update: ALDI donates to wisconsin food bank

In a follow-up to Thursday's story of ALDI refusing to release milk to Hunger Task Force, television station  WISN reported on Friday that ALDI contacted the bankrupt dairy's trustee and authorized the release of the milk and other dairy products:

... Aldi spokeswoman Julie Ketay told WISN 12 News reporter Nick Bohr that Aldi had contacted the trustee for Golden Guernsey "to let them know that the product can be donated."

Ketay told WISN 12 News on Friday morning that the company was willing to donate the milk that was produced for them and told that to Golden Guernsey on Thursday.

Ketay said Aldi wasn't contacted about the milk until Thursday.

Parks said Friday was the last day Hunger Task Force will be allowed inside the dairy.
He said believed that would be enough time to remove any product that could still be useful.

There's an accompanying video on the page.

I'm glad to read that everything has worked out in this particular case. It's probably a small comfort to the dairy employees that suddenly lost their jobs, but at least families in need will have an opportunity to receive food that would otherwise have gone to waste.

ALDI withholding milk from food bank?

A Milwaukee-area television station is reporting that ALDI is preventing a local food bank from distributing milk rescued from a dairy that recently declared bankruptcy:

Since Monday's decision by the bankruptcy trustee for Golden Guernsey Dairy to donate the bottled milk inside the plant that suddenly closed Jan. 5, volunteers have been racing to get it to people in need.
[...]
An estimated two semi-truck loads of milk were packaged for Aldi. The grocery chain can't sell it, and the Hunger Task Force's Sherrie Tussler said so far, they won't give it away either.
"It's all ready to go, but we need the Aldi's company, we understand they're out of Illinois, simply to sign a release. Understanding that they're protected under the Good Samaritan law, their purchasing agent there still refused to sign the document today," Tussler said.

There's also an accompanying video on the page.

First, I think it's a tragedy that the workers at this dairy lost their jobs. Reading some of the related stories on the site, it seems that the capital investment group that owned the dairy shut it down without warning.  Second, why do people feel the need to put an "S" at the end of ALDI? There's only four letters in the sign, and none of them are an "S." It also drives me up the wall when people say "Barnes and Nobles" when referring to the bookstore chain. It's Barnes and Noble. Singular!

I would like to think that ALDI is simply taking extra precaution and double-checking with their legal department to make absolutely certain that they are protected from potential liability. They're legally unable to sell the milk, and it would seem rather miserly if they would rather let the milk spoil than allow it to be donated. However, we can only make assumptions at this point until ALDI either releases the milk or issues a press release explaining their position. I hope that they arrive at a decision sooner than later.

trip report: january 14, 2013

I bought some things yesterday:

• Friendly Farms 2% milk (1/2 gal)
• Brookdale Beef Stew x 2
• SimplyNature Instant Soup Cups (Chipotle Black Bean, Spicy Thai)
• SimplyNature Sesame Lo Mein x 2
• Happy Farms spreadable cheese wedges (1 Blue, 1 Green, I forget what the distinction is)
• SimplyNature Uncured Pepperoni Thin & Crispy Crust Pizza
• Clancy's garden vegetable straws
• Clancy's guacamole-flavored tortilla chips
• SimplyNature Sweet Potato Corn Tortilla Chips
• Savoritz sea salt pita crackers x 2
• Clementine oranges (3 lbs)
• Navel oranges (4 lbs) x 2
• Friendly Farms All-Natural Honey Greek Yogurt x 5
• Large Eggs

My cashier was Nancy.

Notes:

• The clementine oranges were marked down from US$2.99 to US$1.99 at the store that I visited, because the oranges were overripe. I tried finding a bag with the least amount of burst oranges and still managed to get a bag with about five compost candidates. It's still not a bad deal, and clementines are fun to pack into lunches. I encountered the opposite problem with the navel oranges, many still looking a little green.
• I went a little wild with the SimplyNature products. I'm most excited to try the instant soup cups, but I'm prepared for disappointment. Countless woeful meals of Cup Noodle and its imitators have left me justifiably wary.
• Are Friendly Farms and Happy Farms really two distinct farms?

My recommendation for the day is the Savoritz sea salt pita crackers. The crackers are crisp but don't have the hard crunch of Clancy's pita chips (which is a plus in my book). Also unlike the pita chips, the crackers are lightly salted. They're good on their own or paired with cheese or dip.

