Crowded valley

The debut of a couple of new Nature Valley products caused Mr. Tidbit to check in on the number of Nature Valley bars. According to General Mills' Nature Valley website, there are six kinds of Sweet & Salty Nut bars, nine kinds of Crunchy bars, two kinds of Roasted Nut Crunch bars, four kinds of Chewy Trail Mix bars, three kinds of Protein bars, three kinds of Yogurt bars and three kinds of Granola Thins.

Clearly, this is a neglected product line, so, as noted, there are two additions: two kinds of Greek Yogurt Protein bars and two kinds of Breakfast Biscuits. Mr. Tidbit isn't sure what makes something a breakfast biscuit, but these are thin, cookie-like items, four to the 50-gram (1.77-ounce) pouch that is said to be a serving, five pouches in a box. Mr. Tidbit would say they aren't quite sweet enough to be cookies, but he would guess that if you consider a scone to be dessert, you'd say these breakfast biscuits are cookies.

Defining breakfast

Further insight into what is a "breakfast biscuit" comes a step away, where the Mondelez half of what used to be Kraft offers two kinds of BelVita Breakfast Biscuits: Crunchy, in five flavors, and Soft Baked, in four flavors (two of them new). Just like the Nature Valley items, the BelVita Crunchy Breakfast Biscuits come four to the 50-gram pouch, five pouches in a box. The Soft Baked Breakfast Biscuits also come in five-serving boxes, but each serving is a single 50-gram biscuit. Maybe "breakfast biscuit" can be defined as "something that weighs 50 grams per serving."

Although the BelVita name has been here since 2012, Mr. Tidbit just noticed that BelVita (Italian for "beautiful life") might also be a sly little reference to a mainstay product from Kraft's other half: Velveeta.

Color me noticeable

When he mentioned Duncan Hines' new Blue Velvet and Pink Velvet cake mixes two weeks ago, Mr. Tidbit didn't mean to slight Pillsbury or Betty Crocker. Among Pillsbury's current offerings are Orangesicle and Key Lime cake mixes and frostings. And Betty Crocker proposes Watermelon cupcake mix and frosting and Cotton Candy frosting (surely not on the Watermelon cupcakes).

Al Sicherman