Limited Edition Foods

Today we have a guest post from Karen Lynch, a great writer and a two time breast cancer survivor.  Karen writes for DiscussingBreastCancer.com where she frequently blogs about the limited edition products that are introduced to promote breast cancer awareness.  Today she contemplates why other worthy causes are not honored with limited editions, and wishes that major corporations would share their wealth and creativity with a rainbow of causes.

I’ve been suffering from withdrawal. Pink product withdrawal. There’s nothing philanthropic on the shelves at my local grocery store anymore. There’s no mention of a portion of any proceeds going to anyone. Whatever happened to all those charitable intentions?

When October comes around, good comes with a vengeance. Everyone gets in on the pink ribbon bandwagon. In fact, I’m hard pressed to find a company doesn’t put a pink ribbon on their products during the tenth month of the year.

But once the calendar page turns and the holidays descend upon us … pink is replaced with silver and blue or red and green. Come January, the shelves have lost all color.

It’s sad, really. As a two-time breast cancer survivor, I love seeing all those ribbons and learning about all those proceeds being shared with various breast cancer related charities.

But there are other causes … there are other ribbons … and other reasons to give.

November was lung and pancreatic cancer awareness month – where were all the clear and purple ribbons?

January is National Cervical Cancer Screening Month – that’s a teal and silver ribbon. Did you see any of those?

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month … I saw no dark blue ribbons.

Melanoma Monday is in May (black ribbon).

September is ovarian cancer (teal), prostate cancer (light blue), leukemia (orange) and lymphoma (lime) and childhood cancer (gold) awareness month.

No ribbons. None.

There are other causes, too. Domestic violence (where are all the purple products?). Child abuse (blue). AIDS (red). There’s a cause for every color under the rainbow.

But we only get pink ribbons in October.

The main reason I like the pink ribbons I see in October is obvious – I’m a breast cancer survivor and the more money raised for the cause, the more research dollars there will be, the more likely it will be that there will one day be a cure. That matters to me, greatly.

But the other reason I like to see the pink products? They prove to me that most major corporations share their wealth at least a little bit. Sure, I wish they kicked up their charitable contributions all year round, not just in October. Heck, maybe some do and they don’t publicize that fact.

But it makes me feel a whole lot better when I see proof of their philanthropic acts on the shelves of my grocery store.   Besides … women are diagnosed with breast cancer all 12 months of the year. It would help them to know they have year ‘round support."

White Castle Slyders are the stuff of pop culture legend, inspiring movies and countless comedy routines. 

But even though every generation of White Castle fans tends to think of the chain as "their" special place for friendship and craving satisfaction, whole generations could argue over who is the biggest White Castle fan.

That’s because White Castle and its famous tiny burgers is over eighty years old.  The first White Castle opened in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas.  White Castle was selling burgers, chain style, before anybody else.  And that’s not the only thing White Castle did first, according to their web site:

"First fast-food hamburger chain ever. First industrial-strength spatula. First mass-produced paper hat. First to sell a million hamburgers. First to sell a billion hamburgers. First frozen fast food for sale."

So the next time you eat White Castle, or just catch part of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle on cable, think about the fact that you are enjoying a part of American food history.

One of our favorite breweries is Dog Fish Head Craft Brewery, and we are especially fond of their seasonal and limited edition beers.  The brewery recently released their schedule for their 2008 beers, which can be found after the jump.

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Packages of all green M&Ms hit the shelves recently as part of a promotional effort geared towards Valentines’s Day on February 14.

The green M&Ms have enjoyed pop culture mystique for at least three decades, as there have long been rumors that the green candies serve as an aphrodisiac. Rumors of rock stars requesting bowls of all green M&Ms in their dressing rooms and astronauts wanting to take them into space have added to the mystique, and M&Ms is certainly promoting that pop culture legend with its “Green is Love” campaign for the limited edition green M&Ms packages.

The packages feature a go-go boot clad Ms. Green, the flirty female version of the M&Ms characters that the brand added to its advertising campaigns a few years ago. They also feature a faux warning to purchasers: “Consumption of The Green Ones® may result in elevated romance levels. If you experience this effect, contact your significant other immediately.”

Keema’s Kandies has a chocolate covered peanut brittle out, and they covered in red, white, and pink sprinkles for Valentine’s Day. The peanut brittle is handmade and hand packaged in Holland, Michigan.

January 26, 2008 is National Peanut Brittle Day in the United States. True peanut brittle fanatics will tell you that there is a vast difference between fresh peanut brittle that is made at home, and those that are sold in stores. They also like to discuss the differences between the types of peanuts you can use, or the types of syrup to make the toffee. Personally, I just like the stuff and am not particularly picky about where it comes from.

But if you prefer to make your own peanut brittle, there are hundred different recipes out there … my recommendation, based on a catastrophic attempt many years ago, is to go with the traditional versions. Peanut brittle in the microwave is not for beginners.

Marie Callender’s has a limited edition pie available in its restaurants in January called the Caramel Apple Cream Cheese Pie. As you can see from the photo above, the pie is a decadent combination of cheese cake and apple pie seasoned with cinnamon.

The restaurants regularly have an extensive pie menu, featuring traditional fruit pies, cream pies, and cheese cakes. The Caramel Apple Cream Cheese Pie is one of the seasonal offerings that are added throughout the year.

On Wednesday, January 23, 2008, the United States will celebrate National Pie Day. Well, maybe not everyone in the United States will celebrate, but the folks at The American Pie Counsel certainly will be happy about it. These are the tips from The American Pie Counsel for celebrating this day of “warm comfort foods.”

