"taste" news and stories

Harry & David is known for their gourmet gift baskets and the high quality fruits, nuts, chocolates and other goodies that they ship out. They are not the "go-to" source for Valentine's Vay chocolates, however, because many consumers feel that they will get better chocolates from a source that specializes only in chocolates. This decision, although seemingly logical, is not necessarily the right one to make. A multi-brand taste test in Money Magazine placed Harry & David's chocolates above those from Vosages Haute-Chocolate, Whittman, Godiva and Target's Choxie.

Brands from all different price categories were chosen and evaluated for quality of the chocolate, the "accuracy of flavors," packaging appeal and value by a group of women (since they are somewhat more likely to receive chocolates on Valentine's Day than men).

The specific chocolate selection used in the taste test was Harry & David's 1-lb. Grand Collection, which includes a variety of milk and dark chocolates with nuts, caramels, toffees, fruits and berries. It retails for $29.99.

There are a lot of flavored waters marketed to kids on the grounds that they are tastier than plain milk or water, but have less sugar than juice or soda. Parents can give heir kids one of the usually colorful drinks and will not have to worry that they are actually drinking it at lunchtime in place of a soda from the vending machine. This week, the Wall Street Journal held a taste test with groups of both adults and children to see if the drinks' taste held up to their marketing hype.

Aroma Water was the must adult-oriented of the four brands, with the flavors (which are actually scents) of either lemon lime or mandarin orange embedded into the bottle cap, not the water itself. 90% of taste actually comes from smell, so there is no flavoring added to the water and yet it still tastes flavored. These were "subtle, natural and refreshing. Waddajuice is a brand of juice diluted with water, just as the name implies. It comes in white grape and apple and has no added sugar. It "retains enough flavor that kids may thing it is the real thing." Crayola Color Coolerz! are waters sweetened with sucralose (Splenda) that are "very tart, extremely sweet and neon-colored." Flavors include Purple Pizazz, Berry Blue and Screamin' Green. Wild Waters are naturally sweetened waters that have minerals and vitamins added for an extra nutritional boost. Flavors include Flippin' Fruit Punch, Groovin' Grape, Twistin' Tropical Punch and Rippin' Raz Lemonade and tasters placed them squarely between Waddajuice and Crayola in terms of sweetness.

Waddajuice and Wild Waters are the best choice for kids as they are sweeter than Aroma Water, which adults will probably enjoy, and have no artificial ingredients.

Although the results of the 12th annual Great New Zealand Sausage Competition won't be in until later this week, the most interesting thing about the judging isn't finding out who the winner is (unless you were participating, of course) but who was doing the judging in the first place. In addition to the Beef, Pork, BBQ, Flavored, Flavored BBQ, Saveloy/Polony/Cocktail, Traditional, International, and Gourmet categories that were evaluated by experienced judges, there was also a second judging of a selected group of entries to see who would win the Kids' Choice Award. All the entries, selected from those participating in other categories in the competition, were scrutinized by two groups of kids: seven judges under the age of five, and a group under the age of nine.

Perhaps some will bristle at the idea of their product being judged by kids, but most children love sausages and while they may not be able to pick out the same points as a life-long professional food critic would, they certainly know the difference between a good one and a bad one.

Source

The HJ Heinz Company has had the highest consumer satisfaction rating in the country for the past six years, and it's no wonder because, although they make many different products, they make one of the most popular and best loved condiments you can name: Heinz ketchup. Everyone likes Heinz, or at least, they think they do. Endless taste tests rank it sometimes higher and sometimes lower than other brands, and the brand still averages a high score. One recent test, however, may actually forecast a change in the way Heinz makes their ketchup. In it, Organic Heinz came out above regular Heinz.

For years, organic goods such as sauces and, of course, ketchup, had a hard time catching on with consumers since their flavors and consistency were too unfamiliar. Perhaps tastes have grown up a bit, or the technology is simply better, but if the organic version is now scoring higher with tasters, we could see a resulting increase in the availability of organic ketchup, possibly in place of the traditional stuff.

Where would you rank Organic Heinz? Is it as french-fry worthy as the classic?

Source

Hellman's Mayonnaise (Best Foods, for shoppers in the western US) is the favorite brand of Cooks Illustrated and Cooks Country test kitchens, but for all its good qualities, mayonnaise can add a tremendous amount of fat to a sandwich or a dip. Cooks Country compared four varieties of their favorite mayonnaise brand this month to see if you could cut back on calories by switching to a lower fat version, or whether you're really missing out if you do.

The types taste tested were Hellmann's regular, canola oil, light and reduced fat. Unfortunately, the tasters all really preferred the original, full-fat (9g per each 1-tablespoon serving) variety and said that it provided the best flavor when tasted alone and in a dip. The reduced fat (only 2 grams fat per 1-tbsp serving) didn't have nearly as much flavor, but it still produced a creamy texture in dips.

Since most people don't want their spinach dip to taste like straight mayo anyway, you can save some fat and calories by using one of the lighter mayos in your dips and save the full-fat for when flavor really counts, on a sandwich.