Altoids Dark Chocolate Dipped Mints. Peppermint, Cinnamon, and Ginger. $2.49 per 1.76-ounce tin.
Bonnie: Ever since its health benefits began being touted, dark chocolate has been appearing everywhere. I'm not complaining, mind you: I was a dark chocolate lover even before I knew it contained higher levels of cholesterol-fighting antioxidant flavanols than milk chocolate.
How do these new dark chocolate-covered Altoids compare to all the other new dark chocolate products out there? I found the ginger odd-tasting, the peppermint underlayer still too strong for wimpy me to finish easily, and the cinnamon just right. Cinnamon is also my favorite Altoids.
Two chocolate-covered morsels will set you back only 15 calories and 0.5 grams of fat, compared to 10 calories and no fat in three regular Altoids. The price you'll be paying is more in money than in calories or fat: Chocolate-dipped Altoids cost 40 percent more per tin than regular.
Carolyn: The famous "curiously strong" mint, Altoids, keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. Now, in fact, it's been covered in a hard (Raisinets) dark chocolate that melts in your mouth, not on your hands. The original mint Altoids overpowers the chocolate. I thought it worked well with the ginger, as unlikely as that combination might sound. (In terms of satisfaction, I thought the Cinnamon somewhere in between the other two.)
To experience these flavor combinations, the candies must be chewed rather than sucked on (something that regular Altoids eaters might not like). It also means they don't last anywhere near as long as regular Altoids. And because of the chocolate, these also aren't anywhere near as refreshing or palate-clearing.
Pepperidge Farm Creme Filled Pirouette Rolled Wafers. Mint Chocolate, Chocolate Fudge, Cappuccino, Chocolate Hazelnut, and French Vanilla. $5.99 per 13.5-ounce tin.
Bonnie: Pepperidge Farm now offers its delicate, rolled Pirouette creme-filled cookies in five flavors (the cappuccino will be available only for a limited time at Target). The Mint Chocolate is my favorite of these crispy wafers, perhaps not surprisingly, since I am a chocolate mint lover.
Half of Pirouette Rolled Wafers' 4 to 5 grams of fat per serving are saturated. And, as you know, for optimal heart health, we should try to avoid saturated fats. So just enjoy one of these occasionally.
Carolyn: Pepperidge Farm recently turned its Pirouette rolled cookie into an entire line of cookies — which makes sense, since Pirouette perfectly fits Pepperidge Farm's elegant entertaining cookie modus operandi. Any of these new flavors would lend a gourmet look and taste to whatever they accompany.
That said, some are more gourmet than others. Though there are no artificial flavors in any Pepperidge Farm cookie, the new French Vanilla Pirouette still tastes artificial and is also too sweet. The hazelnut flavor in that variety is too mild. The limited-availability Cappuccino tastes as much like milk and cinnamon as it does coffee. The Mint Chocolate's flavors are as perfectly balanced as a Girl Scout Thin Mint and have a bonus light crunch.
But the real innovation and revelation is the Chocolate Fudge. It's the only one of the line with a flavored wafer, and its dark chocolate is a rich backdrop to a wonderful truffle-like filling.
Stonyfield Farm 2-a-Day Yogurt. Wild Berry, Strawberry Raspberry, and Apricot Mango. 79 cents per 6-ounce container.
Bonnie: I've been touting the benefits of calcium since the early '80s, or long enough to deserve the title of Calcium Queen. Despite my pleas, the figures for osteoporosis have gone from high to epidemic. We just don't get enough calcium. And we don't get enough weight-bearing exercise and vitamin D — all needed to prevent this disease.
As the tops of these 2-a-Day yogurts state, "Nine out of 10 women and teenage girls and many men and teenage boys don't get enough calcium." Stonyfield Farm's new yogurts have more calcium and less sugar than other yogurts and contain nothing artificial. So what's not to like? Almost nothing.
Each nonfat, 120-calorie cup provides half the government's daily recommended amount of calcium, or more than twice the typical yogurt. Each also provides 20 percent of the recommended Vitamin D plus 3 grams of fiber in the form of inulin, both of which have been shown to increase calcium absorption.
So what don't I like? Stonyfield Farm's 2-a-Day yogurts still contain a bit too much sugar, though they don't taste that sweet. I still recommend them.
Carolyn: Women already look to yogurt as a primary source of calcium. Wouldn't we be even more interested in a brand that contained twice the calcium in the same-size serving at the same price? You bet we would.
I only wish Stonyfield Farm's yogurt were a little less natural-tasting and -looking, and contained more sugar. And if Stonyfield is offering only three flavors, why two (Wild Berry and Strawberry Raspberry) that are near clones of one another?
Why am I not greatly worried about 2-a-Day's deficiencies? Because this is such a great idea that I expect mainstream brands Dannon and Yoplait to come out with similar but tastier versions of it within minutes.
Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a registered dietitian and professional speaker. Carolyn Wyman is a junk-food fanatic and author of "Better Than Homemade: Amazing Foods That Changed the Way We Eat" (Quirk). Each week they critique three new food items. For previous columns, visit www.supermarketsampler.com. © Universal Press Syndicate