Ghiradelli introduces Filled Chocolate Bar line

Ghirardelli which bills itself as a vendor of Moments of Timeless Pleasure™ is expanding their line of chocolate indulgences in their large bar line. Their new filled bars are 3.5 ounces each.

• Milk Chocolate with Caramel -- Buttery caramel soft filling surrounded by milk chocolate
• Dark Chocolate with Mint -- Tantalizingly refreshing mint filling surrounded by dark chocolate
• Dark Chocolate with Raspberry -- Delectably luscious raspberry filling made with real fruit surrounded by dark chocolate
• Dark Chocolate with Caramel (60% Cacao) -- Buttery caramel soft filling surrounded by dark chocolate
• Solid Milk Chocolate -- Rich, slow-melting milk chocolate
• Solid Dark Chocolate (60% Cacao) -- Pure, intense 60% cacao dark chocolate

Suggested retail price is $2.29.

Official website & Source

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Snickers introduced Charged - a caffeinated bar

Snickers has been doing the limited edition thing for a while (Dark Chocolate, Xtreme, Nut 'n' Butter and the upcoming Adventure Bar). Today they announced their newest bar, the SNICKERS Charged (TM) bar that provides additional B-vitamins and the stimulants caffeine and taurine.

To meet consumer needs and help millions of Americans take back their energy-zapped afternoons, SNICKERS(R) Brand is proclaiming the post-lunch, pre-dinner hour between two and three p.m. the SNICKERS Charged(TM) Re-Power Hour.

SNICKERS Charged(TM) contains 60 milligrams of caffeine. This compares to the caffeine content of other products:

• 8-ounce soft drink contains 20-40 milligrams
• 8-ounce regular coffee contains 65-120 milligrams
• 8-ounce energy drink contains 72-80 milligrams

More at Snickers.com

UPDATE: I got a hold of some to taste test. It's a little smaller than a regular Snickers, tastes pretty much the same but there's a slight bitter aftertaste. Still, less expensive than a cup of coffee most places!

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Jalapeno Cheddar Chex Mix

General Mills continues to expand the flavor line of their popular pre-made Chex Mix snack with Jalapeno Cheddar Chex Mix.

Jalapeno Cheddar Chex Mix includes Chex pieces, cheese crackers, mini breadsticks and salty pretzels. Sizes are 3.75-ounce and 8.75-ounce retailing for $1.39 and $2.99 respectively.

www.genmills.com

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Ritter Sport Dark Assortment

Ritter has expanded their line of Ritter Sport 100 gram bars to include assortments in stand-up bags.

The a la Mousse au Chocolat and Dark & Milk Chocolate Assortment can be seen at retailers such as Target and other discount stores.

The mini sizes of the bars were previously only available in sampler assortments.

For Ritter Sport enthusiasts, the German version of the site has rather fun animation.

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Presidential Election Cookies

David's Cookies announced today that they've produced new 2008 Presidential Election cookies, bearing the names of the top white house contenders.

These are classified as "cookie cakes", measuring 12 inches wide in diameter.

The company says they will tabulate sales of each Presidential hopeful, and thereby predict the winner of super Tuesday (Feb 5).

As usual, Dennis Kucinich was left without a cookie.

Visit the Presidential Cookies at David's...
http://www.davidscookies.com/index.cfm?action=category&categoryid=61

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Pizza Hut and Pasta Hut

TradeMork says today that the Pizza Hut chain filed an application to claim the "Pasta Hut" trademark for themselves. You can read their article here...

http://www.trademork.com/pasta-hut/

The name "Pasta Hut" is already in use by a handful of restaurants around country.

Will Pizza Hut open up a chain of pasta restaurants? The fast food pasta concept is not new, with many restaurants already doing well in this sphere, the biggest chain being Fazoli's.

It could also be that Pizza Hut is concerned an established Pasta Hut restaurant could gain a large enough influence to take away from their brand.

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Pinkberry - Coffee Frozen Yogurt

Pinkberry, the frozen yogurt chain that seemingly became an overnight sensation after being featured on an American Express television commercial, is now offering a new coffee frozen yogurt to celebrate its third birthday.

