Monday, November 21, 2011

Stride Whitemint

Stride Whitemint
Press Sample


The Olympics Games are a big deal in my house. Professional sports just don't interest me, and my lack of knowledge of team sports is almost embarrassing. The Olympics are different. I will watch any (or every, if possible) Olympic event, and the way I track medal standings is borderline obsessive. I know the Winter Olympics have a lackluster reputation in comparison to the Summer Olympics, but I like the Winter Games better.

So, when Shaun White puts his name and face on a product, it totally works for me. The man is a snowboarding god. These samples were kindly sent to me for review by a PR representative, but just so you know, I would have bought this gum anyway. May I also add that the PR sample packaging was the cutest I've ever seen?

Stride Whitemint

The bold colors on the outer package were very eye catching and tied into the promotion nicely. The gum wrappers themselves were pretty, too! I loved the metallic white and blue motif. The gum itself was a cool and sweet mint. There were no hints of wintergreen or spearmint, just a nice, easy peppermint. I liked the sweetness, but some of my coworkers found it to be too sweet.

The texture was great: soft but not mooshy, and it didn't seem to harden as I chewed. The cooling effect was pretty strong, and I found it to be a good after-meal breath freshener. Stride delivered on the long-lasting flavor, too. I was sick of chewing gum before the mint had completely worn off (probably about 10 to 15 minutes - gotta start timing these chews better). Whitemint is a safe flavor, but with the fun celebrity tie-in, it certainly left a good impression on me.

B

Stride website

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Gandour Unica

Unica

My sister gave me a nice selection of candy bars from a Lebanese grocer recently, and it's about time I got to reviewing them. The first one I tried was the Unica bar, a chocolate wafer bar.

It's worth mentioning that I have never been a fan of wafer bars. I didn't even like KitKats until college, and those plain delicate wafer cookies? Still not for me. So I am somewhat biased.

Unica

The Unica bar was very pretty, with a nice-looking, rippled milk chocolatey coating. It smelled pleasant, like a mild cocoa. The chocolate was extremely mild, in fact. It got a bit lost in the wafers, which were also subtly flavored.

The cream between the wafers was slightly salty with a hint of vanilla. They had a light, delicate crunch, which was really the main experience of the bar. It felt very unsubstantial, but as I mentioned, wafer bars are not my thing.

The wrapper said Wafers coated with milky chocolate sensation and the website says Wafers Coated with Chocolate Flavour, so draw your own conclusions about that. There's nothing really wrong with this bar, but it's just too bland for me.

C+

Gandour Website