Price: $1.80 (on sale)
Serving: 1.2oz., 4 biscuits
Servings Per Container: 1
Calories: 170 per serving
Fat: 14%, 9g
Cholesterol: 1%, <5mg
Sodium: 2%, 40mg
Protein: 2g
Carbohydrates: 7%, 20g
Fiber: 3%, <1g
Sugar: 10g
Weight Watchers Points: 4 per box
Godiva says: Meltingly rich, a traditional European biscuit is topped with a signature imprinted tablet of sinfully smooth milk chocolate.
We say: Sad but true: In the year 2000, we worked at a Seattle Godiva shop. It was the standard retail experience: jaded, ex-ballerina boss with a penchant for putting down collegiate-based aspirations; fun and wacky coworkers with a sense of fairness and enormous generosity when it came to the free chocolates box; cutthroat competition to make sales quotas; and lots of chocolate tasting.
When you work at Godiva, your job is to eat chocolates, well eat and sell chocolates. Also, to dip strawberries in chocolate while tourists take photos of you.
2000 was also the year that Godiva introduced Biscuits and Coffees (they may have also introduced hot chocolate at that time, but we can’t remember). During that summer, we made coffee every day and placed biscuits out for sampling every day. People freaking loved Godiva biscuits. I was not so keen; we didn’t get them for free and they didn’t seem to be any better than cheaper cookies available at the grocery store.
Some aspects of that cookie philosophy hold true. Godiva Signature Biscuits aren’t free and the cookie parts aren’t any more delicious than regular cookies: the Godiva chocolate that makes all of the difference. You could go and purchase the LU version, hoping that your Petit Ecolier will stand up to the scrumptiousness that is Godiva chocolate. Perhaps you enjoy setting yourself up for failure.
2 Comments »
Posted on September 5, 2007
Categories: Godiva, Four Points, Chocolate, Four Stars, Cookies
Price: $2.99 for 6
Serving: 1 bar, 1.2 ounces
Calories: 140 per bar
Fat: 8%, 5gg
Sodium: 5%, 115mg
Protein: 7g
Carbohydrates: 6%, 19g
Fiber: 15%, 4g
Sugar: 5g
Weight Watchers Points: 2 per Bar
Kashi says: With whole, roasted almonds, a healthy sprinkling of flax seeds and a touch of wildflower honey, our Honey Almond Flax granola bars have 4g of Fiber, 7g of Protein and 300mg Omega-3s.
We say: Kashi’s Almond Flax Granola Bars taste healthy. And by that we mean that they don’t taste particularly fantastic. They don’t taste bad, but they do bear a resemblance to something you’d find in a health store in the 80’s. So if you’re in the mood for martyrdom, Kashi’s got you covered.
These consist of assorted grains and nuts, with red winter wheat being the main contender. There’s also an occasional whole almond. Oh, and jaw-cracking hardness. In an effort to remedy this situation, we left a box of the bars in a hot car for a few hours. This did nothing to alleviate the hardness issue, leaving us stuck with a box of super-hot and still-hard granola bars.
If you’re desperate for something fiberrific and protein-containing, then you could eat these. Or, you could have a Nature Valley granola bar plus some fruit leather. Those snacks combined would be significantly more satisfying than one of these bars and you won’t have to worry about cracking a tooth.
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Posted on September 4, 2007
Categories: Two Points, Kashi, Granola Bars, Almond, Three Stars
Price: $0.99
Serving: 1oz.
Servings Per Container: 2.5
Calories: 150 per serving
Fat: 12%, 8g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 11%, 270mg
Protein: 2g
Carbohydrates: 6%, 17g
Fiber: 4%, 1g
Sugar: 1g
Weight Watchers Points: 3 Per Serving
Frito Lay says: With 2 BOLD flavors in 1 bag, you control the ultimate DORITOS flavor combination. What COLLISIONS combo will you unleash? Also try HOT WINGS & BLUE CHEESE flavors.
We say: We’re supposed to get these because they offer a choice? A choice between the two types of Doritos that come in one bag? Somehow, that doesn’t feel like a choice so much as a damning declaration that we will be stuck with half a bag of unsatisfactory chips.