1) Share pie. Whether you make or buy pie, share it. By its very nature, pie is meant to be eaten with others.

2) Pay it forward. Hand out pie slices to strangers and encourage them to do the same for others. It could spread the peace on earth and goodwill to mankind that we all hope for.

3) Be a good Samaritan. Buy an extra pie at your local grocery store and give it to the person behind you in line. You may just change their life!

4) Reach out to new neighbors you haven’t met and bring them some pecan pie – it says your thoughtful. Stay awhile to get to know each other over pie and fill them in on the neighborhood.

5) Indulge your co-workers. Bring some pie to work – you’ll create a lot of good rapport and maybe even get a raise.

6) Surprise your significant other at work and bring him or her a pie to share with their coworkers.

7) Say thank you. Know a special someone who deserves some thanks? Maybe it’s a friend who did you a favor, your child’s teacher or your postal worker. What better way to say thanks than with a warm hug wrapped in a delicious crust?

9) Delight your family. Share the love and share your favorite memories together over a warm, fresh pie. Have older family members talk about the history behind the family favorites. Start a new tradition and publish pie memories and recipes, then send them to family members.

10) Spend time with your kids and make a pie together. Let them pick their favorite pie and show them how it’s done. They’ll be proud of their creation and have fond memories of you as the best parent ever for years to come!

11) Get caught up with friends and invite them over for some afternoon pumpkin pie. You can dish on all their latest news.

12) Throw a pie potluck get-together. Have everyone bring their favorite pie and exchange recipes. We’ve heard of events where more than 100 folks come with 100 pies. Have a contest to see who can come up with the most pie songs. The winning prize? A pie!

13) Hold a charity pie-throwing or pie-eating contest or a pie auction. You can donate the proceeds to your local community food bank.

14) Hold a pie-making contest. Invite the best pie makers in town to compete for prizes in various categories. Ask cooking teachers, pastry chefs and pie lovers to be judges. Be sure the kids are involved – you can include pie poetry and pie art contests for them.

15) Eat pie. Whether you make it yourself, buy it at a supermarket or bakery or order it at a restaurant, perform a random act of pieness on yourself and enjoy some pie on National Pie Day – it’s great with lunch, dinner or as a late-night snack.

A limited edition version of Black Dog whisky is currently available in India, and the purchase also includes a special decanter designed just for the product. The whisky is sold in the twelve year old category, and only in select regions of the country (Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh).

India has a rapidly-growing whisky market and Black Dog launched several varieties recently in an attempt to increase its market share. Apparently the growth rate for scotch whisky is over forty percent a year, which is an incredibly tempting lure for marketers. Black Dog executives have stated their brands are targeted at affluent male consumers, and they make many sales in the Indian lounge market. Black Dog is owned by United Spirits Limited, India’s largest alcohol company.

As we have discussed many times here at Limited Edition Foods, the Indian consumer market is a haven for limited edition products as many consumers tend to be enthusiastic about trying the limited editions when they come out.

Each winter Pepperidge Farms brings out a chocolate covered version of their Milano cookies, which are extremely popular with both chocoholics and cookie fans.

The regular Milano cookies feature two crispy, oval-shaped sugar cookies sandwiching a thin layer of dark chocolate. As the photo above indicates, the luxurious Chocolate Drenched version features even more chocolate and is apparently quite the treat.

The Chocolate Drenched Milanos typically hit stores around the December holidays, and in spite of the high price per package (as high as $4 for seven cookies) they don’t last long.

The Chocolate Drenched Milano is not the only variation that Pepperidge Farm puts on the market at various times throughout the year. The company also makes a Mint Milano, a Mint Chocolate Milano, a Double Chocolate Milano, an Orange Milano, a Raspberry Milano, a French Vanilla Milano, an Amaretto Milano, a Black & White Milano, a Milk Chocolate Milano, and a Raspberry Chocolate Milano.

It seems there is a problem with the spam filter on the network, and as a result ALL of the comments on this blog for the past few weeks were labeled as spam … even my comments. 

So my sincere apologies to the few, the proud, the sincere who took the time to leave a comment on this blog.  If they did not show up it was not an intentional block on my part, but a programming error that will hopefully be fixed in the next few weeks. 

Until then I will be trying to mine the real comments from the hundreds of spam comments this blog gets every day.  Things can get lost in the shuffle, however, so I want to give you that warning and an invitation … if you are not hawking porn, or predatory loans, or pain killers, or any of the many products people try to sell through this blog and would instead like to leave a comment about a limited edition food then please feel free to send me an e-mail and I will post your comment for you.  It’s the least I can do for those of you who leave comments until this problem is fixed.

Snickers likes to say their candy bar is satisfying enough to serve as a meal in a crunch, and if that is true then the new limited edition Snickers Nut’n'Butter Crunch is like a meal brick. The butter in the name refers to peanut butter, although as the wrapper says you won’t find actually peanut butter in the bar just nougat that has been given an enhanced “peanut butter taste.” The result is a dense and chewy Snickers that will stick to your ribs, although in today’s health conscious society that phrase is not really considered a good thing.

The candy bar snuck its way onto shelves, which is a bit odd for Snickers and certainly made it a surprise for folks who follow the candy industry, like Cybele at Candy Blog. Some sources report that the release date was changed, and perhaps that is the reason this limited edition candy received less fanfare.