Ocean Spray oatmeal?

By AL SICHERMAN, Star Tribune

Last update: September 9, 2009 - 11:53 AM

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.

And if that isn't daunting enough, almost every store has a few flavors of its own brand of instant oatmeal (what are called "private label" products, made by anonymous producers under a number of store names).

Sure, none of those contains cranberries (at least none Mr. Tidbit has seen), and all four Ocean Spray varieties do. (That includes Cranberry Pomegranate, featuring dried cranberries and "natural flavor" -- sorry, pomegranate farmers, no bits of actual pomegranate.)

Still, it would seem to be an unlikely market for a cranberry cooperative with no particular cereal expertise. Then Mr. Tidbit saw in small print on the back: "Manufactured and Distributed by Sturm Foods Inc., Manawa, WI" and "Manufactured under license by Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc."

So it isn't exactly Ocean Spray instant oatmeal with cranberries; it's Sturm Foods instant oatmeal with cranberries and a licensing agreement from Ocean Spray.

Sturm Foods turns out to be a 700-employee maker of private-label cold and hot beverage mixes, nonfat dry milk and more than 20 varieties of (wait for it) instant oatmeal, in seven categories: regular, lower sugar, sugar free, high fiber, heart health, weight management and organic. So that's the oatmeal expertise. And Manawa, Wis., is just east of a major center of cranberry production.

Still ... Ocean Spray oatmeal?

Let the chips fall . . .

New "Limited edition" Chips Ahoy! Fudge Bites are cookies smaller than, and quite different from, regular Chips Ahoy!, each topped with a blob of "fudge." (The exclamation point is part of the name, not Mr. Tidbit's opinion.) A 10.2-ounce bag is essentially the same price as a 15.25-ounce bag of regular Chips Ahoy!! (The second exclamation point is Mr. Tidbit's opinion.)

AL SICHERMAN