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Generation In-Between: A Xennial Podcast
Xennial co-hosts Dani and Katie talk about their analog childhoods, digital adulthoods and everything in between. If you love 1980's and 1990's pop culture content, this is the podcast for you!
Generation In-Between: A Xennial Podcast
80's and 90's Lunches Revisited: A Xennial Taste Test
Were you ever greeted by the tomato-based scent of ravioli at lunchtime when you opened up your Thermos?
Did your sandwiches come in a DIY plastic kit?
If your ideal juice box is foil-based, you might be a Xennial. And we are too.
And on this episode, we're revisiting lunch box staples from the 80s and 90s. We taste test some Xennial childhood classics like Lunchables, Chef Boyardee, Capri Sun, Fig Newtons and more.
Join for this tasty revisit!
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Did your childhood hydration rely on accurately stabbing a juice pouch? Do you prefer your lunch? Meat and cheese, processed and served in little plastic trays? If you were all about that thermos lunch life in middle school, then you might be a Xenial, and we are too. Hi, I'm Katie and I'm Dani, and welcome to Generation Inbetween, a Xenial podcast where we remember, revisit and sometimes relearn and today retaste all kinds of things from being 80s kids and 90s teens.
Speaker 1:We have a whole new setup. If you're watching us on YouTube and it feels very news, people like and Katie keeps doing weird shit with her hands, I'm like hello, she's like what do I do? And our camera? We're using a different camera, so our monitor is set up to the side. So if you're watching us on YouTube, we're trying really hard not to check ourselves off to the side. There we are, but that's what we need to be. Yeah, so it's. It's a whole thing. This morning We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1:So today we haven't done a taste test episode in a while. We haven't. Also, this is weird because we're right next to each other and I'm like constantly like this, it's going to be strange, I don't know how to feel, and we're eating things. So it's like not, it's going to be a little hodgepodge, but it'll be fine. I feel like it's like hello and welcome back to their five o'clock news. Up next, a lost dog on main street. Oh, who you would find? Could you find all the lost dogs? You find all the lost anyway. They love you.
Speaker 1:We're doing a taste test today, which is really fun. Those are always really fun episodes, although katie's a little nervous about some of the things we're gonna eat today. I really don't want to, you guys. And and I told her hey, we've cried on the podcast but we haven't puked yet. So today might be the day I might do both Cry and puke, maybe not at the same time.
Speaker 1:So what we are tasting today, everyone are Zennial Lunchbox Classics. So these are things we used to pack in our lunches, mostly in the 80s, some in the early 90s. So these are things we used to pack in our lunches mostly in the 80s, some in the early 90s, and some of y'all are going to be surprised because some of these are still lunchbox staples today. I think all of mine are yeah, really. I think all three of mine are Okay, yeah. Well, that's fun. That is fun.
Speaker 1:So we did some research about the things that we're about to eat. Some of it's interesting, some of it's not. Yep, so let's just jump in. Do we have anything else? Remember we used to do shout outs and stuff. We haven't done that in a long time.
Speaker 1:I mean, we kind of just incorporated in the episode. Yeah, we're like, oh, yeah, jen usually a Jen I know, or a Carlos or a Sarah told us something. We did hear from a few people with the word mustard. Yes, thank you guys. That was Dawson's episode. Um, yes, okay, because we did the joke, yeah, of Carlos's. So if you don't know what we're saying, you have to listen to a couple Dawson's from season three and you'll figure it out. Yeah, yeah, you'll see. But anyway, we did hear from a few and they were all our friends and it was Carlos. He is back to listening. He's been busy, so it's okay. We excuse you Absolutely.
Speaker 1:All right, do you want to go first? Yeah, I'll go first. I'll go first, okay, all right. So mine, my first one. Let me grab it here. She is. You're watching on YouTube.
Speaker 1:This is the one I'm not excited to eat, by the way. So you want to go first with that? What if you throw up, then you can't taste anything else. I feel like I think I'll be okay and then I can eat all the good stuff after. So the first also is first in my research and I just don't feel like looking through to find something else.
Speaker 1:Okay, lunchables, yay, lunchables, which are another one. I got this on BOGO at Publix. It's popular. It's back to school week. These are still very popular, although they've, like most products, spun out and have more versions and all of that. So should I do the research first or taste first? Probably research. Okay, lunchables, here we go.
Speaker 1:Lunchables came out in 1988. Yep, so later in the 80s. So we were the OG. You know what? We were the OG generation for a lot of these, a lot of these. Yeah, like the 80s were a time for y'all who were not alive then of was a time of processed convenience foods. Absolutely, it was like that was just of the time, absolutely. And that's what this was.
Speaker 1:The concept was to provide convenient ready to eat lunch options for children and parents, especially for school lunches, and the original concept was to repackage Oscar Mayer's lunch meats. Ah, this is an Oscar Mayer original is where it started, so that it was easy for kids to eat because meats like bologna, especially, were declining in popularity. Do you remember the song they came out with then? Was that the one? My bologna has a first name? It's O-S-C-A especially were declining in popularity. Oh, do you remember the song they came out with then? Uh, was that? The baloney has a first name, it's O S C A? R. My baloney has a second name it's M A Y E? R. I love to eat it every day and if you ask me why, I'll say cause. Oscar Meyer has a way with B O L O G N? A Yay. So marketing was good, it worked. Because Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A Yay, see. So marketing was good, it worked. But they decided because that was declining. How do we get this in front of more people? You can still buy bologna versions. I did not. I couldn't go that far.
Speaker 1:And then they became really popular in the 1990s and over the year they've expanded right. So the one I have today is like turkey and American cheese with cracker and a snack and a drink, but there's, you know, ham and cheese, and now there's pizza ones, there's nacho ones, all sorts of things. They had this motto and I don't remember this motto. I do remember the Oscar Mayer song, but I don't remember this. The motto was for kids all day you got to do what they say, but lunchtime is all yours. It's all yours. Like you can stack it however you want. I mean, it's still like a limited amount of things, cause maybe you're about to say this Didn't the OG one just have meat cheese and crackers?
Speaker 1:Yes, okay. And then they came with the rest. Right, okay, you're about. Well, actually it did have a small dessert or a side. So the classic kit in 88 had bologna or turkey cheese, a small dessert and a side had, like, those little bitty cookies. Yeah, yeah, yep, oh, I loved those, I know.
Speaker 1:And then early 2000s they had more smaller, bite-sized versions. And then the pizza kits came out in the 90s. Yeah, I remember the pizza, the tacos I don't remember that one. I remember the nachos. How do you make a taco? It said a taco themed kit with shells, meat cheese and toppings. I don't remember that. Ground beef like, how would you do that? Because you can't process ground beef. Yeah, I don't remember that. I do remember when the pizza one came out and I remember eating, being so pumped for it, but it's not good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my daughter and I were talking about this um on the way to school, cause I was like, oh, I have to, you know I'm taking. Cause she's like, why do you have lunchables? Cause she couldn't believe that, like, I was actually eating lunchable Cause I'm always commenting that I think they're kind of gross, yeah, and she was. I was like, oh, here's what we're doing. And then she was like, yeah, the pizza ones aren't good.
Speaker 1:And so we started talking about it and I said I think it's because if you eat cold pizza like, let's say, you order from Pizza Hut and you eat it the next day and you don't want to heat it up, it still tastes pretty good. Yeah, because at one time it was cooked Right and all the flavors. The thing about the Lunchables is it's never cooked. Yeah, it's cold, and the crust, the bread crust or whatever, is weird. Yeah, it's like doughy, but it's not soft and it's not hard. Yeah, it's like it almost tastes stale. Yeah, yeah, well, it might be With all those processed ingredients. Probably not. Yeah, probably. So they had cheese and cracker versions, breakfast options I don't remember that. And now there's reduced fat or healthier options, reduced sodium fat, added vitamins, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I kind of already said this, but the reason that Lunchables came about declining popularity, mostly of bologna in the 1980s, and they wanted to kind of revitalize it and give it a new look. The 1980s, and they wanted to kind of revitalize it and give it a new look. So the first year that it was out, if they brought in 218 million dollars in sales and more than 50 percent of shoppers returned to buy it again, which is pretty high for a new product, they love them, but they weren't turning a profit because of how much it cost. Oh, to do the packaging have all the different things in there. In fact, their first year they lost 20 million dollars.
