Odwalla Soy Milk

U R either into soy milk or U R not. If U R, U know it comes in A. a room-temp shelf-stable version or B. refrigerated-carton-like-milk version. The refrig case (Version B) has basically been swallowed by the domineering completely-average Silk brand. sad cuz more choices = better. so on that basis alone, hooray for Odwalla Soy Milk from the co known for bottled smoothies & nutri-drinks. Taste-wise, it's OK. For cappuccino, it doesn't foam nearly as well as Soy Dream, the foamiest soy milk of all (and, unfortunately, one of the soy milks knocked off the shelf by Silk).

The fine print: 1. this is being touted for its dose of a fatty acid called DHA 2. 5 yrs ago, Odwalla became a subsid of coke, but was left to function independently which is prob why it’s doing so well, tho the boneheads @ coke are threatening to mess w/ success by doing some odwalla promotion this yr

Take 5 choc cookie edition

Intro’ing new prods, diversifying, taking chances, offering choices = all good things. So where did the Limited Edition Take 5 w/ chocolate cookie go wrong? It has, what, caramel, peanuts, PB, & milk choc. Hard to argue w/ that, right? Except what makes Take 5 Take 5 is the PRETZEL, i.e. the sweet vs the salty. The choc cookie is crunchy and offers a moderate contrast. But it ain’t no pretzel, man.

Dr Pepper frozen ice

There’s a contingent of people who really-really like dr pepper, and they’ll be on board w/ this Dr Pepper ice tube whatcha pop-up thingie-doo. Popup tubes are a pretty funky category of ice cream novelty frozen confection but Dr P has a refreshing quality. just look at its history as an ingredient used in all sorts of desserts/recipes: Dr P ice cream floats, Dr P cakes, etc etc.

Voila!

Bow down to Voila! a new bakery in Allen where they’re selling that most noble of foodstuffs: artisan bread. Baker Jean-Christophe Blanc, a native of France, has worked at Buckhead in Atlanta and Eatzi’s in Dallas, temples of bread both of them; he also oversaw bread for the Olympic Village during the ’96 olympics. Located in a new retail center in Allen – which is booming these days - Voila! also does salads & sandwiches CB-style. Allen's def a hike if you live in dallas (tho no-prob for those savvy urban pioneers in east plano) but his bread & croissants are worth the drive.

1201 W. McDermott Dr. Allen 972-747-1272. open 8 to 8 every day how cool is that

Activia lethal? frappio scary

Despite oodles of new items to post, today’s theme is follow-up:

Frappio One 15-oz can of this new coffee-energy drink from 7-11 was consumed on Fri Apr 7 at 7 pm. (alertness was being sought for a work assignment.) Oh alertness was found; 12 hrs later, the teeth-grinding still hadn’t stopped. That stuff is scary. Admittedly, the can says "two servings"; but isn’t it stupid to put two servings in a flip-top can? It’s not the caffeine; I think the nuclear ingredient is the Indian ginseng.

Dannon Activia yogurt Have sampled this stuff twice: stomach-churning experiences both times. Has anyone else tried it? Would love comments and-or emails.

ben & jerry's etceteras

In an effort to post something today ( no clever links... damn deadlines), here's a really advance note bundled w/ some new flavor news to make it look like you're getting big value
1. Free scoop day at Ben & Jerry's Apr 25. 12 noon-8 pm. The press release describes the 4-oz scoop as "3 inches across!" 3 whole inches of ice cream haha whoa
2. And say, there's a new (instore-only) flavor: Bananas on the Rum = banana + buttery rum brown sugar swirl
3. meanwhile, at the supermarket, The New 2006 Flavors (ta-da):
Turtle Soup (vanilla + fudge-cov'd caramel cashews + caramel swirl)
Vermonty Python (coffee liqueur + choc cookie crumb swirl + fudge cows)
Neapolitan Dynamite (cherry garcia+choc fudge brownie "side by side". lame)
and a buncha new sorbets mostly snoozy except for
Jamaican Me Crazy (pineapple + passion fruit swirl).
god knows B&J deserves praise for at least trying to intro new stuff (unlike the rest of the corporate ice cream dopes). and yet still, this all seems kinda zzz, duznt it

Cranberry Soft Chews

Everyday Cranberry Soft Chews beg the question: Is it really so $!# hard to drink a glass of juice? On the other hand, chews do have a certain appeal (beyond the pleasure you get from chowing on something chewy & sweet). One nugget provides a day’s worth of this or that – basically a more indulgent form of a vitamin. And wouldn’tchew rather see pharmaceutical cos. invest in stuff like chews, rather than all the horrid drugs they’re pushing? Anyway these cranberry chews = 15 cals and the top-3 ingreds are sugar, corn syrup, & cranberry fruit powder ("Cran-max brand" which sposedly uses 34 pounds of cranberries to produce one pound of cran-max)

Frappio

Hmmm. Frappio. Interesting product name. It’s a new bev from 7-eleven & yet has such a familiar name, no? altho pls: it’s not like "frappuccino" wuz original either: starbucks adopted it from a coffee chain which stole it from the locals’ weird name for a milkshake. Anyway, frappio = coffee-energy-drink hybrid w/ caffeine PLUS a "patented, all-natural herb" ashwangandha aka Indian ginseng, which has been used to treat rheumatism, leprosy, & arthritis and which 7-one-one claims will not only pep you up (in a "jitter-free" way) but suppress your appetite too sorta like speed, I guess

Ben & Jerry's the cone

Ben & Jerry’s The Cone merits an item ONLY because it is new (as opposed to "because it’s worthy"). But first, the info: it’s a "unique waffle cone filled w/ ice cream". Cherry Garcia: cherry ice cream w/ cherries & fudge chunks. Choc-chip cookie dough: vanilla w/ cookie dough swirl & fudge chunks. one box = 3 cones $4. yikes Calories: 350 each, which seems high but I guess not much higher than the 280- to 360-calories for a measly standard half-cup serving of superpremium ice cream. Haven’t cone products always seemed kinda cheezy & low-rent? The "unique" aspect about the waffle cone appears to be that it’s lined w/ choc but isn’t that the case for most of these prefab cones? What IS distinctive about B&J’s izzat the ice cream's packed w/ nuts & stuff the same direction they’ve been taking w/ their regular ice cream

Banana Creme Filled Twinkie

Already experienced in the ways of the limited edition, Hostess is issuing ltd-ed banana Twinkies filled w/ banana-flavored cream (which they of course spell crème). The impetus for this flavor is some DVD release (ape movie, don’t make me name it, even mentioning "DVD" is shillish as it is), and part of Hostess’ blah-blah is the sorta-interesting fack that twinkies started out banana but switched to vanilla cuz of wartime shortages. But more intweeguing (to me, anyway) is that there’s already been another product announcement this summer w/ the same flavor. All you need is one more banana product to make it an official trend.