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Taste Test: New Starbucks Items

YumSugar — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:30:28 -0700

In an attempt to boost sales during tough economic times, coffee giant Starbucks has just unveiled a line of smoothies, rolled out a healthy morning menu, expanded its breakfast sandwich assortment, and revealed a new collection of gourmet hot chocolates. Since we've been deluged with a new range of options, we decided to put the food to the test. To see how Starbucks fared, click start.

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McDonald's Advertising Tricks Children's Tastebuds

partysugar — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:28:34 -0700

In a recent study performed by Stanford University, young children were given identical snacks in two distinct packages. Some of it was in an unmarked wrapper and the rest was wrapped in a McDonald's label. In each and every test, the youngsters concluded that the food in McDonald's wrappers tasted better than the blank labels.

Study author Dr. Tom Robinson said the kids' perception of taste was "physically altered by the branding."

The study included McDonald's chicken nuggets, hamburgers, and fries, as well as grocery store carrots, milk, and juice. Children were asked whether one tasted better or if they tasted the same. Knowing that the ones in McDonald's wrappers were the clear favorites, I have to wonder if establishing controls on products marketed to children is a good idea after all. What do you guys think?

Source: CNN and Chow Grinder
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Taste Test: Crunch vs. Krackel

partysugar — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:15:01 -0700

Last Friday after hearing the news that Hershey's had changed its chocolate formula, YumSugar and I decided to perform a taste test. Luckily we had the perfect place to host a chocolate taste test - CasaSugar's space at Park(ing) Day! For the taste test, we pitted Nestle's Crunch against Hershey's Krackel. To check out the taste test in action watch the video below!

To see the results, read more.

We blind folded each participant. Next we gave them a bite of Krackel followed by a bite of Crunch. The taster had to answer the following three questions:

Which is the Krackel and which is the Crunch?
Which tastes better?
Which tastes more chocolate-y?

According to our tasters:

47 percent think Krackel tastes better
53 percent think Crunch tastes better
79 percent could identify when blindfolded, while 21 percent guessed wrong!
33 percent thought Krackel was more chocolatey
67 percent thought Crunch was more chocolatey
Split on which was crunchier

If you were to choose one, which do you prefer: Hershey's Krackel or Nestle's Crunch?

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Taste Test: Bacon Ranch and Bacon Pop

YumSugar — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:00:45 -0800

When I tried Baconnaise for the first time last year, I declared it the best thing since sliced bread. Its savory roundness led me to ponder: if Baconnaise is this good, why buy regular mayonnaise ever again?

I knew, from the way bacon turned up in just about everything, that this was only the beginning for J&D's, the mastermind behind Baconnaise. The latest food concepts up the company's sleeve? Bacon Ranch and Bacon Pop - because, as the motto claims, "everything should taste like bacon." We put it to the test. Should everything really taste like bacon? Read on to find out.

Taste Test: McDonald's Angus Third Pounders

YumSugar — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:30:06 -0700

Back in April, McDonald's announced plans to add a premium Angus burger to its fast-food lineup. The burger, priced at $3.99, would compete with other higher-end fast-food burgers such as Carl's Jr.'s Six Dollar Burger and Burger King's XT burger, and was scheduled to roll out nationwide by August. Well, July's barely begun, but yesterday the chain's Angus Third Pounders hit menus across the country.

The burgers, which weigh at least a third of a pound, or 5.33 ounces, before they're cooked, come in a trio of styles, all on a sesame seed bun: Deluxe, with tomato, lettuce, mustard, mayonnaise, red onions, dill pickles, and American cheese; Bacon & Cheese, with ketchup, mustard, red onions, dill pickles, American cheese, and three slices of bacon; and Mushroom & Swiss, with mayonnaise, sautéed mushrooms, and swiss cheese. See more pictures - and the results of our office taste test - when you keep reading

Dunkin' Donuts Claims to Beat Starbucks in Coffee Taste Test

YumSugar — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:30:32 -0700

As colossal coffee chain Starbucks struggles to keep up with past profit margins, its competitors continue to move in for the kill. Earlier this month, breakfast chain Dunkin' Donuts introduced its version of a recession deal. Now, in its latest ad campaign, the chain is claiming it beat Starbucks in a blind taste test.In the campaign, Dunkin' Donuts, which is currently in the middle of a national expansion effort, airs a new TV spot and launched a website, Dunkin' Beat Starbucks, that will highlight the results of the taste test.

The blind taste test, conducted by A&G Research, polled 476 adults in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle. According to a press release from the chain, 54.2 percent of participants surveyed preferred Dunkin' Donuts coffee to the 39.3 percent who preferred Starbucks coffee. Another 6.3 percent had no preference between the two.

I'm slightly surprised by the results: I recently had Dunkin' Donuts coffee, and found that I still prefer the coffee from Starbucks. What about you? Are you impressed by the study's results, or are you skeptical of the findings?

Source

Taste Test: "New" Candy

partysugar — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:00:08 -0700

Updating an image or spinning off of a product is nothing new, but lately it seems like this concept has taken over the candy industry. I recently received a box full of new products that were featured at the National Candy Expo a month ago in Chicago. The majority of items weren't exactly new, but rather re-creations of old products. I selected four - Pop Rocks Chocolate bars, Nerds Giant Chews, Chocolate Pez, and Baskin Robbins Soft Candy - and decided to perform a taste test. Sadly none of the new variations lived up to their established counterparts. To see what I thought of each product, read more.

Pop Rocks Chocolate bars: This oversized bar is described as "real milk chocolate with a kick." At first the chocolate bar tastes like any normal krispy-style chocolate bar. However, the krispies explode in your mouth like pop rocks. The chocolate is mediocore and the sensation interesting, but I wasn't hungry for more.

