Hershey's Green Syrup. $2.69 per 48-ounce bottle.
Bonnie: Hershey's new green-colored, chocolate-flavored syrup is only one of many food products inspired by this summer's "Hulk" movie. Other movie tie-ins include Hulk Green Apple-flavor Twizzlers, Hulk-shape Jolly Rancher Gummies and Giant Green Bubble Yum Gumballs.
Hershey's green syrup is also one of the least offensive of several new green-colored foods for kids. I find the thought of kids starting their day with a bowl of the new Nickelodeon Green Slime, a green cereal with orange marshmallows, absolutely revolting. But if your kids like green foods or the Hulk, you could do a lot worse than this syrup, especially mixed in low-fat milk. At least they'll be getting the nutrients from milk, including calcium — a nutrient that about 75 percent of children don't get enough of.
Carolyn: This new Hershey's syrup is inspired as much by Heinz green ketchup as it is by the Incredible Hulk, but is not as weird as either. Oh, I'll grant you that green milk is pretty hard to swallow. But put this syrup on vanilla ice cream and it looks just like creme de menthe.
In this case, what's weird is that it doesn't taste like mint. Without the brown visual cue, this syrup also doesn't seem to taste as chocolatey, so you'll end up using more. That's probably why a bottle that at first seemed too big for anyone but the Hulk ended up being just about the right size for a small person with a big love of chocolate (yup, I'm talking about me).
Tyson Family Favorites Frozen Popcorn Chicken Bites. $9.99 per 28-ounce resealable bag.
Bonnie: When I eat chicken, I want chicken, not fried coating. Unfortunately these new Tyson's Popcorn Chicken Bites are more coating than anything else. It's no wonder these have fewer calories and less fat than McDonald's McNuggets: There just isn't that much to them! All the coating also means these have more sodium and carbohydrates than McNuggets.
On the plus side: The chicken in Tyson's bites is all white chicken breast with rib meat, unlike McNuggets, which uses any chicken part.
Carolyn: This is one of many new supermarket food products inspired by a restaurant dish. The inspiration was KFC's Popcorn Chicken, bursts of fried batter with a small inner kernel of chicken meat. Tyson's version is also mostly fry and is quite crunchy.
The main difference is in the coating's seasoning: KFC's is quite peppery; Tyson's tastes mainly of salt. Both are for people who like the stray pieces of fried coating at the bottom of the takeout bag as much, if not more, than the pieces of meat or fish.
Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a registered dietitian and professional speaker. 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