SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 5/22/2012

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.

DiGiorno Pizza & Cinnamon Sticks

DiGiorno has combined their pizza with breadsticks, chicken wyngz, and cookies, so, mathematically, cinnamon sticks had to happen. This product got me thinking about how DiGiorno should make a cinnamon roll pizza. Instead of tomato sauce, it would have a layer of cinnamon, and the cheese would be replaced with white icing. Mmm…diabedelicious.

Cape Cod Chef's Recipe

Cape Cod Waffle Cut

Cape Cod Whole Grain

Kettle cooked potato chip maker and diet breaker Cape Cod has a bunch of new chips. First, there’s the Chef’s Recipes potato chip line, which was inspired by a real chef named Weldon Fizell who runs the Regatta Restaurant in Cotuit, MA. It comes in two flavors: Feta & Rosemary and Roasted Garlic & Red Pepper. Next, there’s the Kettle Cooked Waffle Cut Chips, which is available in Sea Salt and Seasoned Pepper. Finally, Cape Cod has a non potato chip line, their Kettle Style Whole Grain Chips. They’re made with whole wheat, whole yellow corn, and whole oats. The line of healthier chips has three flavors: Toasted Grains, Three Cheese, and Italian Herb & Cheese. Dave’s Cupboard reviewed the Chef’s Recipe and Waffle Cut varieties. Photos via Impulsive Buy reviewer Adam.

Utz Sweet Potato Rice Crisps

Utz now offers Sweet Potato Rice Crisps. I know what you’re thinking. Too bad these weren’t wrapped in dried ramen noodles because Noodle Sweet Potato Rice Crisps would’ve contained the names of three types of starches. Sweet Potato follows the original Rice Crisps flavors — Sea Salt, Sweet Chili, and Salsa Fresca. Photo via Adam.

Jingos

Why isn’t it Jingoes!? Ugh. See what you made me do Pepperidge Farm. You made me put a question mark after an exclamation point. According to the Pepperidge Farm website, these crunchy crackers are baked and seasoned twice for “an explosive taste every time.” Jingos are available in three “explosive” flavors: Lime & Sweet Chili, Parmesan Garlic, and Fiesta Cheddar. Now that I know about Jingos!, I want to play Jenga with Jango Fett while eating Jingos! in a Jonga.

Klondike Peanut Butter Choco Taco

We end this Spotted on Shelves post with the new Peanut Butter Choco Taco, which is made up of peanut butter light ice cream and peanut buttery swirls wrapped in a sugar taco cone that’s line with a chocolatey coating, all of which is topped with a milk chocolatey shell and peanuts. If it weren’t for Choco Tacos, Taco Bell’s tacos would be the least Mexican tacos.

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.

NEWS: Taco Bell Puts Beef Nachos In A Burrito and Calls It, Predictably, The Beefy Nacho Burrito

First stop, Taco Bell

Are you tired of Living Más with Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Taco?

Well, your Taco Bell jonesing taste buds will get to try something different this week when the fast food chain releases their new Beefy Nacho Burrito for only 99 cents.

The latest menu item consists of a flour tortilla stuffed with seasoned beef, Taco Bell’s nacho cheese sauce, sour cream, and their new Queso Strips, which are crunchy queso-seasoned chips. Taco Bell’s Beefy Nacho Burritos, not to be confused with their Beefy Crunch Burrito or their Beefy 5-Layer Burrito, is supposed to taste like nachos wrapped in a burrito. It’s not a big burrito. At 6.7 ounces, it’s slightly lighter than a Taco Bell bean burrito.

As we mentioned earlier, the Beefy Nacho Burrito will be available for just 99 cents. It’s also available as part of a $3.99 combo, which includes two crunchy tacos and a large drink.

Source: Grub Grade

Image via flickr user mathrock / CC BY SA 2.0

NEWS: Get Your Toaster’s Heating Elements Ready For Eggo Granola Chocolate Chip and Thick & Fluffy Mixed Berry Waffles

The Pirate Toaster

Remember when we posted this news about Eggo releasing a toaster oven-filling amount of new Eggo varieties? With those five varieties, we thought Kellogg’s was done for the year, but the toaster heating elements in the test kitchens at Kellogg’s continue to work because there are three new Eggo flavors — Eggo Thick & Fluffy Mixed Berry Waffles, Eggo Granola Chocolate Chip Waffles, and Eggo Granola Mixed Berry Waffles.

Mixed berry follows the original and cinnamon brown sugar Thick & Fluffy waffles, which were released in late 2009. Eggo Thick & Fluffy Mixed Berry contains mixed berry bits, which includes strawberries and blueberries. The waffle is also flavored with kiwi, strawberry, raspberry, and blueberry fruit concentrates. As for Eggo Granola Chocolate Chip Waffles, they’re stuffed with rolled oats, granola pieces and semi sweet chocolate. Between the two new flavors, Eggo Granola Chocolate Chip sounds more interesting. I wonder if the granola will bring a crunchy texture to the waffles.

