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Food trends, like trends of all other sorts from business to art to comic books, are cyclical. We cycle through salty to sweetness, from bacon to bourbon. Right now we seem to be hopped up on Habanero.

With only the draft still freshly saved on the Habanero honey story, we received a surprise shipment of three Fruit Habanero Jams from Humboldt County's Diane's Sweet Heat. Having found flavor in the pepper jams INNA sent us some time back, we set our expectations to simmer and tasted through. All were noted as "Medium" versus the "Mild" they also sell. Here's what we thought.

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Honey is an amazing substance. It's eternal: Honey found in a Pharaoh's tomb is still edible. It's antibacterial: Wild honey spread on a cut can temporarily suffice in lieu of Bacitracin. And, of course, it's delicious, even if it does still spike your blood sugar. For all its many qualities, the actual packaging of honey hasn't changed much since the Egyptians packed it with their mummies -- other than harvesting honey from various flowering plant sources (a post for another day). It's pretty much strained from the cob, or occasionally not, and placed in a jar or bear. (Okay, those are new-ish.)

But like all things culinary, eventually someone decides there's a reason to tamper, temper, or infuse. Santa Cruz-based Delk Bees Honey has chosen the path of infusion as a way to take their honey to a place no bee has ever flown. Bees have stingers, but these honeys have bite.

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My mother made me Minute Maid from concentrate as a child, and it was good. Then Tropicana created Pure Premium, and it was better. Minute Maid was no longer worthy. When Just Pik't packaged juice fresh squeezed and flash frozen, it was better still, and poor Tropicana became something for lesser souls. Eventually on-site-squeezed orange juice became readily available, and it was the best yet. Just Pik't languished in the freezer section.

Finally, I bought my own juicer, and juiced my own oranges, and it was truly and wholly good. Hours- to day-old store-squeezed juice was relegated to a bulk-item back-up plan, for parties and mimosas. The juice journey was simple, and one way -- there's no turning back the tongue.

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Here's some bittersweet news for anyone who has vicariously savored the San Francisco meals Jonathan Kauffman captures in the exacting, inventive prose of his weekly review column. After two years of serving as SF Weekly's lead food critic and writer, Kauffman is moving on to a new gig as the S.F. editor at Tasting Table. Kauffman will continue writing his weekly column and posts for SFoodie, SF Weekly's food blog, through May 1. Through that time Kauffman will also continue his popular blog series Rice Plate Journal, about Chinatown eateries, and SF 50, a countdown of San Francisco's 50 best dishes.

Kauffman says,

How is writing restaurant criticism for an alt-weekly not a great gig? You get to write about food at all levels, from taco trucks to 18-course tasting menus, and write about it with everything you've got. I'm so glad I got to do it for 11 years -- 13, if you count my first few freelance years at the East Bay Express. I'm excited that I get to continue eating my way around San Francisco -- just in a different role.

We'll miss Kauffman, of course, both as a critic and writer, and as a gracious, charming friend around the office. Still, we are eager to hear from candidates interested in carrying on in his stead. Please see the ad below, spread it wherever food writers/reporters are gathered, and remember: these are some big shoes, here. With just a couple words, Kauffman can make your brain taste.

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When we wrote up Krave's artisan jerky, a reader suggested that Oaktown Jerk made a jerky worth looking into. Then we discovered the new artisan jerky Jerk'N Pickle at the SF Chocolate Salon, and realized that it was time for a jerky-off.

Oaktown Jerk:
Cool label to be sure, but the meat was less inspired than we'd hoped. Oaktown uses grass-fed beef, which is harder to work with and often delivers tougher texture and gamier flavors, which proved to be the case here.

Hickory Smoke -- Mild: Bland to mild in flavor, and a chewy piece of meat.

Hickory Smoke -- Spicy: Bland. Liver-y (or gamey if you prefer) with a modest building of spices.

Sesame Teriyaki
Also bland. Also liver-y.

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At The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen a while back, we noticed a small stack of jars that clearly weren't sodas at the bottom of the drinks cooler. That prompted a sit down with The American's co-owner Nate Pollak, as soon as he finished his shift in the kitchen.

What's with the jars of jam?
You're referring to our famous Apricot-Jalapeno Relish. It's a relish we make in house, and is the featured item on one of our most popular grilled cheese sandwiches, The Jalapeno Popper [It features chèvre, monterey jack, applewood-smoked bacon, apricot-jalapeño relish on levain.]

When and how did you decide to start jarring it?
An employee was making relish one day and misread the recipe and used three times the onions we needed, so we scaled up the recipe and ended up with about 20 gallons, right before Christmas. So I jarred it and pitched it as a holiday gift. It's spicy. It's sweet. It's Sour. People came back and wanted another jar.

So you're doing more?
This is our second jarring. Our third jarring is next week.

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Benoît de Korsak on the pasture with his son Pierre, one of his Jersey cows and his new milk.

Artisan cheese and yogurt makers sing the praises of a small brown cow known as the Jersey. Jerseys produce less milk than some cows but milk with more "solids" (think cream, butter, fat) than Holsteins traditionally used for milk production do. One is optimal for output, the other for flavor.

Saint Benoît -- which we've covered for both its yogurt and its yogurt cheese -- is dedicated to pasture-raised Jerseys for their yogurt and cheese, and they're now packaging their milk on its own.

We found the European style glass bottle (appropriate as the Founder, Benoît, is French) at Whole Foods. It was a hit -- even my son, who only uses milk as a method of moistening cereal, said "This milk is really good." Of course, he then put the half the bowl on the floor for the cat, so I guess even great milk only goes so far.

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Artists pursue all avenues, and for Cassandra Chen, the road of choice is caramel. Chen's San Anselmo-based CC Made Artisanal Caramel produces caramel sauce, individual caramels, and caramel corn, all in small batches, and all by hand. It specializes in a milder set of flavors than the in-your-face nature of traditional candy caramels. The combination brings a "grown up" distinction to some classic childhood treats.

Here's what we tasted when  we sampled CC Made's treats.

​ Caramel Corn

Spiced Almond
An initial flavor like high-end Crunch 'n Munch is followed by a building hit of spice. A bit light on almonds, but when you hit one the combination of tastes is memorable. The heat stays long past the sweetness -- a treat and  also a trick, if you don't tell your friends what to expect.

Pistachio
The caramel corn comes off as a bit less sweet than in the spiced almond mix. The pistachio flavor comes through lightly on the corn even when you don't bite into a pistachio. Since the base ingredients are the same in each mix, either the spice of the pistachio intensifies the sweetness or the variance is due to CC Made's small-batch methods.

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