Sometimes I get things that don't quite make the cut. Not that they're bad products, but sometimes it's just something that doesn't fit my favorite flavor profile.
Melty, melty
First on that list is Melt Organic Spread. I use a lot of butter, but I was willing to give this a try. It's got healthy fats and it's a spreadable consistency. I thought it might be an interesting alternative for spreading on toast.Because toast happens a lot around here. Bet you couldn't guess that.
Unfortunately, one of the healthy fats in Melt is coconut oil. I don't like coconut. But, hey, there are products with coconut oil that don't taste like coconut, so I was willing to give it a try. And ... no go. I could taste the coconut.
My husband couldn't taste the coconut, and he liked the flavor of the spread, so he'll be eating the rest of it. So, yeah, it's a fine product, just not in my shopping basket.
Yo!
Next on the "I almost loved it" list was YoCrunch yogurt with Trail Mix M&Ms. Sigh. Trail mix. Apparently there are raisins on the trail, and raisins are the second food that I've disliked since childhood. Right there with the coconut.The itty-bitty M&Ms were cute and the bits of peanut added a nice bit of crunch, but I picked out all of the raisins before I added the toppings to the yogurt, and that's just silly. There's no way you'd believe I was wild about this product if you've read this blog for a while and you know how I feel about raisins. So there was no sense writing a big long post about this product.
If you like raisins, M&Ms and peanuts, you'll probably like this product. Again, it's just personal taste, but it's also a matter of honesty. I'm not going to tell you I love a product if I'm picking bits out of it before I eat it.
YoCrunch has a LOT of flavors, and I've tried a few others, and they were perfectly fine. Just not this time.
Catsup, Ketchup ... this ain't it
I read about a sun-dried tomato ketchup and couldn't find it in any local stores, so I sent a sample request to the company.Not long after, I had two lovely bottles of the ketchup to try. And it was interesting. Thick, with a deep, rich, roasty flavor. It was good, but I couldn't really pass it off as table-ketchup after years of being conditioned to think of ketchup as a different sort of thing.
This is a ketchup that would be good on a gourmet burger but maybe not on a basic backyard burger where you'd be looking for the familiar flavor. It would be a great start for a barbecue sauce. It would work well in a marinade or sauce or ... a whole lot of things.
But, honestly, this isn't going to totally replace my mass-market familiar ketchup. It's just not.
I am, however, thinking about a few recipes where it would be stunning, and would be so much better than using ketchup or tomato sauce or tomato paste. That sun-dried tomato flavor is really interesting, and it deserves a better platform than meatloaf.
So there ya go. Three products that I didn't totally love, but maybe you will. Which one of these sounds interesting to you?
