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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Ocean Spray oatmeal?
Mr. Tidbit almost giggled when he saw new Ocean Spray instant oatmeal. What were the Ocean Spray folks thinking? Instant oatmeal is a market in which Quaker has a total of 27 (yes! 27!) varieties, in six categories: regular, lower sugar, high fiber, heart health, weight control and organic.
Sep 9, 2009 -
Tidbits: It's all what?
Mr. Tidbit has spoken before about the use of brand names on a variety of products unlike the originals. Velveeta, for example, is not a particular cheese blend but a name that Kraft can and does use on any of its cheesy offerings (such as Velveeta Shells & Cheese).
Sep 2, 2009 -
Pom-pom pull-away
Mr. Tidbit expected merely to guffaw at the latest entry in the "me-too" now-with-pomegranate sweepstakes. (Among fruits you might actually have heard of, pomegranates have one of the highest levels of probably good-for-you antioxidants -- more even than blueberries.)
Aug 26, 2009 -
Come fill the cup
New from Kraft are Velveeta Shells & Cheese single-serve microwave cups. You add water, microwave for 3 1/2 minutes, then stir in the pouch of cheese sauce. At one discount supermarket, four-packs of 2.39-ounce cups were $3.49 (87 cents each).
Aug 19, 2009 -
Frozen Wanchai
Was it just a year ago that Mr. Tidbit discussed General Mills' then-new Wanchai Ferry brand boxed just-add-chicken Asian dinner kits? (Yes, it was.) And now here he is discussing their now-new Wanchai Ferry brand frozen chicken/shrimp-already-in-there dinner kits.
Aug 12, 2009 -
Double-deck yogurt
New from General Mills, yet another kind of Yoplait: Yoplait Delights 100-calorie two-layer parfaits. Each carton contains four 4-ounce cuplets of lowfat yogurt, in a choice of four desserty flavors: crème caramel, lemon torte, triple berry crème and chocolate raspberry. The first three are topped with a layer of vanilla yogurt; the last one is chocolate yogurt, topped with a layer of raspberry yogurt.
Aug 5, 2009 -
Cans of Smoothies
When Mr. Tidbit recently noticed, in the supermarket frozen-juice case, the several flavors of Chiquita brand Smoothies, he was intrigued. While almost all the other 12-ounce cans of frozen juice concentrate at that store were priced from $1.79 to $1.99, with a few outliers at $2.29, the Chiquita Smoothies were $2.79. What, he wondered, could make this "flavored juice blend frozen concentrate" (as the label describes it) worth 22 to 56 percent more than all the others?
Jul 29, 2009 -
Simply cookies
This year's trendy grocery product variation seems to be "natural" or "simple" -- products largely defined by what they aren't.
Jul 22, 2009 -
Putting off the Ritz
This week's new item from Nabisco isn't some version of an Oreo, so chances are it's some version of a Ritz cracker, right? Absolutely, if your definition of a Ritz cracker (presuming you have one) is "anything that Nabisco calls a Ritz cracker." On the other hand, if you think a Ritz cracker is, at minimum, round, bright orange and buttery, new Ritz Crackerfuls are merely pretenders to the Ritz throne.
Jul 15, 2009 -
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
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