Nantucket Nectars: Bottle Cap Facts

So what is "under the hood"?

The subject of this post is a bit odd but I'm not the first to ponder it. A not so quick Google search landed me with just about all the dang links in this post. OK so let me start at a sort of beginning...

A few years ago, I forget exactly when, after discovering this trivia topping thing I started to collect a little bit. To clarify a little of this vagueness. I acquired a liking to the various fruit juice flavors from the Nantucket Nectars Brand. The company prints facts about the island of Nantucket (and people although I don't recall seeing any about people) on the inside of the bottle caps. This practice of printing facts on the inside of bottle caps seems to first been done by Snapple. At least they claim that, the practice might go back farther. Well now as in currently the mother company that owns/runs Snapple owns/runs Nantucket Nectars. According to the online sources I found there have been over 750 different Nantucket facts printed with 100 some being produced in any one year. In doing some poking around I found this "Put a lid on it" article which is interesting.

When I was first trying to figure out how many different ones there were I discovered this 101 Things Blog from a 2011 post which updated her 2010 post on the subject. Back then she seems to have 70 some caps. I found an archived list that someone else came up with that has 257 caps on their blog from sometime earlier. That is the largest list I have seen from the semi-quick research Googling I did for this post.

Back those few years ago I was going to try to collect them all before I discovered there were over 100 per year made at any one time and a grand total of 750 or more. I don't know why I have kept the ones I do have, other than to write up a post about the phenomenon of it. I wonder if I can sell the collection on Ebay? Or find out if the 101 Things Blogger Amy still collects them. Maybe I have some she doesn't.

More recently I noticed they now use plastic recyclable bottles with plastic caps. They still print local facts about Nantucket under the plastic caps. The caps are dark purple and the facts are printed in white or light gray which makes it difficult to read the facts now.

NOTE: This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for ages and ages. When I first began the draft for this post the company was still using glass bottles with metal caps. I don't know when they made the switch from glass to plastic. The switch to plastic bottles takes some of the fun out of getting the juices. I tried adjusting the plastic images to read the inside sayings better but I'm not an expert at photo editing. Sorry those don't look right.

Pop-Tarts Another Taste Test: Frosted Crisp Apple

 OK so here I am, well was a few months back, with another taste test of what I hope will be a restoration of childhood nostalgia. Once again I saw a different Apple of Pop-Tart on the grocery store shelves. This time it was FROSTED CRISP APPLE. Yum!

Now if you have read all my posts on this blog you might remember I have done a couple of Pop-Tart taste posts. One was for another apple flavor "Frosted Orchard Apple Cinnamon" and the other was of all things Fruit Loops. Back to this "Crisp Apple". On the surface it looks like another Kellogg's attempt to bring back the favorite "Frosted Dutch Apple". Right? Wrong. Well sort of. I don't know if they intentionally keep introducing apple flavors that are similar to the original Dutch Apple flavor or not.

As with many other Pop-Tart flavors this one is a bit dry due to the pastry part. The filling part was so-so unheated, but slightly edible when heated up (toasted). OH well.

I have come to the conclusion that due to the recipe changes of the pastry over the years, and the use of  dryer chemical sugar substitutes particularly in the frostings, they will never revive my old favorite flavor FROSTED DUTCH APPLE.

Pop-Tarts Limited Edition Taste Test: Froot Loops

OK so once again I was tempted by the evil Pop-Tarts demon. This time it was a new limited edition flavor for kids "Froot Loops". Based on the Kellogg's breakfast cereal of the same name. I think I had seen this flavor on the shelves before but didn't feel the urge to try it until just recently. I bought a box of 8 pastries at my Safeway.

I didn't know what to think of the things. I wasn't expecting anything super great, and I was right. They taste pretty much like you would expect them to. My first bite of the first one I tasted was awful. Sure it had a bit of the "fruit" flavor of the cereal and the filling and frosting do sort of have the Froot Loop flavor, but mixed with the new awful dry floury taste of the pastry's base dough it was hideous. I guess I started to get used to them after the first two, which I didn't think I would even be able to get through the first one let alone two that first morning. The following days they weren't as bad but they still weren't enjoyable.

To attract the kids to beg their parents to buy these things there are six different patterns/designs drawn on the frosting. I only come across 4 of the 6 designs. Well maybe 5. Not sure about that first design in the upper left showing the group of six or seven however many of the cereal "loops", but I definitely did not get the one that says "I'm with Sam". I got three of the spoon and 2 or 3 of Sam himself only 1 bow tie and 1 of the "glasses".

I'm sure to kids these things taste great, and for the kids that are Froot Loop freaks they can't go wrong. However for me and probably most adults they are to be avoided. Blah.

The Return of Apple Pop-Tarts?

"When I was younger just a bad little kid..."