Speaker 1:But then and this is the part that I was like, hmm, I need to think about this okay, in 1989 or 1990, philip morris, the cigarette company what purchased craft? Really, yeah, I never knew that at its peak. Well, that's just kind of scary that like, yeah, they own one of the biggest food processed food manufacturers in the world. Capitalism's on you. So when they bought oscar meyer, they were obviously responsible for this financial loss and so one of their biggest marketers his name was Hamish Maxwell was like okay, we need, this is a good product. We need to make money. Somehow, though right To make it work. He said we've already got some. This was a quote. If you've already got something that's selling, you'll figure out how to get the cost right. So they injected more money into it and had more promotions like flashier packaging, a couple more options, and then the following year they earned $8 million in profit. So they turned it around. Some cigarette, big waves, I mean, they are good at it, I mean.
Speaker 1:And then there is a study recently that came out that from a quarter to a third of people who buy Lunchables and eat them are adults. What Now? Yeah, is it because they grew up with them? It must be, it's got to be, and it's a quick snack, I guess. I mean. I don't know, and maybe you know, maybe they're buying the newer ones. I don't know if anyone's buying the bologna. I don't think it helped with that.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what I remember eating the bologna once. I mean we ate bologna a lot in my house because it was cheap. It is cheap. Yeah, can I tell you something disgusting that I used to make? Okay, I don't if my sister's listening she listens sporadically Remind me if I came up with this or you did, but I remember my friend down the street.
Speaker 1:We used to make these all the time. We would put a slice of bologna in the microwave, okay, okay, for like 20 or 30 seconds and it would start to fry it and the the whole circle outside of the circle would curl up, and then we would sprinkle Cajun seasoning, because in Louisiana you have a thing instead of salt and pepper, you put Tony Sachery's on everything. All my Louisiana peeps out there know exactly what I'm talking about. I still use it in my house and you would. We would sprinkle it in the middle and then eat it, and we we called them pig noses. Oh no, it's disgusting. Oh my God, I can't. I can still remember the smell and the taste, but cause we ate bologna all the time. You probably did, you probably did, I know I did. Yeah, yeah, we definitely did. So that's the OG Lunchable. I remember, yeah, and then when, when I started getting the turkey ones, my mom would get the turkey ones. That was the healthy one, yeah, right, which is what I brought us today, cause you know, obviously the healthy one here it is. Yeah, that's all I had on those.
Speaker 1:Um, it was fun looking through pictures, though there were some pictures of like the old ones. They don't look that much different. No, they look. I mean I remember the portions are about the same. Yeah, yeah, the bright yellow with the red block writing Okay.
Speaker 1:And they didn't used to come in a box, it used to just be the plastic because they didn't have the drink at first. Yeah, yeah, right, it would be. If you're watching, it would just be like kind of like this yeah, but now there's a box. Yeah, because of the drink, which the drink will hold on to for later. Oh, that meat looks alluring. Oh, see, this is. But look, you know why I got this one for you. Oh, yay, the snack is a Reese's peanut butter cup. I'll eat that later when we're all done. Yeah, that'll be later. That'll be to wash down the cracker and cheese is fine.
Speaker 1:Why is it wet the meat? Well, all lunch meats wet in a package. I know. Can I tell you something hilarious about wet food? So I was doing no, this is a good story, I was.
Speaker 1:I was doing make your own burritos at our house the other night and I love that. You just propped up the lunch bowl box and I asked Cooper cause he gets home from school so late now, yeah, and he has rehearsal, so he's home for 15 minutes before we have to leave. It's terrible. So I'm like I have his dinner ready so when he comes in he can eat and we can go. And I said, hey, we're going to do burritos. I gave him a laundry list of all the things I had and of course, the last two things I said was queso and salsa, because delicious, right, so good, and he goes.
Speaker 1:I want everything you said except the queso and salsa, because I don't like my burritos wet. You're like, okay, I didn't need a reason, necessarily, but okay, okay, weird, you like them dry. Like, yeah, ew, I mean, I guess there's something to when you have that stuff on there, you don't eat it immediately. Then the tortilla can get soggy. I don't know like I've, but this is also open chipotle burritos, like later. And, yeah, and like the tortilla itself, the texture has changed because of what's in it, but it was fresh, I don't know. But also, this is a kid who doesn't use condiments on sandwiches, right, well, that's why he doesn't want the extra gross.
Speaker 1:All right, you ready. I guess we're just touching it. What are we doing? Yeah, that's, that's what you do you go first? I'll go first, I don't. We're going to taste now, everyone, if you haven't gathered by our exciting emotion. I actually love it. I know what. If you're like actually, this is delicious, it's like it's not a Ritz, but it's like a Ritz cracker, and then the turkey, and then it's like a little piece of American cheese.
Speaker 1:But can't you make it however you want? Do you want to do two crackers so it's not as bad? Yes, okay, that's what you got, because, see, that's the thing. The thing that would always drive me crazy is that's how I like to eat it. And there were never enough crackers. Right, there's only one per. Yeah, texture of that meat. It's going to be bad.
Speaker 1:You guys, here we are. Okay, we have our little sandwich. We definitely have to cheers. We have to cheers. Do you usually cheers with food? Yes, I don't know. Okay, cheers, all right, here we go.
Speaker 1:Get away from the mic though. Oh, yeah, crunchy. Oh God, uh-oh. Hmm, okay, it's not that bad, it tastes pretty good. It's not bad. The texture is not great, but it tastes pretty good.
Speaker 1:The crackers disguise the funkiness of the lunch meat. See, you didn't throw up. It's like a smoked turkey, which I appreciate, right. Yeah, is that what I'm tasting? I don't. Who knows, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I also got crap. I forgot how messy these are when you bite into it. I know I kind of we kind of do the whole thing. But listen, for all you misophonia peeps out there. I feel you. If you can hear us crunching and smacking, I'm so sorry because I also hate that. I'm just gonna shove the rest in my mouth. Okay, okay, here it goes. I guess I am too. All right, let's just say goodbye to this for a little while. Okay, that was a mistake while you're trying to record a podcast, shoving your mouth full of food. Well, where's my water? Oh, yeah, I need mine too. Okay, I survived. All right.
Speaker 1:So what's your ranking? The drink was Capri Sun, but we'll move to that later. So what is your out of five stars? You have cracker all over your face, by the way, I can feel it. Maybe three. I think a three. I think a three. I didn't throw up, so that's good.
Speaker 1:I got to say it's not as disgusting as I was thinking it was gonna be. It looks worse than it tastes Big time. That was fine Back in the day, though I mean. It still tastes exactly like it did in the 80s. It does, right, yeah, and I mean, when we've done our other taste test that was one thing we talked about right, is it as good or as you imagined it would taste, it's the same. I would say those are the same. For sure Is a great segue into our next one that I've got. Let's go.
Speaker 1:So this I was preparing this this morning. I have to. I told you this already, but I'm going to tell our listeners. So we're going to talk about Chef Boyardee, specifically Chef Boyardee ravioli in a thermos. Let's go. I brought it in a thermos because that's how you would take it to school.
Speaker 1:Yep, I was preparing it this morning and my youngest was like he's like what are you doing? Because it's like 830 in the morning and I'm warming up ravioli and I don't usually eat that kind of stuff. So he was like what in the world are you doing? And I was like, oh, we're doing a taste test today. And his eyes got huge and he was like you're taste testing ravioli? Because he can't stand any kind of ravioli. He hates it. I don't know, it's something about the middle of it. I get that. He doesn't like it. I get that. And I was like no, no, we're doing like stuff from the lunchbox in the 80s. And he was like, oh my God, you used to bring ravioli to school. I was like, yeah, and that was like a fancy day, like I remember really fancy because it took a lot of extra prep in the morning for me to like get it going, because I made my own lunch even as a grade school kid. Like get it going, cause I made my own lunch even as a grade school kid, and so if I had the time and we had it, man, that was some fancy stuff.
Speaker 1:We always had Chef Verity in our, in our pantry. Yeah, we still do for hurricane prep. Oh, yeah, hurricane prep. So easy, I mean, and I don't dislike it. I have not eaten it in I don't know how many years, until today we're going to have it again, but ravioli was one of the staples we had in our house. We also had ABCs, and one, two, three. Oh, I love those. Those were.
Speaker 1:My first favorite was ravioli. Second favorite was that. My sister's favorite, though, was beefaroni, and she still has it. She's like, oh, I still eat that shit. I mean it's good and it's like quick. Yeah, and of course it's not like the best for you, but it's also not the worst. Do you know what I mean? It's kind of in the middle and you're going to love the story behind it. Oh, the history is really cool. I'm excited. I like went down a whole rabbit hole of looking at pictures and all this stuff.
Speaker 1:So Chef Boyardee was actually created by a real Italian chef. Oh, okay, his name was El Tori Boyardi, but it's spelled B-O-I-A-R-D-I. Okay, boyardi is probably how you pronounce it Boyardi. And so they Americanized it for marketing purposes. Yeah, and I'll tell you why that. Yeah, that's exactly why.