The new coffee variety will be accompanied by a new topping option, chestnuts.

The company says that it spent 12 months trying to make this new coffee flavor, and describes it as "a refreshing proprietary blend of premium coffee with Pinkberry's signature yogurt tang".

Pretty good idea, mixing frozen yogurt with Tang.

Pinkberry has 40 locations throughout New York and California.

Visit Pinkberry online...
http://www.pinkberry.com/

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Clemmy's Ice Cream

Clemmy's Ice Cream of Rancho Mirage, CA, announced today that it has become the first company in the history of the mankind to offer an ice cream that is both "all natural" and "sugar free".

And seeing how important that is, I thought it necessary to mention it here.

The company recently started up, and is offering five flavors...

• Vanilla Bean


• Chocolate


• Coffee


• Toasted Almond


• Chocolate Mint Swirl

The frozen confections are sweetened with Xylitol.

The company justifies its claims by saying that while many other products claim to be "sugar free" they actually still contain some sugar. Clemmy's is apparently absolutely and completely, 100%, sugar-free.

Clemmy's will be available in limited distribution at the end of March in quart-sized containers. If you own a store, and you'd like to sell the stuff, contact the company at its website...

http://www.clemmysicecream.com/

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Dreyer's American Idol Ice Cream

The Dreyer's, as well as its sister brand Edy's, has launched a series of limited edition, light ice creams under the "American Idol" co-brand.

The five new flavors is trying to raise awareness of the brands' slow-churned light ice cream line.

Flavors include...

• Cheesecake Diva - creamy cheesecake light ice cream, decadent brownie bites with fudge swirls.



• Cookies N Dreamz - chocolate light ice cream filled with crunchy pieces of chocolate cookie.



• Mint Karaoke Cookie - mint light ice cream with chocolate cookies.



• Most Orange-inal - creamy vanilla light ice cream with swirls of orange sorbet



• One Split Wonder - rich banana light ice cream with swirls of fruit and fudge

To help promote the limited edition flavor line, the two American Idol Season Six finalists Melinda Doolittle and Chris Richardson will be traveling around the country on a 20-city U.S. tour to eat the new ice cream in front of adoring fans, and tell them all how much they love eating it.

For more information on the American Idol ice cream, visit...
http://dreyers.slowchurned.com/idol/

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Kellogg's Pop-Tarts Whole Grains

Kellogg's formally announced today they're now offering a new line of Pop-Tarts made with one serving of whole grains.

The new whole grains Pop-Tarts have been appearing on shelves for a few months now, but there hasn't been a formal announcement from the company.

Kellogg's says that moms are increasingly wanting to give their kids more whole grains and fiber.

Apparently, kids are not pooping enough, or something like that.

In reality, Kellogg's is trying to stave off accusations that its products are part of the reason why kids are getting obese. Hence, it has launched a product-wide marketing campaign urging kids and their parents to get outside and exercise.

Launching Whole Grain Pop-Tarts is just an easy way for the company to say, "Hey don't look us, we're doing our part!".

Honestly, the fattening of kids today is not a calorie-intake issue, it's a calorie-burn issue. Kids would rather play video games than go outside and ride their bikes. Parents would rather drive their kids to school, than make them walk or ride a bike. Otherwise kids have been gorging themselves on candies and burgers and sodas going back to the 1950s.

But either way, I guess it doesn't hurt for this country to produce more stool.

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Frispos - Original Carl's Jr. Fries

Most people have never heard of "Frispos", but they were quite popular in Orange County, CA, when they were the original french fries that Carl's Jr. served up during the 1970s and 1980s.

The french fries were crinkle-cut in shape, and had a consistency like mashed potatoes on the inside, with the crispy outer shell formed during deep frying. They were quite delish.

Actually, I've learned that Pup-n-Taco used to have them too.

Anyways, a few days ago when Carl Karcher passed away, I posted an article here on JFB announcing his death. Well, I also happened to post a similar article on another blog I write, "OCThen", but more geared to Orange County readers. (Link to that article).

