Lindsay Olives has made a welcome contribution to America’s need to eat healthier on-the-go. The company has debuted three varieties of Lindsay Snackers, small pitted ripe olives in a 1.25-ounce can (18 olives), in Original, Garlic and Italian. The cans have pull tops.

Olives are full of olive oil, a heart-healthy fat. We tried the Italian-seasoned olives. The olive meat is mild, but the notes of garlic and oregano made these a tasty little snack. The brine isn’t salty but it’s very flavorful; we poured it over our salad.

For a retailer near you, see the store locator on LindsayOlives.com; or you can buy them from Lindsay’s online store. Six four-pack cartons are $14.99. The olives are certified kosher by OU.

Healthy olives, garlic and oregano: much
better than the candy machine. Photo by
Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

Another great popcorn flavor from DaleandThomasPopcorn.com.  

If you’re looking for an inspired gift to send to your favorite camper, hostess or celebrant, we can recommend the new Dark Fudge Caramel N’ Almonds flavor from Dale & Thomas. We’re still equally fond of the other chocolate-drizzled flavors, including Chocolate Chunk N’ Caramel, Chocolate & Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter & White Chocolate, Toffee Crunch and Twice-As-Nice Chocolate (dark and white chocolate). A gift box filled with six large bags is $39.95, in your choice of a single flavor or one bag of each of the six flavors (highly recommended!). Dale & Thomas sweet popcorn is not overly sweet (that is to say, it’s welcomed by the sophisticated palate), and is elegant enough that it can become a light dessert, by itself or sprinkled atop vanilla or chocolate ice cream.

All Dale & Thomas popcorn flavors are certified kosher OU-D and are gluten free.

And now, some editorializing from our editor:

Our “Natural Break” GoPicnic box had 12g of dietary fiber
and 16g of protein, with healthy food choices like Food
Should Taste Good multigrain tortilla chips, Wild Garden
sundried tomato hummus dip, Late July organic cheddar
cheese sandwich crackers, Trophy Farms oven-roasted
almonds, Mariani Ultimate Apricots and Immaculate
Baking Co.’s Chocobilly Chocolate Chunk Cookies.   GoPicnic’s boxed meals are dedicated to the proposition that people on the go can have tasty and much better-for-you snack and light meal options than are available at most delis, snack stands, and certainly, fast food counters. Select from more than 20 choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks; there are options for vegetarian, gluten free, kosher and halal diets. No refrigeration is required. (And you can customize your own boxes if you’re with a group that can meet the minimum order.)

GoPicnic has packaged some of our favorite brands into the snack and meal boxes, including Top Picks Of The Week like Food Should Taste Good tortilla chips, Mary’s Gone Crackers and Sheffa Snacks, favorites like Salba Smart tortilla chips, Mrs. May’s Nut Crunches and Larabar, plus delicious new finds like Mariani Ultimate Apricots.

There are sweets in every box, too, but they’re guilt-free—either because they’re sensibly small, allergen free or otherwise “not junk food.” All the products are made with natural ingredients, no trans fats, no high fructose corn syrup, no added MSG. Each box contains a nutritious meal. Mom would approve; in fact, moms call these products “healthy lunchables.” There’s also a series for kids called Mighty Munch Meals, which fit 35-10-35 nutritional guidelines (35% or less of the calories in the meal are from fat, 10% or less from saturated fat and 35% or less of the total weight is from sugar).

And GoPicnic boxes are fun! Each colorful box contains six to seven tasty food items—many organic and lower fat—plus utensils, a red gingham paper napkin (for the “picnic” effect), utensils, a jumbo after-meal mint and a lemon scented Moist Wipe. You may not be headed to a picnic in the park, but you might be on a long car trip or field trip, an airline flight, a business meeting or a sports stadium. Or maybe you just work long hours and are always grabbing for the wrong snacks. If you belong to any of these groups, click on over to GoPicnic.com and take a look at the “menu.”

This past Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, we tripped the light fantastic* (actually, lumbered around on a very hard concrete floor) of the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, along with some 24,000 other attendees in search of the newest specialty foods—140,000 were on display.

Usually we do a Best of Show list—and we’ll get to it over the weekend—but there was one standout as Strangest Of Show. That award goes to the new jelly bean Superfruit Mix from Jelly Belly, “sure to be a best super seller. Order today and take advantage of the hottest trend in today’s market.”

*The phrase, “trip the light fantastick,” was first published by John Milton in his 1645 poem, “L’Allegro.” Unlike its meaning in the acid culture of the 1960s, in the 1600s, “tripping” meant to dance. Light meant you were dancing nimbly, and fantastick was a compliment to the skill of the dancer.

The açaí-flavored Jelly Belly. Earth to consumers: There is no antioxidant health benefit in “superfruit” jelly beans.

In fact, Jelly Belly took out a full page ad on the back page of the show directory, reminding retailers that forecasts peg the superfoods category as a $10 billion global industry by 2011, and Jelly Belly is poised to help them “capitalize on this fast-growing trend with their Superfruit Mix. Several thousand new superfruit products entered the marketplace in 2007-2008….Superfruits like the new, trendy Acai [sic] berry is at the center of this trend….as consumers increasingly turned to its juice for a delicious gulp of nutrients and antioxidants. On top of the trends as always, Jelly Belly has included Acai in their new Superfruit Mix.”

