Author: Marvo

NEWS: New Yoplait Simplait Yogurt Is Redait To End Up In Your Tummait

Marvo 8 Comments

Update: Click here to read our Yoplait Simplait Strawberry Yogurt review

Here’s the ingredients list for Yoplait’s Strawberry Yogurt: cultured pasteurized Grade A low fat milk, sugar, strawberries, modified corn starch, nonfat milk, Kosher gelatin, citric acid, tricalcium phosphate, colored with carmine, natural flavor, pectin, vitamin A acetate, and vitamin D3.

That’s 13 ingredients.

I don’t think that’s a lot, but Yoplait is cutting that number in half with their new Yoplait Simplait Yogurt. The new variety is made from a combination of six ingredients, which include cultured pasteurized grade A milk, fruit, sugar, corn starch, natural flavor and a vegetable or fruit juice or extract or pectin.

Yoplait Simplait will start appearing on store shelves this month and come in four flavors — strawberry, vanilla, peach, and blackberry. The six-ingredient yogurt will be available in six-ounce containers, have a suggested retail price of 90 cents, and provide seven grams of protein.

Seven grams?

So if I workout, maybe eating Yoplait Simplait will help make me sexait.

SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 8/1/2012

Marvo 4 Comments

Here are some new products found on store shelves by us and your fellow readers. We may or may not review them, but we’d like to let you know what new items are popping up. We’ll also occasionally throw in an unusual product.

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Oh yeah, 43 percent of our daily value of fiber! Fiber One Nutty Clusters & Almonds have a great nutty taste and if I eat too much, any sudden moves may make me accidentally fart in someone’s face. Forty-three percent may sound like a lot, but original Fiber One cereal provides 57 percent of our daily value of fiber. I really hope in my lifetime we see Fiber One break the 60 percent barrier.

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Lean Cuisine Veggie Cuisine have been around for over six months, but only in select regions. I’ve been looking forward to trying them for the past six months, but they only showed up recently at my local Safeway. The fake meat used in the entrees are from a company called Gardein. I’ve tried some of Gardein’s products and I thought they were tasty, although they were also a bit pricey. These Lean Cuisine Veggie Cuisine entrees are also expensive. I hope they go on sale soon.

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Simple Mornings? They probably won’t seem so simple if I’m trying to make them in the morning while getting ready for work. Along with Cinnamon Streusel, Simple Mornings also comes in Apple Cinnamon, Blueberry Streusel, Chocolate Chip, Triple Chocolate Chunk, and Wild Maine Blueberry.

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Oooh, more meat-free frozen entrees from a company whose products I usually see next to the tofu at the supermarket and completely avoid. Along with the Bella Portabella Tuscan Chik’n and Amaz’n Asian Sesame Chik’n you see above, Lightlife also offers Ole Santa Fe Chik’n and Perfecto Penne Primavera with Meatless Crumbles.

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It may be good for my prostate, but it sounds like it would be horrible for my taste buds. (Thanks for the photo, Canton!)

If you’re out shopping and see a new product on the shelf (or really unusual), snap a picture of it, email it to us at [email protected] with “Spotted” in the subject line, and you might see it in our next Spotted on Shelves post.

REVIEW: Snack Pack Bakery Shop Pudding Cups (Apple Pie a la Mode, Chocolate Cupcake, & Lemon Meringue Pie)

Marvo 4 Comments

Snack Pack Bakery Shop Pudding Cups

I love bakeries.

I love the smells that fart out of their ovens. No matter what it is–bread, cake, or pastries–they create an ever so tempting scent, an aromatic come hither, if you will. Following it will always lead me to a carbohydrate and sugar bedspread with a rack of luscious cupcakes and creamy pies.

It’s hard to resist the all the wonderful doughy treats with that aroma pulling me by the nose. Unfortunately, the tickling of my olfaction was something I didn’t experience with Hunt’s new Snack Pack Bakery Shop Pudding Cups.

The Snack Pack Bakery Shop line consists of five flavors: Apple Pie a la Mode, Chocolate Cupcake, Lemon Meringue Pie, Banana Cream Pie, and Sugar Cookie. Because I watch too many baking reality shows, I was disappointed to see red velvet cake wasn’t one of the flavors. Maybe it’ll end up in the second round of flavors…if there is a second round, because the three flavors I tried weren’t that impressive.

Chocolate Cupcake didn’t taste like a chocolate cupcake, but it did taste like regular chocolate pudding, which I guess isn’t a bad thing since chocolate pudding tastes good. Maybe there were little nuances my tongue didn’t catch that made it taste like a cupcake, or maybe all the chocolate cupcakes I’ve ever eaten have been shitty and they’re really supposed to taste like chocolate pudding. I don’t know.

