Category: Spotted on Shelves

Did you know the Summer Olympics are happening this year?

I forgot, but thankfully Kellogg’s reminded me by announcing their 2012 Team USA Collector’s Edition Cereal and Limited Edition 2012 Team USA Mixed Berry Pop-Tarts.

The 2012 Team USA Collector’s Edition Cereal is a vanilla-flavored multigrain and multicolored cereal made up of red, white, and blue loops. Each box has athlete trading cards on the back. Oooh, I hope they have a card for USA badminton player Tony Gunawan. But it’ll probably end up being basketball players or gymnasts.

Limited Edition 2012 Team USA Mixed Berry Pop-Tarts are as patriotic as the 2012 Team USA cereal. The mixed berry filling is surrounded by a red crust and is topped with white icing and red and blue sprinkles. Each pair of these limited edition Pop-Tarts are wrapped in gold-colored foil.

A cup of Kellogg’s 2012 Team USA Cereal has 110 calories, 0.5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 170 milligrams of sodium, 45 milligrams of potassium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 9 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein, and a bunch of vitamins and minerals.

One 2012 Team USA Pop-Tart has 190 calories, 4 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 1.5 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 1 gram of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 180 milligrams of sodium, 37 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 17 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein, and a bunch of vitamins and minerals.

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.

Oh, Fiber One, is there anything you won’t stick awesome amounts of dietary fiber into? I just realized if I eat a bowl of Fiber One Original bran cereal with a Fiber One yogurt for breakfast and then this Fiber One Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie as a mid-morning snack, I would have consumed 97 percent of my daily value of fiber before lunch. My colon will so love that.

If I’m feeling adventurous after eating 97 percent of my daily value of fiber before noon, I could end my lunch and break the 100 percent fiber barrier with these new Fiber One Chewy snack bars. These look like a tasty way to consume chicory root extract, which is the ingredient that allows each bar to provide 20 percent of your daily value of fiber. Each bar has also 100 calories and comes in the two varieties you see above.

According to its packaging, the new Hershey’s Simple Pleasures have “30% less fat vs. the average of the leading milk chocolates.” Hey, wait. Doesn’t Hershey’s make the leading milk chocolates? So the packaging should really say, “30% less fat than our own milk chocolates.” Each individually wrapped candy consists of a chocolate outside with a crème-filled center and comes in 24-count bags. Hershey’s Simple Pleasures come in three flavors: Dark Chocolate with Chocolate Crème, Milk Chocolate with Chocolate Crème, and Milk Chocolate with Vanilla Crème.

FLAVOR BLASTED! BOOYAH! I’M TOTALLY GOING TO WRITE THIS ENTIRE PARAGRAPH IN ALL CAPS AND END EVERY SENTENCE WITH AN EXCLAMATION POINT! SMOKIN’ BBQ! YEE HAW! I THINK THEY SHOULD’VE NAMED THIS FLAVOR BOOMIN’ BBQ BECAUSE OF ALLITERATION, ALTHOUGH I WISH ALL PRODUCTS NAMES HAD ALLITERATION! I WONDER IF THESE ARE MORE ORANGE THAN REGULAR GOLDFISH?!

Quaker’s Chewy School Days! Granola Bars are “designed with school snack policies in mind.” Snack policies vary from state to state, but here are Hawaii’s: less than 200 calories, less than 2 grams of saturated fat, zero trans fat, less than 200 milligrams of sodium, and less than 8 grams of sugar. Let’s see if a Quaker Chewy School Days! Granola Bar can pass these standards. 100 calories. Check. 0.5 grams of saturated fat. Check. 50 or less milligrams of sodium. Check. 7 grams of sugar. Check. However, looking at the nutrition facts of other Quaker granola bars, it appears almost all of them would also pass Hawaii’s snack policies.

Thanks for all the photos, Adam!

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 theimpulsivebuy@gmail.com with “Spotted” in the subject line, and you might see it in our next Spotted on Shelves post.