Speaker 1:So he was originally from the Northwest Italian town of Piacenza. Um, he actually started his culinary career as a teenager, working as um, an apprentice chef, at a local hotel there. Okay, so he came over to America in 1914 and changed his first name to Hector, as many people did. Um, and then, at the age of 17, he was already leading the kitchen at New York's Plaza Hotel. How old, oh, dang. Okay, so he was really talented. He was really talented. He also earned work at the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia, where he oversaw catering for the wedding reception of President Woodrow Wilson. Dang, yeah, and he was so young at the time. That's great.
Speaker 1:So fast forward a few years in 1924, he was living in Cleveland, ohio, midwest that's where lots of things happen, guys. Him and his new wife opened a restaurant called Il Giardino di Italia Sorry everybody, my Italian is terrible which means Garden of Italy, and it became hella popular. And it became so popular in fact people would wait hours for a table Dang In little Cleveland, ohio Well, cleveland's not little, but yeah. So it was really good. And he was so popular he went by Chef Hector.
Speaker 1:His delicious combo of the pasta and then the sauce he made was so delicious that patrons of his restaurant began asking for the recipe. So instead of giving them the recipe, he thought well, why don't I sell it? Why don't I jar it and sell it and make some more money? So he did, and he started cleaning out old milk bottles and filling them with his pasta sauce and then he, accompanied with uncooked pasta Okay, so it wasn't cooked at the time had the sauce and then the pasta, so you can make it fresh at your house, which is kind of genius, cause I mean, that's common now, but probably in the twenties, right? Not really, not really. Um, so that also was super popular.
Speaker 1:So four years later, hector teamed up with his brothers, mario and Paul, and they found the chef Boyardee company, using the phonetic spelling of the name to make it easier to pronounce for us Americans, which is sad. That's sad, but also, yeah, they have to assimilate and it's just sad and it makes me sad. He only wanted to use fresh tomatoes and mushrooms in his pasta sauce, so he bought up land in Milton, pennsylvania, all right, and built the factory there. So the facility that opened 90 years ago is still the home of Chef Boyardee today. Isn't that cool? That's really cool. They stayed in the same spot.
Speaker 1:Another interesting thing I found out about him is that Chef Boyardee meals were like an essential part of rations during World War II. He was a big supporter of the troops in the war and in 1942, the Chef Boyardee plant in Pennsylvania began operating 24 hours a day Wow, seven days a week to keep up with production demands for the troops. And after the war was done, in 1946, chef Hector got the gold star, one of the highest awards a civilian can receive, because of his wartime efforts. Oh, that's great. So you know, I feel like he was a good businessman, but he also was like just a good person in general. Right, right, he was. He was very smart with his business and he was talented, but he also had a good heart, which I think is what, maybe why, he was so successful even today. So, but the hard part was he hired a whole bunch of people during the war and he wanted to keep them. He didn't want to have to let go of them oh, yeah, which happened to a lot of people. That happened to a lot of people. Yeah, he didn't want to let go of them. So in order to keep them, he made the difficult choice to sell the company to a bigger. Yeah, so he could keep them on. Um, but it was okay.
Speaker 1:He remained as a spokesman and a consultant until he retired completely in 1978. Oh God, yeah, he worked. So when did he sell it? Like after the war? Like late 40s? Okay, yeah. But he remains as one of the most recognized faces on TV because of his commercials. And that is his face on the labels of Shea Clarity. That was going to be one of my questions. Okay, that's him, oh, wow, and he was in lots of commercials. I don't remember them much. I was just thinking. I remember the picture on the can, but I don't remember them much. I was just thinking. I remember the picture on the can, but I don't remember the commercials. Yeah, I think it was mostly like in the 60s 70s, but I mean I did look up some from the eighties and he was still in some. So, um, or well, I guess it was the late seventies. It was cause he retired in 78.
Speaker 1:Um, so here's the thing, chef, where the pasta products contain no artificial ingredients, no artificial colors and no preservatives. Okay, so you're right. So when I was like it's kind of fine, I mean fresh food is fresh food, right. But yeah, I mean there's still a canned product, so you have to have something in there, but I don't know what, I didn't feel like digging into all the science. No, no, no, I was like whatever. That all the science? No, no, no, I was like whatever. That's neat though. So here's the thing.
Speaker 1:Just like the Lunchable, the Chef Rarity products became super popular in the eighties because it was convenient and it was cheaper than buying the stuff, making it yourself, and also they had new marketing techniques. So that's when the brand started to expand with themed shaped pasta. Yes, like they had Ninja Turtles, they had had pac-man, they had all kinds of stuff. So like, remember, we were talking about abc's one, two, threes. Yeah, those were actually shaped like letters and numbers.
Speaker 1:It was that that was the pasta they used for the shapes, and this is different than, like, the spaghettio brand. That's something totally different. No, that's chef. Where? That's chef, where I thought, so, okay, all right, so I'd be interested, and maybe we don't know this, because we were talking about the ravioli specifically, like what is the most popular of the things they've ever made? I don't know, I would imagine it's spaghettios, but who knows? Okay, so that's all him, okay, yeah, and so what I wanted to know also was the, um, I wanted to know what about, like, the inside of the ravioli, because it, no, you're actually going to be okay with this, okay, so, no, no, no, no, no. That's why I looked it up.
Speaker 1:So the meat in the chef, where it'd be for ravioli, is mostly ground beef. Okay, okay, Um, but it does have a little amount of textures, textured vegetable protein, which is just all that is, is a soy based meat alternative, so it's not anything scary. And then the filling also has carrots, spices and seasoning. Ok, so it's not, it's not terrible, that's not the worst. No, I mean, it's ground beef, some soy stuff, because you never know, with ground beef and filling, I know, like what are you filling it with? That's what I was scared about. That with ground beef and billing, I know, like what are you filling it with? That's what I was scared about. That's not that big a deal, right? So that's it.
Speaker 1:Okay, I just thought that back story. I'm feeling good, I'm feeling so good about this, yeah. So, guys, I'm going to get out my thermos, okay, and I brought forks. So, okay, good, yeah, I grabbed a handful of forks too, because I figured I'm so excited that we are both going to be eating this from a thermos. Okay, I'm also excited to see your thermos. Oh well, it's Cooper's. Oh, it's cute, all right. So here's the thermos. Because he goes through phases of things he likes I love it and he got into this phase where he wanted to bring shit in the thermos, not actual shit, like he wanted to bring ramen or mac and cheese. One time we tried chicken nuggets and then he realized quickly it doesn't exactly stay, it doesn't. It doesn't keep it as warm as you would hope. So I intentionally did this a couple hours ago because I wanted to see Wanted to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, my kids take stuff in thermos almost every day, do they do? Chef Rarity? Yes, okay, amelia loves the ravioli, does she? Yeah, but we do like soups, leftovers, or I'll even guess what I put in them today.
Speaker 1:Caesar salad yes, shut up. I swear to God, gross, they love it. They open it and it's nice and cold and crispy. Girl, that's so funny.
Speaker 1:Oh, speaking of, I have to tell you a Caesar salad hack you need to try. Oh, okay, do you ever get a Caesar salad from Tropical Smoothie? I have before. Yeah, my favorite thing to get from Tropical Smoothie. When I go, I get it. I know we can smell. We smell the ravioli. I always get a super green smoothie that has kale and stuff and then I get a salad. It's a Caesar salad that is chicken, but you get a side with it. Get the jalapeno corn and put it in the salad. Oh, that sounds good. It is delicious because it's hot. Yeah, and you put it in the Caesar salad oh, that does sound good.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I thought you were going to say pour my smoothie on it or something, and I was going to be like I'm not that weird. No, I'm not doing that. Okay, so we can't. Cheers with ravioli out of the thermos. Oh no, I have two, that's okay. Open, wide, nope. All right, I've got mine. Okay, here I go, here we go, and then we're gonna have a whole thermos of it. So if you want more, you can have it. I honestly haven't had this in decades. So here we go. It's really good, like really good. Oh my god, actually it still is Tastes yummy and tastes the same. I think, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1:I would imagine the recipe has barely changed. Oh, I got two. I'm just going to shove both in my mouth. Oh well, I'm just going to do it. There we go, I'll do one more too.
Speaker 1:All right, I feel like the recipe probably hasn't changed much. Able to say, oh, it has whatever in it for parents, you know, honestly, that is quite tasty. I think I might need to add that in. So I'm pretty good. Kids, I mean, I like it. Yeah, I got to say five out of five. I think me too. I think I'm going with five. Five out of five. That is delicious. Yeah, I got to text my sister and be like yeah, you're right, you're right, I got to keep eating the Chef Boyardee. Chef Boyardee, make it happen, although I don't like the beefaroni.
