Callard & Bowser Altoids Sours. Tangerine and Citrus. $1.79 per 1.76-ounce tin or $3.39 per 3.52-ounce twin pack.
Bonnie: Until now, Altoids meant curiously strong mints packed in metal tins. Altoids peppermints are so strong that many folks (including yours truly) have difficulty finishing even one. Now, Altoid's British-based manufacturer is making citrus-flavored hard candies that it has dubbed Altoids Sours.
Sours are also packed in upscale tins. But these citrus and tangerine sour flavors are not as intensely strong as the mints. I can easily finish one of either. At four calories apiece, they're a very low-calorie mouth refresher.
Carolyn: Altoids made the super-strong mint that started the super-powerful mint craze. I doubt its new sour-fruit candies for adults will have a similar impact. They're simply not sour enough. In fact, there are at least four or five sour candies already on the market for kids that are much stronger. These little crown-shaped candies offer the feeling of sucking on a lemon for only a minute or so before becoming an unexciting little Life Saver.
Chicken of the Sea Pink Salmon. $2.29 per 7.1-ounce foil pouch.
Bonnie: Salmon is a good source of heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids. Canned salmon is also an excellent source of calcium, with a serving providing about as much as a glass of milk. That's because salmon is traditionally canned along with the bones (they're edible and disintegrate when mashed).
Unfortunately, a serving of this new pouched salmon has no calcium because part of the upscaling from canned to pouched includes using boneless salmon. With America in a calcium crisis (nine out of 10 women, seven out of 10 men and three out of four teenagers don't get enough calcium), that's one canned salmon "improvement" America doesn't need. I'm hoping Chicken of the Sea will introduce a calcium-rich variety of this salmon in a pouch. Until then, I recommend adding cheese to whatever you make with this salmon, or washing down your salmon dish with a glass of milk.
Carolyn: Eating bones? Yuck! I have enjoyed fresh salmon on many occasions but have never happily chowed down on a plate of bones. (This is America, not Transylvania, Bonnie.) So I'm glad Chicken of the Sea decided to put boneless salmon in this pouch. My only question: Is this really salmon? This has the dry, flaky texture and mild taste of tuna packed in water. In fact, if it weren't pink, I'm not sure I could tell the difference.
Starbucks DoubleShot Premium Coffee Drink. $1.99 per 6.5-ounce can.
Bonnie: I really like strong coffee. In fact, when I order espresso at Starbucks it's usually a double shot. That strong coffee flavor is apparent in this new can of Starbucks DoubleShot, but so is the flavor of cream and sugar. The result is 140 calories, 6 grams of fat, and more than 4 teaspoons of sugar in one costly little can.
I like my double espresso straight, but if you like yours with cream and sugar, you should give DoubleShot at least a single try.
Carolyn: Starbucks DoubleShot comes in the same cans as those caffeine-spiked energy drinks. It's doubtless aimed at that market rather than at espresso fans, most of whom will probably find this lacking in sufficient strength (Bonnie once again being the exception).
In strength and creaminess, DoubleShot is about halfway between a real espresso with cream, and Starbucks' mellower Frappuccino bottled iced coffee. That makes DoubleShot just about right for me. I also liked DoubleShot's small size — although it does seem to run counter to the current super-sizing food craze.
Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a registered dietitian and creator of Express Lane Cooking: A Simple Solution to What's for Dinner (Universal Press Syndicate). Carolyn Wyman is a junk-food fanatic and author of "Jell-O: A Biography" (Harvest/Harcourt). Each week they critique three new food items. © Universal Press Syndicate