If you’re a vegan or kosher, you can’t have gummy candies—they’re made with gelatin, an animal-derived product. Alas, Annie’s Homegrown products aren’t certified kosher, but vegans can certainly experience the joy of gummies. The company makes “gummy” Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks using tapioca instead of gelatin.

Two new flavors have debuted this summer: Sunny Citrus, a blend of lemon, lime and orange flavors; and Summer Strawberry. They join Tropical Treat and Berry Patch flavors. All are MSRP $4.99 for five .8 ounce pouches.

You can see the entire Annies Homegrown line at www.Annies.com.

Hopping down the bunny trail with vegan-friendly gummy candy from Annie’s Homegrown. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

The True Brew crew: organic iced tea.  

June is National Iced Tea Month, and there’s a new bottled tea in town: True Brew. Made in Texas, where people like their iced tea sweet, the line offers sweetened varieties, with unsweetened black, green and white teas for purists.

The unsweetened teas have zero calories; the sweetened teas, which employ organic cane sugar, have between 64 and 72 calories per 8-ounce serving.

While we normally drink our tea unsweetened—iced or hot—to enjoy the flavor of the quality tea we buy, our favorite of the line was the Sweet Tea. It tasted exactly like what one would brew at home and drink with two teaspoons of sugar (in fact, it tasted exactly like the iced tea we made through our teens and college years, before we started to drink our tea and coffee black).

The Unsweetened Green Tea was the third place winner in the Iced Tea Class at the recent 2009 World Tea Championships (first place went to ITO EN’s Oi Ocha Dark [a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week], second place to Wegman’s Just Tea—Green, a private label brand that is brewed for them by someone—we’ll have to track down who). Green tea connoisseurs will like it—it has the vegetal flavors of a complex green tea.

The flavor profiles are very different from Honest Tea, the first organic bottled tea line. Unlike Honest Tea, the entire True Brew line is packaged in a PET bottle (the only resin [plastic] approved by the FDA to have post-consumer recycled content). Organic tea drinkers seeking an alternative should give it a try.

There’s another reason everyone who drinks bottled tea should take a look at True Brew: the higher antioxidant content. The company claims a polyphenol count that is higher than some competitors. Based on a Men’s Health article that compared green tea varieties from Harney and Sons, Lipton, Tazo and Snapple, True Brew has more polyphenols per bottle. True Brew actually lists the polyphenol count on the bottle, although somewhat strangely, the number stated is the amount per liter instead of how much is in the 16-ounce bottle.

The price is right: True Brew has been retailing at $1.00 per bottle! Find store locations at TrueBrew.com.

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.

A comprehensive set of science-based recommendations for environmentally friendly foodservice, the practices have been tested for 90 days by two Restaurant Associates clients, Random House and Hearst Corporation, which have large corporate cafeterias in New York City. Early results show annual benefits of more than $85,000 in cost savings, a reduction of 275 tons of carbon pollution and a reduction of landfill waste by 60 tons, among other environmental benefits. You can get them free of charge at www.edf.org/greendining.
Organic cabbage. Photo by Herman Hooyschuur | SXC.

The pilot program revealed some interesting answers:

Lunch served from Random House’s new green kitchen was so delicious. We ate two plates of everything and only regret we didn’t bring Tupperware to take more home. We share it with you for recipe ideas—which just happen to be largely vegan:

With gorgeous food like this, it’s easy to be a vegetarian. But the two executive chefs involved with the pilot had more in store for us.

We were thrilled to have enjoyed this sustainable lunch—and more thrilled that within two years, the 110 foodservice facilities managed by Restaurant Associates will be green (and audited by the Green Restaurant Association!). Now, everyone else: Get into the act! If your company has a cafeteria, if you know people who own restaurants, download and forward the Green Dining Best Practices from www.edf.org/greendining.

While their natural mate is hummos or baba ganoush, these chips pair perfectly with yogurt or sour cream based dips. Try them with Greek tzatziki, Indian raita or an Indian layered dip.

- See more of our favorite chips in our Snacks Section.

- Then, find some great dips to pair them with—product reviews plus recipes for everything from hummos to salsa to guacamole.

- Finally, a nice microbrew or an all-natural soft drink.

The taste of falafel, in crispy chip form.

Learn more about Fair Trade and how it benefits farmers.

Each of the 16 different bottles of fruit and vegetable juice is labeled with the health benefit that the produce’s vitamins and minerals confer—for example, beet juice or vegetable juice cocktail for your immune system, carrot juice for vision, celery root juice for pH regulation, potato juice for the stomach. Potato juice? If you’ve just cocked an eyebrow, you’ll convert to eyes wide open as you sip a glass and sigh, “I never dreamed potato juice would taste like this!”

But these juices are more than just sippers. You can cook with them, make ice cream and sorbet, turn them into kickin’ cocktails. Beetroot Martini? Mmmm—and while you’re at it, try some fine organic gin and vodka from the Organic Spirits Company. Read the full review, and then, drink up!




Biotta’s beautiful organic juice line—delicious and
most definitely good for you.

Before you get tired of healthy foods, the indulgences begin again on January 26, with three weeks of Valentine gift recommendations. Or maybe they begin right now, as we show how chocolate can be wholesome, vegan, organic, raw, primitive…and delectable. We polished off every last morsel.

When we first set eyes on Uli Mana, its packaging did not look like manna from chocolate heaven. But then we tasted the organic chocolate truffles, brownies, chocolate spread and more. Raw cacao was never more divine. And with nary a drop of refined sugar: It’s all sweetened with lower-glycemic agave syrup. There’s no cream, no butter, and more antioxidants than in regular chocolate. How could our New Year’s diet disapprove?
Truffles made from raw cacao, covered with raw
cacao nibs, have intense, bittersweet chocolate
flavor. You are mano a mano with the cacao.
Wow!
In Uli Mana’s hands, raw cacao is a wow. This is food for serious foodies—though they may wish to share it with their raw foodist and vegan friends. Read the full review, including more about raw cacao, on TheNibble.com.