Last year, SoBe introduced a Lifewater line with coconut water because coconut water was as hot as acai was the year before. And now VitaminWater has finally stuffed some coconut water into a new flavor called Coco-Refresh.

VitaminWater Coco-Refresh contains 10 percent real coconut water from concentrate, which is also the case with the SoBe beverages. Like all VitaminWater varieties, the coconut and pineapple-flavored Coco-Refresh has a purpose. While some help you focus and others help your skin, the latest has the amazing ability to rehydrate you.

Ooooh! Rehydration! I wish all the other VitaminWater varieties had that ability. Oh wait, they all have water, so they do.

Drink What has a review.

A 20-ounce bottle has 120 calories, 0 grams of fat, 30 milligrams of sodium, 880 milligrams of potassium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 31 grams of sugar, 0 grams of protein, 100% vitamin B6, 100% vitamin B12, 100% panothenic acid (vitamin B5), and, of course, it’s got electrolytes.

A quick comparison between Sobe Lifewater Coconut Water and VitaminWater Coco-Refresh shows Coco-Refresh has more calories and sugar than Sobe Lifewater Coconut Water, but it also has less sodium, more potassium, and all those B vitamins.

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.

Kozy Shack has lactose-free dairy pudding that’s also gluten free. That’s a lot of free, but Kozy Shack shouldn’t have stopped there. They should’ve also made it calorie-free, sugar-free, and fat-free. Sure, it probably would’ve tasted horrible, and it would’ve lost them money, but we won’t know for sure unless they tried. The lactose- and gluten-free pudding comes in three flavors: rice, tapioca, and chocolate.

I believe every time Kashi releases a new product, a nutritionist gets his or her degree. So congratulations to all you new nutritionists who got their degrees thanks to Kashi’s new soft-baked squares. Some of you might be thinking the chocolate one looks like a brownie, but the seven whole grains, sweet potato, and black beans it contains doesn’t make it sound like a brownie. The almond version is also made with Kashi’s seven whole grains, sweet potatoes, and beans. Both are sweetened with agave and each soft-baked square provides 4 grams of fiber and 300 milligrams of ALA omega-3. Thanks for the photo, Adam.

New dips from Frito-Lay. After doing some Googling, I discovered the Tostitos Zesty Taco dip has been out for several weeks. I don’t really pay attention to cheesy dips because any orange gloop gives me nightmares. Ruffles Ultimate Smokehouse Bacon dip hasn’t been out as long as the Tostitos dip and I have a jar of it sitting in my fridge. There really are real bits of bacon in the dips, along with the following ingredients: smoky bacon type flavor and butter type flavor. Thank you for the pics, Travis.

A few weeks ago in New England, Nabisco started replacing their square Premium crackers with round ones. There were some issues with the new round crackers. My issue with these round Premium crackers is that they now look like Ritz crackers. The line between upper class and lower class crackers is now blurred. Thanks for the photo, Nicole.

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 theimpulsivebuy@gmail.com with “Spotted” in the subject line, and you might see it in our next Spotted on Shelves post.

When something in popular culture becomes a Cheese Nips variety, isn’t that a sign it’s become too popular and perhaps it should be destroyed? SpongeBob SquarePants has his own Cheese Nips, Dora the Explorer has her own Cheese Nips, and now Angry Birds have their own Cheese Nips.

The naturally flavored cheddar baked snack crackers are shaped like the birds and pigs from the extremely popular video game which you can play on your phone, tablet, computer, or television. Those damn birds and pigs are everywhere. I swear, every time I see those damn pigs, Babe looks a little less cute and I feel a little less sorry about Wilbur losing Charlotte.

Although, to be honest, these Angry Birds Cheese Nips interest me because they would give me the opportunity to feed hungry birds by shooting Angry Birds into the air with a slingshot.

A serving of 32 crackers has 130 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat (but contains partially hydrogenated oil), 160 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 0 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.