Speaker 1:I would say, if I had to pick, that would probably be one of the last ones I would eat it. I don't like the noodles. Yeah, I think that's what it is. I like the ravioli. Do we have a trash receptacle? Oh, no, here. Can we use the box? Yeah, let's use the box, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, what are we going to do with the rest of that ravioli? Well, we're going to eat it, but I have more forks so you can eat it later. Well, oh, but look, this thermos I love, because you pop the top open. Oh, you've got another spoon in there. It's a foldy spoon. It'd be better if it was a spork. Yes, it would All right.
Speaker 1:So that's your party. We got you down. That was awesome. Okay, I need some water. Hold on.
Speaker 1:So I'm glad you said that, because our next one will be a drink. Do you know what I have to say? We're only two in and we have not had any crazy adventures like we've had in our past taste test. Why did you say that? Oh, here they come. I feel like it's about to happen, although I will say, this giant tiger is really freaking me out and if you're just listening, we'll take it. Let's take a video from this angle to let me see Where's your phone. I'll do it real quick. Okay, you got to tell everybody what we're talking about.
Speaker 1:Okay, so my studio just did a show over the weekend called firebringer. It's a star kid show which, if you know star kid or if you don't, they're just hilarious and silly and kind of dumb great music and it's, um, it's from. I want to do a video, okay, um, it's from, like prehistoric days and cave people and all the things. So, anyway, we have a giant, saber-toothed tiger puppet and there's nowhere for it to go and I don't want all the kids in the studio to like mess with it, because they will like, because it's you know, it's pretty sturdy, but I don't want it to break or anything, because whatever. So it's hiding here in the podcast studio, but it's giant eyes are staring at us. I'm trying to do a. I don't know how to do that. Oh, that's awful, oh God. Okay, I'm just going to take a picture of the tiger. Yeah, well, I have an idea. We can do it. At the end I had an idea too.
Speaker 1:Okay, meanwhile, I'm going to start talking about my next one, which is Capri sun. I? You know it's funny. When Katie said she was going to do this, I swore that we did it in our drinks when we did the drink taste test. We didn't, we didn't. How did we not do that? I don't know. We did something that was in a pouch, though Sarah brought something in a pouch, but it wasn't Capri Sun, it was Hi-C. Maybe it was Hi-C, yeah, or was it Capri Sun? Oh my God, was it? Well, if we've already done it, we'll look it up one more time after this. We'll look up our transcript. We've already done it. We're doing it again. We're back, all right. Well, maybe they didn't listen to that, but that also checks that. We would forget, that. We'd forget. So we'll just keep going and watch. We're gonna be like, wow, that's interesting. And then it's like so we are. There's gonna be like I already told you guys all of that which actually happens every day. We love you, sarah. I feel like, maybe, that I thought we definitely punched a bag of something and drank out of a straw. Oh, my God, I don't think it was these. Well, anyway, we're here now.
Speaker 1:Capri Sun, here we go, was invented in 1969 in West Germany, west Germany, west Germany, rudolph Wild, and it was named after the Italian island of of capri, which was a popular vacation spot, and sun. Um is the german word, so it was originally called capri son s-o-n-n-e, which just means sun. Oh, so it's since been english americanized and from the start it had that unique packaging. It was like a laminated foil pouch and this was developed to address the limitations in bottling technology at the time and in the 70s. And when is when it began to expand outside of germany and it came to the us in 1982. Okay and so. So that's when you were born, that's when I was born. The same capri, sun or the same age. Well, american, american age, right, which is such an American thing for me to say We'll count that year. That's, that's when it started. Nothing before those 20 years, nothing before that counted. And yeah, I just found some stuff about how they were having trouble bottling it when they first invented it and that's kind of how they came up to that about. Yeah, they, it started um in bottles, but then they came into roadblocks and costs with packaging them particularly um, I mean, it came out in the 60s but like world war ii did impact like factories and stuff that resonated then for decades after. So it was kind of difficult for a long time to bottle things like you used to, yeah, so that's how they came up with this idea.
Speaker 1:He also worked with a French sewing machine manufacturer to find a way to successfully put the juice drinks into foil pouches. So they, like helped him somehow. I don't know, was it real foil? Yeah, it was Okay, like from the beginning. I mean, hold on, that was a dumb thing to say because I don't know what. No, I know what you mean Fake foil would be, but I mean like material that they would make look like foil. You know what I'm saying, right? No, I think it was real foil, weird. And now it just kind of looks like it. Now, it's just, it's now.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, the company added the clear bottoms to the Capri Suns that we have now, but that was until 2014. They have clear bottoms. They have clear bottoms now, hold on, what, what do you mean? Like I would never look at the bottom? Nope, that one sure doesn't. Nope, that one doesn't either. Just kidding, so maybe some of them, you know whatever, that's amazing. So, anyway, it is one of the biggest fruit juice brands in the world and this is interesting To bring it to America. This is such an odd connection.
Speaker 1:The company came over here after a partnership with the boxer, muhammad Ali. Wow, because he loved them, okay, wow, because he loved them okay. And at the time, like you know, especially, this happens a lot with athletes once they're not really in their athletic realm anymore, they invest in things and stuff like that. So he invested and, like, brought capri sun over here. So, thank you, thanks, um. As of 2023, over six billion capri suns are sold in more than 100 countries each year. Wow, that's a lot.
Speaker 1:The two original flavors which I looked for was an orange, yes, and then a lemon, which has transitioned now to lemonade, yeah, and those are some of the most popular. But the ones I have today, my favorite is Pacific Cooler yeah, but then the other one's just a really boring grape. I can do the grape. No, I'll do grape. I don't care, you like grape, I don't, but I'll drink it. No, you should drink Pacific Cooler. No, it's fine, that's your fave, I don't care, I should have brought two. So that's all I have. It's not very exciting. I even looked up Capri Sun Controversy, found nothing. Well, that's good, that's a good thing. No, controversy, that's a good thing, the thing that's so interesting about all the stuff we talked about so far is like these don't seem like very innovative products now, yes, but at the time they were, because there's like a bajillion juice pouches now Like brands.
Speaker 1:We're jillion juice pouches now like a bit like brand. We're pretty sure we tried one on our last episode, but I think it was high c. I know we had them in the box, the juice boxes. It might have been high c, but I feel like maybe we're gonna revisit, doesn't matter, it doesn't matter whatever. Um, but like these were pretty innovative at you know and at the time, which is funny to fast forward ahead to now and think how, um, like imitation is the biggest form of flattery because you see one company doing it, making money, and then another company jumps on board. Right, you'll see that too with some of mine as well. So it's easier now.
Speaker 1:But I remember as a kid having so much trouble getting my straw in these pouches. Like the straw would bend, it would break and like there's like a quote, unquote, sharp end right to put in, but then it would like fold and like I could never get it in and the worst was if you lost the straw, oh, forget it. And you get to lunch and you're like no, I remember using an earring back to like poke a hole and squirt it in my mouth, or if the straw breaks, like you can't use it, but like I think I swear I remember them being like full to the top, so it would always have some come out. It would all. Yeah, it was always. Now there's a little, now there's a little lip. So maybe I'm sure that they've corrected that. And also I mean hand, eye coordination or fine motor skills develop. So that's true. Maybe we're just better at this type of thing.
Speaker 1:Now I say that and then I'm going to explode it everywhere. So here we go. Nope, I got it first. Try Me too. All right, now this we can. Cheers, okay, except don't squeeze it. I'm not going to Ready. Cheers, okay.
Speaker 1:So I'm doing, I'm doing grape. But you know what I have? Pacific cooler. Let me see yours. This is not a Capri sun, this is a water. Oh right, that's like one of the healthier ones. Yeah, so that's not even an OG. I'm sorry, but guess what? It still tastes like fake grape flavor. Oh yeah, if it coolers tarter than I remember.
Speaker 1:I listen, grape flavored things are not my favorite because they all taste like medicine to me. That's fair. Yeah, katie's just gulping down. I'm like sorry, I gotta swallow my cooler. She's like great Chug, chug, chug. So I shall not drink any more of that. Okay, but I did taste it. They gone, okay, okay, wow, I love it. I might drink mine while you're telling me about your next one. Well, my next one's going to be a fun one and I'm really excited to eat these because I can't remember the last time I ate these. Same like Chef's Qwerty, oh, I see what it is. Yeah, same, I don't remember either.