What I do know is the top pudding layer, which I assume represents frosting, comes in the gloomy color of gray. If the picture on the packaging is correct, it looks like it should’ve been white, but it’s not. I don’t know about you, but gray isn’t an appetizing color. But then again, maybe I feel this way because I’ve seen a lot of poi here on this rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The Lemon Meringue Pie flavor didn’t have any issues with gloomy pudding. Its top layer was as white as my mostly indoor-restricted body is. The lemon flavor, which comes from lemon juice concentrate, wasn’t as tangy as I hoped it would be, but I swear I could taste a bit of pie crust. The ingredients list doesn’t specifically say it contains pie crust, so I’m going to assume it falls under the vague “Natural Flavors” part of the list. It’s a nice flavor and it’s not too sweet, even though it has 18 grams of sugar per serving, but I could see someone easily mistaking this for regular lemon pudding.

My favorite of the three was Apple Pie a la Mode, even though it didn’t have any a la mode flavor. The top layer was cinnamon-y, while the bottom was mostly apple-y with a little cinnamon. There were little specks of spice floating throughout the bottom layer, but I’m not sure if that was supposed to represent cinnamon or vanilla bean. Even though the pudding’s hues look like Old Navy cargo short color options and it doesn’t really taste like apple pie, I enjoyed it the most because it had a pleasant apple cinnamon flavor and it didn’t seem like a rehash of another Snack Pack flavor.

All three flavors lack high fructose corn syrup and preservatives, and the packaging also boasts they have “0 Grams of Trans Fat Per Serving,” but that’s not really true since each flavor contains partially hydrogenated oils, which creates trans fat. (Insert science here). Unfortunately, the FDA allows trans fat levels of less than 0.5 grams per serving to be listed as 0 grams trans fat on the food label. So there’s trans fat that I wish wasn’t there.

You know what else I wish wasn’t there? The word “shop” in the name Snack Pack Bakery Shop. Who says, “bakery shop”? Not even old people say bakery shop. If I want cake, I’ll go to a bakery. If I want a car, I’m not going to go to a car dealership shop. And, if I want to buy more of these Snack Pack Bakery Shop Pudding Cups, which I probably won’t, I’m not going to go to a supermarket shop.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 pudding cup – Apple Pie a la Mode – 100 calories, 3 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat*, 125 milligrams of sodium, 18 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 13 grams of sugar, less than 1 gram of protein, and 30% calcium. Chocolate Cupcake – 110 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat*, 140 milligrams of sodium, 19 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 13 grams of sugar, 1 gram of protein, and 30% calcium. Lemon Meringue Pie – 120 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat*, 60 milligrams of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 18 grams of sugar, 0 grams of protein, and 10% calcium.)

*contains partially hydrogenated oils

Item: Snack Pack Bakery Shop Pudding Cups (Apple Pie a la Mode, Chocolate Cupcake, & Lemon Meringue Pie)
Purchased Price: $1.27 each
Size: 4 pack
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Apple Pie a la Mode)
Rating: 5 out of 10 (Chocolate Cupcake)
Rating: 5 out of 10 (Lemon Meringue Pie)
Pros: Apple Pie a la Mode doesn’t taste like a rehash of another pudding flavor. Some flavors provide 30% daily value of calcium. No HFCS. No preservatives. Chocolate pudding is still good. The crust flavor my tongue swears it tasted in the Lemon Meringue Pie.
Cons: Chocolate Cupcake tastes like any other chocolate pudding. Gray color of top layer of Chocolate Cupcake. Lemon Meringue Pie could easily be mistaken for regular lemon pudding. Contains partially hydrogenated oils. Not really adventurous flavors. Bakery Shop is redundant.

NEWS: Limited Edition Milky Way French Vanilla and Caramel To Hit Shelves in 2013

Marvo 4 Comments

Update (11/5/2012): It turns out it’s on shelves now. Here’s our review.

The Limited Edition Milky Way French Vanilla and Caramel won’t be available until February 2013.

Yup, Mars announces new candy bars half a year before they’re scheduled to be released. What an awesome way to build up excitement, let all of us forget about it, and then surprise us again when they finally release it.

About two weeks after you read this post, you’ll probably forget it’s coming because, to be honest, the combination of French vanilla-flavored nougat and caramel is kind of forgettable.