Snack Lounge has a not-so-secret love of Doritos. Knowing this, we don’t buy them. For one, we enjoy self-denial. And two? We like fitting into our pants. This means that all Dorito enjoyment takes place at barbecues. But with Labor Day approaching, DC’s barbecue season will end and we’ll have to resist the corn chip siren call emanating from every convenience store.
Fortunately, this bag of Doritos Collisions has cured us of liking at least one flavor in the Doritos clan. Our suspicions were originally placed on the Chipotle Ranch. Regular ranch is terrific (mmmm, powdered buttermilk), so do we really want spicy ranch? No. We hate change. Also, we love tacos, so Spicy Taco was a perfect match for our vaguely Hispanic heritage.
Oh how wrong we were. The Chipotle Ranch offered just slightly more zip than regular Ranch flavored (our favorite) Doritos. However, the Spicy Taco chips featured such astrigency that during the time elapse of chewing the second chip we were consumed with the pain one feels from a million canker sores.
Okay, not a million. Maybe four or five canker sores. But really, do you want to feel like you have mouth sores because these Doritos are both strongly flavored and a bit scrapey? No, you don’t and neither do we. In an act of utter out-of-characterness, we picked out the non-Chipotley Chipotle Ranch version and tossed the Spicy Taco Doritos in the trash.
What a depressing way to begin the holiday weekend.
1 Comment »
Posted on August 31, 2007
Categories: Chipotle, Ranch, Taco, Doritos, Frito Lay, Tortilla Chips, Two Stars, Three Points, Corn Chips
Price: $2.49
Serving: 1.5oz.
Servings Per Container: About 6
Calories: 120 per serving
Fat: 0%, 1g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 0%, 10mg
Protein: 2g
Carbohydrates: 10%, 28g
Fiber: 48%, 12g
Sugar: 16g
Weight Watchers Points: 2 Per Serving
Trader Joe’s says: Trader Joe's Fiberful Ends & Pieces are completely handmade which results in somewhat uneven sheets of the delicious dried fruit snack. In order to have nice clean edge on the bars, the large sheets must be neatly trimmed. In this bag are cut sheets of delicious, high fiber fruit snacks.
We say: Several months ago Fiberful fruit bars made an appearance at the DC Trader Joe's. Snack Lounge rejoiced in those delicious, semi-filling fruit bars, both for their taste and their promise of regularity.
Then, one humid summer day, in an event that occurs daily in Trader Joe's stores across the country, the bars disappeared. This phenomena, which was been documented with the tragic half-year loss of Chicken Gyoza Potstickers, creates a constant, consumptive fear in the hearts of avid Trader Joe's shoppers.
The bars still aren't available in the DC store, which makes the appearance of this bag of ends and pieces all the more strange. Where are the ends and pieces coming from? Has Trader Joe's been storing them up for months? Are they switching to an 'ends and pieces' only business model? We don't know the answers to these questions. We do know that the ends and pieces cost about one-fifth as much (by weight) as the individual bars.
So, if we're such Fiberful bar lovers and these are even cheaper, why did they get just two stars? It turns out that half of each bad bag is inedible.
Each package contains an assortment of fruit bar chunks. Only some of these are the delightful apricot version. The others are completely unidentifiable. They taste like dried fruit bars, but they don't taste like fruit. Yes, this sounds odd, but imagine that you've just had a piece of the apricot bar. You've enjoyed the mellow, rich, compounded flavor of dried apricots. You didn't notice the 'fiber' part at all. There is peace and harmony in the world.
Then you reach into the bag and pull out another piece. But this time, instead of the fruity flavor you've come to expect, you're greeted with a bland, disappointing, unidentifiable chunk of dried fruit mush. Ick. If Trader Joe's allowed us to select flavors, then these bags would come close to replacing our need for the bars. However, with the sad surprise of detastified fruit, we won't be buying these again.
3 Comments »
Posted on August 30, 2007
Categories: Mixed Fruit, Trader Joe's, Two Points, Two Stars, Dried Fruit
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