Offbeat Eating » news

Yet Another Beverage Promo

admin — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:08:24 +0000

In an attempt to loosely associate the beverage with the just-passed economic stimulus/bailout plan, Diet Dr. Pepper announced it is giving away a coupon for a free beverage to the first 2 million people that register at the web site.

Seriously, lowering the price would be easier. But these promotions are not meant to provide ease to the consumer. It’s all about branding.

FYI – to the food and beverage companies issuing these releases, if you want more bloggers and online media to pick up these announcements, make it easier for us. Attach a photo to the release. Thanks!

Bake-Off?

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:55:51 +0000

I don’t know about the rest of the food blogging community, but the Pillsbury Bake-off has always been a bit of perplexing event for me. One the one hand there’s a grand prize of $1m, on the other hand the winning contestants tend to heavily rely on pre-packaged ingredients like pie or biscuit dough.

So I this year, again, I consider entering–I can always use flour and one of the more natural ingredients. But I ask you this: will I lose all my food blogging street cred if I enter?

Say Cheese

admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 05:28:47 +0000

While there were thousands of vendors at the Fancy Food Show, I spent the majority of my time sampling untold cheese varieties from dozens of domestic and European dairies.

My absolute favorite was the Amalattea Tenerina, a goat milk Riccota Salata. No salty or bitter aftertaste with this cheese. It is slightly sweet with hints of citrus and slightly more creamy than a cow’s milk version. In fact, the taste is reminiscent of my grandmother’s lemony rice pie. Unfortunately it won’t be available in the U.S. for another six months or so. I suppose I have no choice but to wait. The company, which makes cheese exclusively from goat milk, produces several other varieties varying in age from one day to nearly a year old. The mozzarella was tasty too-neutral with a slight chevre taste. I’d be interested to try this on a veggie lasagana–as opposed to a meat one–as I think the flavors would blend nicely.

My other favorite cheese find was a new cow’s milk variety from Kerrygold–Dubliner with Irish Stout. It seems that it’s so new it’s not even listed on the website yet. It has the same nutty, robust base flavor as the Dubliner, but with a sweeter finishing taste.

Food News Roundup

admin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:30:43 +0000

A Classic Cookie Makes a Comeback
Given the choice between Hyrdrox and Oreos as a kid I chose Hydrox—I preferred the texture of the latter. I’m in luck, the Hydrox is back, for a limited time only. Kellogg’s, which owns the Sunshine brand, has resurrected the cookie that originally debuted in 1908, several years before the Oreo.

Another Candy Contest
Folks, you’ve got five more days to vote for the new JellyBelly flavor. The finalist flavors include: Honey, Sublime Chili Lime, Thai Ice Tea, Mojito and Acai Berry. I’m no candy expert, but it seems odd to make an artificial honey flavored jelly bean. Wouldn’t it be tastier to eat real honey?

Food News Roundup

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:29:48 +0000

Jamba Juice takes back the smoothie
In what appears to be a direct poke in the eye to Starbucks and its new Vivanno, Jamba Juice last week announced a limited time ‘Orange Refresher’ all fruit smoothie available as of July 17 for $2.95. The 16 oz. beverage is 210 calories and touted to contain 100% natural ingredients, contain no high-fructose corn syrup and have no added sugar.

According to the release, “Jamba is taking steps to educate the consumer of the benefits of Jamba smoothies, which not only taste great, but are good for you. Jamba believes its product offerings, store atmosphere, and overall customer experience offers a competitive advantage over those whose primary business is serving coffee or hamburgers.”

That’s right Starbucks, they are talking to you. And to further turn up the heat, Jamba is offering coupons for a free smoothie with the purchase of any other smoothie. The coupons will be distributed electronically and also available at www.jamba.com. They are valid from July 17, 2008 through July 30, 2008.

Having your cake and yogurt, too
Yoplait Light introduces three new cake-inspired flavors: Strawberry Shortcake, Raspberry Cheesecake and Pineapple Upside-Down Cake to be introduced nationwide in August 2008

Food News Roundup

admin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:34:48 +0000

Jamie Oliver gets his game on
The British chef teams with Atari for What’s Cooking? a new game for Nintendo DS to be released in time for Christmas 2008. The game walks players through cooking scenarios including, shopping, chopping and plating. Players can bring the game into the kitchen to try their hand at the 100 recipes included. And with features such as an interactive shopping list (it saves ingredients from recipes, organizes them by food type, and also allows you to add other items to the list using keypad or text recognition), even my non-cooking boyfriend says, “wow a game that’s actually useful and could potentially get Kristin out of the grocery store in under an hour!”

Starbucks renames the smoothie

Another difficult to pronounce word–Vivanno™–is nothing more than a fruit smoothy with protein and fiber powder added. And according to Serious Eats, they taste awful.

Even more cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs
There’s a new flavor out today: chocolate and vanilla combo. Hopefully this will satisfy all the kids in the house.