Speaker 1:So we're going to talk a little bit about Fig Newtons. Okay, yes, these were like the healthy version of a cookie in my house and I remember having. They were like considered like a health food and I hated the OG flavor back in the day. It's just like fig, it's fig. Yeah, yeah, I hated it. Um, I remember my mom buying the flavored ones when they came out like strawberry and those were better. But these were like a last resort for my lunchbox. It was like when we didn't have like the good shit, like the little Debbie's, cause, y'all, we ate crap, like we ate crap growing up, but a lot of people did in the eighties, so don't judge. All right, my mom was doing the best she could, all right, um, but I would be like, oh crap, we don't have any more like nutty buddies or whatever. So I'm like, okay, I'll pack these fig newtons, but I think I liked them more than I wanted to admit to my mom. That's fair. You know what I mean, I think, because I can remember the essence of them and they're pretty delicious from what I remember. But when you're on the hunt for pure sugar, you don't want anything with a real fruit in it. But okay, so these are really old. They were created in 1891. Dang, I would have never thought that I know.
Speaker 1:Again, in Ohio I don't know if it was Cleveland by a baker named Charles Roser. He actually sold his, he made them. He sold his recipe to Kennedy Biscuit Works, which is just a fun name. I don't know Kennedy Biscuit Works, which is just a fun name. I don't know Kennedy Biscuit Works. Yeah, it was a Massachusetts-based company. Please look how I spelled Massachusetts. I see that, guys, it's bad. I'm not even telling you.
Speaker 1:They liked to name their products after cities in their state, like they would just pick like a random city and name stuff after them, and they named these cookies Newton's after the city. But there is an urban myth out there that they were named after Sir Isaac Newton. That is false, so Newton, massachusetts Got it. The word fig was added later, so they were just called Newton's. Then they were called fig Newton's and then they removed the fig and now they're just called Newton's. They removed it in 2012 and they're still called Newton's, not fig Newton's, okay, okay, and they just have different flavors of Newton's. Not a lot, not a lot, but okay.
Speaker 1:So another interesting part of these is a guy named James Henry Mitchell actually created the machine that could make these, cause this was 1891, guys. Yeah, he created this machine that could mass produce these, these cookies. Um, so his invention had like two funnel, like components that work together. The inner funnel is released, like the jam filling and the oh wow, look what I just did. I was trying not to look. I actually looked to the side cause I realized I'm doing a very obscene gesture about a cookie. Anyway, I'm not going to do that again. The inner funnel put the jam filling in the middle of the dough and then the dough was in the outer funnel release around it. So he did it, so he could do it at the same time. So this process actually made like a long cookie, and then they cut it in sections to create the smaller cookies.
Speaker 1:The interesting thing was they were originally just a square because of the way the machine was, because they're rectangles now, yeah, so eventually somehow they evolved more into a rectangle shape, but at first they were just like a square, like looked like a cracker kind of. Okay, so that's just your basic history of that. They actually weren't referred to as a cookie until the 1980s. Oh yeah, they't referred to as a cookie until the 1980s. Oh yeah, they were referred to as cakes before that. Hmm, I mean, maybe in 1890s that would pass as a cake, I think. By the 1980s, not so much. Yeah, if you think about it, though, it does make sense, because I think they were saying that, um, they think the baker got the idea for the cookie from, like, fig rolls, oh, which is a cake item. So I get it.
Speaker 1:Um, but in the 1980s the company shifted its advertising strategy and they called them a chewy cookie. Okay, okay, capitalism marketing. There we go. It's a cookie, it's a chewy cookie. So they launched new ad campaigns. Tell me if you remember this um with the slogan that said a cookie, it's a cookie, it's a chewy cookie. So they launched new ad campaigns. Tell me if you remember this Um with the slogan that said a cookie is just a cookie, but Newton's are fruit and cake. Do you remember that? No, oh, I do. I looked up some old commercials. Yeah, no, I don't remember that at all. Oh, yeah, I still remember them. On the commercial saying a cookie is just a cookie, but Newton's are fruit and cake, and they'd hold up a cookie anyway, whatever.
Speaker 1:So Nabisco began replacing the fig and its cookie with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and they had an apple cinnamon flavor at this time as well, which you would have loved. That sounds awful Delish. I remember them. I remember eating those. That's not what you brought, right? No, apple cinnamon. Okay, relax, I'm not going to poison you with cinnamon.
Speaker 1:And in 92, they started offering fat-free Fig Newtons. I remember that, do you? In the fat it was like in with like the snack, wells, it was all kind of the same type of thing. Yeah, that type of thing. Yeah, that that fat-free version continued to spark their popularity because they were doing pretty good. And that year, in 92,. Fig Newtons were ranked as the third most popular cookie in the U S. Only Oreos and Chips Ahoy were more popular. Dang Oreos was number one. Oreos is probably number one still today, yes, even though it is completely man-made ingredients.
Speaker 1:What oreo? Yeah, yeah, it's like one big chemical, oh god. But I love them, guys, I know they're really. So that's all I have on the fig newtons. I love that, I know, okay, okay. So I brought the og flavor and then I brought strawberry, because those I remember katie's like just no fucking sentiment. I got scared for a second, guys, guys, but I think she's.
Speaker 1:Oh, the packaging's cute. What's with all this yellow packaging today? I don't know, but see, you can see they're called Newtons. Yeah, and they were actually kind of hard to find, really, yeah, I mean they're with cookies, yeah, but okay, so let's open them. You peel it looks like I almost just ripped it open. See the tab that says peel for fruit flavor.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh, my gosh, let's try the OG. Let's try the OG first. Sorry, guys, you do not want to share cookies with me. Well, she makes you cheers with everything. It's weird, it's kind of weird. Okay, here we go Cheers, cheers, perfect. Okay, I'm not, I'm not going to shove the whole thing in my mouth, but I'm pretty sure I used to do that. Okay, it's good. You know what they taste like. I think you're going to say what I was just thinking.
Speaker 1:One, two, three Nutri-Grain Bars? Yeah, yep, nutri-grain Bars, nabisco, I think they might be. I have no idea. I'll have to look. Yeah, I still don't like the fig flavor. Now, the fig's not good, but the texture and the taste is definitely nutrigrain, although you know what would make these good if you crumple them up and put them in vanilla ice cream, maybe, maybe, yes, yeah, there we go with the face. I need the GoPro, you need the GoPro Someone. Please send Dani a GoPro pronto. You know I would sit here and wear that shit. Just both of us wearing GoPros, just to catch the other one's expression the whole time. That would be hilarious Point of view. It's okay. I bet the strawberry Now this one will really taste like a Nutri-Grain.
Speaker 1:I bet you didn't even finish yours. No, oh, my God, it's like smushed on a straw wrapper. She took a mouth bite and then very delicately placed it on the table. I think I will eat the whole strawberry one, though I'm going to go buy some vanilla ice cream and try that. I think that would be delicious. Knock yourself out and let's fucking cheers again.
Speaker 1:Here we go. Here we go. Okay, this is the strawberry. Okay, that's pretty good, that is nutrient. That's just eating nutrient bar right now. Maybe they just like throw some oats in the dough and they're like here we go. Maybe it's pretty good though. But so here's the thing. There's a lot of products that have this dough and filling in the middle.
Speaker 1:I guess that guy who did it for these specific cookies can be credited. Like you said, it doesn't seem that innovative to us, right? I mean, I guess it was invented in the 1890s. So I guess it's seem that innovative to us, right? I mean, I guess it was invented in the 1890s, so I guess it's not that innovative. But it was the first to do this. Oh wait, we didn't rank the Capri Suns. Oh, okay, well, you had kind of a gross one. So I feel bad about that.
Speaker 1:Pacific Cool is definitely a five out of five. Oh yeah, well, I mean, if I'm doing just the flavor I had, it was terrible. I have to say it too. I know you, you can't really give it a good rating. Um, these, um, I'm gonna give these a four, even though I don't love the fig. I would say I would say a four. Yeah, I don't love the fig either, obviously I know, but the strawberry one's really good.
Speaker 1:Does anybody like figs? My husband likes these. I feel like people like figs if they're made with other stuff, but like I see it in the store, I don't mind. I don't know, I don't feel like I mind figs, but I didn't like that. I don't mind to be a fig. I'm just trying to think if I ever have it in literally anything else, I don't think so. I think I had some kind of weird dessert one time and I was like, oh, I don't, I mean, I'll eat it. Yeah, I very rarely will not eat something. But like, if I had a choice, I would always get the strawberry ones, I would never buy the fig ones. I know I'm going to bring these home and see what my family thinks. Yeah, see what they say. Okay, what's next on yours? All last one. And I actually brought two kinds of them.
