Tidbit bits

Mr. Tidbit is aware of an unusually large collection of extra information that he had to leave out of previous reports because he was out of space. There's nothing more urgent this week, so here are those bits of Tid.

More nourishing

Late last month, when he discussed the appearance of Special K Nourish hot cereal, which comes in just-add-water microwave cups, Mr. Tidbit would have liked to report the simultaneous appearance of Special K Nourish cereal bars.

The three varieties all start with a blend of oats, wheat, barley and quinoa, similar to that in the hot cereal, and each 1.58-ounce bar (five in the box, $5.50 — 70 cents an ounce — at one discount store) contains 160 to 180 calories, 4 ½ to 7 grams of fat and 5 grams of fiber. Regular-old Special K bars, based on a mixture of rice and whole wheat, weigh in at 0.81 ounce, essentially half the size of Nourish bars. They come six to the box ($2.90 — 60 cents an ounce — at the same store), and each contains 90 calories, 1 ½ to 2 grams of fat and 1 gram of fiber.

This arrangement is similar to that of the 1.59-ounce Special K Protein meal bars, sold in the nutrition-bar aisle, and the 0.95-ounce Special K Protein snack bars, sold in the breakfast-bar aisle.

Cereal installment

And last week, when he discussed General Mills' collection of new baking products bearing the Hershey's name, he would have liked to acknowledge the new Big G cereal, Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme. And now he has.

Pudding it right

In that same column, it would have been nice to note new Hershey's instant pudding mixes (chocolate, white chocolate and Special Dark). As with all of the General Mills Hershey's items, Hershey doesn't make the product, but in this case no other name appears on the front of the box. The back of the box reveals that the maker is not Jell-O (which would have been Mr. Tidbit's guess) but Jel Sert, which also makes Royal and My*T*Fine puddings and Fla-Vor-Ice freezer pops.

Al Sicherman