Limited Edition Foods

At the grocery store recently the Easter section finally materialized in full force. It seems kind of odd that the transition from Valentine’s to Easter is slow when the Valentine’s stuff seemed to pop up at most places before Christmas was even over. I am not complaining, as it is actually a step in the right direction, although they still have the seasonal stuff way to early. For one, how many can get the 42 ounce bag of Peanut M & M Bunny Mix now and still have it for Easter? My dad certainly did not even try, as he just got it to snack on during Rodeo Weekend. The seasonal Bunny Mix has pastel colored M&Ms and the peanut ones at least also look kind of egg shaped. The back of the 42 ounce bag has recipes for Bird Nest Cookies with the peanut M&Ms looking like the eggs in the nest and M&Ms Fun Flyers that use the M&Ms to create butterfly designs.

At the grocery store I also noticed a Spring Collection set of M&Ms. The Spring Collection has more flowery or nature like colors than just pastel colors like the Bunny Mix for Easter. The colors in the Spring Collection mix include orange, pink, yellow, and light green. This mix is package in an upright bag with a seasonal design and clear window in front. It is similar to the Holiday Message Collection that came out for Christmas last year. Like those ones the spring ones also have some different spring designs on them.

Heinz has a special six pack of commemorative ketchup bottles celebrating the six Super Bowls the Pittsburgh Steelers have won. Interestingly I never realized that the championship years have to do with the year the seasons start and not when they end and the actual year the Super Bowl takes place. Basically I thought they were the 2009 Champions because the Super Bowl was in 2009, but I guess not, as all the bottles in this collection have the year of the season beginning, which makes sense, too. This six bottle collection includes a 1974 Champions bottle, a 1975 Champions bottle, a 1978 Champions bottle, a 1979 Champions bottle, a 2005 Champions bottle, and a 2008 Champions bottle. They also have the 2008 Champions bottle available separately. Both the six pack and single bottle are available on MyHeinz. The six pack costs $35 and the $6 for the bottle.

NOS Energy drink has released a special limited edition 16 ounce can called the “Rowdy” can. It is a Kyle Busch commemorative NOS Energy Drink. I assume it is just the packaging that is special and the stuff inside is the regular NOS Energy Drink, but I am not positive, as I could not even find a picture of the product. Not to mention even the energy drink’s own website is not really loading for me past the home page, so I gave up trying to find a press release about it on their own website. NOS Energy Drink will be donating $25,000 to the Kyle Busch Foundation related to this limited edition can release. The can release is also part of their ongoing support of the No. 18 NASCAR car driven by Kyle Busch.

It is kind of common to see movie tie in limited editions. It kind of seems that most of the time the movies with limited editions are kid/family movies, but it certainly is not always the case. The latest movie tie in limited edition I read about actually seems just the opposite in that it is not only a more mature audience movie, but the product is more of an adult product or at least teens and above generally. Watchmen is being released to theaters this Friday, March 6, 2009. One of the things in the movie is a made up coffee called Nite Owl Dark Roast or at least it was not real at the time. Now the Organic Coffee Cartel has released a limited edition of the coffee made up for the movie. The flavor is described as including tropical fruit, cacao, spice, vanilla, and sweet tobacco. The coffee can only be purchased on their website here.

The Ox Inn in Stanley, United Kingdom, is serving up a special limited edition pie in honor of March 2 through March 8, 2009 being British Pie Week. The pie is a steak and Newcastle Brown Ale one. The pie is about a foot in diameter and weighs about 2 pounds. The pie sounds like the filling is mostly made with steak and Newcastle Brown Ale. It is said to have a nutty caramel flavor. The inn is serving it with chips (I assume this means fries, as it is in the United Kingdom after all), a jug of gravy, and vegetables. I am certainly not into meat and most definitely not steak, but boy does that big pie look like a great way to celebrate British Pie Week size wise.

