Say uncle, BenIt has been eight years since Uncle Ben's introduced plain white Ready Rice, precooked in the pouch, which you microwave for 90 seconds. At the time, Mr. Tidbit noted that the price of the two-serving pouch was almost five times as much per serving as that of Uncle Ben's original converted rice. (And it still is.)
Since then, Uncle Ben's has produced numerous flavors of Ready Rice, all costing (depending on the store) from 50 percent more to three times as much as its similar longer-cooking mixtures in dry boxes.
And now, thanks to the miracle of modern merchandising, there's Uncle Ben's rice in single-serving cups, which take only 60 seconds to microwave. At one store, where the two-serving pouch costs $2.09 ($1.05 a serving), the one-serving cup costs $1.49. It does save you a much-needed 30 seconds.
Seasoned beans S&W Fine Foods, maker of somewhat upscale canned fruits and vegetables, including 15 varieties of canned beans (six of which are versions with 50 percent less sodium), introduces a line of "recipe collection" seasoned beans. The new varieties are mild jalapeño black beans (with lime juice), chipotle pinto beans (with mesquite flavor), Cuban recipe black beans (with onions, peppers and cumin), and pinquito beans (with onions and cumin).
Stringing along Kraft's string cheese is now available with at least two choices of flavorful inclusions: jalapeño and tomato basil, at the same price as its plain string cheeses.
Mr. Tidbit has pointed out several times that the new variations of Kraft's varietal cheese shreds and slices that include some Philadelphia cream cheese should cost less than the non-Philly versions -- because cream cheese is less expensive than the varietal cheeses. He could make that same case for the string cheese variants: Jalapeños and tomatoes cost much less per ounce than cheese. But he has discovered that he likes flavored string cheese much more than he likes plain string cheese, so the fight has gone out of him on this one.
AL SICHERMAN