Today someone posted a comment on that article that explained the secret of those unusual french fries, and the process by which they were made. He also gave the name, "Frispos"...

That french cry product was called "Frispos". My recollection is that the Frispos pellets came in a large bag, not unlike a bag of oats. We poured the dry Frispos into the top of the machine. When you pushed the button, it measured an amount of Frispos into a tube, injected warm water to form a paste and then it was pushed through a grate (think squeezing play doh out of one of those play doh machines) and as the Frispo "dough" came out the grate, a cutter went back and forth shaving off the "fries", which were then put into the fryer.

So with the name, I did a Google search, and found an article in the Riverside Press Enterprise, which also explained why Carl's Jr. stopped using Frispos. Basically, it was a logistical problem...

"Every step of the process was conducted in the kitchen (mixing, forming, cooking), which made it operationally labor-intensive and too difficult to sustain during times of heavy volume, which ran the risk of degrading the quality of the food presentation.

The crinkle-fries were phased out in favor of the conventional, shoestring French fries you find in our restaurants now."

So there you have it all you Carl's Jr. fanatics! The story of those fantastic crinkle-cut fries.

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Honey Drop - Non-Sticky Honey

Island Abbey Foods Ltd, of Montague, Prince Edward Island, is asking people if they ever held a dollop of pure honey in their hand. Probably not, considering how sticky and messy it is.

So now they've come up with 100% pure honey, that you can hold in your hand, without the stickiness. They call it, "Honey Drop". I'm not sure what the "Honibe" brand name is about, but in any case, they've named it "Honey Drop".

The company claims that other competing products all have some kind of additive, sweetener, or binding agent to remove the stickiness. But meanwhile, Honey Drop contains no other additives, it's all honey, 100%.

Each drop is equivalent to one teaspoon (5gm) of pure honey. They don't actually tell you how they managed to make it non-sticky; I think they just dehydrated it under a controlled environment.

The Honey Drop comes in two flavors: pure honey and pure honey and lemon (so much for no additives!), and has a shelf life of one year.

Visit Honey Drop online at...
http://www.NoStickyFingers.com

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Dunkin Donuts - M&Ms Donut - Milky Way Hot Chocolate

Dunkin' Donuts has partnered with The Mars Corporation to produce two new offerings, the "M&Ms Donut" and the "Milky Way Hot Chocolate".

Milky Way Hot Chocolate is described as a rich, smooth, hot chocolate that blends chocolate, caramel and vanilla nougat flavors, just like the classic candy bar.

The M&M's Donut, comes with either chocolate or vanilla icing and is sprinkled with colorful mini M&M's.

Both are available at Dunkin' Donuts nationwide.

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Go Girl GLO - Hair Tonic Energy Drink

The "Go Girl" energy drink brand, which targets itself to athletic women, now includes a new variety, "Go Girl Glo".

Produced by Nor-Cal Beverage Co. Inc. of West Sacramento, CA, it's colored in light pink-orange, and comes with a light, tropical and bit of raspberry flavor with a starfruit and pomegranate juice blend.

Claimed to have no artificial sweeteners, this beverage also includes 500mg of taurine, 75mg caffeine, calcium, vitamin E, B vitamins, iron, citrimax, coenzyme Q10, aloe, acetyl-cysteine and liquid sucrose.

The company touts the vitamin E and aloe vera to help skin tone and make your hair shiny.

Photo Credit: Energy Drink Reviews

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Climate Change Chocolate Bar

Bloomsberry, LLC, a Salem, MA-based chocolate maker that sells its bars in whimsical wrappers, have now teamed up with TerraPass, a green energy broker, to offer these "Climate Change Chocolate" bars.


The wrappers have printed on them 15 tips to reduce your carbon footprint on the world, and in addition have included in their sale price, enough carbon energy credits from TerraPass to offset your carbon footprint for one day.

You can read more about the global warming confection at TerraPass' website...

http://www.terrapass.com/lp/index.chocolate.html

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