Speaker 1:Yes, we are moving on to sun chips again. I thought we did this. No, we didn't, we did not, we did not. Okay, I know, I think too. What happens sometimes is we say a lot of things when we're brainstorming, because we say a lot of things and not all of them make it onto the show, true? So I think that's what happened with capri, sun and sun chips and sun chips. So they were introduced in 1991. Okay, so it's not because I was like I think sun chips are 90s, yeah, yeah, but still valid. It's funny because obviously 91 was a really long time ago, but I think I still think of sun chips like a newer chip. Me too. I was like, oh yeah, those are like a new thing, but like they're not, because when you were little they were a new thing. Exactly, exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:And from Frito-Lay, so pretty big, established company, they took 10 years of development and taste testing to make these. Oh well, well done, they're delicious. They were trying to make a multigrain snack that would appeal to health conscious adults. So I mean again, like a Sun Chip is probably not the most healthy thing you could eat if you wanted to eat a healthy snack. But they were cognizant of the fact that people were realizing Frito-Lay most of the stuff they make is just not good for me. Well, and that was the early 90s, early 90s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the fat-free fad and multigrain everything. The fat-free fad was real and it wasn't the funniest thing about that. And bad was real and it wasn't the funniest thing about that. And we talked about that long ago on one of our most depressing episodes, which we never have done an episode like that ever again. That was really rough. It was rough. We did one on toxic diet culture. If you want to go back and listen, go for it, but it's a bummer. With care, with care, it's a bummer, but we talked about that because everything was fat free.
Speaker 1:It wasn't like here, just incorporate more like fresh foods or whatever it was like, still have what you want, but we're going to make it a fat free version, a healthier version of whatever which, by the way, doesn't work. You're still going to want, like artificial stuff makes you just crave the real stuff even more. Yes, and I'm not, I'm not saying that mentally, that's like a physical reaction. Yeah, so you have sugar-free, like all the fake. It's better now because they have more natural alternatives. Right, like Stevia and things like that, but like NutraSweet, aspartame, all of that, the more you have of that, it makes you want the real sugar more. It's a whole mess. It's a whole thing, it's a whole mess, but it makes sense that these would come out in 91. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they had over 10 000 taste tests. Wow, yeah, some chips. Maybe that's why they taste so good.
Speaker 1:They were determined, they really went for it. Uh, their early marketing they marketed as heart healthy, which they don't really do anymore, and they featured images associated with nature and the sun. Because heart healthy, which they don't really do anymore, and they featured images associated with nature and the sun. Heart healthy equals sunshine, equals being in a field of corn, I don't know. Oh, somebody asked me the other day.
Speaker 1:They listened to that episode where you sang the corn song and they said you need to bring it back. Oh, they like the corn song. I can't remember who it was. There's more than corn in Indiana, at Indiana Beach, on beautiful Lake Schaefer in Monticello, indiana. Yay, it's back. Whoever you are, you're welcome. You got the corn song, yay, okay. So there's a longer version too, but I don't need it today, so I'll practice it for next time. Okay, okay.
Speaker 1:So they're made with whole grains, like corn hey, that worked wheat and oats, along with other ingredients like sunflower or canola oil. Is that why they're called sun chips. No, I think that goes back to the whole being in the sun and health, I don't know, maybe, uh, sugar and salt, and they were first released in a test market in minneapolis, st paul, in 1990, midwest. Wow, are you okay? Yeah, before a nationwide release? Oh, sorry, gotta go back. A free sun, well, it is. Oh, are you okay? I'm like, oh my god, oh my god, okay. Guys, get out of here. Get out of here, choking on leftover something and that was in our probably whatever. And she was choking. So she took a swig of her capri sun and started laughing and it went all over her shirt, where there are also crumbs. I think I still have crumbs on my face from our Lunchable. I still have them all over me too. Oh God, you can't take me anywhere. Hilarious, are you? But, pharrell, are you okay? I'm okay and that's.
Speaker 1:I'm sure there's a zillion other things on Sun Chips, like the different flavors, but I thought Harvest Cheddar was like a newer flavor, but that was one of the OGs. Oh, the original. And Harvest Cheddar Okay, were the first two. And then over the years they've had like Garden Salsa. Garden Salsa is my favorite. That was really good, yeah, and a few others, but, okay, so I've got a bag of each. Oh good, we're going to crunch up in it. We've try both. Yeah, so you open that one.
Speaker 1:Sorry, everyone, it's going to be loud. It's going to be loud, all right, listen, I have to tell y'all, like I said before when Katie made me eat baked Lay's, I do not like plain flavored chips unless they're a tortilla chip that I can dip in something. Yeah, I feel that. So I don't know how I'm going to feel about this. All right, let's go. Cheers, cheers again. Oh my God, it's so weird. All right, let's go. Yeah, no, no, thanks, they're okay.
Speaker 1:They taste like sad sun chips, mm-hmm, sun chips, Like they haven't seen enough sun. I know they need some extra. Okay, oh, your phone's ringing. You need to get that. No, I don't know who that is. Okay, oh, you just ripped the bag. Oh, okay, I don't have to eat enough so that I can use a chip clip. Here we go.
Speaker 1:Cheddar flavor Cheddar. Okay, harvest cheddar, so good, oh, yeah, why are you tilting her head back to chew? That's not safe. I don't think those are so delicious. Those are good. The Harvest Shutter delicious. The OG flavor is gross. Why would you pick that I should have looked up the best selling, not you. Ieddar delicious, the OG flavor is gross. Like, why would you pick that? I should have looked up like the best selling, not you, I mean anybody. I should have looked Because, again, if I'm looking at a shelf of Sun Chips, never in a million years would I get that one. Well, not unless I'm going to like dip it in something. But even then, what would you dip it in? Like hummus? Okay, you know well, I'd still get harvest cheddar.
Speaker 1:I am like, um. So two funny things I have to say. Well, first of all, katie's um smooshed up fig newton is now underneath the sunship bag. Oh, um, I don't. My stepdad doesn't like flavored chips at all. Oh, he only likes plain, which is so crazy to me.
Speaker 1:Um, as we're opening this bag of chips, have I ever told you, uh, in previous episodes about Troy and his hilarious um, he gets so stressed when people don't seal chips correctly? No, you haven't told me. Yeah, so, and this is funny, and my brother-in-law went okay. So Troy gets all stressed Like I get it because you don't want them to get stale, right, and like we always have like a bajillion flavors of chips in my house and he's always like we should only open one at a time. I'm like that is dumb, because one day I might want me a Frito and the next day I want me a Dorito, so like we can have them all open. But so he gets super particular about how we close it. Yeah, because we have like the clippies, yeah, yeah, because we have like the clippies, yeah, and so what? His way is to like flatten it and then roll it down very neatly. Well, the other three of us just kind of crumple it.
Speaker 1:My kids are terrible. Oh, yeah, like valid, so like valid to like correct them. Well, one time my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law, were visiting and they are grown ass, adults who take care of themselves every day, adults who take care of themselves every day. My brother-in-law, chris, we were making sandwiches and he got some chips and put it on his plate and close the bag and whatever, literally. And we're all talking and Troy walks up very slowly, discreetly, and goes behind him and undoes it, cause it's just like a habit, and he does it, and Chris stopped eating and he's like did you just reseal the chips that I just closed? And Troy's like, uh, so we just laughed about it. So if you ever come to my house, just hand it to Troy, let him. Let him seal them up for you. I love that, though, but I mean I get it Like if you're especially, if you're looking forward to it, and then you open it and it's like I mean, yeah, it's just funny that he was correcting a grown ass adult. It was hilarious, because my kids are ridiculous, because they don't care, they just like crumple and it's like why did you even put a clip on it? Yeah, like seriously, okay.
Speaker 1:So what's your ranking? I'd say, well, harvest Shutter 5. Oh, yeah, harvest Shutter 5. Original, I don't know.
Speaker 1:1. You say one, yeah, yeah, unless you give me some dips, then it's a solid three. Okay, that's fair. Give me some dips, I'm a dip, so delicious. Are you a super dip person? I love dip, me too. That's another thing I get teased on in my house, cause if we go somewhere that has like sauce options, I want like four, yeah, or something like that. I'm like, give me three sauces and Troy's like that's like $3. I'm like I want all three. Well, at like Tijuana flats, they have the sauce bar. Yes, I love that. Try the different ones. I will just get like the little cups and like pour one onto my burrito, eat a couple of bites, pour another one onto my burrito. So good, I love me. So so good, okay. So I know we were supposed to only do three, but I had to do four and you'll see why. All right Sounds good. So now that we're on the salty train, here we are.
