Wonka Laffy Taffy Flavor Flippers. 50 cents per 1.58-ounce or $2.49 per 11-ounce bag.
Bonnie: First there were Kool-Aid Magic Twists, the drink mix with a surprise flavor and changing color. Now there's Laffy Taffy Flavor Flippers, a candy that changes flavors as you chew it. You'll find one chewy taste on the outside, another soft one inside. One piece of Laffy Taffy contains only about 18 calories, but as with Kool-Aid, those calories are almost totally from flavored and colored sugars.
Carolyn: What is green apple-flavored and chewy on the outside, soft and strawberry-tasting on the inside and looks like a green blob? Laffy Taffy's new Flavor Flippers.
OK, so that wasn't too funny. But neither are Laffy Taffy's signature riddles. (Example: Where does a frog fly his flag? On a tadpole.) At least my question offers you some useful food news.
The bad news for fans of this concept is that the kiwi and watermelon candies are dominated by their partner flavors. Since each Flavor Flipper bag features all three flavor combinations, you get the true experience of flavors flipping only about one-third of the time.
Hellmann's Dippin' Sauce. Totally BBQ, Honey Mustard Madness and Rockin' Ranch. $2.69 per 14-ounce squeeze bottle.
Bonnie: I just don't get the point of these new Dippin' Sauces. The photos on the labels hint that the Totally BBQ is for dipping fries, or squeezing over fried chicken; the Rockin' Ranch for dipping vegetables or squeezing over a baked potato; and the Honey Mustard Madness for dipping chicken nuggets or squeezing over a sandwich.
But regular BBQ sauce, ranch dressing and honey-mustard serve those purposes just fine. These are just watered-down versions of those foods that nevertheless cost more than the originals.
Carolyn: Cynics (like Bonnie?) might see Hellmann's Dippin' Sauces as nothing more than mustard, ranch dressing and barbecue sauce packaged in those new, fat, upside-down bottles. But they'd be wrong.
The Dippin' Totally BBQ is thicker than regular barbecue sauce, and the Honey Mustard Madness hardly seems like it should have mustard in its title (it tastes more like honey mayonnaise and looks like cheese). The hip names are a clue that these are for the kiddies.
The Honey Mustard Madness or the Totally BBQ might make some sense in households that go through a lot of chicken nuggets. The Rockin' Ranch is obviously aimed at parents hoping this might get their kids to eat more veggies. (Best of luck to them, though I suspect their odds of winning the state lottery are better.)
Del Monte Fruit Naturals. Red Grapefruit, Pineapple Chunks, Tropical Medley and Peach Chunks. $1.49 to $1.69 per 8-ounce plastic cup.
Bonnie: You'll find Del Monte's new individual portion-Fruit Naturals in the refrigerated produce section rather than the canned fruit aisle. The fruits taste a bit more natural than canned, yet not like fresh, with the exception of the Red Grapefruit. The pineapple is packed in its own juice; the others are in extra-light syrup.
These are nutritious products that I recommend whenever local fresh fruits are unavailable.
Carolyn: Del Monte is selling its new Fruit Naturals in the same kind of big, tall clear cups used in delis. But Fruit Naturals are really adult-size portions of the same old canned fruit. They're sold in the clear cups and put in the refrigerator case only to make you think they're fresh fruit.
Despite this bit of deception, these still would make a good substitute to an 8-ounce yogurt as a adult work snack — especially the grapefruit, which tastes fresher than it apparently has any right to.
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