Al Sicherman
Columnist | Tidbits
Al Sicherman writes the Tidbits column for the Taste section. He is a retired columnist for the Star Tribune.
Recent content from Al Sicherman
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Pomegranate fields forever
The nation's -- or at least the nation's grocers' -- love affair with pomegranate seems to be spinning wildly out of control. Mr. Tidbit is becoming concerned that vast tracts of foreclosed suburban housing in Sunbelt states might have to be plowed under to feed the nation's snowballing need for pomegranates. Recent entries include V8 Fusion pomegranate blueberry juice, Yoplait Yoplus digestive yogurt in new blackberry pomegranate, and, for that matter, Softsoap pomegranate & mango body wash.
Jul 8, 2009 -
Sparkling what?
New from Lipton (in a partnership with Pepsi), sparkling green tea, bottled in 1.5-liter (1.58-quart) singles or 12-packs of 0.5-liter (16.9-ounce) bottles. The new product appears to have no brand name, unless it is "Sparkling." Mr. Tidbit thought it sounded interesting, as it called to his mind both the gone-before-you-knew-it coffee-flavored Coke and his own not-too-successful dinner experiment: lightly carbonated chilled cream soup.
Jul 1, 2009 -
100 calories vs ...
New from Kemps is a line of 100 Calorie Minis -- miniature frozen treats, including chocolate-coated ice cream bites, mini ice cream cones and mini ice cream sandwiches. Kemps still sells the miniature ice cream sandwiches introduced before it discovered the 100-calorie bandwagon, so once more Mr. Tidbit can happily compare a 100-calorie offering with the original version.
Jun 24, 2009 -
Tiny baubles
This week's new Oreo item (there really seems to be one almost every week) is Oreo Mini Cakesters -- darling little versions of the soft-cake Oreo Cakester sandwich cookies. They come in 100-calorie packs.
Jun 17, 2009 -
Sandwichlike items
Was it only last week that Mr. Tidbit was discussing several brands of frozen flatbread melts? (It was.) It seems that there are several other new products in that vein.
Jun 10, 2009 -
Melts in your hand?
Mr. Tidbit isn't much for sandwiches, no matter how mountainous or utterly level the bread, so he missed seeing the earliest flatbread sandwiches sweep through supermarkets' deli and frozen-food cases.
Jun 3, 2009 -
Yet more Cakesters
People who keep track of such things might remember the Peanut Butter and Chocolate Creme Double Delights Oreos introduced in 2002. Mr. Tidbit must admit he had forgotten them until he searched his cavernous storehouse of Oreo facts for what the newest version of Nabisco Cakesters -- Peanut Butter Creme Oreo -- reminded him of. (Besides not ending sentences with prepositions. And sentence fragments.)
May 27, 2009 -
Granola on frozen yogurt
New from Blue Bunny are several products of the sort referred to in the ice-cream business as "novelties," that is, they aren't just unadorned frozen stuff in a tub.
May 20, 2009 -
Del Monte SuperFruit
Until Mr. Tidbit looked for Del Monte's new SuperFruit tubs in the refrigerator case in the produce department, he hadn't noticed that Del Monte was already there, with something like 10 varieties of Fruit Naturals -- 8-ounce tubs of diced fruits and fruit mixtures in sweetened water.
May 13, 2009 -
Everything is natural
Suddenly the new-product spigot is once again producing "green" or "natural" items. Whether that means a lack of chemical-sounding ingredients, recycled content, nothing new or really nothing much at all depends on the product.
May 6, 2009
