DEALS OF THE DAY: SHOPPING YAYS vs SHOPPING NAYS

DEALS OF THE DAY: SHOPPING YAYS vs SHOPPING NAYS

I consider myself a pretty savvy shopper. I do my homework. But that said we can’t catch everything. There are only so many hours in the day and sometimes that means buying products (particularly on-line) on hype rather than intrinsic merit.

And sometimes that means buying a product that is lacking in merit, while overflowing in hype. So this new segment is for me to remember my shopping missteps, and for you hopefully to be informed by them, and perhaps even profit from my mistakes.

So, I’ll list my shopping disappointments, but in addition (I never want my posts to be just rant-fests or cursing the darkness, too many people both off and on-line do that) I’ll also present shopping success stories. Products that were well worth the money and earned the hype.

So that’s what this reoccurring segment will be about. So without further ado…

CASCADIAN FARM RAISIN BRAN vs POST RAISIN BRAN

So CASCADIAN FARM RAISIN BRAN cereal has been my cereal of choice since getting back on the cereal bandwagon; that I haven’t been on since a kid. Now I like bacon (turkey bacon naturally. You know what they say— you are what you eat! Ha!Ha!Ha! Look at all you little piggies out there! Ha!Ha! Ha! H– wait! So does that make me a jive Turkey?!! Anyway—) and eggs, but when you’re pressed for time, nothing beats the ease of cereal and milk (SILK brand Almond Dark Chocalate milk. Both the Soy and Coconut are pretty darn unpalatable).

And while not a tree hugger, I do like to eat healthy food that won’t make me sick. I know crazy talk, I must be insane to actually read labels and be careful about what additives I accept in my food!!

I know, total lunacy, right? And come to think of it, I do like hugging the occasional tree, it’s just those splinters you have to watch out for. 🙂

Can you say digression?

So yeah I landed on CASCADIAN FARM RAISIN BRAN not only because it avoided most of the additives on my ‘you have to pay me to eat this’ list (including high-fructose corn syrup and MSG/modified corn starch), but because it actually tastes good.

Firm flakes, that maintain their crunchiness and consistency in milk, and large, fresh raisins, so yeah CASCADIAN FARM RAISIN BRAN has earned its place as my cereal of choice.

I can’t say that for most of what I’ve tried from CASCADIAN FARM. You know that negative stereotype a lot of people have when they hear organic,…umm not such a stereotype on much of what I tried.

That CASCADIAN FARM ‘clusters’ cereal? Just plain awful. Better used to remove paint from walls. However their RAISIN BRAN… gets a spoon up. It’s a winner. I’ve been a devoted patron of it for some while now.

However, I recently went to the super-market, and they had no CASCADIAN FARM RAISIN BRAN (I’m going to call that CFRB from now on, my typing hand will thank me) so I picked up what I thought was a commensurate replacement in POST RAISIN BRAN. The ingredient list read relatively additive free.

Well it may have been free of additives, but it was definitely free of good taste.

Man that is some awful stuff! How do you mess up such a simple concept as Raisin Bran?? I mean is that brain surgery? Evidently it is because everything you could do wrong with this cereal, POST RAISIN BRAN has done wrong.

It instantly at the first sign of liquid became a soggy mess. I poured a little milk onto the thing, and could have sworn I entered cartoon land, the whole cereal kinda deflated in on itself with a ‘sad trombone’ like musical que. I started looking around for Tom & Jerry, because I knew I had to be in a cartoon, and any second now the raisins were going to jump out of the bowl and start singing “Mammy” or “Ragtime gal”.

Horrifying I say! Horrifying!

🙂

Okay, I may be exaggerating a tad, but on the serious, two bites of the soggy mess and I was done. I returned the one unopened box I had, and threw away the other (and I hate to toss away any food, but I don’t know anybody in this day and age, including shelters that are going to accept open food of any kind. So garbage it went).

So the lesson of our story girls and boys is, all Raisin Bran is not the same. CASCADIAN FARM RAISIN BRAN gets a YAY rating, and POST RAISIN BRAN gets a NAY/Avoid rating.

Well see that wasn’t too painful.

We’ve come to the end of our first installment of SHOPPING YAYS and NAYS!! Come back next time for more true tales of me purchasing things… I shouldn’t have, as well as tales of me purchasing things I’m glad I found.

And a brief aside on MSG.

You can, contrary to labels, still find MSG in foods, however these days it is strategically hidden under the name modified corn starch. Why hide MSG inclusion in food if it is safe? Well that’s a good question citizen, let’s go to my FDA hand puppet.

Wait…Did i say that out loud?

Anyhow, the reason is manufacturers had noted consumers were starting to get wise to MSG being a bad thing (the same reason behind MONSANTO changing their name, to try an avoid negative brand recognition). And quite right manufacturers are to hide MSG under the label modified corn starch.

Goddamn it who do you people think you are, resisting what we want to put in your bodies??!! And why?!! You bleeding hearts, Why???! Just because the additives have negative effects on useless human past-times like— oh let me think— oh yeah reproduction and learning. You citizens are so touchy about your sperm count.

Yeah I really want food laced with additives that negatively effect those two things. You go FDA! Let’s increase your budget because you’re doing such a bangup job.

Sarcasm. I’ve been known to practice it occasionally.

And next time I will have my FDA handpuppet ready to speak to you.

Till later folks. 🙂