Welcome back to our monthly round table of what the Eater team bought, loved, and can’t stop texting about in the group chat during July. After convening with my coworkers, I think it’s fair to say we’ve been busy figuring out which candles are the best for dinner parties, taste-testing seasonal summer flavors of our favorite desserts (tomato chocolate? check… Salt & Straw’s tomato gelato, we’re coming for you), and finding the best graphic T-shirts for the friend/saint who always asks for “more bread for the table, please?” at Olive Garden.
Last month, we loaded up on buckets of Maldon salt and the Platonic ideal of dirty martini olives and brought home a pre-seasoned tadka spoon. During July, I noticed that some of my best food-related purchases were for other people — (is it just me, or are there a whole bunch of birthdays in the summer?) — and while I’m a big fan of birthdays in general, I think the trifecta of Gemini, Cancer, and Leo season feels the most festive. What better way to celebrate a friend than over an ice cold margarita on a balmy bar patio with fireflies, or (literally) touching grass together at a park picnic? My coolest presents last month — chic bug-repellent shawls and a kit for assembling Portillo’s legendary hot dogs at home — beget outdoor living, laughing, and loving.
That’s just the tip of the Dubai chocolate sundae, so let’s unpack more of the best stuff the Eater staff bought in July, from strawberry-themed phone chains to pint-sized portable blenders.
A dinner party candle with the right amount of stage presence
I’ve been struggling with candles recently. Sure,I like my Earl Grey lavender one, and I gave the Trader Joe’s grapefruit one an earnest try, but I’ve found that most candles in my collection compete awkwardly with the smells of cooking (most of my apartment is just one big room). I find it sensorily confusing to smell matcha while eating a bowl of pasta, for example. I’d gotten whiffs of Big Night’s signature dinner party-inspired candle at its events, where it does what a candle should do: lend a pleasant waft every so often but not overwhelm, especially in the presence of food. Finally, I decided to go for it and get the Dinner Party candle. With notes of herbs, saffron, and a little wood, its green yet warm scent hangs in the air in a way that complements whatever I’m cooking or eating, but without the lemon Pledge vibe of some candles. —Bettina Makalintal, senior reporter at Eater
Tomato chocolate… yes, tomato chocolate
While I love chocolate and I love tomato season, I always thought that those affinities would have virtually zero crossover in a Venn diagram. Wrong! Compartés, one of my favorite innovative modern chocolate companies, just dropped its summer collection, and among the offerings is this bright red tomato-flavored chocolate bar. Before trying it, I thought it would be like one of those zany “Salted Zucchini Bourbon Vanilla Brie”-type ice cream flavors that’s interesting but ultimately not terribly appetizing, but I was wrong; it’s great! It somehow manages to accurately capture the umami flavor of a ripe summer tomato and infuse it into a delicate, creamy white chocolate base. Sometimes I forget that tomatoes are a fruit and that they’re versatile enough to venture outside of the savory spectrum. — Hilary Pollack, senior commerce editor
This lightweight, ginormous stockpot
Will I unabashedly praise Eater’s cookware collaboration with Heritage Steel? Well, yes, because in the 20 years that Eater has existed, our food-obsessed team has spent a lot of time figuring out what works (and what doesn’t) with stainless steel cookware. Every piece from the Eater x Heritage Steel line is made in the US out of 5-ply stainless steel that’s durable but lightweight, which is the perfect combination for this 8-quart lidded stock pot; when I’m making a double batch of pasta in the summer, it’s so helpful to not be heaving around a heavy, cast-iron pot. — Francky Knapp, commerce writer
This coconut syrup is now my favorite way to sweeten anything
I’m not sorry that I love sweets — truly, you can pry them from my cold, dead hands. But I do try to be conscious of what makes the cut for my daily sugary-stuff allotment; it must be delicious and worth any potential future dental work. I didn’t know coconut syrup was a thing until recently, but I’m obsessed: It’s rich and molasses-like, but with a more mild flavor than maple syrup (yes, it is a little bit coconutty), and it’s now my go-to for topping yogurt, ice cream (shoutout to my Creami for helping me survive hot summer temps), pancakes, or even adding to coffee or tea. — HP
This retro-inspired Scandinavian coffee maker
To be honest, I have very low expectations when it comes to coffee makers. I grew up in a family that worshipped their espresso machine and milk frother, with my parents consuming at least three lattes each day and teaching me how to be a full barista by eight years old. Growing up with all that pomp and circumstance surrounding caffeine consumption, as an adult, I now just want a coffee maker that’s simple to use, doesn’t take up too much space, and looks cute in my kitchen. This Bodum coffee maker exceeds all those expectations; just press the power button twice on the simple LED screen to immediately brew a pot of coffee or program the machine to brew you a cup up to 24 hours later. Inside, a cute little showerhead evenly distributes water over an easy-to-clean metal filter, which brews delicious java and is way more sustainable than buying paper filters. Finally, the Mondrian-esque color blocking subtly decorates my kitchen and the minimalist machine takes up only a little bit of counter space. Gone are the days of spending 10 minutes finagling my retro espresso machine every morning while still only half awake. If you’re also a coffee-drinker with simple tastes that just needs their caffeine fix as soon as possible every morning, this is a game changer. — Emily Venezky, editorial associate
