The Food Scout

With names like “Cocaine” and “Bawls” found on beverages these days, why would anyone think twice about potential newcomers like “Tru Blood” or “Booty Sweat.” But increasingly, consumers will have to think twice about whether a new edgy product is going to make them look cool or feel like a sucker, literally. I myself was almost fooled by a recent print ad I saw in Entertainment Weekly for a bottled red drink called “Tru Blood” with the headline “Real Blood is for Suckers.” Hardly shocking at all these days, now that we’ve used all the other drink names like “Whoop Ass” and “Dopamine: Vegas in a Can.” But the fine print ...

Picture this would-be health-conscious business traveler, wandering aimlessly through Dallas Forth Worth airport from one smoothie bar to another over the years in search of a smoothie that’s not made with ice cream or frozen yogurt, and which has more than 2 grams of protein in it. After riding the Skywalk from terminal to terminal looking at menu boards and nutritional cards for The Grove, Smoothie King, Freshens, ICBY, Frulatti, and Camille’s, he finally settles on Smoothie King’s The Hulk Chocolate smoothie with 29 g of protein and a whopping 846 calories—but not without guilt feelings afterwards. The playing field for smoothies in the average market is not much better: Jamba ...

Several decades ago, pop culture artist Andy Warhol made big bucks screen-printing large copies of Campbell Soup cans onto canvas, and raised the question of whether food was art, or art was food (I still find it interesting that Campbell Soup Company proudly displays one of those canvases that it presumably bought, when it should have been suing the pants off of Warhol for copyright infringement). And now M&M/Mars takes us all one step closer to bridging the gap between food and art ourselves. Hopefully you already knew that it was possible to have little messages printed on M&M’s for, say, a wedding or other special occasion where one ...

When Starbucks hit a same-store sales wall last fall, industry pundits and analysts launched a wave of theories and explanations as to why Starbucks deserved to be in this situation. No one was more critical of the company’s situation of course, than the company’s own chief, Howard Schultz. In the wake of its fall from Wall Street grace, Starbucks has been launching wave after wave of innovations, from advertising, to promotions, to new products and menu items (mostly publicized courtesy of the press) including a blog site that invites fans to submit ideas (more cathartic for the fans than useful to Starbucks, I would expect).

Considering the monster popularity of energy beverages (a $3.2 billion category last year) like SoBe and Red Bull, it was only a matter of time before packaged goods companies started dipping their toes -- or their chips, that is -- into caffeine and other stimulating ingredients. Witness the already prolific gum & candy category, including Jolt, Blitz, Penguin, and Stay Alert gums, Buzz Bites energy chews, Javapops, Bawls Mints, and various brands of chocolate-covered espresso beans, like Crackheads. But until recently, these were the only solid caffeine/energy hit sources (complete with gritty aftertaste), unless you were interested in rubbing it on your lips via Spazzstick lip balm or rubbing it on via Shower Shock Caffeinated Body Wash (no, I’m not making this up).