Ahem—is there a disconnect here? Consumers drink açaí juice for its antioxidants, but nobody except the truly delusional would eat jelly beans for the implied, although never stated, “nutrients and antioxidants.” This is the equivalent of a taffy company saying that, “Green tea is at the height of consumer interest, and our green tea-flavored taffy is poised to help you capitalize on consumers’ focus on green tea.” Are we that much of a self-deluding group of consumers?

The ad goes on to report that the açaí berry—the proper spelling and capitalization; for the record, the pronunciation is ah-sigh-YEE—was the overwhelming winner of last year’s Jelly Belly Dream Bean contest. Yes, 18,000 consumers voted to make it the new Jelly Belly flavor. It’s the headliner of the new Superfruit Mix, which “features real fruit juices and purées from Acai Berries, Barbados Cherries, Blueberries, Cranberries and Pomegranates….”

A little grounding in reality: You need to eat the pure fruit or its juice in order to get your dose of antioxidants; you won’t find them to any efficacious degree in a fruit-flavored ice cream, salad dressing, soda or jelly bean. While fruit and fruit juice are high in natural sugars, the refined sugars in the flavored, processed foods that tout “superfruits” (or green tea or anything else that has healthy coat tails) smack of P.T. Barnum marketing (“There’s a sucker born every minute”). The refined sugars in jelly beans will more than offset any superfruit value a consumer might hope would be there. (A 1.2-ounce serving of Jelly Belly has 140 calories, 0g fat, 0g protein, 37g carbohydrate of which 28g are sugars, and 10mg sodium. How much antioxidant power do you think is in the superfruit juice/purée flavoring? Not enough for any claims of efficacy, that’s for sure!

Of course, Jelly Belly has not made any claims of efficacy. But by co-opting the name “superfruit” for their product, they imply more than just the flavor of superfruits. Otherwise, call it Açaí-Cranberry-Pomegranate Mix. This way, you’re pulling the wool over the eyes of the sheep.

Just in time for peak hot dog grilling season.   With July 4th a few days away, and the prospect of a whole summer of yummy franks on the grill, we’d like to suggest the addition of Bone Suckin’ brand’s Sweet Hot Mustard. Imagine America’s yellow hot dog mustard. (Yes, bright yellow mustard was invented here—French’s Cream Salad Brand Mustard was envisioned as a cooking ingredient, e.g. for potato and egg salad and just happen to coincide with the rise of the ballpark frank. See the history of mustard.) But Bone Suckin’s creamy, yellow mustard is at a gourmet level, with sweet and hot layers of flavor from brown sugar, molasses, paprika and jalapeños. There’s a tempered sweetness and medium heat—just enough heat to be interesting, but not enough to require a cold beer as an antidote (that part is purely optional).

We think you’ll love it as much as we do; you might also want to order some extra jars to bring as host/hostess gifts when you’re invited to a cookout. We love Bone Suckin’s Sweet Hot Mustard on hot dogs and burgers, but you can dip pretzels into it, spread it on sandwiches, mix it into potato salad and stir it into your favorite recipes. It’s all natural (no preservatives), gluten free, fat free, HFCS free and certified kosher (pareve) by OU. A 12-ounce jar is $6.79 at BoneSuckin.com.

By the way: Can you name the spice that gives yellow mustard its bright yellow color? The answer is below. Answer: Turmeric, which also gives curry powder its deep yellow color, is responsible for the vibrant yellow of “ballpark” mustards as well.

Oikos Greek Yogurt is thicker than regular yogurt, but not as thick as FAGE Total Greek yogurt or another relative newcomer, Chobani probiotic Greek yogurt, both of which can pass for thick sour cream. There’s a big difference in the texture—with Oikos being more like “normal” yogurt—as well as in the flavor. Whereas FAGE Total and Chobani can sometimes pass for sour cream (wishful thinking), Oikos is definitely yogurt.

Read the full review and find out what makes a yogurt “Greek.”

Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt is fat free, organic and kosher. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

What’s mash? Not something made in a still. According to Boylan’s, one of our favorite brands of all-natural soda (and a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week), mash is not a soda, it’s not a sparkling juice, it’s not a fizzy water. It has attributes borrowed from sparkling juice, and it’s sweetened with sucralose. The flavors employ 1% to 2% juice, sweetened with a touch of sugar and sucralose (Splenda); the whopping 20-ounce bottle has only 100 calories (or, 40 calories per 8-ounce serving). You may just develop a mash (crush) on it.

Read our review of Boylan’s Mash, in lovely two-note flavors including Grapefruit Citrus Zing, Ripe Mango Blood Orange, Lemon Peel Ginger Root and Pomegranate Blueberry. The drinks are certified kosher.

A great summer refresher, just 40 calories per 8-ounce serving.  

Enter to win the Guiltless Gourmet Sweepstakes Eat chips, feel no guilt and maybe win a trip to Vegas or other prizes. You read correctly—buy any flavor of Guiltless Gourmet tortilla chips, in tempting choices such as Spicy Black Bean and Chili Lime. Check the code on the bag online for a chance to win coupons for free products and American Express gift cards. Everyone who enters a code on the Guiltless Gourmet site by September 30th will also be registered for a shot at the Grand Prize: three nights for the winner and a guest at a five-diamond Las Vegas resort, a $1,500 world class spa package and a fat stack of cash. (BYO chips?) Speaking of fat, all Guiltless Gourmet products have 3 grams or less per serving. Please pass the salsa.

See reviews of our favorite tortilla chips in our Snacks Section.

See reviews of our favorite salsas to go with them.

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