2013!

I'm not dead, and I haven't abandoned this blog. You probably know how hectic things get during the holidays. Mercifully, a new year has begun. I promise to have new reviews and a couple of thoughts posted in the near future. ALDI is hitting the ground running and rolling out a new line of all-natural food products under the SimplyNature banner in the weekly in-store ad for January 9:

SimplyNature is simple food made only with all-natural, honest ingredients and without artificial colors, flavors or unnecessary enhancers. Just great tasting, wholesome food you can trust... made the way nature intended.

I'm intrigued, to say the least, by the offerings. Do come back, and look forward to reading reviews of these products and many more in the year to come. Happy New Year!

review: Summit Diet GT Cola

Summit Diet GT Cola

Since their introduction in the 1960s, diet colas have steadily taken a bigger chunk of the soft drink market. In 2010, Diet Coke surpassed Pepsi-Cola to become the second-best-selling soft drink. According to PepsiCo's 2011 annual report, the public purchased over US$5 million of Diet Pepsi product. It may pale in comparison to Diet Coke's sales, but sales like those are still attractive enough for smaller companies to chip away at Coke's and Pepsi's profits by offering their own line of sodas-- diet or otherwise. ALDI offers a line of carbonated soft drinks under the Summit brand. Today, we take a look at Summit Diet GT Cola.

I'm partial to diet sodas. I'm not a diabetic, and I'm well aware that "Diet" doesn't mean it's particularly healthful. It's just that I don't care for the way that high fructose corn syrup in regular sodas seems to linger inside my mouth and on my tongue. Between Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, I prefer Diet Pepsi. Diet Pepsi does a better job of approximating the flavor of its regular variety. Diet Dr. Pepper comes a close second. One look at the silver/red color scheme of the Diet GT Cola can, and you know which cola brand they're trying to evoke. Despite the obvious parallel being drawn to Diet Coke, I remained hopeful that the contents would resemble Diet Pepsi.

The flavor is... different. It has faint caramel undertones, falling somewhere between Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper. It's not overly sweet. However, there's a medicine-y aftertaste that's difficult to overlook for the sake of saving a few cents. I took a look at the list of ingredients on the can to try and figure out what was giving the soda its peculiar aftertaste:

Then I took a look at the list of ingredients on the back of a Diet Pepsi bottle that I fished out of the recycling bin:

If you weren't already aware of it, FDA regulations require food manufacturers to list ingredients in decreasing order of predominance. What we can then gather from looking at these two lists is that not all diet colas are created equal. The Summit diet cola actually contains more Potassium Benzoate than the Diet Pepsi, which may explain the aftertaste (exactly how much more is a mystery). Also, caffeine is listed last on the Summit can. That may not have much bearing on its flavor, but those of you looking for a sugarless buzz may want to look elsewhere. On the other hand, "natural flavor" is listed higher up on the Summit can than it is on the Diet Pepsi bottle. Give ALDI some credit for attempting to give their product some personality.

It's not a bad cola, mind you. It pretty much falls in-step with my experiences with other "store brand" sodas. It's just not the cola that I grew up drinking. The major bottlers offer frequent promotions that make any potential savings practically negligible. I would still drink Summit Diet GT Cola if I was in desperate need of a soda fix,  but it won't replace my favorite brand anytime soon.

trip report: november 25, 2012

Here's what I bought yesterday:

• Baker's Corner Pumpkin Quick Bread and Muffin Mix
• Reggano plain couscous
• Millville 100% whole grain old fashioned oats
• Happy Farms spreadable cheese wedges (x2)
• More orange juice

Last week's cream of mushroom soup was surreptitiously incorporated into last week's Thanksgiving green bean casserole. I am pleased to report that there were no (valid) complaints, although I do suppose it's possible that people might not have voiced any complaints out of politeness.

In other news, I started a tumblr blog for some reason.

trip report: november 18, 2012

I picked up a few things yesterday:

• Friendly Farms 2% milk
• Nature's Nectar orange juice from concentrate
• 2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 12-pack Diet GT Cola
• Pumpkin pie flavored Pop Tarts
• 1 tub shredded Romano cheese

I'm not reviewing the milk or the orange juice. I just don't see the point. If you want to know my opinion of the Pop Tarts, I'm glad they're sold for a limited time (because I would eat them all day, erryday). That leaves the soup, the cheese and the diet cola. What, oh what, shall I write about first?