NEAROF

My first experience with a Skinny Cow product was their tiny little frozen dessert single-serve cups, and it was downright terrible. With the first spoonful, I instantly regretted picking it over the tiny tubs of Häagen-Dazs in the same cooler. In the quest to find decent calorie-reduced treats, there are successes and there are failures; [...]

I genuinely don’t understand Peeps. I get that they’re made of marshmallow and that they’re meant to look like fluffy yellow chicks. But I don’t get why people would want to eat them by the 10-pack, which is how I bought my Peeps at my local Calgary Co-op. Comic Book Guy’s fondness for Peeps has [...]

I’m not sure how common these are outside of Alberta, but in the past few months, I’ve seen a couple new growler bars freshly installed at liquor stores in this province. I found one at the massive new Wine and Beyond liquor store in south Edmonton last fall, and the newly renovated Liquor Depot in [...]

After last year’s lacklustre taste-test of So Nice’s dairy-free Noel Nog, I figured my chances of finding a decent soy-based eggnog alternative were slim to none. After all, how many alternative nogs can there possibly be? The soy nog market must be small, and – pardon my generalisation – when it comes to products that [...]

Newcastle Brown Ale is one of my favourite beers. I love its amazing caramel notes, the crisp carbonation, the mineral profile, the balanced hops, the roasted malt, the light sweetness. On the rare occasions I watch soccer games on TV (a.k.a. football on the telly), it’s the default beer I reach for. And yet, I’d [...]

I’ve seen plenty of energy bars before, but an energy ball? Isn’t that just a polite way of selling a smaller, rounder energy bar? We’ll see … The Pitch: This Fudgie Walnut Brain Storm flavour is described as “a chewy mix of nuts, carob and seeds.” Also: GM-free and gluten-free, with no artificial preservatives, flavours [...]

Who doesn’t love strawberry cheesecake? Rich cream cheese, strawberry topping and a graham cracker crust? Heaven. Why I thought Jell-O’s Strawberry Cheesecake dessert cups would meet any of those criteria is beyond me. First off, there’s no graham cracker crust at the bottom, which seems silly. Next, the strawberry topping is more of an extruded [...]

Who doesn’t remember the coffee vending machine at the skating rink or swimming pool, serving up mediocre hot beverages for parents to sip on while passing the time with the newspaper, waiting for little Betty to finish hockey/swimming lessons. In the last few decades, I’d like to think coffee tastes have improved more than a [...]