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belVita Breakfast Biscuits, review

February 20, 2012 By 2 Comments
belVita Crackers

A new breakfast goodie, belVita! I saw these on the end display at my local Albertsons and decided to pick up a few boxes. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've enjoyed Newton Fruit Thins for breakfast and thought the box of belVita Crackers looked healthier and purer. In case my mom is reading, relax, I am I taking care of myself.  I eat the fruit thins with a banana and low-fat yogurt for breakfast. The belVita blueberry breakfast biscuits taste suspiciously like the blueberry Fruit Thins that I love. (http://flavorscientist.com/2011/12/08/newton-fruit-thins-blueberry-brown-sugar-review/).  Belvita and Newton Fruit Thins are both manufactured by Kraft foods.  Perhaps they both use the same blueberry flavor? They both use similar raw … [Read more...]

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Bacon Shake from Jack in the Box, flavor review

February 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I love you more than bacon

It's Valentine's day. I've been married over 10 years and my sweet husband still thinks of me every year at Valentines: buys me nice presents and takes me out. I can't imagine life with out him and feel secure that he feels similar. Reality is, though, I don't think I can ever expect him to claim "I love you more than bacon". Bacon, after all, is his favorite food and he'd eat it for every meal, if it wasn't for the poor nutritional value. Would he marry bacon? That's silly, but fun. My entire family loves the new Jack in the Box advertising campaign "If you like bacon so much, why don't you marry it?" (www.marrybacon.com).  My daughters laugh uncontrollably at the commercial "make it official; you may now eat the bride". Jack … [Read more...]

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SOBE lifewater Pacific Coconut with coconut water, review

February 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Sobe lifewater Pacific Coconut with coconut water

It's good to see a beverage manufacturer providing a solution for the unpleasant tasting coconut water on the market. Last year I reviewed Zico pineapple & citrus flavored coconut water and was impressed with how I felt (amazingly refreshed & hydrated), but could hardly manage to drink the entire beverage. Coconut water has bitter rancid fat note that I find unappealing. My thoughts are that coconut water needs some sugar or sweetener to mask the bitter rancid flavor. The team at Sobe beverage must have thought the same thing. Because lifewater with coconut water contains sugar and Reb A (a natural high potency sweetner from Stevia extract). Sobe beverage also decided to lower the amount of coconut water, from 100% to 10%. This … [Read more...]

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Doritos Limited Edition: Salsa Rio & Sour Cream Onion flavor review

February 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Doritos Tortilla Chips, limited edition flavors

It's Superbowl Sunday and I am a huge fan of the snacks and the food us Americans enjoy today.  There are special displays in grocery stores set up for people buying food for the Big Game. Usually they are built out of beer and soda with lots of snacks intertwined. I managed to walk by the Oreo shaped footballs, but couldn't resist trying the new Doritos flavors. Doritos are always "delicious".  I think it's the perfect blend of salt, cheese, MSG, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate that this brand of chips has. Used in very small amounts, flavor enhancers (MSG, disodium insinuate and disodium guanylate) give a delicious full-bodied flavor to products. My entire family enjoyed the sour cream & onion chips. Surprisingly … [Read more...]

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Dad’s honey

January 30, 2012 By 2 Comments
Dad's honey

My dad is trendy. Wow, I never thought I'd say that, but it's true. My dad's hobbies of growing his own food (fruits and vegetables) and bee keeping are "in" and I'm benefiting.  At Christmas, Dad gave my family six 1 pound jars of honey from his bees. Yum!  My youngest daughter and myself love real honey on our toast. The bee keeping trend began a few years ago and has blossomed into a country-wide hobby.  http://oneblockdiet.sunset.com/2009/07/fashionable-bees.html. Perhaps this trend was driven by our distrust of honey imports. The United States has no legal standard for honey at a national level. It leaves our nation wide open to fraudulent honey imports (colored high fructose corn syrup) that are sold at a premium … [Read more...]

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Peanut Butter Multi Grain Cheerios Cereal Review

January 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Multi Grain Cheerios Peanut Butter

Last Tuesday, January 24th was National Peanut Butter Day.   Peanut butter is comfort food to most Americans and found in 3/4 of our pantries nation wide. We grew up eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, enjoyed it with apples or celery and love it with milk chocolate.  In the United States alone, we consume about 700 million pounds of peanut butter annually. (www. peanut-institute.org) Peanut Butter is known for it's nutrition and inexpensive cost. The largest downfall of peanut butter is that it is an allergen that can be lethal to those who are allergic. In our school district, children eating peanut products at lunch time must sit at a designated table. Shared snacks and lunches brought on school grounds must be peanut free. … [Read more...]

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Dole Fruit Crisp, Peach Review

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Prepared Dole Fruit Crisp

I regularly stock fruit cups and applesauce cups for the kids. These items are healthy, convenient snacks and meal sides. Recently, I saw a new item on the shelf in this section. This item is Dole Fruit Crisp.  I was turned off by the amount of packaging the product required and the message it sent: "fruit crisp is difficult to prepare; therefore we'll make it for you".  Once I tried the product and saw my child's response, I understood the advantage. It's easy, good and has nutritious ingredients.   A great snack or breakfast to have on hand for a child. Basically, this is a fruit filling cup (thickened with starch) that can be heated and served with an oat topping (oats, brown sugar, sunflower oil, flour, spices, lecithin, flavor … [Read more...]

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Cheribundi Ginger Cherry Juice review

January 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Cheribundi Ginger Cherry juice

Tart cherry juice is all the rage this year! Exotic super fruit juices (acai berry, mangosteen) are losing ground to local fruits and berries. I'm delighted with this trend and excited to try some of the new juice beverages in the fresh produce section. One of these juice products is Cheribundi's Ginger Cherry juice. The cherry juice in this beverage is advertised as coming from 50 cherries and not from concentrate. There is no added water on the ingredient statement, and the ingredient statement reads (in descending order): tart cherry juice, apple juice (from concentrate), ginger juice and natural flavors. Cherry ginger is a new flavor combination. There exists one other beverage: a cherry ginger soda from Reed and several recipes … [Read more...]

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Activate Vitamin Performance Beverage, Fruit Punch review

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
after shaking

It's Monday and it can be difficult to get motivated and going.  The Activate Vitamin Performance beverage is a perfect choice for a review on a Monday. Activate Vitamin beverage has a unique delivery system: a powdered drink in the red cap that you must "twist, shake, activate". The tag line for Activate Performance beverage is "a turn for the better". The advantage of this beverage over typical vitamin beverages on the market is that the vitamins in Activate are held under dark, dry conditions. Vitamins dispersed in water and exposed to light are subject to degradation (reducing effectiveness). Activate Vitamin beverage is packed with vitamins. One bottle has the following nutrients: Vitamin A  37.5%     Vitamin E   37.5%     … [Read more...]

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Trident Layers Orchard Peach & Ripe Mango flavor review

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Trident Layers Chewing gum, Orchard Peach & Ripe Mango

As a flavor chemist, I have to applaud the flavorist who made this peach & mango flavor. This is a well-balanced, creamy, tropical, crisp, fruity peach mango flavor and would be very difficult to copy. As a consumer and mom, I am concerned about such high flavor load in a product that children would consume. Typically fruit flavors are a "top note" for beverages or fruit fillings that lose some potency during processing. In confection, though, added fruit flavors are the entire flavor system. Chewing gum in particular has an extremely high flavor load, perhaps 2% vs a piece of candy that has 0.2%.  Flavor load is high because it is desired that gum's flavor last 20 minutes. The United States government is very strict about what … [Read more...]

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