never be found.

Here’s Frank Gruber’s interview with the Foodzie team a few months ago at Tech Stars. They seem really sharp and balanced. I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do.

Foodzie: Online Gourmet Food Marketplace from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.