Apparently the bandwagon to jump on in the fruit drink/snack industry is vegetable. Thus it's no surprise to find that the likes of V8 V-Fusion, Mott's Medleys and Ocean Spray Fruit & Veggie drinks have been joined by Capri Sun Super V. Each little pouch of Super V is said to contain one combined serving of fruits and vegetables, consisting of 75 percent fruit juice and 25 percent vegetable juice. The vegetable juices in all three flavors of Super V are sweet potato and carrot.Super V is not the first alternate product line from Capri Sun. In addition to the original "25 percent less sugar" version (25 percent less sugar "than leading regular juice drinks"), there's 100 percent juice, which apparently has no name other than "100% Juice" (original Capri Sun flavors are all about 10 percent juice and new Super V is 66 percent juice); Roarin' Waters, a line with absolutely no juice at all and sweetened partly with Splenda; and Sunrise, which Mr. Tidbit can't seem to figure out.
Incidentally, the last time Mr. Tidbit examined this enterprise, in 2007 when Roarin' Waters was introduced, all Capri Sun pouches contained 63/4 ounces. Now they're all 6 ounces.
Pricing for the various versions seems to vary all over the map, but at every store Mr. Tidbit checked, original and Roarin' Water were priced about the same. At some stores the 100 percent juice version was at that price, too, but others were selling it for as much as 50 percent more. And where he found Super V, it was selling for from 14 to 47 percent more than the original version.
Where's the beef? Ordinarily Mr. Tidbit eschews discussion of new flavors of existing products, but the latest Oreo Fudge Cremes entry almost begs to be examined. The new Coconut Delight version contains no actual coconut -- nor even any natural coconut flavor -- and the fig leaf of tiny-type "artificially flavored" next to the flavor name appears in black type against a dark blue background, so in indoor light it is virtually invisible.
And the cookies don't taste much like coconut.
