Category: Spotted on Shelves

Turning water into something other than water hasn’t only been done by Jesus, it’s been done by Crystal Light, Gatorade, Kool-Aid, and Tang. The problem with these mixes is that they come in powder form, which means I’m either going to have to deal with tearing off the tops of little packets or possibly choke on a cloud of fruity powder that rises out of a container of Kool-Aid I accidentally dropped and then opened before everything inside could settle.

But, soon, we’ll have another choice to turn plain old water into flavored plain old water with Kraft’s MiO. Unlike the previous mixes I mentioned, MiO isn’t a powder mix, it’s a liquid water enhancer. Or a liquid flavor concentrate, if you will.

All it takes is few droplets from MiO’s pocket-friendly water droplet-shaped container to turn Mother Nature’s tears into flavored Mother Nature’s tears. Or if you’re like me with a bottle of chocolate syrup and a glass of milk, you can put as much of it as you want in your water. MiO has zero calories and no artificial flavor, but it does contain artificial colors, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives.

MiO will launch nationwide on March 7 and come in six flavors: berry pomegranate, fruit punch, mango peach, peach tea, sweet tea, and strawberry watermelon. It will retail for $3.99 and one bottle can make 24 8-ounce servings.

Bonnaroo Buzz was originally a flavor only available at Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops, but, recently, they’ve packed all that coffee and malt ice cream, toffee chunk, and whiskey caramel swirl goodness into a pint sized container you can buy at your local grocery store.

The ice cream is named after the annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee. (Side note: My future first child, whether it’s a boy or girl, will also be named after the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, since Bonnaroo sounds like a great uni-sex name.) Just like Bonnaroo Buzz ice cream combines a variety of flavors, the Bonnaroo event brings together musicians from a variety of genres, like rock, hip-hop, jazz, country, folk, gospel, and reggae. Sadly, Bonnaroo Buzz ice cream won’t let you experience the sounds, sun, sweat, stank and skunkweed smoke at the Bonnaroo Festival.

A half cup of Bonnaroo Buzz has 280 calories, 14 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 60 milligrams of cholesterol, 115 milligrams of sodium, 33 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 25 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

When I worked in an office setting, soft baked goods were consumed on a regular basis at the mandatory morning work meeting. You’d think the carbohydrates in the baked goods would give me the energy to power through the mandatory morning work meeting that I felt was completely unproductive, but they did the opposite. I guess eating a Costco chocolate muffin the size of my head would put most to sleep.

Although I don’t work in an office setting anymore, I wonder if I would’ve been able to stay awake in those meeting and not repeat over and over in my head “This is a waste of time” with Rold Gold’s Bakery-Inspired Pretzels, which take the flavors from our favorite soft baked goods and encapsulates them in a hard pretzel form.

The new line of Rold Gold pretzels come in three baked goods-flavored varieties:

Cheesy Garlic – Pretzel nuggets with cheddar and garlic.

Cinnamon Raisin – Pretzel twists with the flavor of raisins and cinnamon sugar.

Everything Bagel – Pretzel rings with sesame and poppy seeds, garlic, and onions.

A one-ounce serving of the Cheesy Garlic has 110 calories, 2 grams of fat, 390 milligrams of sodium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, less than 1 gram of sugar and 2 grams of protein. The Everything Bagel has 120 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 1 gram of monounsaturated fat, 390 milligrams of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, less than 1 gram of sugar and 3 grams of protein. Finally, the Cinnamon Raisin contains 110 calories, 2 grams of fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 290 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 4 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein. All three varieties have no artificial flavors, preservatives, MSG, or trans fat.

Source: Frito Lay Snacks Blog

Dominex is a brand I never knew existed until I saw an announcement for their new Veggie Fries. Dominex is, apparently, “The Eggplant People.” You may be wondering what that means. It means Dominex takes perfectly innocent foods like burgers and meatballs and tries to emulate them using eggplant. Dr. Frankenstein meets the purple plant that absorbs the flavors around it. I guess eggplant is the new tofu?

Regardless, Dominex has added Veggie Fries to their eggplant empire. Breaded Italian Style Eggplant Fries, to be more precise. I was convinced “Italian Style” fries was something Dominex made up to make eggplant fries sound more appetizing, but Googling Italian style fries brought up over a million hits, so I guess that’s egg(plant) on my face.

Veggie Fries’ big selling point, besides Doninex’s motto of “A Fun Way to Enjoy You Veggies!”, is that Veggie Fries have 65% less sodium than french fries. They also claim to be made with all-natural ingredients and freshly-sourced eggplant. I have no idea what freshly-sourced means, and Google didn’t really help me out, so it sounds to me like one of those bullshit phrases someone made up to make something sound more organic. I invite anyone to educate me in the comments section.

Dominex doesn’t have Veggie Fries up on their official website yet, so the only nutritional information available right now is that a full serving has only 80 milligrams of sodium. The suggested retail price for a 14-ounce bag is $4.49.

Ocean Spray is synonymous with cranberries. If it weren’t for Ocean Spray, cranberries would only be known as a Thanksgiving topping and a popular 90s Irish rock band. They’ve done things to cranberries that would make my dominatrix blush, like squash them to make juice and put bags over them. The latest thing Ocean Spray has done with cranberries is to combine their juice with sparking water to make Ocean Spray Sparking Juice Drinks.

The carbonated canned beverage comes in original and diet varieties, and along with cranberry, there’s also a pomegranate blueberry flavor.

The Ocean Spray Sparking Juice Drinks are made with 70 percent fruit juice and contains no added sugar, artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. A serving has 90 calories and a can of it is a good source of vitamin C, provides a full serving of fruit, and might offer some sweet, sweet release from urinary tract infections. The diet versions have just 10 calories per serving.