Speaker 1:I was going to do handy snacks. Okay, if you remember, they were the long little salty cracker with the fake cheese product with the red stick. But I couldn't find any that I could buy, that weren't in a ginormous pack, and I'm like I don't want a bajillion packs of these, I want one, because you used to be able to just buy one or two. I remember them having them in baskets at the grocery store. Do you remember this at all? I don't remember that, but yeah, I remember the candy snack, anyway.
Speaker 1:So then I was like, okay, I'm like at the grocery store, wandering the aisles, like what can I buy instead? And I came across Ritz Bits. Oh, she's excited. Okay. So I had these a lot in my lunchbox. Whoa, what's wrong? I just burped. I'm so sorry. Well, we haven't heard that. A lot of culinary interesting items. That just surprised me, okay, and now I just did. Okay, well, sorry, now we're burping. It's like ravioli and sun chip and Fig Newtons. It's probably the Capri Sun, actually, it's probably the ravioli, anyway. So I found the Ritz Bits and I had. I was trying to look up specific about the Ritz Bits. There's not a lot, but there was some info about the Ritz Cracker, obviously. So we're going to do, we're going to do both.
Speaker 1:So Nabisco introduced the original OG full-size Ritz Cracker in 1934. So it's been around a long time. They wanted to compete with the HiHo cracker made by the company Sunshine Biscuits. Wow, there's so many biscuit companies today. Well, I don't know, I don't know if they're still around.
Speaker 1:So they tasked one of their employees, named Sydney Stern, to create a name and a marketing plan for the round cracker that they came up with. That was very similar. They were like, hey, that hi-ho cracker, people like it, let's make something that can compete with it. So he came up with the name Ritz to appeal to individuals, because it was during the great depression and he wanted to offer them what is quoted as they're saying back then a bite of the good life. Okay, so Ritz, you associate that with, like fancy, yeah, luxury. He also designed the blue and yellow circular logo. That is still a thing today. The Ritz logo Yep, okay, I'll pull it out in a minute, we'll see. Well, actually, I'll just do it now. I think of red when I think of Ritz. Oh, sure enough. Yeah, he designed that.
Speaker 1:Um, the design of the original Ritz crackers themselves is not just for aesthetics, it also has a functional one, which I thought was interesting. Okay, look at all the things you're going to learn on our podcast. I can't believe it. So there's, the seven holes punched into each cracker are to allow steam to escape during baking. Each cracker are to allow steam to escape during baking. That way it prevents air pockets, so you don't get like bubbles, and it has makes it have a uniform and consistent texture without getting overly crispy, overly crispy or flaky. Okay, so it's.
Speaker 1:You know, the Ritz cracker, I feel like, doesn't explode like those lunchable crackers. Yeah, you can eat it and it's not like right. And also it makes it nice and flat. Well, that's what I said when I said uniform, yeah, right, and that's what I'm doubling down on what you said, because I thought about that, because I was like yeah, because if you're stacking stuff on it, if you have anything that's got, even like a little bit of a bubble or a lip, that makes it like hard to do. But one side is flat, the other side is not right, that's true, yeah, yeah, but that's perfect for making little sandwiches, yeah.
Speaker 1:So the fun thing that I found, like um, about the OG Ritz cracker I forgot to write it down, but they used to actually serve Ritz crackers at the Ritz Carlton. Oh, cool, back in the day they might still, but that was another like appeal to like normal people who were not in some fancy income bracket, right Like, hey, they serve these at like a super fancy hotel. So let's, we can buy these now. So that's how the OG cracker came to be. So Ritz bits, though, which were a smaller version of the original, came out in 1987. Oh, okay, and they had just the plain cracker that were just smaller. So they were Ritz bits, and they had just the plain cracker that were just smaller. So they were Ritz Bitz. And then they had sandwich versions. They had cheese, which is what I brought today, yay, and peanut butter, also delicious.
Speaker 1:There was a, and I forgot about it until I read it, and then I remember there was a s'mores Ritz Bitz. Oh, I don't remember that I do. It came out in 2000, but it was discontinued in 2012 and it was so popular. People have been doing petitions to bring it back since then. Oh, wow, but they're not. So if it was so popular, why have no one knows? I bet it was expensive to me, probably because it was two flavors, yeah, and I don't know why, marshmallow, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Look, I was just using my finger on the table. I saw you, like that was my laptop. I was trying to oh, lord Guys, hello, they also have a spicy queso flavor. Now. They didn't have them at Target when I was there, but they do have them at Publix, so I'm going to have to get them next time. Okay, that came out in 2024, so it's brand new, okay, okay, um, they have had different flavors over the years of like the just the cracker, like they had like pizza flavor and they had, and none of them have like stayed except the cheese and peanut butter ritz bits, and you can't really find just the little bitty crackers anymore. I think that. I think I said I read something that said they still have them, like in canada or weird, but not in America. It's only the sandwiches, ok, so anyway, in 2011, ritz was identified in a YouGov poll as the best perceived snack brand among American consumers.
Speaker 1:I could see that award winning, award winning cracker. Hey, that's what you want to be. If you're a cracker, ok, ok, so that's all I got. I love that's what you want to be if you're a cracker Okay, okay, so that's all I got. I love that. There wasn't much. I was like.
Speaker 1:I was also like Ritz bits, trivia, controversy, etc. Anything, nothing, nothing happening, nothing. I can see why the Ritz bits alone aren't popular anymore, because once you've had it as a little sandwich, I don't know that there's an appeal to like. You know what I mean? I know you can't really stack anything on it. It's like oh, this is missing something, you know. Well, I'll get it. Jeez, this is why I drive train crazy, because I like can't, hello, oh, shit. And then when I open shit like this wrong, like yeah, it's all right, it's close enough, okay, well, we're just gonna do that. All right, here we go. These are a bite size and we have to cheers a little baby cracker ready. Here we go. I won't lean back, I'll lean forward.
Speaker 1:Okay, those are still good, but not what I remember I don't know kind of bland. Yeah, I remember there being way more cheese flavor. Yeah, I can barely taste the cheese. That's sad, right, yeah. Yeah, I wish I could have got the spicy queso, I know, but this is the ones I had in my lunchbox actually. Okay, they get better the more you eat. I was just thinking that the aftertaste is pretty good. It's like when you have a yucky um alcohol drink and you have a couple steps and you're like it's not bad now. Yeah, kind of like that. Okay, they're not bad, all right. All right, I have one more.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I had to include this because, remember, I told y'all in our last episode I had my kids at target together getting dorm supplies. We are not usually in a store all together at once. Okay, right. So while we were there, caden was like hey, can we get some, um, chicken nuggets or some other random like weird food? Not chicken nuggets aren't weird, but they wanted like dino chicken or something I haven't bought in a hundred years. Then he goes oh, can we get some gushers? I love gushers, though what? Oh, they're so good.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's probably the worst name for a kid's snack ever. Oh, I never really thought about it Really Ever? Yeah, really, but yes, well, now, you will never not be able to think about it. Now I will. I mean, I was a little worried when I was typing it in the search, the Google search. I'm like, oh my God, what the fuck is going to pop up when I type in Gushers. Oh my gosh, you'll be glad to know nothing crazy, or maybe you're not glad to know that. So we're going to talk about the trivia for this and there's not a whole lot, okay, and then we'll try one.
Speaker 1:Okay, again, I have what's our ranking on the Ritz bits. I'd say like a three. It's a little disappointing. I'm going to go with a three and a half and then, after I had three, I'll give it a four. Like it started off as a three and a half. It went up as you went along. Yeah, oh, you have a crumb on your chin. Oh, cute, a single. Okay, it's gone. Ew, yeah, anyway, we are so gross. I'm so glad we're videoing, although it's not up close. So that's good, that's good, all right.
Speaker 1:So they were originally named, or they're technically named, fruit gushers. Okay, okay, that's what their name is. Yeah, but I swear I only ever remember them as gushers? Yeah, me too. Okay, they were introduced by Betty Crocker, who reports to General Mills, so they're kind of one in the same in 1991. Okay, all right, what they are? If you don't know, they are a soft and chewy fruit snack with a quote-unquote fruit juice center. The initial flavors there was only two, it was strawberry splash and gushing grape. Oh, wow, you guys, I don't know who was sitting in that marketing table. That was like they're like let's market to kids, oh, gushers. And then how many parents were just dying of laughter, although I guess katie never thought about it. I never thought about it till right this minute.
Speaker 1:Um, so in 1991 there was a review, a review in the sun sentinel that, oh, my computer don't stop, don't tell me. Uh, oh, no, my computer did something crazy because the screen died. Um, that said, the insides oozed rather than gushed. And they, but they found the confectionery surprisingly pleasant. I mean, yes, I think, mean, we'll see when we taste, test it. But I would say, yeah, surprisingly pleasant is about right.