The 1.72-ounce Limited Edition Milky Way French Vanilla and Caramel bar will have a suggested retail price of $1.09.

REVIEW: Pepsi Next Cherry Vanilla & Pepsi Next Paradise Mango

Marvo 18 Comments

Cherry Vanilla Pepsi Next & Paradise Mango Pepsi Next

Crystal Pepsi must be jealous of the reduced sugar Pepsi Next. During its year of existence, Pepsi never released other Crystal Pepsi flavors. Diet Crystal Pepsi doesn’t count.

But the reduced calorie Pepsi Next has been around for just four months and it already has two new varieties — Cherry Vanilla and Paradise Mango.

I know that probably would make Crystal Pepsi so mad it would want to pop its top, but it would struggle to do so because, after 20 years, all its carbonation is gone. Well, at least there is some love for Crystal Pepsi, in the form of a disorganized effort to bring it back via numerous Facebook fan pages.

Cherry vanilla is a flavor we’ve seen before from Pepsi. Remember Pepsi Cherry Vanilla and Diet Pepsi Cherry Vanilla? You don’t? Well, the Internet does and so do I. Pepsi Next Cherry Vanilla smells more like Pepsi Vanilla than Pepsi Wild Cherry, but in my mouth the vanilla and cherry flavors are equally balanced. Because of that, it has a milder cherry flavor than Pepsi Wild Cherry. There’s a slight artificial sweetener aftertaste, but it’s far less harsh than Diet Pepsi.

As for Pepsi Next Paradise Mango, its aroma didn’t register as mango to my nose, instead it smelled more like apricots. Because of my past experiences with mango flavored beverages, I presumed this soda was going to have an extremely artificial mango flavor, but I was pleasantly surprised that wasn’t the case. I don’t know how the mad scientists at Pepsi did it, but they created a cola with a nearly authentic mango flavor. I say, “nearly” because its aftertaste is a bit artificial and the soda as a whole becomes a little more unnatural tasting the warmer it gets.

Now this is the part of the review where I bring up aspartame and high fructose corn syrup. Just like regular Pepsi Next, both of these flavors contain the sweeteners. If the comments in our original Pepsi Next review are any indication, people have strong negative opinions about them and they like to share those opinions with other people. For those of you who don’t want to look back through the 100+ comments, here’s what I vaguely remember the comment thread looked like.

Commenter #1: “Aspartame is evil!”

Commenter #2: “High fructose corn syrup is making everyone fat! It’s evil!”

Commenter #1: “No, aspartame is evil!”

Commenter #2: “No, HFCS is evil!”

Commenter #1: “ASPARTAME!”

Commenter #2: “HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!”

Commenter #1: “Oh my God, you’re so hot when you’re angry! Let’s make out!”

Commenter #2: “Okay!”

Commenter #1: “Mmmmm.”

Commenter #2: “Mmmmm.”

Commenter #1: “Oooh baby, you have a fine, tight aspartame.”

Yup, I believe the comments went something like that.

Pepsi Next Cherry Vanilla & Pepsi Next Paradise Mango are both really good. I want to say they’re a step above regular Pepsi Next, but that could be my taste buds talking who are slightly tired of Pepsi Next since I’ve been drinking a lot of it over the past few months. These two new Pepsi Next flavors should continue to make Crystal Pepsi jealous because they’re good enough to ensure the Pepsi Next line will exist longer than Crystal Pepsi did.

Disclosure: We received free Pepsi Next Cherry Vanilla & Pepsi Next Paradise Mango samples from the fine bubbly folks at Pepsi in order to do this review. They came in a nice plexiglass box with a beach scene at the bottom of it with real sand. To be honest, I don’t know what I’m going to do with the box.

(Nutrition Facts – 12 ounces – 60 calories, 0 grams of fat, 60 milligrams of sodium, 16 grams of carbohydrates, 15 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.)

Item: Pepsi Next Cherry Vanilla & Pepsi Next Paradise Mango
Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 12 ounces
Purchased at: Received from the folks at Pepsi
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Cherry Vanilla)
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Paradise Mango)
Pros: If you enjoy Pepsi Next and your taste buds want more variety, these will do nicely. Less sugar than regular Pepsi. Equal balance of cherry and vanilla. Nearly authentic mango flavor. Going to be around longer than Crystal Pepsi.
Cons: 38 mg of caffeine per can. Slight artificial sweetener aftertaste. Too many bring back Crystal Pepsi Facebook fan pages. Mango flavor becomes a little unnatural as the soda gets warmer. Those who hate aspartame and/or HFCS will not like it.