Snack Review: Jody’s Popcorn

No matter how much the stuff gets stuck between my teeth and sends me to the bathroom to brush or searching for a toothpick, I love popcorn. I’m especially a fan of flavored popcorn like cheese and caramel. Don’t misunderstand though, I still have a soft spot for the smothered-in-butter theater kind as well. However, a girl needs a little flavor in her life, ya know?

I’ve had all kinds of caramel and cheese popcorn and checking out Jody’s Popcorn seemed like the right kind of thing to do. After all, they offer more flavors of popcorn than I ever thought humanely possible.

I was more than pleased to hear that the folks at Jody’s wanted to send me some Popcorn for the tasting. Bring. It. On. I thought.

I received two of my favorites, Double Cheddar and Caramel (under Jody’s classification it was called Recipe 53 Carmel Corn), and Cinnamon Toast.

I will admit that I’m not a popcorn expert by any sense of the word but even so there is proof that when you market a product as such it should taste as such.

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Snack Review: Michael Season’s Baked Cheddar Cheese Pops

When I hear the words “cheesy poofs,” my mind immediately jumps to a little round kid in a red sweater, sitting on his couch and screaming obscenities at his cat. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, I suggest you hunker down for a marathon viewing of South Park – during which you will inevitably encounter Eric Cartman singing the praises of puffy cheese treats.

Nary a South Park season goes by without Cartman preaching the cheese puff gospel. Despite the free advertising this implies, I’d venture that snack manufactures aren’t terribly pleased with this development. After all, with “healthy” foods flying off supermarket shelves, no one wants to be the snack with the high calorie count. Personally, if I were a cheese puff CEO (those exist, right?), the last thing I’d want is a slightly obese cartoon character giving my product two pudgy thumbs up.

How then, would a snack manufacturer remake the cheese puff image? Well, according to Michael Season, the answer lies in using organic ingredients, shying away from food coloring, and slapping the word “gourmet” onto your packaging.

Oh yeah, and making your product so tasty that snack reviewers demolish their sample bag. That always helps.

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Snack Review: Town House FlipSides Cheddar Pretzel Crackers

It’s a situation familiar to most - it’s mid-afternoon, perhaps, or late at night, and you’re hungry. It’s not mealtime, but you need a snack right away. Then you get to a supermarket, and the trouble starts. Stretching for what seems like miles around are shelves of cookies, chips, and crackers of every single variety. Suddenly, you realize you’re not sure what sort of snack you even want. Chips or rice cakes? Cookies or mini-muffins? Crackers or pretzels?

For those of us who, more often than not, find ourselves torn in the snack aisle, the good people at Keebler have released a wonderfully addictive treat. New Town House FlipSides Pretzel Crackers are, as shown on the eye-catching red and blue box, pretzel on one side and cracker on the other. One glimpse of these and my snacking indecision came to an end for the night.

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Snack Review: Eating Right Cheddar Potato Crisps

It seems everyone’s on a health kick recently. Once upon a time, snacks could survive on tastiness alone. This is no longer always the case. Customers today want products that not only taste good, but are packed with nutrients as well - or, at the very least, as few calories and fat grams as possible.

Originally, “healthy” snacks were the domain of boutique shops and high-end grocery stores (Whole Foods, anyone?) Now, as companies release lesser-evil versions of old snacks, the signs of health-consciousness are popping up everywhere. Some grocery stores have even ventured into healthier territory with their own product lines.

Just under a year ago, Safeway/Vons launched its “Eating Right” line. Offering everything from salty snacks to frozen entrees, the brand promises on its packaging to “unite flavor and nutrition” through lighter versions of favorite products. Recently, I encountered Eating Right’s “Potato Crisps” for the first time, and decided to give them a try.

I was tempted by both the image on the package – the puffs reminded me of some very tasty rice snacks I’d tried long ago – and the nutrition stats on the back of the packaging. Safeway/Vons offers the Potato Crisps in four flavors: Cheddar, Barbeque, Salsa and Wasabi. After much internal debate, I chose the Cheddar variety.

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