Speaker 1:Oozing, oozing, gushing, what's better, an ooze or a gush? I don't know, oh, I don't know. With fruit, fake fruit juice, neither, there's got to be another word, okay. So I don't know if you remember, but the Gushers commercials in the nineties were known for being kind of over the top and crazy. Yeah, where they the kids heads would turn into fruit. Yes, you remember that? I do remember that, and it was like a weird kind of arty style. If y'all have never seen one, go look it up it's. It's pretty trippy. Like the kids heads would turn into like a giant strawberry, like why that seemed fun, but it worked because I'd be like I want to be a giant strawberry, let's go, let's do it.
Speaker 1:Um, they capitalized on their popularity. They came out with a gusher's lip balm in the 90s. Love, I'm just still. I can't. I need me some Gushers lip balm. It's just too much. All right, but in 2013, uh, complex magazine ranked fruit Gushers the second best fruit snack of all time. Okay, coming in behind another Betty Crocker product which was a zennial favorite shark bite. Oh, I loved those. Do you remember shark bites? Yes, Okay, those I don't think are made anymore. I didn't even look, but all right. So Gushers has actually been a highly successful product for 30 years. Okay, all right, almost 30 years, I guess.
Speaker 1:The company has made a bunch of flavors and refinements to the snack. They removed artificial flavors and colors from its snacks in 2017. So they say more on that in a second. Um, and they made a resurgence in recent years because of tiktok, yeah, and snapchat. They had like a snapchat filter that would turn your head into. Oh, like the commercials. Yeah, I didn't even know that because I don't have snapchat. That's surprise. Um, sorry, I'm gonna, and it's going to be even funnier Now you're going to see. So Welch's released an adult version of Gushers I'm sorry, that's just saying. That made me laugh In March of 2021, under the name Juicefuls.
Speaker 1:I've had those, have you? I didn't know it was an adult version. I just thought it was another kind of fruit snack. Oh, yeah, I've gotten it on like BOGO from Publix. I've never eaten them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, each piece of those is opaque, so you can see the juice inside, which, to me, sounds really fucking weird. Translucent fruit snack. It's kind of odd. Like, I don't you bought those. Yeah, I don't you bought those. Yeah, they taste pretty good, to be honest. Um, and they are made with real fruit, though, okay, okay, um, the juice wills come in three varieties island splash, berry blast and mixed fruit. Did you have any? Uh, berry blast I get berry, everything, I know it's like you like the berry, I love the berry. As long as it's not cinnamon, stay away. Oh, or banana, we're learning, okay.
Speaker 1:Coincidentally, fruit gushers have similar flavors, like tropical fruit, sour berry and flavor mixer. To me, that's whatever I guess. I just thought Juicefuls was a competitor. I didn't realize it was literally like the same company. They are a competitor. It's Welch's. Oh, welch's came out with the adult. Okay, they came out. When you said adult version, I thought maybe it's the same company. You're right. Okay, so it is competitor. Yeah, they're a competitor, but again, that's capitalism. They tasted good. Yeah, I dropped that. I'll get it later, okay. So remember, I said more on that in a minute. Yes, there was actually a lawsuit, a class action lawsuit filed against General Mills in 2022 because of alleged false advertising on fruit gushers.
Speaker 1:Now, this is. It gets kind of specific, but you can see why they were kind of pissed about this. It says there is no artificial ingredients. One of the ingredients on the label is malic acid. Okay, malic acid, uh, is an organic compound that occurs naturally in all fruits. Okay, just like fructose is a natural sugar. Yeah, malic acid is used in foods to enhance flavors, especially like sour or tart, okay, okay, but what they actually use is DL malic acid, which is a synthetically made one from petroleum. So it's not. It's not. It does the same thing, but it's synthetically made one from petroleum. So it's not. It's not. It does the same thing, but it's synthetically made. So that's artificial, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So did they win? They I don't know if they won, but they agreed to no longer use the words and they had to engage in corrective advertising, whatever that means. So, and I do think they changed their ingredients, but they, they are not allowed to say anymore that, um, it's no artificial ingredients, which is really like, I mean, but that is totally how the food industry and our country works, cause it's all about money, of course, and so the false advertising is for real, for real, well, and like, when I hear no artificial flavors, I don't think about like that. For, for example, I think about things like the dyes, oh yeah, and the sugars, I mean, it's true, right, I just like, like that. I'm like, oh yeah, who cares?
Speaker 1:But if you are trying to only eat things that are from natural sources, yeah, that isn't one like you'd be buying fruit snacks, but I, yeah, maybe, I mean, maybe, maybe you love watching your own pack, so what? Because have it, because we had these in my house. I'm so excited. Um, but see, look, it only says gushers on there. It doesn't say doesn't say Fruit Gushers. And look, I'm sorry, this is just going to keep making me giggle because it's like a splat and it's coming out. It's coming out of the fruit snack. I never noticed that till right now. Look, oh my God, you can't ruin Fruit Gushers for me.
Speaker 1:I also am not like a fruity. I also don't know how to open this. I don't either. Hello, I'm also like, not a fruity candy kind of person. Generally, I mean, I'll eat it every now and then, yeah, and this is this, this is candy. I mean don't like, oh, yeah, fool yourself, this is candy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but when I was pregnant with cooper, I craved fruit snacks. I would eat them all the time. I would get a blue one. Oh, I got a pink one. Why are they shaped like jewels? I forgot, forgot to cheers. Just do it in the air. Cheers, all right, put my mouth on it. Me too. Super chewy, they're good, though they're good. What I don't know about this guys. Oh, I do. Delicious Katie goes. Oh, I do. Let me get some more. Well, let me. I tried the blue one. Let me get some more. Well, let me. I tried the blue one. Let me try a different color Pink's good.
Speaker 1:I don't like Guys. I don't care if this shit gushes or oozes out. I don't like that. Okay, here you go, give me yours. Ugh, do you want the rest of my Fig Newton? No, thank you. No, thank you. It looks so appetizing. No, it doesn't. Okay.
Speaker 1:And that's another reason why I don't like fruit snacks is because I got a lot of shit, of dental mess, in my mouth and it just sticks. They do, yeah, they stick around, literally. Where's my drum set? Sorry, it's not even that funny. I was like what, what? That would be like a normal question in here too. Like, I know where is my drum set. It's not here, not here.
Speaker 1:So you like that oozyness? Yeah, it's good. Oh, I think it's yummy and it's like hot or like room temperature. Oozy, I mean, it is room temperature, I don't. I don't know if it would taste better cold or not. The texture would change. Why am I still chewing this? It's waxy too, right, and that's delicious to you, yeah. So what's your ranking? Five, yeah, five. One for me, one. I'll give it a two just because innovation, but innovation, innovation in fruit snacks and hilarious innuendo marketing. I mean yes, because I'm sorry you, somebody somewhere's laughing, somebody somewhere is like I did it. Yeah, I pulled it off. Guys, I did it.
Speaker 1:All these kids are in these because look at the look at the rapper right there. I know, come on, I am looking at it now. And if you don't know what we're talking about and you're an adult, you can go google it about. And you're an adult, you can go Google it. Yes, and you're an adult. That's the important thing. Or if you're not, if it's in your cupboard, just go pick one up and look at it. No, I meant like by the word gusher. Oh, I didn't even like look up the wrapper. I'm like you can find these literally anywhere. Yes, please, don't Google that. I would also tell adults not to Well, if they want to know they're an adult, they can know what that is. Hopefully, I already know. Yeah, hopefully, alright, well, that was a good one to end on.
Speaker 1:I'm going to eat some more Ritz Bits in a minute. Yeah, eat some Ritz Bits. Well, that was really fun and I feel like we could pack a whole lunch with this. We've got our protein from the Lunchable and the ravioli We've got the ravioli, yes, wherever that is. And then we've got some chips, some crunch, some sweets, something to drink. We're ready, we're ready. The only thing we're missing is like fruit or a vegetable. Ah, fruit in the Newtons, big Newtons. You're right, we have everything we need. That was how you would do it in the 80s. You'd be like fruit, it's in that cookie. You're like, yeah, fruit, yeah, it's in the cookie. Yeah, exactly 100, awesome. Well, um, thank you guys for uh sticking with us on this taste test. If you watch this, I don't even know. God bless, god bless it. Um, chomping away, uh, but we will see you next time, next time, um, our next episode. And thanks for listening, guys. Yay, bye, bye, god. I burped again. Oh my god, what a mess.
