Carl's Jr, this week, announced that it received an endorsement from the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), because of the increased business that drycleaning businesses have received since the launch of Carl's new chili cheeseburger.

"People have been ordering a lot of Chili Cheese Burgers and Chili Cheese Fries from Carl's Jr. Clearly, people don't mind getting a little messy for a great burger," said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for Carl's Jr. restaurants.

Seizing the opportunity, the execs at Carl's Jr are now supplying drycleaning bags emblazioned with the Carl's Jr chili cheeseburger to participating drycleaners, as well as Carl's Jr branded window signs. These have been distributed to some 1,250 drycleanners around the country.


Additionally, Carl's Jr. has teamed up with cleaning guru Jeff Campbell of The Clean Team to give television viewers additional tips on how to get chili cheese stains off clothing and any items which may have been sullied in the "drip zone" of Carl's Jr. chili menu items. Mr. Campbell will appear on morning programs throughout the Western states to provide his expert stain removal tips.

Labels: Carl's Jr

Green Light Jerky Company, based in Redwood City, CA, is a new entry into the world of beef jerky. If you're a fan of thin-sliced jerky, you'll want to take note.

For this review, I'm reviewing three of their flavors, "The Classic", "Pepper Grinder", and "PRD" (Prime Rib Dinner).


Overview

All three of the varieties reviewed here are flavored with soy sauce, onions, vinegar, salt, apple cider, and honey.

The pieces are thinly-sliced into strips of about half-inch to an inch wide, and about three to six inches in length. The texture is more drier than moist, but are still soft enough to bite off chunks easily.

The strips appear to be cuts of real meat.

Green Light says they use no MSG, no nitrates, no liquid smoke, no added sugar, and no thickening agents.

The Classic

The Classic flavor has a mild soy sauce flavor and smell, not very salty, with a very subtle spicy tingle in the back of your throat. That spiciness comes from the guajillo and pasilla chile spices that they sprinkle on.

The beef flavor is still very evident, and there's a slight taste of beef fat.

Pepper Grinder

Pepper Grinder is the same as The Classic, but with ground pepper corns sprinkled on. There's a pretty good amount of pepper there, but not overdone like on some other brands.

It has a very peppery flavor that balances out the soy sauce, and as to be expected, has a medium-degree of spiciness.


PRD (Prime Rib Dinner)

There was a clear scent of thyme when I opened the package of PRD and took a whiff. That's because it's flavored with thyme and horseradish, to emulate eating a cut of prime rib.

And you can definitely taste the thyme and see the pieces of thyme seasoning also.

As for the horseradish, I don't really taste much of it, probably because the thyme seems to overpower it. You figure with horseradish, this variety of jerky will be spicy, but it's not. It's quite mild.

Product Value

Green Light's jerky offerings are priced on the high side, at $10.00 for a 4oz bag, or $5.00 for a 2oz bag. That works out to $2.50 per ounce. Compare that to the $1.00 per ounce average for the garden-variety brands out there. But then again, you're getting a higher quality product here.

My Thoughts

If you consider yourself a beef-jerky afficionado, you'll appreciate the quality and taste of Green Light as I have. The high price-point takes this brand out of the realm of general purpose snacking, but for those times when I want to sit in my back patio and listen to the birds, a 2oz bag of Green Light makes a great companion.

While my personal preference is jerky more moist and sliced a little more thick than Green Light, I still enjoyed sampling these varieties for this review. The "Classic" variety is quite tastier than the regular flavors of other brands.

Visit Green Light Beef Jerky online...
http://www.greenlightjerky.com

Labels: Beef Jerky

Drug store ice cream is one of those American institutions that seems to be dying off as the generations go by. I remember as a kid peering through the glass ice cream case at the local Thrifty's Drug, and begging my mom to buy me a scoop.

At Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego, there's a Long's Drugs that has a soda and ice cream counter, complete with bar stools and a soda jerk.

These days, I've been getting a lot of my junk food at Walgreens. I continue to find their store brand of munchies to be of a quality that rivals or exceeds many of the popular brands, but priced really cheap. Read my previous review of their sunflower seeds, which so far are the best sunflower seeds I've had.

I couldn't resist buying a couple of pints of Walgreens brand of premium ice cream. They were priced at "2 for $3.00", which is a pretty good deal, considering a pint of ice cream from Ben & Jerry's, or Haagen Dazs, will run you $5.00 at many grocery stores.

For this review, I'm eating their Waffle Cone flavor, which is plain ice cream with pieces of chocolate-coated waffle cone, chocolate-coated peanuts, chocolate bits, and swirls of caramel.

Of course, it's not as good as Ben & Jerry's, but then again I didn't expect it to be. But it's still pretty good, and still very satisfying, considering the low price. It has a very light and creamy consistency, which isn't bad. Though, I prefer heavier ice cream. When I picked up a pint of Walgreens Premium, I first wondered if there was anything inside the container because it was so light.

Walgreens is no newcomer to ice cream, the drug store chain has been making their own since 1912. But this is the first time I've ever had their ice cream. Because of the price point, I'll be buying more. They have several more flavors, about eight in all, but sorry I didn't note all the flavors.

They also have a larger line of regular ice cream, which I'll be trying out also. And if you absolutely have to have some Ben & Jerry's, Walgreens carries that too.

New Eiffel BonBons are bite-size strawberry and apple chewy candy pieces from The Foreign Candy Co., Inc.

You can find them in single serving (1.25-ounce) bags or peg bags (4 ounces).

They've been popular in Europe for about 20 years and only debuted here in North America late last year. They're available now online and in at retail chains like Walgreen's & Target. Look for additional flavors to be rolled out as well.

Some legislators in Mississippi have introduced a bill that will make it illegal for restaurants to serve fat people.

HB 282 will revoke the health department license of any restaurant, fast-food or otherwise, if it serves food to anyone who meets the department's criteria as being, "obese".

As the bill states...

Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor.

The bill will require the State Department of Health to distribute materials to restaurants that will define what an obese person is.

Imagine going to a Subway, who claims to help you lose weight by eating their sandwiches, and having a "sandwich artist" tell you, "Sorry but your ass is TOO FAT!"

And in Mississippi, such a law could put every restaurant out of business.

Here's a link to the bill...

http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2008/pdf/history/HB/HB0282.xml

Labels: Politics of Junk Food

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

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!

Labels: caffeine, Candy-Bars, mars, snickers

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

Labels: chexmix

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.

Labels: Chocolate, ritter

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

Labels: Cookies

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.

Labels: Pizza Hut

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/

Labels: Frozen Yogurt, Pinkberry

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/

Labels: 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/

Labels: Dreyer's-Ice-Cream, Ice-Cream

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.

Labels: Kelloggs, Pop Tarts