"new flavors" news and stories

Häagen-Dazs is going back to basics with its new line of ice cream - Five. The company is offering 7 flavors - mint, ginger, coffee, vanilla bean, passion fruit, brown sugar, and milk chocolate - that are made with just 5 ingredients. For example, vanilla is made from skim milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla extract.

Fellow blog Springwise believes that the launching of the Häagen-Dazs Five is symbolic of the current economic environment: "Pure, natural, simple-in today's ailing economic climate, such adjectives hold a nostalgic appeal." But, in such tough economic times, who's willing to spend about $7 on a pint of ice cream?

It's that time of year again: Girl Scout cookie season. This year all Girl Scout cookies are trans-fat free so you can eat them with slightly less guilt than before.

There are two bakeries that produce Girl Scout Cookies, Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Bakers . Both produce some of the classic cookies, including Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoils and Tagalongs (a.k.a. Peanut Butter Patties), but each of the bakeries make several cookies that the other does not. Little Brownie Bakers has three original creations this year. Sugar Free Little Brownies are little chewy chocolate squares "packed with chocolate chips" that are diabetic friendly and All-Abouts are all about "Enjoying life as a true Girl Scout" and appear to have a chocolate-flavored coating on one side.

ABC Bakers has Reduced Fat Cartwheels, which are "oatmeal rounds with a cinnamon burst in every bite" and lemon-iced shortbread Lemonades in their lineup this spring, as well as cookies with the odd name Thanks-a-Lot appear to be the same as the All-Abouts from LBB, although they have the words for "thanks" in five different languages written on them.

I'm planning on passing on both the All-Abouts and Thanks-a-Lots, but I'll consider getting a box of Lemonades with my Samoas, Tagalongs and Trefoils this year.

Every year, over $20 billion dollars is spent on snack foods in the US, so it is easy to see why the snack industry is so interested in trying to find the next big product - or better yet, the next big flavor. Most snack products have been around for a long time and are met with only slight variations. Popcorn is healthier or more indulgent and cookies can be chewy or crispy. The flavors, however, can be used across the board in all different types of snack foods. Cheddar, for example, is a very American flavor and everything from chips to popcorn to aerosol "cheeses" come in cheddar flavor, making it one of the most popular snack flavors around.

In their efforts to come up with the "next cheddar" the snack industry uses snackologists, who observe the snacking habits of their target audience "to identify flavors the public will like and then find ways to package those flavors into irresistible morsels." A lot of research is done at restaurants, where trends are introduced to the mainstream. Chipotle and jalapeno were some of the most recent snack flavors to spring from the restaurant industry and snackologists are now pondering whether teriyaki, curry and other Asian flavors can make it into the US snack mainstream successfully. These masters of munching aren't going to reveal anything more specific just yet, but you'll know who the idea came from the ext time you see the word "New!" emblazoned on bags in the snack aisle.

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Granola fans should introduce themselves to Bear Naked granola, if they aren't familiar with it already. The award winning, good-for-you cereal is on of the best selling and best tasting granolas in the country. Made with wholesome, all-natural ingredients, the company's goal is to make sure that their customers enjoy living a healthy lifestyle and eating healthy - starting with granola, of course. Their granolas are hand-crafted in small batches with real whole grains and other "bearly processed and utterly naked ingredients." They have been available in three flavors for a couple of years now: fruit and nut, apple cinnamon and banana nut. This month, the company is rolling out two new flavors, Peanut Butter and Jelly granola and Peak Protein Blueberry Walnut. The peanut butter flavor is designed to taste like one of the most popular sandwiches in the country and to appeal to kids as well as adults. The blueberry flavor is intended to remind eaters of freshly baked blueberry muffins.

Only the blueberry flavor is available at their online store right now, but both should be on store shelves alongside the original flavors within a couple of weeks.

When Kettle Chips decides to introduce a new flavor, they often create a "party pack" of unreleased flavors and let you - the consumer - vote for your favorite. The downside to this is that if your favorite flavor isn't the one that is chosen, you know exactly what you're missing out on, but it's still interesting to try the experimental flavors. The Passport to Flavor Pack is their newest selection. It includes five 5-oz. bags of chips in Royal Indian Curry, Dragon 5 Spice, Aztec Chocolate, Island Jerk and Twisted Chili Lime flavors, as well as a world music sample CD ("A Taste of Putumayo: Music for Every Palate"), food and drink pairing ideas and a chip clip so that you can seal up any uneaten chips. The pack is $19.95 and after you've tried the different flavors, you can go to Passport To Flavor to vote for the one you'd most like to see on store shelves next summer.

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