Cracker Jack'd Hearty Mix

I purchased two packages of Cracker Jack'd Hearty Mix on the same shopping trip as the Cracker Jack'd Power Bites from the other post. The flavors are Peanut Butter and Chocolate & Cheddar BBQ. It's important to note the Hearty Mix is not the Cracker Jack snack with high levels of caffeine; it's the Cracker Jack'd Power Bites which have the caffeine of one cup of coffee.

This is what the Peanut Butter And Chocolate Hearty Mix and the Cheddar BBQ Hearty Mix have in common:
- A black and beige pouch with a more mature / grown up feel. Cracker Jack's famous mascots Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo are replaced with a smarmy, older Sailor Jack who resembles either Don Rickles or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.  New Bingo is channeling the mean dogs from the movie UP.
- A tall 3 oz pouch. Not resealable. Easily tips over.
- Not listed on Frito Lay's website right now
-"Snacks With Impact."
- "Fills you up."

Cracker Jack'd Hearty Mix: Peanut Butter & Chocolate

- " Artificially flavored snack mix."
- "Savory peanut butter and chocolate flavored and coated oat clusters, mixed with honey roasted and salted peanuts."
- Smells like peanut butter fudge and honey roasted peanuts
- Peanut butter coated oats = Tastes like peanut butter fudge. Delicious! The oats drag down the clusters, though. Peanut butter + oats = "Am I eating a peanut butter sandwich on wheat bread ?"
- Chocolate covered oats = Chocolate was smooth and creamy. Oats were a better match with the chocolate than with the peanut butter.
- Not enough of the peanut butter or chocolate clusters.
- Both types of oat clusters were too small. Many clusters had broken into Dippin' Dots sized pieces in transit (I'm guessing.)
- Plenty of peanuts

Cracker Jack'd Hearty Mix: Cheddar BBQ

- "Tangy cheddar and bbq flavored oat clusters, mixed with salted peanuts and smoked almonds."
- "Flavored snack mix."
- Flavored with brown sugar, tomato powder, onion powder, cheddar cheese, natural smoke flavor, molasses, romano cheese, garlic powder, rosemary
- Smells like honey roasted peanuts and bbq potato chips
- Smoked almonds = Decent amount. Bbq seasoning attached to some of the almonds.
- Good amount of peanuts. Bbq seasoning properly coated the peanuts.
- Tangy cheddar and bbq flavored oat clusers = Has the smoky, mouthwatering taste of Lay's bbq potato chips. But the orange color and chunky shape are off-putting; it resembles crushed up cat chow. The crushed oats are too small and messy.
- Bbq flavoring and oats = Total mismatch of flavors and textures. I like oats with my cereal and desserts, not with potato chip flavoring.

I wasn't terribly thrilled or disappointed by Cracker Jack'd Peanut Butter and Chocolate or Cracker Jack'd Cheddar BBQ. They're both just missing a certain je ne sais quoi at the moment. There's obviously room for improvement, though.

Cracker Jack'd Power Bites

Many of you read this article last year, which announced a caffeinated version of Cracker Jacks was rolling out soon. Your reaction was probably either (1) "OMG, we're all gonna die from caffeine poisoning and junk food" or (2) "Heck yeah, I want to try that!" I am firmly in the pro-coffee + chocolate camp for sure.

Cracker Jack'd Power Bites come in two flavors: Cocoa Java and Vanilla Mocha. Neither product is listed on the Frito Lay website at the moment. I found this snack on Walgreens' candy aisle, next to their 99 cent packs of Nice! brand nuts and sesame sticks.

This is what the Vanilla Mocha and Cocoa Java products have in common:
- A short, black and beige pouch with a more mature / grown up feel. Cracker Jack's famous mascots Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo are replaced with a smarmy, older Sailor Jack who resembles either Don Rickles or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.  New Bingo is channeling the mean dogs from the movie UP.
- "Snacks With Impact."
- 2 ounces of candy (14 rock sized pieces)
- Both pouches stand up, but are not resealable. Resealable would definitely be better, since this is a rich candy you won't polish off in one sitting
- The ratios of chocolate-to-cookie and coffee-to-chocolate are just right.
- Warning label 1: "Coffee: Equal To 1 Cup. Contains Caffeine."

- Warning label 2: "Contains 2 Tbsp of ground coffee per package, the amount used to brew a typical 8 oz cup of coffee."
- Warning label 3: "Contains caffeine. Not recommended for children, pregnant women or people sensitive to caffeine."

