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!!!!