Category: Spotted on Shelves

Update: Click here to read our Extra Dessert Delights Apple Pie Gum review

Update 2: Click here to read our Wrigley’s 5 Swerve review

Sometimes I wonder if Wrigley’s 5 Gum should change its name to I Thought I Told You That We Won’t Stop because the chewing gum line, which is marketed to teens, keeps expanding like my waistline has over the past seven years The Impulsive Buy has been around.

If you don’t know the 5 Gum flavors, let me fill your grey matter with a useless list that may write over some of your precious childhood memories: Cobalt, Flare, Rain, Elixir, Lush, Solstice, Zing, React Fruit, React Mint, Prism, Vortex, React 2 Fruit, and React 2 Mint. Oh wait, let me write over your memory of your first kiss with the next 5 Gum flavor, a tropical one called Swerve.

When Swerve becomes available later this year, it will be the second tropical flavor in the 5 Gum line, following Lush.

Also later this year, Wrigley will be adding Apple Pie to its portfolio of Extra Dessert Delights sugarfree gum. The flavor follows Strawberry Shortcake, Mint Chocolate Chip, Key Lime Pie, and Orange Creme Pop.

Come on, Wrigley! Stop ruining desserts for me! If I want to eat poor representations of desserts I’ll go to McDonald’s or make the desserts myself.

Both sugarfree gum flavors will come in the usual 15-piece slim pack.

Update: Click here to read our Cocoa Puffs Brownie Crunch review

I’ve gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, but after going cuckoo too many times, I just don’t get a rise from eating a bowl of it. Not even the chocolatey milk the cereal leaves behind or crushing the cereal into a fine powder and snorting it using a rolled up 75 cents off Cocoa Puffs coupon gets me to go cuckoo.

However, it looks like I might be riding the cocoa cobra again because General Mills has introduced a new Cocoa Puffs variety — Brownie Crunch Cocoa Puffs. The cereal doesn’t have any puffs, instead it’s made up of naturally and artificially flavored sweetened chocolatey squares.

A 3/4 cup serving has 110 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 130 milligrams of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 9 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein, and a bunch of vitamins and minerals.

Update: Click here to read our Post Limited Edition Pebbles Boulders review

I wonder if kids nowadays know Fred Flintstone as the main character of a 1960s cartoon or as the fatso on the front of Pebbles cereals boxes? I’d find out myself by producing some children of my own, but I thought it would be faster, cheaper, and less poop-filled to just ask those who already have young children.

The reason why I bring Mr. Flintstone up is because his mug is on another Pebbles cereal. This time it’s the Limited Edition Caramel Apple Pebbles Boulders, which consists of two types of cereal — brown, caramel-flavored, boulder-shaped cereal and green, apple-flavored, bone-shaped cereal.

Limited Edition Caramel Apple Pebbles Boulders boasts it has more whole grain than Honey Nut Cheerios. So does that mean it may also help lower cholesterol like Honey Nut Cheerios?

A 3/4 cup serving of Pebbles Boulders without milk has 110 calories, 10 calories from fat, 1.5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0.5 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 75 milligrams of sodium, 50 milligrams of potassium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 8 grams of sugar, 12 grams of other carbohydrates, and is fortified with a bunch of vitamins and minerals.

I thought we reviewed all the new Häagen-Dazs flavors released this year (Sweet Chai Latte, Caramel Apple Pie, and Blueberry Crumble), but yesterday I learned we didn’t when a Häagen-Dazs press release showed up in my RSS feeds. So I now have to get out my whip made from Red Vines and force TIB’s writers to review more Häagen-Dazs ice cream and desserts. Here are the flavors we haven’t reviewed yet.

Häagen-Dazs Cranberry Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream: Rich, creamy pumpkin ice cream is balanced with swirls of tart cranberry filling, then lightly spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg – a holiday classic. Flavor Top Notes: Warm pumpkin pie, a zing of nutmeg. Flavor Finish Notes: Tangy cranberry with a hint of spice.

Häagen-Dazs Spiced Peach Crumble Ice Cream (Walmart exclusive): Peak-flavor peaches are cooked to perfection, lightly spiced and stirred into sweet cream with nuggets of buttery crust. Flavor Top Notes: Fruity peaches, warm nutmeg and cinnamon. Flavor Finish Notes: Lingering butter and sweet summer peach.

Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Almond Frozen Yogurt: Crunchy roasted almonds are sliced and blended with rich, indulgent chocolate frozen yogurt.

Häagen-Dazs Blackberry Cabernet Sorbet: Tender, ripe blackberries and the distinctive flavor of cabernet grapes combine to create this dark, intense sorbet.

For those of you looking to fill your brain with knowledge that will come in handy if you happen to face IBM’s Watson in a battle of answering trivia questions to determine whether the supercomputer takes over the world, David Klein is the inventor of Jelly Belly jelly beans.

You’re welcome, Planet Earth.

Although Mr. Klein is no longer at Jelly Belly, he’s still creating candy and this week at the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago he, along with Leaf Brands, will debut David’s Signature Beyond Gourmet Jelly Beans, which according to the press release, “is the first confectionary product of its kind: blending exotic cuisine and luxury candy.”

How exotic can jelly beans get?

Imagine chewing on jelly beans that taste like “the world’s finest and most exotic spices, herbs, roots, flowers, fruits, and nuts specific to world culture.” A couple of David’s Signature Beyond Gourmet Jelly Beans sets include “Tastes Around the World” and “Hot Peppers Around the World.” Oh I wish for a habanero jelly bean for me to chew on and then immediately spit out.

The jelly beans allow eaters to create in their mouth the flavor of complex dishes using different jelly bean varieties.

Finally, David’s Signature Beyond Gourmet Jelly Beans will also include a rare product that includes a “special blend” of the rarest and most exotic ingredients in the world, which will be enclosed in a 24-karat gold bean. All of that will be placed in a crystal jar. The price tag for these rare jelly beans and the packaging it comes in is set at $500.

Image via flickr user Keith Williamson / CC BY 2.0