Two Eggo Granola Waffles Chocolate Chip have 200 calories, 8 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 350 milligrams of sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 5 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein. One Eggo Thick & Fluffy Mixed Berry Waffle has 160 calories, 6 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 260 milligrams of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 7 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein. Both products are fortified with vitamins and minerals.

If you’ve tried them, let us know what you think in the comments below.

Image via flickr user baynado1978 / CC BY 2.0

NEWS: Carl’s Jr. Testing an Ice Cream Burger…I mean, Brrrger

According to Foodbeast, the happy starry folks over at Carl’s Jr. are testing an Ice Cream Brrrger at certain locations in Orange County. The OC Register’s Fast Food Maven listed a couple of location that carry the ice cream treat.

The meat of the sandwich, which is priced at $1.99, is made up of chocolate ice cream; the condiments are represented with red, yellow, and green icing; and the Brrrger’s bun are sugar cookies. The OC Register’s Fast Food Maven also has a quick review and pictures.

The 4-ounce ice cream burger has 340 calories, 16 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 200 milligrams of sodium, 43 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 27 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Ritz Crackerfuls Peanut Butter & Chocolate

If you’re a parent and you give your child a Ritz Crackerfuls Peanut Butter & Chocolate, you better make his or her bedtime a little later to make up for the mediocre snack you gave them. If you don’t, I hope he or she never hugs you again.

Sure, your kids won’t care, because they’re excited to get sugar, but by giving them this snack, you’re basically teaching them to settle, instead of demanding for something better. You wouldn’t want your child to settle for that woman who owns 24 cats or that guy who runs a product review blog, so why would you have them settle for a poor representation of the peanut butter and chocolate combination.

You’d think it’s impossible to mess up the merging of peanut butter and chocolate, which is the OG of sweet and salty combinations, but it tastes like Nabisco found a way. Maybe they have some kind of bet with Kellogg’s to see which company could make the least exciting peanut butter and chocolate product. The winner gets possession of the Cookie Cup, a bronzed cookie jar with the word “winner” etched into it.

The Ritz Crackerfuls Peanut Butter & Chocolate box brags about how it’s “Made with real peanut butter,” but it’s not made with really good peanut butter. In between the cracker sandwich are two pencil-thin lines of the not really good peanut butter and a thicker line of not really good chocolate. The peanut butter smells like the cheap store-brand stuff and has a gritty consistency. The flavor of the chocolate, which is creamier than the peanut butter, reminds me of the crappy chocolate in a Sixlet.

They say two wrongs make a right, but those two wrongs in between two buttery, long Ritz crackers make a long wrong. I expected the peanut butter and chocolate to have a robust flavor, but they ended up having as much flavor as the crackers, and at times the cracker’s buttery flavor somewhat masked the PB&C. These Ritz Crackerfuls have to be one of the least satisfying peanut butter and chocolate products my taste buds have ever experienced.

While eating the first one, I thought for a second maybe I just got a bad one in the box, kind of like how you get a bad grape in the bunch, but after the second and third ones, I forced myself to drive to the store and buy some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups so my taste buds can remember what it’s like to have a peanut butter and chocolate combination that doesn’t suck.

Nabisco, which is owned by food and beverage conglomerate Kraft, could’ve used better quality stuff in this cracker sandwich, because Kraft also owns Planters, which makes peanuts and peanut butter, and Cadbury, which knows a thing or two about chocolate.

Usually the marriage of peanut butter and chocolate evokes excitement, but the Ritz Crackerfuls Peanut Butter & Chocolate don’t do it for me. They aren’t completely disgusting, but I don’t want to eat the rest. I have three of them left and I think I want to crush them with my feet so that I can listen to the crackers crumble under my body’s weight, because if they aren’t going to satisfy my sense of taste, I think they should at least satisfy my sense of hearing.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 pack – 140 calories, 60 calories from fat, 6 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat*, 2 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 2 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 160 milligrams of sodium, 75 milligrams of potassium, 18 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 5 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.)

*made with partially hydrogenated oil

Item: Ritz Crackerfuls Peanut Butter & Chocolate
Price: $3.50 (on sale)
Size: 6 pack
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 3 out of 10
Pros: Not completely disgusting. 6 grams of whole grain per serving. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Cons: Crappy peanut butter. Crappy chocolate. One of the least exciting PB&C combination I’ve had. Settling for a mediocre PB&C experience. Allowing your child to experience Ritz Crackerfuls Peanut Butter & Chocolate. No hugs.