Nerds Giant Chews: These giant nerds (they're the size of peanut M&Ms) have a bumpy, crunchy shell and soft chewy center. They taste exactly like the miniature version. Eating one is the equivalent of tossing an entire handful of Nerds into your mouth.

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Chocolate Pez: Why Pez felt they needed to expand into artificial chocolate-flavored candies is beyond me. These are chalky and leave a sour aftertaste in the mouth.

Baskin Robbins Soft Candy: With their sweet-minty scent, I was certain these chewy candies were going to be the best of the bunch. However they were disappointing and tasted fake. The best thing about them was the smell.

So has anyone else tasted any of these new candy formulas? What did you think of them?

Taste Test: Burger King's Angry Whopper

YumSugar — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:00:41 -0800

Most of us hoped to start 2009 on a positive note, but Burger King was seemingly in a furious state of mind: At the beginning of January, the fast food chain introduced the Angry Whopper to its US menus. News of the limited-edition burger, purportedly only available through the end of March, took the Internet by storm. So after hearing the incessant hype surrounding it, I decided to put the burger to the test. To find out how it tastes and see additional photos, read more.

For the suggested retail price of $3.69, the Angry Whopper features everything that's on the joint's original Whopper (flame-broiled patty, lettuce, tomatoes, sesame bun) - as well as "sizzling angry onions," jalapenos, a slice of pepper-jack cheese, bacon, and "angry sauce." Others have proclaimed that the Angry Whopper isn't spicy enough, and while I have to agree that it doesn't really live up to its notorious moniker, it's pretty darn delicious.

The jalapenos provide the only real spice kick, while the "angry sauce" and jack give a nice element of creaminess. Add sizzling onions (really glorified onion rings) for crunch, a few slices of bacon (who can say no to bacon?), and you've got a winning burger - one that I would choose any day over its original counterpart. I had grand lunch plans ahead of me, so I only meant to take a bite or two of the burger, but I admittedly had at least a third of it.

Continuing its strategy of controversial food marketing, Burger King also launched a humorous website in conjunction with the release of the Angry Whopper. It features - you guessed it - an angry Whopper that fans can employ to rebuke annoying friends. The talking burger isn't the only thing that's salty: so is the Angry Whopper itself, with 880 calories and a whopping (pardon the pun) 1670 milligrams of sodium. Does the Angry Whopper sound like something that you would try? If you've tasted it, what did you think?

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After It's Opened: Wine Taste Test

partysugar — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 09:55:41 -0800

A few weeks ago I received a "Dear Party" from DearSugar! Apparently one of her readers, a certain Wino Wendy had written to her inquiring about the shelf life of an opened bottle of wine. Here's what I told her: first consider the type of wine. White wines you store in lower temperature (max of 13c.), whereas red ones you should keep in room temperature (max 18c.). However once opened, all wine begins to change. The oxygen in the air starts this process of change that can only be slowed down if the wine is chilled (it is advised to put even a bottle of opened red wine in the fridge). When you want to drink it, take it out about a half an hour before to allow the wine to come to room temperature. Red will stay drinkable for up to 3 days and white will for another day or so. Whichever wine it is, you need to make sure you seal the bottle tightly, leaving no air inside. There are special corks for it, which should be available at your local wine shop. How long they last will depend on who tastes them - the longer you keep a wine open, the stronger the alcoholic flavor. My best tip - once you've opened a bottle of wine - is to simply drink it all, that way you don't have to worry about leaving it open. To check out my at home science experiment, in which I sample one super old bottle of white wine compared to a just uncorked one, read more

When I last spent the weekend at the vacation house, I was making cassoulet in which white wine was one of the ingredients. I asked my dad to open the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc I had purchased and he pointed out that there were several bottles of opened white wine in the fridge. Now I had not been to the vacation house since November, and neither my mother nor father drink white wine. It could have been leftover from my sister, but the last time she was there was in January. My dad didn't believe that one could notice a serious difference between the tastes of an old and new bottle, so I set up an impromptu blind taste test. In the end, we all could taste a huge difference between the wines, my dad included. The old had a very stale, overly sweet flavor while the new was light and crisp.

Have you ever experimented with variously aged bottles of wine? Please share your stories below!

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Taste Test: Pizza Hut's Tuscani Lasagna

YumSugar — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:00:32 -0800

At the Food Fete that Party and I attended a few weeks ago, we ran into some representatives from Pizza Hut, who revealed that the fast food chain would be introducing yet another pasta to its delivery lineup: lasagna. After the intriguing taste test results of our Pizza Hut pastas, I was looking forward to giving the lasagna ($14.99) a try. It's impossible to go too wrong with any dish made of pasta, tomato sauce, and melted cheese. To check out more pictures and find out what I thought, read more.

Pizza Hut's Tuscani lasagna is made with three cheeses - ricotta, Parmesan, and Romano - as well as a meat sauce, so it's not an option for vegetarians. Upon first glance, it looked like a dead ringer for the meat marinara pasta I'd tried last month - that is to say, not so appealing. The tray was also a behemoth. The lasagna claims to feed a family of four, but I'd say that, considering it weighs in at over three pounds, it could easily feed a couple more mouths.

With a firm, chewy bite and a nice ratio of meat, cheese, pasta, and sauce, the lasagna was actually enjoyable. Both of us went back for seconds. We were, however, shocked by how sweet the dish was: the marinara was decidedly sweet, and the rest of the recipe compensated for this by being incredibly salty.

My advice to the Pizza Hut kitchen would be to cut back on both the sugar and the salt. If you're a big lasagna fan, don't want to bother with reheating and cooking, and can handle a bit of overseasoning, I'd say this could be the match for you.

Have you tried this dish yet? What did you think of it?

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