Cracker Jack'd Cocoa Java Power Bites

- "Crunchy chocolate and coffee flavored bites made with real coffee."
- "Artificially flavored coated wafers."
- Smells like yellow cake with chocolate-coffee frosting.
- Power Bites have a java flavored chocolate coating. The filling is a ball of chocolate crunchies without java (think crushed Oreo cookies). Heavenly combination!
- Have a darker shell than the Vanilla Mocha Power Bites.
- Similar flavor to chocolate covered coffee beans

Cracker Jack'd Vanilla Mocha Power Bites

- "Crunchy vanilla and coffee flavored bites made with real coffee."
- "Flavored coated wafers."
- Smells like yellow cake and milk chocolate candy bars
- Mocha is more subtle in this vs the java in the other Power Bites. It's almost a mocha hot cocoa flavor.
- Filling is somewhere between shortbread and an oatmeal cookie. It doesn't add much oomph to the mocha chocolate coating. A stronger flavored cookie would have been better.

Between the two varieties of Cracker Jack'd Power Bites, my favorite is Cocoa Java. It's much more craveable to me. But obviously I wouldn't say no if someone handed me Vanilla Mocha Power Bites, either. Vanilla Mocha was good; the cookie part just needs a little more tweaking.

Camel Milk Chocolates

Click on the link in the title for the story. Fans of Gordon Ramsay's F-Word may remember Janet Street-Porter milking a camel and learning about camel milk's health benefits.

Source: "World's first camel-milk chocolates going global", Tamara Walid, Reuters, July 21, 2009

Pizza Hut test marketing in Jacksonville, FL

Source: "Chain test markets 'The Hut' on First Coast", The Florida Times Union, 6/26/09

YouBars vs Element Bars

If you're interested in custom made energy bars:

YouBars official website

Element Bars official website

New York Times article on YouBars

Gadling Article on Element Bars

Sources:

"With These Nutrition Bars, Every Order Is Special", by Lisa Napolin, The New York Times, 2/20/2008

"Like energy bars? Element Bars lets you design your own", by Scott Carmichael,Gadling, September 18, 2008

The latest trend: tooth friendly foods

Source: The latest lure: Joy for your teeth, Laura Capitano, Florida Times Union, 12/07/2008

No Wine Without A Permit

Source: "No Wine Without a Permit. But Try the Cheese", by Robin Finn, The New York Times, September 5, 2008

If You Want A Fresh Sandwich....

Source: "Slight change in order should bring fresh sandwich", by Jerry Romansky, SeacoastOnline.com: The Source For the Seacoast, September 07, 2008

The Starbucks Egg Sandwich Double-Cross

Source: "The Starbucks Egg Sandwich Double-Cross", Joe Nocera, Executive Suite: Joe Nocera Talks Business, The New York Times, September 5, 2008

Good-bye, Ruby Tuesday

I received a weird email from Ruby Tuesday recently. Click the link above to view it. Apparently they are blowing up "the last old Ruby Tuesday" and will air live coverage of the event.

My honest opinion ? I kind of cringed at the ad. The old Ruby Tuesdays had a laid back, fun atmosphere and tasty food. I don't visit the new ones anymore. Everyone in my family refuses to go, in fact. The last two times we visited Ruby Tuesday, the salad bars were smaller. The furniture and decor was changed to have a formal, dreary, business meeting appearance. Also, I received a very sad excuse for a quiche and asked for a different meal, only to be brought another bland, sad looking entree. I read somewhere that Ruby Tuesday wants a formal, upscale steak house feel to their store. Hmmmm....

So, dear readers, share your thoughts. Do you prefer the old Ruby Tuesday or the new Ruby Tuesday ?

*August 8th update: I received another email about this:

"The news we've sent to you in the last few days about the demolition of the last old-style Ruby Tuesday and the building we "blew up" by mistake wasn't really real (you already had your suspicions?). It was all for fun and our way of showing just how much we have changed, how most casual dining restaurants have come to look alike, and how much fresher and better Ruby Tuesday really is now.

Cheeky's Bar & Grill, the other "restaurant" that was "demolished" by mistake was actually a scale model in a studio in Hollywood. We were joshing you a little, and we hope you'll forgive us. We couldn't help it, really. All these changes that have made our restaurants the best they've ever been make us smile - put us in the mood to make a joke or two while we're telling the world our brand is really different from all the rest. We hope it made you smile, too."

New Happenings At Starbucks

This is a six page article, so I'll give you the highlights:

- Starbucks has a hush-hush new half-drink half-dessert coming out. ["I think we have the next Frappuccino!"]

- Starbucks is closing 100 stores.