Portillo’s world-famous hot dogs, straight to my mom’s door
You can take the woman (my mother) out of the Midwest, but you can’t take away her desire for Portillo’s legendary Chicago-style hot dogs. I ordered this hot dog kit from the restaurant for her birthday, and it shipped in just a few days, for free, and included everything you need to recreate the magic at home: 10 hot dogs, 10 poppy seed buns, yellow mustard (no ketchup, of course), green relish, celery salt, and a jar of sport peppers. — FK
Ninja’s super tiny and easy-to-use portable Blast blender
I have a huge blender from That Big Blender Company Everyone Loves and I’m going to be honest with you: I kind of hate it. Ninety percent of the time that I need to use a blender, it’s to make a single-serving smoothie or a modest amount of sauce, and I do not want to fumble with loading and cleaning a pitcher the size of a fish tank to make, like, one glass of Bluenana Breeze or whatever. This month, I got a Ninja Blast, and it’s so tiny in the best way possible! You can literally drink your smoothie out of it without removing the cup from the motorized base because it’s so light and small. It has just two buttons, comes in a million colors (I went with the metallic olive green), and is cordless and rechargeable, so you could easily take it with you on a weekend trip or to a party. This is the exact no-frills compact blender I need; zero wrangling, no huge parts. — HP
Your everyday coffee doesn’t have to be boring
My husband loves space, and he loves orange cats. Accordingly, I was instantly intrigued when I saw this bag of beans from the Austin-based Sightseer Coffee Roasters, which features an orange cat as an astronaut on its label. I’ve been on the hunt for a good everyday coffee: something not too dark but not too bright either, easy to sip black, and ideally with some berry-ish notes. I tend to like Ethiopian beans and these hit all of my criteria. I’ve already restocked with two more bags, looking forward to starting my mornings with that goofy space cat. —BM
Last Crumb’s seriously decadent key lime pie cookie
Last Crumb’s cookies are internet-famous, for good reason: They’re elaborate, unique, decadent, and, of course, doughy and delicious. I love a cookie with a soft, melt-in-your-mouth interior and Last Crumb really nails it with the fillings. (They made Keith Lee’s eyes roll into the back of his head, if that means anything to you.) I was blessed to try the Summertime Collection this month, and lord, there are some absolute BANGERS in this (admittedly very pricey and luxurious) box of cookies. My absolute favorites are the Florida Man (basically a miniature key lime pie, complete with a fluffy meringue-like topping), the Tokyo Zest (a yuzu cheesecake cookie), and the Donkey Kong, a banana cream pie creation that is arguably Last Crumb’s most famous and celebrated cookie — and, if you like banana like me, the best cookie you’ve ever had in your life. — HP
Emma Bridgewater’s floral English earthenware mugs
You know that trope of ultimately, slowly, turning into some version of your mother? I welcome it wholeheartedly, especially if it means growing her collection of Emma Bridgewater’s mugs. The English ceramics company is well-known for its earthenware pottery, which is often hand-painted with animals, flowers, and other cottagecore staples. I gifted this cornflower mug to my mother for her birthday, and aside from looking really cute it also feels good to hold; the candle is curved just so, and the slightly larger bottom gives it the appropriate amount of weight. — FK
Everyone’s thinking it (the shirt’s just saying it)
If you’re the Table Mom of your group, this shirt is made for you. This off-white Pasta Dept. Tee takes care of the need to ask for more bread because it’s not a matter of whether you’ll ask for extra bread, but when. The puff ink design gives this shirt extra oomph rather than the (eventually) crackly iron-on designs of other shirts, and it arrives in the mail inside on-brand bread packaging. — Dianne de Guzman, regional editor
I can’t stop eating this spicy, garlicky Palestinian dip
I know that Palestine is renowned for its high-quality olive oil, but I’m a newly obsessed shatta stan; this condiment from Canaan Palestine is a blend of hot chiles, garlic, olive oil, and Dead Sea salt that I put on eggs, fish, meat, and (my personal favorite) drizzled over labneh with some crusty bread. It’s kind of doing the same thing for me that chile crisp did when I first discovered it (meaning: going on everything, all the time). — FK
Ossa’s hella sparkly strawberry phone chain
I have a huge purse, and always have to put some sort of tactile accessory on my cell phone so that I can easily find it while rifling around in my cavernous, seemingly bottomless bag. This month, I decided I’d had enough of my Octobuddy (although it was, admittedly, very useful) and switched to this more luxe-feeling, crystal-emblazoned strawberry chain. In addition to being almost unreasonably sparkly (I get compliments on it from strangers literally every day), it has a really nice feel in your hand that gives it an ASMR element, too. — HP