Limited Edition In the Dark Ice Cream is being launched in Wisconsin in honor of the upcoming Wisconsin Film Festival (April 2-5, 2009). The In the Dark ice cream flavor is being made by Babcock Hall Dairy. The ice cream is being released next month on March 7, 2009, which is also the day tickets begin to go on sale for the Film Festival. It will be available at the Babcock Hall Dairy Store and at the Daily Scoop in the Memorial Union at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the Dark has a chocolate malt ice cream base. It has chocolate truffle pieces, chocolate chips, dark fudge swirl, and pecans mixed in. It sounds like a very chocolate flavor with the ice cream base being chocolate and three of the four mixed in items being chocolate flavored.

In support of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Trans-Sexual (LGBT) movement Absolut has released a special rainbow flag bottle. The limited edition rainbow flag bottle features a rainbow design and text that reflects their support of the movement. The bottle is being called Absolut Colours. The bottle is being released this month (February 2009) in Australia. I believe it is only to be available in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Absolut will be donating $1 per limited edition bottle sold to the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation, which works to support people living with HIV and AIDS as well as the issues of pride and equal rights for LGBT members. The bottles look pretty cool and seem kind of nice for a bottle collection even if you are not into drinking Absolut.

The Limited Edition Thingamajig candy bar may sound like it is similar to a Whatchamacalit. The ingredients are similar and they are both made by Hershey, but the Thingamajig candy bar sounds like a much tastier version. The Thingamajig is made with real chocolate while the Whatchamacalit is made with what many call mockolate, which is even worse than milk chocolate in my opinion, as it is not even made with cocoa butter. The Thingamajig has a cocoa crisp while the Whatchamacalit has a peanut butter crisp. The Thingamajig is made with peanut butter and the Whatchamacalit has caramel as the filling. I have never been interested in the Whatchamacalit candy bar, especially when I learned it at least is now made with fake chocolate. The Thingamajig does sound tasty with the peanut butter and at a milk chocolate coating.

For the Easter season 3 Musketeers has a special limited edition flavor available in 9 ounce bags of minis. They are 3 Musketeer Raspberry with Dark Chocolate. The bag states “Bring the Spring Feeling Home” and “Whipped Up. Fluffy Chocolate-on-Raspberry Taste.” I am a big fan of raspberry and other fruit flavors, so I was excited to try these out, especially since I got them as a sample and did not have to try and hunt them down, which can often be hard because my local store tends to not to get seasonal or new items very often. The bag the minis are in are not extremely spring-ish, but it does have some egg and glower designs on the front. It is the giant raspberry design that stands out to me. The individual wrapping definitely shows spring-ish design, though, as there red, white, and blue flower designs on them.

I rarely get 3 Musketeers, as I am not much into the fluffy part of them. It is not the texture, but more that I am not into the normal flavor of Musketeers. These ones, though, have a nice berry flavor. It is a little sweet too me, but it definitely a raspberry flavor. The chocolate outside also is more to my liking than milk chocolate, however, I would not go as far as to call it true dark chocolate because it is very clearly labeled as having milk in the chocolate shell, which by my definition disqualifies it from being true dark chocolate. It is good enough, though, to do, as I do not think I would like it if it was really milk chocolate and not a wanna be dark chocolate coating.

Today I spent some time browsing Borders while waiting for another store to open. I had a couple bucks left over on a gift card. The Valentine’s stuff was on sale and I spotted some Limited Valentine’s Edition bags of Ghiradelli Chocolate Squares. I do not think the flavor is actually Limited Edition (Milk Chocolate with Vanilla Caramel was all they had), but rather the limited edition seems to only refer to them being packaged in these Valentine’s decorated bags. I have a feeling some of the square flavors are not always available in the multi packs and might only be sold as full bars or individual squares and that might be related to how they are limited edition. I think the Milk Chocolate with Vanilla Caramel is a limited edition flavor, but I feel like it has also been released for other holidays. I believe there are some flavors that are not limited edition at all, but are still packaged in the Valentine’s designed packages.

The flavor might not be limited edition, but it is the first time I tried the Milk Chocolate with Vanilla Caramel. My mom said she did not think there was enough caramel, but we both agreed you really cannot fit anymore caramel than what is in it because of the thinness of the chocolate squares. The caramel is definitely very caramel flavored. The vanilla seems to enhance the caramel flavor. It is definitely pretty tasty, although I certainly would have preferred to find some in dark chocolate.