New Products Hits & Misses for 11/25/2009

Ratings Criteria

With over 50,000 products in the average supermarket, people don't have the time, or the money, to test every product on the shelves and with 15,000 new products every year consumers need to know what's out there!

So Phil does the testing and the tasting for you and gives the product a rating out of 100 so you know what you can expect when you try something new!

SupermarketGuru does not sell the foods we review, nor receive any compensation from the manufacturers for reviewing or rating them.

Phil taste-tests and judges each product based on the following 8 criteria:

(30 points) Taste: The most important attribute of any food
(20 points) Value: Is it worth it?
(15 points) Health: Based off the nutritional information, is it nutritionally balanced?
(15 points) Ingredients: What's in it, how natural is it?
(5 points) Preparation: When applicable, how accurate or good are the directions *
(5 points) Appearance: Is it appetizing and does it resemble its photo or description
(5 points) Packaging: Is it appropriate for the product and does it have any benefits such as resealability, added freshness, better storage, etc.
(5 Points) Sustainability: Is the packaging biodegradable, is it wasteful, is the company endeavoring to offset their carbon footprint?

* products that do not have any preparation will have the full value of these points included in their total score

Little Debbie Chocolate Cupcakes

75

This product is a MISS! “Sweet memories are made of this”… not! The back of the box of the new little Debbie Chocolate Cupcakes shows mom and daughter, grandfather and grandson, and college kids smiling as they get ready to enjoy Little Debbie Chocolate Cupcakes - c’mon… I know it is a cupcake that has sugar as the first ingredient, water as the second and lots of other sugars and artificial ingredients, but still in today’s environment if you really wanted to make these people happy you need to clean up the ingredients! This cupcake, with the little white squiggles reminds me of the Hostess Cupcakes I grew up with. It is almost 2010, we CAN make a cupcake that looks like this on the outside, but is loaded with all-natural ingredients and great taste on the inside! Retails for $3.09.

McKee Foods
800 522 4499
http://www.littledebbie.com

Scoring Breakdown:

OKe Doke Chicago Mix Cheese and Caramel Flavored Popcorn

66

This product is a MISS! Their slogan is “When it’s more than OK, it’s Oke Doke”. So let’s see if it is more. First up, there are a lot more cheese pieces than caramel pieces, but even so, the cheese popcorn tastes sweet – and no surprise, since corn syrup is the second ingredient after popcorn and sugar is the third. It also contains autolyzed yeast extract which contains MSG. The package does call this a “mellow cheese and caramel Chicago mix”, but I am underwhelmed. The popcorn is crunchy, I'll give 'em that. And remember, the great news is that popcorn is a whole grain, but when it is smothered with three types of oil and four types of sugars, it sort of outweighs the benefits. One ounce of this is 7 grams of fat, while air popped popcorn would not contain any fat – I’m not ready to say Oke Doke. Retails for $3.49.

Snyder’s of Hanover, Inc
N/A
http://www.jaysfoods.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Surf Sweets Gummy Swirls

93

This product is a HIT! If you like sweets Surf Sweets is the product for you. I do not like the name, which is taken from the idea of surfing in California and I do not like the package which is not re-sealable, but the taste, texture and ingredients are fabulous. Yes it is candy with 22 grams of sugar per serving, but just a couple of these swirls will satisfy your sweet craving. Surf Sweets are made with organic fruit juice and fortified with 100% of the recommended daily allowance of calcium and vitamin C in 16 pieces (half a bag) – oh, and they are also gluten free and vegan. They are not sickeningly sweet and are designed for an adult palette. This is what sweets and snacks in 2010 should be; and to top it all off, this candy is actually made here in the USA. Retails for $1.99.

TruSweets LLC
224 676 1070
http://www.surfsweets.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Natural Brew Outrageous Ginger Ale

94

This product is a HIT! Remember when ginger ale actually contained ginger root and did not have high fructose corn syrup as the second ingredient? Natural Brew obviously remembers that as well. Yes, it is soda, yes it is 170 calories per bottle, but the second ingredient is brewed ginger root tea which gives a whole new flavor. Do not expect to taste sweet, expect ginger. Oh yeah, I guess that is why it was originally named ginger ale. Thank you Natural Brew for remembering. Retails for $5.49 / 4 pack.

Smucker Natural Foods, Inc
888 569 7031
http://www.natural-brew.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Kilauea Fire Hawaiian Style BBQ Sauce

70

This product is a MISS! Kilauea is a volcano located on the big island in Hawaii. This Kilauea Fire BBQ sauce’s inspiration was the volcano and while there is a slow clear burn to the flavor, the four sugars: high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, brown sugar and sugar – is really the flavor that comes through. The last ingredients listed on the label include jabanero, cayenne, and other spices. To its credit, tomato concentrate instead of water is the first ingredient. Retails for $5.99.

BBQ Jim’s LLC
808 845 9868
http://www.kilaueafire.com

Scoring Breakdown:

Thank You

We hope you enjoyed this edition of

New Product
Hits and Misses

If you would like Phil to consider your new product for review, please send 4 samples of each flavor you to submit for review, with the suggested retail price and other product information. We regret that we can not review all products submitted. Please send to:

New Product Review
SupermarketGuru.com
3015 Main Street, Suite 320
Santa Monica, CA 90405

Product reviews are conducted by randomly selecting one flavor of a product and taking into consideration the information available on the package itself as it would appear in the retail environment. Information contained in advertisements or on websites is not taken into account for evaluation or ratings.

Email danielle@supermarketguru.com with any questions and whenever possible please be environmentally friendly when packaging your products.