Original Frosted Pop-Tarts Flavors

OK forget those "Little Shop of Horrors" lyrics. I'm reaching back to when I was a kid and a favorite snack food. Not really a "junk food" snack but one of those sort of good for you things. I'm talking about Kellogg's Pop-Tarts. When I was little just about all the flavors they made had two versions the plain "good for you" unfrosted version and then the frosted version of that same flavor. 

Original box design for Frosted Dutch Apple Flavor (1968-1970something?)

Many of the same flavors available today were around back then; Strawberry, Cherry, Blueberry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon, Chocolate Fudge, and a few others. My favorite of all time was one that is discontinued for whatever reason I don't know the Frosted Dutch Apple.

Newer box design for Frosted Dutch Apple Flavor (1970something to 1980something?)

I recall it had a deep rich flavor with plenty of cinnamon flavor. Also back then when they said FROSTED they meant FROSTED. Good tasty frosting as well. Now the frosting is just a light glaze sometimes not even that and has barely any taste to it. Of course any sweet food stuff made before the mid 1980s was sugar ladened with real sugar not some chemical substitute. The newer sugar substitutes and lower fat sugars have ruined the sweetness flavor of many things. The pastry part of modern Pop Tarts sometimes is a bit dry, or too floured flavored, or possibly unsalted?

I don't recall when they pulled the Dutch Apple flavor (early 1980s?). I didn't notice it right away it may have been at least a year or two before I realized it was gone. Isn't that the way it always goes? Then for many years there was no such thing as Apple flavored Pop-Tarts or for that matter much of  anything apple flavored. Maybe there was an Apple Flavor scare like in the late 70s Red Dye #3 or 6 or whatever red dye was supposedly bad for you.

Recently while doing a Target Run I noticed an Apple flavored Pop-Tart box, it was a true Kellogg's Pop-Tarts not some off brand or the Target house brand. The flavor "Orchard Apple Cinnamon", um OK not DUTCH APPLE but hey it was frosted so I had to get a box and give it a try.

NEW Orchard Apple Cinnamon Pop-Tarts

IT is OK, not great, and I was a bit bummed when I saw the green apples on the box design. This flavor is a bit tart, thus the green apples instead of red ones I guess. I hope someday they do bring back the Dutch Apple flavor as close to the same recipe as possible.

Note: All images except for the new Orchard Apple Cinnamon image were found from a Google search for "Kellogg's pop tarts frosted dutch apple". Orchard Apple Cinnamon image scanned from my test box.

Is That A Fact? Cracker Jack?

This post has nothing to do with researching or quoting actual "facts" about the snack food Cracker Jack as the title might suggest. It is just a telling of a snack eating event and possibly the reasoning behind doing it in the first place.

Actual bag I got from snack machine.

On Wed 09 May I got a pack of Cracker Jack. I got the snack pack from a vending machine at work. [in recent months our company has been bought out and the vending machines will go away soon.] It had been a long time since I had any Cracker Jack - Candy coated popcorn, peanuts and a prize. To show you how long ago it was, or I think it was, the last time I had a "pack" of Cracker Jack it was actually a BOX of Cracker Jack.

This is close to how I remember the Cracker Jack Boxes

Back in the day Cracker Jack was sold in individual serving cardboard boxes in a couple of sizes and I think a huge family box. Not sure how many sizes they had but usually you would get a small box that was like 6"x 4"x 1" or close to that size. As a child in the 1970s the mix of popcorn to peanuts was usually in favor of the peanuts but close to being evenly distributed. This time it was a small foil package like a potato chips bag and the popcorn to peanuts was pretty much a minimum of 90% popcorn. I'm not complaining I wasn't in the mood for peanuts especially with the skin or seed coat still on, but I was Jonezin for The Jack. Taste wise it is about what I remember but like most other classic treats not as sugary as it was back then. It didn't stick between my teeth as much as popcorn or the old CJ used to. Now days popcorn usually sticks between my teeth more often as I get older because of the teeth not the snack. That is also why I rarely even eat popcorn products. I was never much of a nuts or peanuts guy but liked CJ for the caramel covered popcorn.

I knew years ago when they switched over from boxes to bags/packs. That was no surprise, the little Cracker Jack Sailor mascot image however has changed in recent years. That was a little surprising. I'm too lazy right now to research that change and quite frankly not that determined to figure it out. Branding on products change and that is NOT a "Mandela Effect" as some might want to claim.

This is the current Cracker Jack Sailor and his dog.

Oh yeah and the "Prize". It was a little CJ branded sticker that has some promo for what they call "Blipp a Surprise". It has something to do with some silly smart phone app you download and "scan" your sticker or whatever to find out what you have won if you win anything.

 Front of Prize.

Inside of Prize. The quality of the image on the sticker is pretty bad. This enlargement doesn't help, but didn't hurt much either.