More Quaker Lots of grocery products these days have morphed into several separate lines, each with multiple flavors (there are, for example, four flavors of Oreo Cakesters). But the absolute king of multiple lines of products you can barely tell apart is Quaker, which makes (at least) these kinds of instant oatmeal: regular, True Delights, Mix-Up Creations, Weight Control, lower sugar, high fiber and organic -- most with multiple flavors.
Continuing in that tradition, there are two flavors (apple cranberry almond or banana walnut) of new Quaker Hearty Medleys Fruit and Nuts instant ... Oops! This isn't instant oatmeal: Mr. Tidbit finally noticed that this is instant multigrain cereal (consisting of four whole grains: rolled rye, rolled oats, rolled barley and rolled wheat) with almonds, berries and whatever.
Wait! Isn't that what Quaker Simple Harvest instant multigrain cereal is? Nope; that has those four rolled whole grain cereals -- and flaxseed. Mr. Tidbit rests his case.
More Craisins Mr. Tidbit had just gotten over noticing new cherry and cranberry Raisinets a few weeks ago (they are chocolate-coated dried cherries or cranberries, not raisins, and they cost more than regular Raisinets) when he stumbled upon new Ocean Spray blueberry and pomegranate Craisins -- and cherry Craisins, which aren't new but he hadn't noticed them before. (Ocean Spray's original Craisins are dried cranberries.)
Wait! These aren't dried blueberries, pomegranates or cherries; they are all dried cranberries -- infused with the juice of blueberries, pomegranates or cherries. The 6-ounce bags all cost the same as the 6-ounce bags of regular Craisins.
Less potassium sorbate While staring at the Craisins, Mr. Tidbit detected, among all the other shiny bags of dried fruit, an unusual un-shiny bag. The natural-looking bag contains Sunsweet's new preservative-free D'Noir brand of pitted prunes. Sunsweet's regular shiny-bagged pitted prunes contain potassium sorbate, as a preservative. The entire ingredients list of D'Noir prunes is "pitted California prunes." At one store the 9-ounce bag of D'Noir prunes cost $2.55; 9 ounces of regular Sunsweet prunes are $2.29.
AL SICHERMAN