- "I'd heard that, not long ago, two women sitting in a Seattle Starbucks were griping about how horrible the breakfast items were, when a tall, well-dressed man sitting near them -- Schultz himself, or so it was said -- chimed in that he agreed. All true, Schultz says. "I have been embarrassed by the food," he goes on. "The food is going to be completely reinvented by fall. With a stake in the ground. Done."

-"...Truth be told, Schultz would probably rather have Mickey Mantle's mitt; as a kid in Brooklyn, he wrote Mantle's number in Magic Marker on all his clothes, even his underwear."

-"On weekends, he [Schultz] reads emails from employees, who have his address. There have been 9,000 messages since January, and he says he's read them all."

-"Schultz can make himself seem like a saint, which can be a little disconcerting. How many people do you know who describe themselves as "benevolent"? He also embellishes -- calling Starbucks' iconic store at Pike Place Market its first (it's really the fifth) or saying that Starbucks was named after the character in Moby-Dick (only partly so) or that he served the first latte in America (he didn't) -- and has let people depict the Brooklyn streets on which he was raised as something out of West Side Story (they weren't). The press has generally overlooked such things."

Restaurant Ripoffs

Source: "I Spy...Restaurant Tricks", AOL Money and Finance, June 2008

The miracle berry

Source: "The Tiny Fruit That Tricks the Tongue", by Patrick Farrell and Kassie Bracken, The New York Times, May 28, 2008

From News of The Weird: Jelly Belly BeanBoozled

"A highlight of this year's Easter promotion by the Jelly Belly company (as additions to its 50 standard flavors) was its surprise BeanBoozled boxes, with odd tastes and non-standard colors. Although garlic beans, buttered-toast beans and cheese pizza beans are no longer available, connoisseurs can sample jelly beans made to taste like pencil shavings, ear wax, moldy cheese and vomit. A Jelly Belly spokeswoman told Newhouse News Service in March, "There are 20 flavors in each little box ... so you don't know what flavor you are tasting ... coconut or baby wipe."

Sources:

Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 22, 2008

News of the Weird,Chuck Shepherd, Column for the week of May 11, 2008

Food Network chef fired after resume fraud

Robert Irvine gets no sympathy from me.

Source: "Food Network chef fired after resume fraud", USA Today,March 10, 2008

Ice Cucumber Pepsi

Has anyone tried Ice Cucumber Pepsi ? I'd love to hear your opinion of it.

Food In The News

60 Desserts for Independence Day

Britain's first Indian restaurant

Losing the heart of Goa

A rant by Nikhil Chib

Sources:

"60 desserts to indulge your sweet tooth this I-Day", Bati Tiwari, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, August 12, 2007

"Patna resident started Britain's first Indian restaurant", Prasun Sonwalkar,Hindustan Times, Indo-Asian News Service, London, July 24, 2007

"Few takers for Goan cuisine",Hindustan Times,Indo-Asian News Service, Panaji, July 09, 2007

"What makes a critic ‘a critic’ ",Nikhil Chib (HT Cafe), Hindustan Times, Mumbai, April 21, 2007

Food In the News

Cricket

Wasted in Berlin

Sources:

"Meanwhile, one last word on jellybeans: we do it, too", The Indian Express, Yahoo! India > Sports > Cricket, August 12, 2007

"Wasted in Berlin: 'Drink, Don't Think' ", by Markus Deggerich in Berlin, Spiegel Online International, English Site > Germany > Berlin, Poor but Sexy, August 6, 2007,

Taco Bell Fiesta Steak Bowlz

"Mexican-Style Rice, Refried Beans, Steak Strips, Smoky Fiesta Sauce With Onions, Red Bell Peppers, and Green Bell Peppers"

Two problems with this product:
#1. The name. I keep reading it as "Fiesta Bowels", which makes an interesting commentary on the quality of this product.
#2. The package says "steak strips." Yeah, I'm not seeing any of those here. What I have is a big bowl of refried beans, smushed rice and what looks like onion soup with just a tiny pinch of meat thrown in. There's no such thing as 1/8 x 1/8 inch steak strips, y'all. It's pitiful to look at. I give this product a big thumbs down.

**I see I'm not alone in my disdain:

Bonnie Tandy Leblang's review, Taco Bell's Bowlz are boring, short on meat, Deseret News (Salt Lake City)April 25,2007

Food In The News

Amish bakers

Greece

Sources:

"Amish bakers in Ohio face food safety scrutiny", by Eric Albrecht, The Columbus Dispatch via AP USA Today, March 14, 2007

"Greece's first health food on-the-go a hit", Reuters, by Angeliki Koutantou, March 14, 2007