Limited Edition Foods

Next month (September 2008) Muller UK is releasing the first in a series of limited edition Fruit Corner yogurt (or yoghurt if you are British) flavor. This is part of their Mix It Your Way campaign they started this month. The Fruit Corner line of yogurt products are single serve containers that come with plain yogurt and fruit mix-ins. There are 5 regular flavors like raspberry and blueberry. The first limited edition flavor will be Black Cherry and Dark Chocolate. This will be the first Fruit Corner flavor that includes chocolate.

Yesterday at the grocery store I noticed the 12-packs of Dr. Pepper said Limited Edition Football Cans inside. I did not buy any because they were not on sale and I do not even like football, however I do not mind the soda flavor. The cans are kind of cool in the way they have decorated them to resemble footballs, but they do not look too much like a football due to the fact that a football is a very different shape than a can of soda. Basically the can looks like a football with the ends cut off. It has the rings on near the top and bottom and the finger grips (or whatever they are called, the laces?) on the side of the can.

The football can promotion is related to the Dr. Pepper Football 2008 Promotion, which involves a contest. There are codes on the 12-packs, 24-packs, 20-ounce bottles, 21-ounce bottles, and 2-liter bottles of Dr. Pepper varieties. You go to their website here and enter the codes (and register!). Prizes include tickets to College Bowl Games in 2008 or 2009, Dr. Pepper Keychains that look like the football cans, Dr. Pepper baseball caps, Dr. Pepper T-shirts, Dr. Pepper blow up Tailgater chair, Dr. Pepper Hoodie, Nintendo Wii with Madden 2008, Dr. Pepper Phone Charm, Dr. Pepper BBQ Sauce, Dr. Pepper Beanie, 20oz Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper Game Day Desktop Wallpaper, Dr. Pepper Screensaver, Ringtone Download, UltimateCollegeFan.com $25 Gift Certificate, ESPNShop.com $25 Gift Certificate, and Rover TV Portable Media Player. There is also the chance to throw for the dough (scholarship money) contest on their website that you can enter.

Michael Phelps has made history with his 8 Gold Medals in one Olympics this past week at the Beijing Olympics. Usually you think of Wheaties when you think of athletes on the cover of cereal boxes, but this time it is something different. Michael Phelps will instead be appearing on Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes boxes in a limited edition run. The boxes are expected to hit grocery store shelves in September 2008. By the way he already has appeared on Wheaties boxes, so I guess they do not want to do that again, but still want to honor his accomplishment on a cereal box.

Personally, though, do they have to put him on the Frosted Flakes box. At least the Corn Flakes variety is somewhat healthier than Frosted Flakes. Do we really need to promote the less healthier cereals with unnecessary added sugar by putting athletes on them? Anyways as someone who likes to collect Olympic stuff, I might pick up one of these boxes if I see the cereal on sale or have a coupon when they come out.

What are you thought on him appearing on Frosted Flakes? Do you think he should appear on another kind of cereal by Kelloggs and what would be more appropriate if you think so? Lastly, do you think they should do more with the less publicized Olympians that have had success at the Beijing 2008 Olympics? On this last one I would not be surprised if we see more of the Olympians from Beijing 2008 on cereal boxes like Wheaties, but I doubt they will do it as a Frosted Flakes series.

I tried these out about two months ago when I was driving cross country and saw the chips at a gas station. The flavor is certainly unique and the closest description we could come up with is that it tastes like a limeier version of Cooler Ranch. In the end I looked them up online and discovered there was a whole online competition involved with them, which I guess is still going on with three competitors competing in Las Vegas for the $100,000 Artifact. Also, in my looking it up online I found the flavor is probably Mountain Dew, which seems kind of weird and just does not seem like it really is the flavor in my opinion because it just does not taste that much like Mountain Dew, although I will admit it does seem like that is what the flavor closest represents.

I am not sure if these are still out, as I only saw them the one time and am glad I picked them up then. They were interesting to try out, but I they were not all that worthwhile to purchase more than once as the flavor is just plain odd and not really all that great tasting. Perhaps this is the start of them adding the mystery flavor as a regular flavor, but I kind of doubt it and even if they make it a regular flavor I highly doubt it will be popular enough to stick around for long.

Has anyone else tried these? What were you thoughts on the flavor?

Kai’s Candy Company has an interesting line of limited edition candies for those into politics or just want to show there support for their favorite presidential candidate with something sweet. They have three different sets. One for Obama supporters, one for McCain supporters, and one for Bipartisans/undecided.

The candies include four lollipop designs and 5 small candy designs. The lollipop designs include one with McCain’s head, one with Obama’s head, one that has red, white, and blue stripes and says Obama in the middle, and one with red, white, and blue stripes and says McCain in the middle. The small candy designs also include the Obama and McCain head designs along with one with the Democratic Donkey, one with the Republican Elephant, and one that has red, white, and blue stripes and says Vote in the middle.

There are two types of sets for the candies. The Mini Sets include 2 lollipops and 5 small candies. For the Obama set it has the two Obama themed lollipops and at least one of each of the Obama themed small candies. For the McCain set it has the two McCain themed lollipops and at least one of each of the McCain themed small candies. The Bipartisan set includes an Obama head design lollipop, McCain head design lollipop, and one of each of the five small candy designs.

The other type of sets is the Gift Set. The Gift Sets include 4 lollipops and 14 small candies. The Obama and McCain sets include two of each of the candidate’s themed lollipops and a variety of the candidate’s themed small candies. The bipartisan set includes one of each lollipop design and a variety of all the small candy designs.

You can purchase the candies online here.

The makers of Junior Mints recently made Limited Edition Junior Fruit Cremes. They are fruit Mentos looking on the outside with a chewy gummy looking inside. There are three flavors of these odd candies. The flavors are Black Cherry (colored dark pink on outside), Orange (colored orange on outside), and Raspberry (colored light pink on outside).

I like fruity candy, but from what I hear these are really horrible tasting. The packaging is not even all that interesting, so it does not seem even worthwhile to pick up for the packaging. The main complaints seem to be inconsistent center texture and being too sweet. Kids may like these, but because of the texture even they may not like them.

Coca Cola is one of the major sponsors of the Olympic games. As part of their showing their sponsorship they have put the Beijing 2008 Olympics on most if not all of their Coca Cola products. The major collectibles released, though, are a set of five Coca Cola Classic cans. Each can in the set represents one of five countries. The five cans are Russia 1 of 5, Thailand 2 of 5, USA 3 of 5, Ethiopia 4 of 5, and China 5 of 5.

The cans can currently be found in special packaging 12 packs that show the cans on the outside packaging. Inside each pack all 12 cans are the same. You can know what can you get by spinning the can near the hand holding hole on the side of the packaging.

The cans are interesting collectibles with Coca Cola being written in the country it represents language. The exception is the China one only has it in the small print part of the can, but the China can is one of two in the series with a colorful design. The China can has colored stripes around it. The other can with a design is the USA can with a flag design behind the Coca Cola writing on one side of the can.

The Coca Cola Classic line of products with Collectible labeling in honor of the Beijing Olympics 2008 include plastic bottle labels and the 12-pack packaging. The labels on the 2-liter bottles have a stripe design like the China can. The 20-ounce bottles have a series of 9 labels similar to how the cans are done with the 9 countries represented having Coca Cola written in their language on the bottom front of the label. The 9 country labels for the 20-ounce bottles are Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Korea, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and United States.

While not called Limited Edition/Collectible the cans and bottle labels of most other Coke products also have the Coke bottle Beijing 2008 Olympics logo.