Tuesday, January 19, 2010

GIVEAWAY (and a Newman's Own Organics Review)

Hola peeps!

Have I got a post for you today! :o)

An embarrassingly long time ago  A while ago I received a ridiculously generous package from Newman's Own Organics to review for the blog. And when I say ridiculously generous I mean RIDICULOUSLY! Check out the stash (oh and please excuse the ghetto iPhone pics - I was having laptop problems back then and was blogging from my phone):



Never in a million years did I expect so many items to review. Which is probably (in part) why it's taken me so long to write this post. I even enlisted my mother (in Toronto), my sister (in Montreal), my co-workers and the Fiance to help in the process.

The items for review included chocolate chip cookies (including an orange flavoured ones), Newman-O's (regular and minty), dried fruits, a variety of mints, Soy Crisps, chocolates, Hermits, Fig Newmans, and Ginger-O's.

First the background - Newman's Own Organics is the second generation of Newman's Own. In fact, it was started in late 2001 by Paul Newman's daughter. The principles behind Newman's Own Organics "Great Tasting Food that Happens to be Organic." You can't argue with that.

Now I have to be perfectly honest bloggies and confess that I didn't love all the products. Sure there were some I LOVED (!!!!) but there were others that I thought were yucky. Overall, however, I was still impressed with the line. It uses whole ingredients, is organic, and a much better option than your average supermarket brand.

First up were the chocolates - which the Fiance, my mom, and my sister helped to sample.




I have to give Newman's Own Organics kudos for the vast selection of chocolates. We're talking mocha, orange infused, milk, dark, and even super dark bars! I was excited to try the chocolates and was suitably impressed with the fact that all the chocolates were Rainforest Alliance Certified, and thus sustainably farmed.



Unfortunately, none of us were very impressed with the taste of the chocolate. In fact I would almost dare to say that they were lacking in a perceivable chocolate flavour. Rather, I found them to be overwhelmingly waxy. Sorry - but I have to be honest. :o(

Next up were the pretzels: Stars of the show - by far! LOVED them!!!!!



I love pretzels but more often than not they aren't so good for you, not dense enough, too high in salt (in fact I crumble all the salt off of pretzels before I eat them), and missing a certain je ne sais quoi! lol These pretzels were basically the pretzels of my dreams.



The ingredient list was fairly impressive.



The nutritional information not too scary.



And the serving sizes surprisingly generous and filling (must be the high protein count).



Basically I can't wait until my next cross-border trip (unfortunately these products are not available in Canada) to stock up on these babies!



And my favourite? The Spelt Pretzels. Perfect texture and taste. But the same can be said for all the Newman's Own Organics pretzels. I highly recommend all of these babies!!!

Next up: Soy Crisps



Sure, like the other products the ingredients list and nutritional info was good. But the taste . . . please don't hate me Newman's Own Organics peeps but I didn't like them. At all. I found the taste to be powdery and artifical. In fact I ate one and quickly drank some water to get rid of the taste. It didn't work. So I possed one of the mints instead . . .

Next up: The Mints. No pictures of these babies (you'll have to look at the Giveaway section for those) but needless to say they were very good. Super cute packaging and organic to boot. WIN.

Next up: The Cookies. I'm kind of low on pictures of cookies. Mostly because they were inhaled (!) by the Fiance before I got to take many but also because I had to replace my iPhone mid-review and lost some pics.

Nonetheless, the Fiance raved about the Hermits, the Fig Newtons, Ginger-O's, and the Mint Newman-O's. But seemed considerably less convinced by the chocolate chip cookies and the regular Newman-O's. My co-workers sampled both the regular chocolate chip cookies and the orange infused chocolate chip cookies and she liked neither. She described the texture as powdery and the flavour generally lacking. I tend to agree.

My Overall view on Newman's Own Organics products would be that their heart is in the right place. They give a ton of money to charity (like Father, like Daughter) and make ethically produced goodies. Unfortunately, their products are of varying degrees of yuminess. I most highly recommend their mints, pretzels, and most of their cookies. But I can't say the same thing for the Soy Crisps or their chocolates.


GIVEAWAY

But enough of me talking - taste is after all subjective. Which is why I saved some Newman's Own Organic products for you to try!!!

That's right - it's GIVEAWAY TIME!!! :o)









That's right, you could win this selection of Newmans' Own Organics products. And here's how to enter:

1) For one entry, comment on this post

2) For another entry, link back to this post and comment again leaving a link to your post

It's that EASY! :o) The giveaway is open to both U.S. and Canadian residents and closes Monday, January 25th at 8AM Pacific Standard Time.

Now get commenting!!!!

27 comments:

Marlene said...

That is one MASSIVE stash of goodies! Sounds like they make some really good quality products. I would LOVE to try some and the timing is perfect because I'm trying to really clean up my diet this year and eat more whole, nutritious foods.

Aron said...

i want to win!!!! yum that stuff looks yummy!!!

A said...

OOoh enter me please!
I ve just recently discovered Newman's products, sadly the extend of them is just mexican stuff in my grocery store :)

Jocelyn said...

Pick me pick me! That stuff looks good :)

Jessica said...

Newman's Own has always had good products, they don't even really need reviewers! Well that being said, it was awesome they sent you all those goodies! That stuff looks seriously delicious.

a bike rider in the big smoke said...

me want goody...omnomnomnomnom

Suburban prep said...

What a wonderful bunch of goodies. I would feel very good bringing this out to share with my family as snacks.
msgb245 at gmail dot com

itsawrap said...

Anything that contains chocolate sign me up!!

Krista said...

That's a generous stash indeed! I've seen the product in the States but haven't ever bought any because I wasn't sure if I'd like it. So thanks for the review. Too bad they're not available in Canada.

Anonymous said...

My favorite Newman's product is actually their ginger mints!!! the best mint i've ever had! :D

Anonymous said...

wowza- the Newman's fairy loves you! I was so excited to try this line until I read that they weren't available in Canada... story of our Canuk life, eh? ;-)

Sharon said...

Oh wow, that is one awesome stash! Jeaalllouuuss!

Unknown said...

I've always wanted these! Pick me!! :)

Marlene said...

I linked you HERE!

Laura said...

Yeeesss please! Would love to win these for sure.

Andrea (Off Her Cork) said...

The Newman's Fairy forgot about me so I'm totally entering! :D I have looked at those spelt pretzels before (I love spelt) but never picked them up. I just might have to now! :D

Anonymous said...

I love giveaways that Canadians are eligible for!

Julia said...

I want to win!!!! I could use some snacks right about now :)

supersu said...

i totally want the ginger mints....yum yum

The Introvert said...

I love Newman's Own!

Emily said...

That is a huge stash they sent! So nice of them! I absolutely LOVE Newman's Own products! Unfortunately it's very difficult to find here! =[

Anonymous said...

Wow that's a lot of goodies!! Sounds like a great line, thanks for the honest review!

Ashley said...

Yum! I received one of these but I don't think it was quite as big. Weren't the pretzels the best!! I just tweeted about your giveaway!

Amber said...

That's a lot of goodies! Bummer that some of it wasn't the greatest. I would love to win this giveaway - I need some new yummy snacky type things around my place :)

a bike rider in the big smoke said...

Me thanks for goodies.....OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM!

Danielle said...

I think I actually drooled reading this post.

a bike rider in the big smoke said...

Cookie Monster received GOODY in mail today!!!! Cookie Monster SO HAPPY and thanks u!!! OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM