Whoa. The nose on this is wild.

It's apple Jolly Rancher for me.

Oh, 100%. This is fake apple. If you're walking by the little spoon store in the mall, there would be somebody spritzing apple like Abercrombie and Fitch in the 90s.

Hello, and welcome to It's A Lot, a podcast about things that are a lot. This is the part where I usually read a long intro about nuance and honest conversations and how we all need more empathy and we need to keep it real about how we feel. And today, the only thing we're gonna be keeping it real about is how we. About some toddler snacks. I've got two very special guests with me today. I have Chris Lindstrom, who produces It's a Lot, and he is the host of Food About Town and co-founder of Lunchador podcast network. Welcome, Chris.

Hello. Hello. It's so nice to be fully talking on the podcast today and talking about food!

So excited to get your opinion on these snacks.

I love doing the tasting episodes. Like, I've done a bunch with spirits and other things, but this is a whole genre that, I don't know, I'm kind of intrigued about.

Yeah, I'm sure you'll learn a lot today. And my other guest is my husband, Tim Lynch. Tim and I are raising a one and a half year old right now. We've tried some of these snacks. Not all of them, but I'm really excited for Tim to be here, too. Welcome, Tim!

Thank you. I'm excited to be here as well.

So our first category today is puffs. Chris, are you familiar with puffs at all?

Oh, I love. I love puffed things. I think texturally they can be so different. They can be styrofoamy and, like, dissolve in your mouth. Then you've got, like, your dense puffs, like your Cheetos that have that visceral crunch and everything in between. Like, who doesn't like a puffed thing?

We have a lot of puffed options for toddlers, and toddlers love them. We're going to get started with Target's organic carrot blueberry puffs. So.

Okay. Interesting. When I think about puffs, I'm thinking about how much seasoning can you possibly put on something? That's the amount that I want.

So my takeaway just from sampling toddler food in the past is that seasoning is not the priority on most of these things. It is.

Some of them are pretty flavorful!

Some of them are.

I'm generally underwhelmed, but that's just my takeaway.

This one retails for $2.99 a bag.

Okay. And this is a fairly, you know, it's a fairly small bag. I mean, this is way more expensive than, like, a box of cereal. Not that I remember what boxes of cereal cost nowadays either.

To be fair, though, cereal is the first thing that comes to mind when I eat this. Like, it tastes like a slightly flavored rice Krispie almost is my takeaway.

This has a nice crunch. I feel like maybe our puffs have just been stale in the past, but it's pretty good.

Yeah, the crisp is pleasant. So is it rice based? It seems like it is.

It is wheat and rice.

Yeah. It has a nice toastiness.

What's the serving size, Tim?

On the bag, serving size is 63 puffs.

Oh, good. I appreciate that they gave you a really easy measurement system that, you know, every. Every parent is going to count out 63 individual puffs for their child to eat.

Better get started! To be fair, they do clarify that that is about half a cup.

Okay, well, that's good because

I'd prefer to count to 63, though.

That one's pretty tasty. Honestly, I'm not mad about it.

The berry flavor is nice. It is very slightly sweet. Like, way less than, like, you know, when they did, like, flavored Cheerios. Yeah. Like, it's half the sweetness or less of like a honeynut Cheerio.

I'm not getting the purple carrot, but I also don't know what I'm looking for from a purple carrot.

The only time I've had purple carrots other than as carrots is in salted Turkish beverages.

Okay.

So there's a whole genre of beverages that is like black carrot and it's like savory, salty beverage. It's like fermented. It's really fascinating.

That sounds delicious.

It's, you know, sometimes it has, like, hibiscus in it. Just really cool.

I'm thinking of, like, the veggie chips you get where it's actually like sliced carrot, roasted and salted. And those have more of a sweetness and like a. I guess a carrot-y taste, if you would call it that. I'm not getting that here. I'm just getting faint berry with rice crispy.

I would have said strawberry with no confidence.

Yeah, it's a generic berry flavor.

I'd say very affable and not a standout in any way. It does turn into a little bit of a chewing situation with the turns a little gummy, but I don't know if that's a good or bad thing for a child.

I think a lot of these are going for the melt in your mouth type thing, which for a toddler totally makes sense. My mouth is already dry just from having a handful of these.

But I suppose the goal is we don't want them to choke on anything too. So I suppose in that case, valuable.

The next one appears to be star shaped as well. It is. Once upon a farm is the brand. Strawberry, coconut and sweet potato puffs. They're made with avocado oil.

Ooh.

We've not tried these before, Tim. I'm curious about them.

No, I don't recognize these. So this is a new one.

We've had their bars, but not. Wow. They're very colorful.

This seems to be a very specific kind of marketing. So this does come in a pleasant, like, tube like device, which it does look nice.

Reminiscent of a Pringles can.

Yeah. Probably a lot less saddles and duck bills involved.

Yeah. I'm trying to judge if, like a toddler hand could make it into this because clearly adult hand is not reaching in there. I could see a little.

His hands are pretty small.

Yeah. They could work their way in there.

Interesting. So less sweet, but more berry.

I agree with that. They're also a lot lighter.

Yeah. They melt very different. It seems like this is way more rice. This plays as like, when they make like fake chicharron in, like, snacks. They'll do it like with puffed rice or other things like that where they make it rigid.

Interestingly, there is no rice in this.

Really. What's the grain?

This is sorghum flour.

Oh.

And avocado milk powder. Or coconut milk powder and avocado oil. Excuse me.

This one retails for $3.89, so it is almost a dollar more than the target generic one.

Now that you mentioned the coconut, it is actually pretty. It's. I'm not sure you would have noticed it right away, but it's definitely there.

It sits on your tongue afterwards. I'm definitely getting the coconut coming through at the end.

I'm liking these more overall, versus the last ones.

I think to your point of having more berry flavor, like, it actually tastes.

Like something because you can see the actual, like dried berry powder on it.

Fascinating.

That freeze dried berry thing. I think it really does come out. And sorghum is a good call too, because it is more. It's a little more sustainable. It puffs really nice. Mm. And it doesn't have that, like, gummy chew at the end.

Yeah.

Because I've had puffed sorghum like popcorn before. It has a little more hull to it. It's really tasty. But this is. I kind of like these. Yeah, that coconut's nice.

So that first one actually is a mix of rice flour and sorghum flour. Okay.

Well, our next one is different as well. It's mostly corn based. This is Earth's best organic. It is Sesame street branded with Big Bird on the front. It's an organic veggie puff.

I'm in favor. So, I mean, I think we can all confidently say that the entire Henson Muppet verse of characters. Strong, you know, strong. Enjoyable for all ages. That whole Sesame street genre. I don't know what it seems like nowadays, but as obviously somebody who grew up on that when we all understood that public media should be good for children and having those contents that are diverse and awesome were great for everybody. Every so often you see those clips online and it's just. Oh, you get emotional looking at them like, "oh, this was real inclusion." This was real, like, good content for kids.

totally. And they are still going strong.

Yeah, we've watched a little bit of it with our son, and he's obsessed with Elmo. They've got, like, the greatest characters and special features and everything. And, like, great music.

Still holds up.

These are strong.

These are more of a puffed Cheeto to me.

I'm not a fan of this one, really.

It's got a little bit of savory, which I quite like.

What are the veggies, Tim?

So they don't call out anything on the front. They just say five kinds of veggies. Based on the ingredients, we're looking at sweet potato, tomato, carrot, spinach, onion, and if you consider parsley or garlic a vegetable.

I mean, I'm getting that vague herb-ness. It does have a nice savory. You know, that onion powder comes through salt levels nowhere near what I would want, but it is savory and a little bit salty. Like, I don't know. I kind of like these a lot.

Yeah. So this actually has salt in it, as opposed to the first two we tried.

What are the salt levels like? Some parents are very worried about salt consumption.

In a serving of 22 puffs. Once again, we're, we're counting here 25 milligrams of sodium, about 2% of your recommended daily value.

So not a terrible amount of sodium.

So not a ton, all things considered.

I like the texture. I like the. You know, the corn flavor is very prominent.

Yeah, totally.

I'm strongly in favor of these. These are. These are actually pretty tasty.

I think this is the first one I would actually reach for myself to snack on 100%. Like if I was going in the pantry, like I'd. I could go for these.

My child doesn't need to eat. I can eat these.

Share. Everyone gets to eat.

Our last puff option is also the most expensive. It is 4.99 for a 1 ounce bag.

Holy cow.

What is this?

A little spoon. A kale apple curl with ancient grains.

So is Little Spoon a high end brand? I'm not familiar with the branding here. I'm curious as to where they position themselves.

I don't know a ton about it. Someone I worked with once, I cannot get this open.

I love, I love how they designed the bag to not be opened.

Yeah. Oh, it has actually a pull to open tab.

Oh, I missed the memo there. So I worked with someone once who did social for Little Spoon and I remember she would get a lot of comments being like, "little spoon is so overrated. It's so overhyped. These foods are garbage." They also do like microwave meals for babies. Kind of like a Stouffer's thing. Like if you don't want to cook for your kid, you can just microwave it. And I've heard that those are very expensive and like not the best. But let's see about these. Kale apple.

Yeah. What flavor is this?

kale apple, and ancient grains.

It tastes like nothing like.

So the. The first thing I see is the formulation of this. They look a lot like the hip peas puffs where they're like chickpea based.

Gotcha.

Chickpea and other flowers. They do have a. It's like a little shell almost.

This is awful. It's so dry.

It. I'm getting nothing.

It's like stuck to my teeth.

It's like a Cheeto that they forgot to put the cheese on. Like...

Cheeto puff. Yeah.

It's giving sad beige child.

Mm. There is some like the kale does come through, which I do like, but it needs to pick a direction. Yeah. Like it needs to have either some sweetness or salt. Either way would be valid. Or both, preferably.

I do like the bag design though, for what that's worth.

It is resealable, which a lot of them are not. So then we end up with like very stale puffs if we don't eat them fast enough. This is kale apple, avocado oil, quinoa, sorghum and cornmeal. So not that different from some of the others we tried.

But not like, let's be serious, people, like that is not a concentration of ancient grains.

No.

Where's the Einkorn? Where's the teff? Where's. Where's the spelt? I mean, come on, people, let's. Let's bring the ancient grains. Like, at least the. Oh, geez, I'm forgetting what the bag is. I think it's one of the religious coded frozen breads. Ezekiel bread. At least that has the good taste of being, like, violently ancient-grainy. Like, my sister used to call it "pinecone bread."

Yeah. Not getting that from this.

No.

This also is proud to proclaim that it has no seed oils, which kind of gives me the red flag. And they also say it's skill building snackttime. Snacktime fun, skill building done. I don't know what the skill is.

Manual dexterity? Picking up things? What puff doesn't have that?

Also, those stars are way smaller. They would promote dexterity way more than a larger puff.

Oh, totally. This is the least amount of work to eat. If you're really trying to teach your kid how to pick up a food. I don't even know.

So it sounds like probably our least favorite. What was the favorite in this category? We had the Target, Once Upon a Farm, Earth's Best with Big Bird and a Little Spoon.

I got to go with Big Bird

100%.

Those are actually tasty. I would want, like, 100% more flavor and 50 to 100% more salt, but that's really close to something I would actively want to buy.

I would not be mad. Again, like, sitting down and just snacking on those.

Yeah. Before we move off of puffs, though, what is your personal favorite puff?

We almost have moved on from puffs a little bit. Like, we got the Aldi puffs a lot, which are very similar to Target's. And there's also a peanut butter puff that he really likes. And I kind of like. Tim doesn't like it as much. They're very dry.

They're very dry.

There's a culture around those in, like, West Asia and then, like, you know, Eastern Europe for those, like, peanut puffs. As a personal favorite, we were in Canada not that long ago, and we had the Canadian version of It's Cheetos. They're called Hawkins Cheesies. I have never tasted something where I'm like, "I'm not sure you should put that much flavoring on something." And that's the level of excited. I was like, I can't believe they put this much on there. And it's this crunchy. I'm like, oh, are my teeth gonna hurt? Geez, this amount of salt and cheese should not go on something. And I want them all the time. I think those are my favorite puffs I've ever had. They're really good.

I gotta try those.

We get like Aldi's white, cheddar, popcorny, puffy kind of thing sometimes. That's pretty good.

Yeah. My takeaway, especially from the sweeter, fruitier ones is a lot of them run together for me. There's not a lot of distinct flavors. So like when our son's eating and like we're stealing little bits to snack on, I can't even tell which one it is. It's kind of just like. Yeah, this is generic berry fruit with a little bit of sweetness.

The Aldi ones are supposed to be eaten within like seven days of opening or something. And we don't always get through a bag that fast. And sometimes if we have had it for a week or two, they get like almost slimy in the bag. And I don't know if that's like a good thing for freshness. Like it's fresh ingredients so it's like going bad and it's not like a full of preservatives. I don't know.

I think it's time to toss them at that point.

Oh, we do, we do. But we'll move right along to our next category, which is yogurt bites. Have you had yogurt bites before, Chris?

If we're going down trends of snacks. Right. There was that moment in like what, the late 90s, early 2000 when they're doing yogurt coated pretzels and raisins and all that stuff. Like I remember it then, but I don't remember much about them other than for all intents and purposes it was a non white chocolate white coating that they could maximize sugar content with.

That sounds about right.

So this is really interesting in that it's not that at all.

Yeah.

But reminiscent of that. So this is more of like a freeze dried yogurt in a way as opposed to like a glob of candy yogurt, I guess.

Honestly, we get the Aldi ones a lot and they're really good. So we'll start with a target one that is $2.99 for a bag and the bag is one ounce. This is strawberry yogurt bites.

This is a class of food that I was not familiar with before entering parenthood. I feel like it may have branched out beyond toddler snacks, but I have not seen it really used anywhere else.

Our 9 year old neighbor is like, I love yogurt bites. I still eat yogurt bites. Like, they seem to be a hit among kids of all ages.

So are they advertising these as like pre probiotic things or are they just, is it just a genre?

I think it's just a genre. We can look at some of the other claims on the other bags as we go, too.

So they're really not leaning into the nutrition aspect of this. I feel like it's just a sweet snack. My takeaway.

So I would say as something that is freeze dried, the yogurt flavor is definitely there. Which if you're saying it's there, I'm glad it's actually there. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to bite them because they are like, when you get commercial meringue, you're just biting into hard styrofoam. That is the flavor that is.

I do bite them. Do you bite them?

I crunch down on them. Now that I think about it, I haven't really analyzed my eating patterns around yogurt bites.

Letting it melt is not much better.

No, no.

Because melting on the top of your palate, it's styrofoamy while it melts.

It melts into like a yogurt paste, but like a grainy yogurt paste in a way. Like something. It tastes like yogurt. Like that flavor. I feel like they nailed the. Is this just strawberry?

Yeah.

And it does clearly taste like strawberry. I think if you're delighted by that texture, then these are a hit because they taste like strawberry and yogurt, which. That's a success as far as I'm concerned.

And compared to any of the puffs we had, this, to me, has far more flavor in it.

Oh, yeah.

Like, it actually tastes like something.

So our son loves the Aldi ones the most and I buy the target ones occasionally. And he far prefers the Aldi ones and will not really finish the target one sometimes. And this one, I have not really tried the target ones as much. I feel like the texture was a lot worse as you get to the end of it. And it was like sticking to my teeth and a lot gummier.

Yeah.

I almost wish I had brought the Aldi ones, but we just had so many things to get through.

No, it's interesting though. I like that it delivered on what it said it was going to do because some of the others didn't. Some of the puffs didn't deliver that delivered.

Our next one is Gerber and it is the same price point. It is $2.99. And this one is peach flavored. They are claiming it's 10% of your daily value of calcium for the baby.

Okay.

I'm not really giving it to our, our child for the calcium, but

For the record, this has 20% of your daily calcium.

If we're looking at calcium, I wonder, are the serving sizes very different?

Quarter cup.

Now these really strongly look like meringues. Quarter cup for this also this looks like the kind of meringues you can buy except for small versions. So like texture wise, like these are really shaped like that too. And you could see, not to talk about like commercial food production, but you can see like the way it was just extruded onto a thing and then dried.

It's got the little flipped over top point thing at the.

I can see a kid loving the like, oh, you're eating little hats. That's cool.

I feel like these all have to be relatively cheap to produce and just because it's for kids, they can charge so much for it.

The price point on all of these, while in line with the market.

Mm.

I'm sure the margins are very favorable.

Astonishing.

I'd say it's very similar to the strawberry one from Target. The peach flavor is good.

It's a little bit smoother texture.

it's a little chewier to me.

But it's gumming up on my teeth. You're really going to have to brush your kids teeth like crazy after these. Like really go after it.

I feel like the texture is a little better. You think the texture is better on the target one or this one?

No, texture is better but it does gum up a little bit. Yeah, they are definitely smoother. The fruit flavor is equally clear. Yogurt flavor is a little bit less.

These taste like freeze dried peach to me. I don't get the yogurt, but the grittiness isn't there. So I don't know how much it plays into things.

I'm getting it after it melts in your mouth versus chewing it again. Delivers on what it says. And I think for a eating experience for a kid, like, yeah, eat little hats. Love it. That's great.

Well, our next one, also a 1 ounce bag, is once upon a four farm. They do coconut melts. So different option for those who don't do dairy. And this one is $3.89 for a 1 ounce bag. This is a mixed berry flavor and they are promoting that it comes with probiotics.

So second time we've tried this brand. This seems like a brand that was completely designed for millennial moms, like, in a very specific, targeted way with the name of the brand and all the added things on the front. It seems like this is like an exercise in trying to specifically market to a demographic.

Oh, yeah.

A lot of these know exactly who they're selling to. They are very. They're very niche in what they're going for, and I think they're aware that there's a sizable number of people who are looking for that, and they're speaking directly to them.

Finishing the last ones. It does have a little bit of acidity, too. I kind of like those because there's a lot of fruit in there.

Well, I'm giving the bag low marks for Once Upon a Farm because I had to stab it with a pen to open it, but that might be a me problem.

This bag has seen better days, but it's open.

I get in fights with packaging often, so it's just a me thing, probably.

Interesting.

It's really coconutty.

Very coconutty.

I don't know how I feel about that.

I was gonna say it might be my favorite. Our son hates these.

I could see that. It's got a lot of coconut, but not suntan lotion. Really.

I don't taste the fruit as much as the coconut.

The fruit's kind of dead. Like, it's there. It's, like, in the background. It's, like, echoing berry, I'd say, if anything, maybe I get the vague echoes of blueberry.

So the berries in here are mango, blueberry, banana, apple, and strawberry. Interestingly, this is also the first one that doesn't have any added sugar, so that may play into it.

What was the sugar content like on the other two, Tim?

The other two were each two grams of added sugar per serving size.

Now that you said banana like, that is very.

Yeah, I do get the banana.

And it kind of lingers in your mouth in that little banana sliminess. It's not like a huge negative to me. I think the. Geez, I don't even know which one I like the most because they're so like. I actually kind of like the texture of this the most. But the flavor of the strawberry one is probably the cleanest.

This one caught me off guard, but once I've acclimated to it, I actually kind of like this. It's got the coconut and the banana, and I'm not picking up on any distinct berry, but some of that berry sweetness coming through. I think that works pretty well.

That might be my favorite, despite the fact that if I had a bag of these, I might eat all of them, but I would not enjoy eating them. But I think I would keep on eating them.

It also doesn't have the sticky, gummy texture that some of these others have had.

Well, I'm excited to try our last one. The brand is called Amara. I've not even heard of them before, but this one retails for $5.19.

Oh my God!

For a one ounce bag?

For a one ounce bag. I did get some deals when I purchased all of these because I was buying so much food. But this is a mango carrot smoothie melt. It is organic, no added sugar. Anyways, mango carrot. This is. It's like almost Hershey Kiss sized!

Oh, it's got some verticality.

Yeah. And some of them, like, actually you can see the bubbles in them because of how they that freeze good. That freeze dry process is like, the process is essentially boiling, like all the water out through cold and like dryness. And you can actually see like, it's like the texture of like a moon rock with, like, how much, like, you can see the bubbles coming out of it.

It is delicious, but the finish is very strange. It gets, like really slimy at the end.

These are way denser. Like, these have way more content. Oh, this is way more fruit. It's really flavorful, really tasty.

Yeah.

Looking at the ingredients, this that we're trying now is mango first. The last one we had starts with coconut cream and then adds additional fruit puree on top of that.

This tastes like mango.

Is this one dairy free, Tim?

Yes.

This is easily my favorite of these. Like, it's really mangoy. This is.

Yeah, I would eat these.

This is basically dried mango.

Yeah.

With some other stuff added.

We do get dried mango at Aldi a lot for our son is like a teether and he just gnaws on it. So I bet he'll like these when we bring them home.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And you do get the carrot too. You get that little bit of floral. Carrot and mango are very complimentary flavors because they both have that floral thing get a little bit of earthy. These are. Yeah, these are a delight.

My only hesitation is again, the price point.

oh, ridiculous.

Yeah I would not buy these often because this bag would last a day or two in our house. Like, you can't eat a five dollar bag every day.

No.

The high probability of this getting whipped on the floor and all of a sudden disappearing to the dogs.

Oh, yeah. That's always mildly infuriating, depending on the day.

It's part of it.

Yeah. I think these are clearly the best of that one we had like, these are. These are really fruit.

Yeah.

Love those.

I'm excited to share these with our kid at home. Yeah. Our next category is toddler biscuits, which I don't find a lot of brands doing necessarily, but he is obsessed with these Target organic biscuits. These are strawberry and beetroot, and they are. I think they're pretty good. I'm biased coming in with my opinion early.

So biscuit can be a very, let's say, controversial term. If you're talking to somebody that has UK based, they're gonna really like. This is probably closer to their biscuits then it's closer to ours because we're talking about.

It's not like a sausage gravy biscuit deal. It is a cookie biscuit, but also not a super sweet. We can look at the nutrition info. It is less than one gram of added sugar per serving. The serving is two biscuits. Our kid will eat the whole box. Like, he can pull it off the counter and run away with it.

Love that.

So we've taken to hiding it in a cabinet now.

They're more akin to like a shortbread cookie almost.

I was gonna say that's what the nose is very much is like that shortbread kind of texture. At least that's what the smell is. That's what it crumbles like.

You do get the beet flavor.

Yeah.

Get some beet in there.

Not particularly sweet, but the flavors do come through a little dry, but not like dry out your mouth. Super dry.

Tastes like. There might be some oat in there too, which I think is important for something like that.

They have a cinnamon star one and then they have a coconut one. And he loves the cinnamon one too. I like the cinnamon and the coconut best. Personally, I like them all.

So this is primarily oat flour with wheat flour and then various fruit purees and juices added.

Oat flour and oat texture is, I think, great for these kind of things. Good flavor. I mean, great nutritional. Like, oats are tremendous. The amount of fiber, the amount of other nutrients in them. These are very dense. I guess I'm used to the ones that we'll end up having is the Belvita ones that are in, like those pill oval shapes. So there's a lot of similarities. But those are bigger and they have a little more. A little more texture. These are really interesting, I'd say very much that shortbread, but I like the oat content a lot.

I think they're also somewhat intended to break down a little easier. As we talked about before, and especially going through the different teething phases. This has a little bit of bite to it, but not so much that you really have to crunch down to actually break it up.

Our next one is also Target brand, and it is wheat flour, spelt flour, there's sunflower oil. This is a special limited edition for the holidays. And it is vanilla and spice biscuits.

I'm curious to see what they did with this one. This is new to us.

I don't know if I said the price point before, it's $3.89 for both of these for a box. So if he eats it in a day or two, that is frustrating, but still could be worse. Could be 5.19 for a 1 ounce bag.

I do like the bear on these. I like that they're shapes. They do have, like ice skates and snowflakes. And hats again. We're back to hats again. Kids love eating hats.

Who knew?

These are a lot crunchier.

Oh, yeah, we just got a big crunch. Like, that was like, really noticeable.

Very striking.

Very pleasant crunch.

Not a ton of flavor.

No, they're kind of neutral.

I'm looking for the spices. I'm not getting any coming through.

I'm getting like, a little sweetness lingering, but that's about it.

But in like a animal cracker kind of way.

It is very animal cracker esque.

So I'm getting it right at the end. You only get it, like, the finish.

It's cinnamon and ginger, according to the packaging.

I was gonna say it was like cinnamon ginger. I was gonna say cardamom or something like that. Like, it has that white warming spice thing at the end, which I think that's my favorite part about the whole thing. I like the crunch. The finished flavor, I actually quite enjoy. I wish it had more of that throughout. But then it really just becomes not for kids because the ginger is actually like ginger juice. Like, it has a citrusy ness. It's not like dried ginger where it's like that, just warming. I'm almost getting like, fresh ginger.

It is a ginger powder, for what that's worth. But, yeah, I can see what you mean from a flavor profile.

Our last one before we take a break is a brand called Little Bellies, which we've not had before in our household. And this is. I just filed under miscellaneous snacks. Organic sweet potato pick me sticks. So I'm very curious about that.

Do they clarify what a Pick Me stick is?

No, but it doesn't. I feel like Pick Me has a negative connotation. Like being a pick me girl.

Huh.

I'm like, kids, stop being so enthusiastic. Like, you know, just live your own life. You don't need. You don't need to appreciate. Ooh.

It almost looks like a strange little churro.

It does.

I was not expecting them to be this. Oh.

Tim picked this one out when we were down a rabbit hole on Target looking at snacks.

So what was the flavor on these again?

sweet potato something?

Sweet potato is called out on the front. Sweet potato, carrot, and leek with rosemary.

This kind of reminds me of, like, just by look. This is the kind of thing I would imagine at, like, this would be like, a Japanese snack or something like that, where I'd get it at, like, the Asian. Asian food market.

The leek and the rosemary actually come through more than I expected them to. This almost seems more like a large puff to me than it does a biscuit.

It does. I am not mad at it. it's not that flavorful. But at the end, you kind of get that leek and rosemary or whatever.

Yeah.

It's like if you took generic vegetable stock and aerosolized it and you just got like. Just like there's a breath of vegetable stock going across your nose and palate. That's what this tastes like. Because there's no salt. It tastes just like vegetable stock. Again, I don't hate it. I wit. Because I'm getting carrot. I'm getting weak. Like, it is really clear.

It is a little gummy on the teeth when you're done chewing.

Yeah.

And this one is $1.99 for a package. And how big is that package, Tim? It's pretty small.

It's a relatively small package. Four sticks per serving, two and a half servings per container. So that would say 10 sticks, if math is math.

So $2 for 10 sticks. Okay.

If these were salted or they had the good taste to put MSG on them, I would actually quite like these because I think the vegetable flavors are really clear. I really like the flavor base of this. They're kind of interesting.

No, I don't hate these. I wasn't sure I thought they would be sweeter just based off the sweet potato on the front, but clearly that is not the direction they were going.

But you do get sweet potato, too.

You do get sweet potato. It is interesting to the point with the salt, they lean into that in the packaging and the marketing that there is no added salt or sugar, they actually do on the front say not sweetened.

Yeah.

So I think they are. They're going for a particular taste profile. I feel like they did a pretty good job hitting it.

So I feel like, we should have ranked these with puffs. Do we have a favorite?

I mean, no. I mean, I guess these. I don't think any of them, to me, stood out because they all were very different from each other.

Yeah, I think this is kind of a catch all category in a way. I did enjoy the vanilla spice biscuits. Again, I don't know if I would reach for them over a more traditional spiced cookie or something, but they're also not bad. Like, they are enjoyable enough to eat.

The crunch was nice. Yeah, I'll give it that. That was easily the best texture of the group.

Well, I appreciate you guys sharing all these great opinions and insights. We're gonna take a break and get back into it with some bars and purees. All right, how are we feeling after sampling all those puffs and yogurt bites? Anyone getting too full?

Confused.

Yeah, I'm actually surprisingly hungry now. I feel like that got my appetite going but did nothing to actually fill me up.

Yeah, I think we could. We probably couldn't sell these for 2 for 2 for 20 at Applebee's, but, you know, I wouldn't call these appetizers. I would say I might be feeling a little bit teased by some of the flavors, but, you know, I mean, what else is childhood but a little bit of pleasant teasing?

This will probably be a pleasant tease of flavors. Our next category is bars, and first one is from Target. It is an orange, cinnamon, and sweet potato bar. So these are basically like toddler granola bars that are a bit easier to chew.

I'm intrigued about the texture because bars is such a wide range of different potential textures.

These retail for $3.59 a box, and I think they come with five bars.

These are very dense. I was expecting them, like a clif bar or something. Yeah, yeah.

They've got the chewy dried fruit type.

Does it have dates in it, Tim?

100%. I'm biting into date seeds, oat and fig and raisin.

It's not bad. Honestly. I get the orange flavor a lot.

These just taste like. Did you puree a bunch of fig Newtons and turn it into a bar instead of a cake and fruit?

It's very accurate.

with a little bit, a little bit less of the cake part, but you basically just did that.

The orange is definitely coming through. I kind of like the citrus and fig combination.

Yeah.

These are the most affordable of the bar options. They're less than a dollar a bar, so if we're, like, on the go, it's very easy to give them to our kid. But they do get pretty pricey as you go through the higher end brands.

I do like that. It is very much clean and clear. This is fruit and stuff. I don't taste anything. That's odd.

Mmhmm.

It's just like, oh, this has. This is gonna have fiber. It's gonna have nutrients. This is. This tastes like real food.

And from a nutritional standpoint, there's no added sugar. It's just what it is, is what it is. And again, I actually enjoy these. Like, these are not bad.

I don't know if I've tried these target ones before, even though we give them to him almost every day, but it's pretty good.

He doesn't offer you a bite?

I don't know. I don't.

Our little guy has learned that he can, like, shove food in your face and offer you a bite, and he is delighted when you take a nibble of it.

It is one of life's great joys, sharing food.

I know! he's learned that early on.

So our next one is another once upon a farm. These are called tractor wheels because they are round. I don't have the nutritional information because the box was tossed and they were just in a Tupperware in the pantry. But the flavor is apple, sweet potato, and spinach.

Kids love tractors. Let's. Let's get that out of the way right away. I will say, as somebody who grew up on a farm would be a strong word, but we had tractors, like capital T tractors, like 1954, like Ford tractor, like, big wheels. What I'm gonna say I'm disappointed right away. There's no treads. No, there's no treads. There needs to be treads!

It's just a disc that they're calling a tractor wheel.

They could do a lot more to make it cute.

Like, get a stamp, guys. Like, come on, give us some texture. Give us some flavor.

There's a lot going on here.

And for what it's worth, in showing these to our son, I don't think he's ever made the association with tractor or large vehicle in any way.

That's unacceptable. Like, if we're gonna make this fun, make it fun, guys.

You're so close.

He doesn't even drive them around! You know, he drives around a lot of foods and snacks.

He drives the banana around, for that matter, but not this.

banana has a velocity. It has a direction.

Exactly.

It loves driving on curves like this. Makes sense.

What do we think of the flavors here?

Generic.

Yeah. remind me what was in this?

Apple, sweet potato and spinach.

I get a little bit of apple.

I like that it's dense. Like you're getting a little bit of, like, cinnamon or something. It's not bad. The first one was really clearly delivering on what it said.

This one is a bit drier in a slightly crumbly and also a I don't quite know entirely what I'm eating kind of way.

I have a very clear picture of what this is. This is like you're 10 and your mom is. Your mom is really into organic health. And this is the cookie that they turned into a bar or they baked because there is no added anything. It's not bad. It tastes fine. But this, it does not satisfy either. Being max like fruit forward. This just tastes like healthy cookie or healthy bar.

Yeah, that's accurate.

It has a generic sweetness to it that I can't quite place where it's coming from either.

I think there might be cinnamon in it. I don't know.

I don't hate it. I don't know what else to say about it other than it is adequate.

That retails for $5.19 a box. So a little over a dollar a bar.

It feels like if they had chocolate chips in there, they would have been carob.

Yeah.

Our last one in the bar category is from Little Spoon. Again, this is an oat bake that is apple pie flavored. So very cute packaging. But 5.99 a box for how many of these? I think five.

That's nowhere near enough! There should be like 10 for that price at least.

Not to mention, these are very small bars.

These are like, let's just say, half the size of a generic granola bar.

I'd put it about three bites for an adult.

Whoa! The nose on this is wild.

It's apple Jolly Rancher for me.

Oh, 100%. This is fake apple smell. This is that those weird. I forget what the term is for green apple, but it has that, like, exact weird aldehyde green apple thing that is very specific.

It's 100% just artificial apple.

It has pea protein in it. Oats, dates, tapioca syrup, coconut oil. No apples, honey. Pea protein.

Interestingly, it smells more like apple than it tastes like apple.

I think part of why I got this one is the box said that it had hidden carrots.

How do you not hide a carrot in this?

The first one was so clear. This is delivering fig and stuff. And this when it finishes, it's like echoing on your palette. it's not good!

This screams to me that you had a generic bar, and you kind of dumped a flavor on it, but there's nothing that really makes it a cohesive package together.

Texture is so oaty. It's like WE HAVE OATS!

Yeah.

Okay. I get it.

It feels like if you're walking by the. What was the name of the brand?

Little Spoon.

If you're walking by the Little Spoon store in the mall, there would be somebody spritzing apple. Like Abercrombie and fitch in the 90s.

Oh, yeah.

Like, just spritzing, like, fruit flavors at you.

I'm just picturing a big bin of these bars, and they just divvy them up and dump different flavors on them and call it a day.

Yeah.

And it's just like, the same bar. It's like you're the apple bar. Just. I don't know.

A lot of things about their branding and marketing really turn me off. Like, it says junk free, and I don't like demonizing any food as junk, you know, and then made with hidden veggies and superfoods.

I think, like, reading that ingredient list, though. I don't know if I'd call that junk free. I don't know. I'm not a fan.

Not worth the $5.99 price tag. It seems like we loved the Target one the most.

Yeah.

I think the Target one was the simplest, but in a good way in that it did what it was trying to do without doing too much.

Beyond that, I'd be interested to try other flavors of that, because that one is. That one's pretty tasty.

Yeah.

There's, like, a cinnamon apple one and a strawberry beet, I think. Is the other one similar?

Yeah, strawberry beet sounds interesting because, like, I bet it actually has, like, some beet earthiness to it. I think that would actually be really good.

So for our final category, we're gonna go on to purees, which are common when people are transitioning their kid onto solids. But a lot of people, like us, use them to supplement their meals as well. Like, he will not eat broccoli and a stir fry, but he'll eat a pouch that has broccoli, because pouches are fun.

Sure.

Prune purees have become a staple in our household as well. So we're gonna start with a prune puree. This one comes in a tub instead of a pouch. The tubs are the cheapest. They are 79 cents, so.

So this one is really interesting, too, just from our family's perspective in that I thought this would be a really hard sell to get him interested in It. This has by far become the favorite flavor.

He covers himself in prunes. He wolfs it down so fast.

I mean, like crap as a food. So one. This. This is. This is a demerit right away that.

I never have trouble with this, and Tim always does, and now I can't get it open.

I think prunes as a flavor were. They were maligned for a long time.

Totally.

They're delightful. I loved them as a kid. You get that. That tin of them where they have that weird, sticky, dense flavor. But the sugar content is absolutely wild because, like, plums are great. And if you've had, like, fresh plums that are meant to be turned into prunes, they are delicious. They have this beautiful flavor and texture.

I have not tried this in all the times that he's had it at home, so.

Really?

Yeah, I'm. I'm curious, but a little scared. I don't think I should be scared. I'm sure it'll be fine.

But for the amount of these that he's consumed, I'm actually shocked that you've never tried this.

Here goes.

Let's see.

It's a very distinct flavor.

It doesn't play sweet at all.

No.

It's weird, it almost plays like an Asian condiment. Like a. Like a hoisin sauce.

It's a bit thinner and waterier than I was expecting. I was looking at it as more of an applesauce type thing, and it is not. It's a condiment, I think, like something you would kind of spritz or squirt over something in a way.

I don't know, because hoisin sauce has plum in it. And this kind of reminds me if you just. It's almost like you taste vinegar, too.

there is an acidity to it. You're right.

It's very odd. I just wish it had more of anything. I just wish it was more prune forward.

Yeah. The only ingredients are prune. Prune puree and water. So.

So it's watered down prune.

Yeah.

So.

Yeah, I guess that is probably why it's a weaker flavor.

Yeah. Less water, perhaps.

Yeah.

But it does have a flavor. And, Yeah, I guess looking at it as to, like, why it's become such a hit for our son, like, it does taste like something. It has some sweetness. I can see why he'd be into it.

I could see this, like, having, like, spice. I could see it having salt. I could see it having vinegar. I could have it. See it having sugar. I don't know. Pick your own seasoning, kid!

This one was 79 cents. I can't remember if I said that. And it comes in a tub. It's 4 ounces. Most of the pouches are also 4 ounces, but pouches retail for a bit more.

Okay.

The Aldi pouches are our go to. So that'll be our next one. This retails for $0.89. And we always laugh when we get this one out because there are so many names in the flavor. It is mango, apple, banana, avocado, kale.

Well, I appreciate that they made it easy to understand and parse. And when you say to your kid, like, what flavor do you want? Like, yes, all of them, please. I do like the squeezability.

So the squeezability goes both ways. It's both convenient and a weapon. When little hands get a hold of this and just clench down on it or start whipping it around, it can end up in a lot of different places.

I'm thinking, like, you know, the visuals of Dumb and Dumber. When they get the ketchup and mustard and just jam it on the table and just squeeze it hard, and it goes everywhere.

By the end of a meal, inevitably, at least one of our three dogs has some of this in their hair just from having it doused all around.

See, this one delivers on all those flavors.

It's good. Honestly, I like it.

This is really good.

It's like a smoothie.

It's primarily mango, which I think comes through. And aside from some lemon juice, there is nothing else that's not listed in that flavor profile that you read off. I think a lot of these are just. They are what they are.

I think the lemon does help clarify the flavors. Acidity and salt does that. Like it. It lets things shine a little more. I think adding the acidity is very smart. Overall, good. It kind of. It's there in the, like, middle of the palette, and then it kind of just goes away, which I think you want. You know, the kid's gonna want to get more because, like, it doesn't finish satisfyingly. It's like an empty finish.

To me, this has more going for it than the prunes did, for sure. I think this actually is something that feels complete and actually delivers a pleasing flavor profile to it.

I think all of Aldi's baby products have been great. Not the diapers. We did have bad experiences, but the baby food products. The pouches are great, the yogurt bites are great, and it's extremely affordable compared to a lot of the other brands that we've tried today. The next one is Target's Good and gather sweet potato, peach, and apricot puree. This one is 99 cents. It is three and a half ounces. And we have another Target puree that's more expensive, and that one is 4 ounces and has more ingredients. So they kind of have two lines of different price points.

I like the last one. I like that the hiding is not the thing. It's like. Yeah, integrated into the flavors. And I do like sweet potato, I think is such a great kid food because it has just jam packed with nutrients, and it just tastes good.

I don't know about that.

So the acidity on the first one worked to make it separate. And this makes the sweet potato taste weird.

Something just tastes off about it to me.

This is, again, so the lemon juice compared to the other things made the sweet potato taste odd.

This is the exact same ingredients. You know, what we read off on the front, plus lemon juice. I don't know. To me, it's just the pairing of flavors. I've never considered putting sweet potato and peach together, or apricot for that matter. Puree format aside, I don't know if those flavors need to go together.

Three flavors that are not better together.

No.

I think they dropped the acidity by 50%, actually. Might be okay. The first one, I think it really made it better. It did not make this better.

No, not bad, but not good. This is, like, a very neutral one for me. Of, like.

Yeah, this would be one I'd want to experiment with. You give me, like, a little, like, four different tubs, and I add, like, varying amounts of salt and other things, too. I bet there's a way to make it good, but you shouldn't have to do that.

No, that was my thought. With the prunes, more is, like, at the base of something. That could be a really good starting point, but it just feels empty on its own.

Feels like an ingredient for cooking. Yeah.

So that one was for six months and up. The next target one is for eight months and up. This one's $1.29, and it's apple, passion fruit, coconut milk, and chia.

Okay, see, I saw passion fruit on the label, which makes me intrigued. I love the flavor of passion fruit.

And to the point, with these labels, I do appreciate that. It just. They illustrate the ingredients on the front very clearly. See what's going on. Very simple layout. Like, aesthetically, it's a nice packaging design.

You definitely get passion fruit on the nose for sure.

And the chia, you can, like, feel in the texture. It's a little thicker than some of the others. The Aldi mango, apple, banana, avocado, kale is still my favorite so far.

I like this more than the last one because the passion fruit definitely comes in. And I like passion fruit as a flavor and smell. I agree. I think the first one was a complete. Like, almost a complete thought. This feels like it needs one more thing to round it out. Like banana or something else like that. Just to, like, flatten it a hair.

My first thought was, like, putting it on a cracker or something, like, oh, just something. I like the flavors. I like the texture of it. It just needs something to counteract.

This is a kid's first dip with those ginger spice cookies.

Start pairing stuff together.

Oh, yeah, that could work, but no.

Overall, I think this is a good one. I like this.

We haven't had that one at home. So I'll be curious what our son thinks of that.

We'll see.

So we're getting into the bougie brands next. This is Organic Happy Baby. And it is apple, guava, and beet. Yeah. This one is $1.79 for, again, 4 ounces, $1.79.

I like our system. Right now, we're like. We're full squeezing into spoons. By the way, I do have. I have a nice spoon. It's got multiple hearts and a bone on it. I gotta say this. The spoon is pretty effective. It's got a decent volume to it, and it is easy to scoop everything out of. I do like that.

We were commenting before we started recording that we have four different spoons here to choose from. No two are the same, different shapes on all of them. Chris described mine as a toothbrush shape, which I think is a very accurate description of it. But it's surprisingly functional for what it's trying to do.

The one that was, like, soft, like silicone, that one was. That one was disturbing because it's like, this is really floppy situation here. I'm not sure what I think about that.

That one, too, I have a bias against. Just because watching our son eat with it, he can never get everything out of it. Like, you give him a spoonful of something and he tries to, like, eat it. And at least half of it is left in there. And then this.

He can use it as a slingshot, too, because it's so bendy.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. You can pull it back, flick stuff everywhere. As a teether, it is excellent for just chomping down on.

That last puree was not very flavorful, in my opinion.

I kind of like, the. Like, I'm really getting the greens. I'm getting kale. I'm getting all the flavors. I don't like that. I like it, but I kind of like it.

The beet came through more than I expected it to.

This one really just tastes like the ingredients. I don't dislike it.

It's a different brand, but it's still following the same formula of stated ingredients, plus lemon juice. That seems to be the combination.

It's. I think it's a good balance point of all of the acidity, the earthiness, and the other things. Unfortunately, I kind of like it.

So we're going back to Once Upon a farm for our next one. Very cute packaging. We never buy ones that have to be refrigerated from the start. This is wild rumpus avocado. It is cold pressed. I don't know what wild rumpus means.

Is that a type of avocado? or is that just describing the avocado? I'm curious, because they're clearly leaning into it based on the packaging design.

Again, and they're trying to seem like they're fun, and I don't like it.

I don't know if it's like a. Where the wild things are. Isn't that, like, "great rumpus" something, something.

Ooh, the nose on this is weird. What was the flavors again?

Wild rumpus avocado.

I'm feeling the rumpus. Yeah.

Yeah. They just described it as a fruit and veggie blend with wild rumpus avocado. The ingredients include pineapple, banana, apple, avocado, and mint.

Mint?!

I mean, definitely the pineapple's forward on the nose, but it's dried pineapple, like that natural dried where it has that brown smell.

I don't hate this as much as I thought.

No, I don't hate it either. It is $2.99 for that pouch.

What?!

And you have to keep it refrigerated, which, from a practicality standpoint, I. I mean, I don't know.

Just not as much for on the go.

Not on the go.

I mean, the mint is definitely there.

I think it's kind of yummy.

I was biased against this, but I. I don't hate it.

It kind of reminds me if you, like, if you made banana bread and just threw some mint and pineapple in it.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Which now, in retrospect, like, I kind of want to try that because, like, I could see this, like, if you added those ingredients into a banana bread. Yeah, probably really interesting. The mint was a choice.

The mint is a very distinct part of this. The avocado, the creaminess of it, I think more so than anything comes through for me. It's still very much like an applesauce-y type thing, but with a little more body and creamy texture.

I'm confused and I don't like being confused with it, But I also don't dislike the product. I really hate the marketing, though.

I know I have strong feelings against it, but I also would keep eating it if that was available, I think. So what's up next?

Well, we're on to Little Spoon again. Our last little spoon. I was just rolling my eyes at the marketing a little bit. They say "at Little Spoon we're redefining what it means to feed the next generation. Real food made with no shortcuts, no compromises, and no junk. The future of kids food is here." Very self righteous.

Okay, guys, like you're still putting a puree in a, in a disposable bag. Like, come on.

Right!

we haven't reinvented anything.

The crunchy moms would be livid that they're saying this is no compromises because to them a pouch is a compromise to begin with. But this is another refrigerated smoothie. Green dream, apple, banana, kale, pea, kiwi and chia. And they're hyping that it has 2 grams of fiber. That's runny compared to our other ones.

I don't dislike a kiwi. Like, all of those ingredients sound like they're going to be tasty.

I'm mildly allergic to kiwi. She said that she puts it in her mouth.

Also for reference, all of these have at least two grams of fiber in them.

Yeah.

So that's not.

Two grams isn't a lot. Oh, I kind of like it.

tingly and throat closing-y!

I don't know. Oh, the pea is not the pea and kale. Do not do it for me on this.

It doesn't taste like canned peas as much. I guess it does a little bit because I'm getting that like almost irony like canned pee thing. Interesting.

I did these out of order. This was our most expensive one. This was supposed to be last. It is $3.49 for this smoothie.

No way!

At that point I would really whip out a blender and make my kid a smoothie instead.

Would you?

I mean, no. I would just not do a smoothie, but I don't want to pay $3.49 for this.

Like, legitimately. It would be cheaper for you to go to a local. A local smoothie or Juice place and buy a 16 ounce one and pour it into smaller containers.

Totally.

For sure.

It would be notably cheaper if you did that. Also, a can of peas is like 70 cents and you can make so many pea smoothies for that.

I wonder if he'll like that one. Anything that's like solely vegetable without any fruit sweetness, he usually rejects when we get purees.

So. Yeah, so I'm noticing we mostly have more fruit based ones here. Do we not have any of the vegetables?

Well, I'm excited about the last one, which is 2.99. It is serenity Kids, a brand I wasn't super familiar with before, but this is organic squashes, Kabocha squash, butternut pumpkin and olive oil.

Okay. Kabocha squash. I've always been a little indifferent about. butternut's fine. I mean, that's why. That's why the. Our great friends at row seven Seeds and Dan Barber came up with the honeynut squash, the finest of all squashes.

This is thick too. Just squeezing it out. Oh!

I gagged a little on this, honestly.

this is squash and like nothing but squash.

Not hiding it in any way.

No, it's just squash. Olive oil is actually pretty present. Not in a bad way. It feels like they're just like, you know what, we're on a production day of butternut squash soup at the factory and we can't use all of this. So how about we just throw the rest of the squash puree in bags and feed it to kids?

A lot of these are just like the most literal interpretation of a type of food. Like when they say organic squashes, that's it. No seasoning, nothing to embellish or enhance it. Which I guess is a pretty common trait of just kids foods in general.

I think some kids, it's good that they're not like hiding anything. Like, some of the yogurt products for kids and pouches are packed with sugar and stuff that they add in. So it's kind of nice that it's all, I mean, for the bougie price point, I guess that's what you would expect.

Again, this tastes like an ingredient. Like, it tastes like I would buy this at Restaurant Depot in like, you know, a gallon jug and just pour it in as like the base of a butternut squash soup.

It would be a pretty good soup.

Yeah.

Like, other than adding like all the flavor of a soup, like, it just tastes like that. Or the start of a very weird pie with olive oil in it.

Savory pie.

That could work.

Well, we'll close with a last few pouches, we have some applesauces. This is from Target. It is their strawberry applesauce. Little palate cleanser for our finale.

This is another one that prior to becoming a parent, I didn't realize you could get applesauce in a pouch. But it's become a favorite around our house as well.

I do like the lightly. The lightly friendly apple that's on the package.

So we have our apple and strawberry up here. Very friendly and inviting.

These are about 55 cents a pouch, so very affordable.

I don't know.

Not super strawberry forward.

Yeah.

But it's not just apple. Like, there are other flavors in there that.

Right. It's not just apple. Like, that should be, like, the label on it, but maybe with a question mark and an exclamation point. "It's not just apple?!"

Does that show ingredients, Tim?

It does show ingredients, and it is just apples, strawberry puree, and apple juice concentrate.

Yeah, you gotta love apple juice concentrate.

I don't know. I was expecting more strawberry and it. I'm not getting strawberry.

As we said, we're getting not apple. But...

I think Carrie brought some stuff back from Aldi the other day. She's like, oh, I'm excited about these sparkling beverages. And I take a small, like, well, there's a lot of apple in there. She's like, "well it's not an apple beverage." I'm like, "there's a lot of apple in there."

Well, our last one does not have apple juice concentrate. So this is from Aldi, and it is the squeezable apple cinnamon.

Okay.

I will maybe bias everyone and say this is my personal favorite.

The texture does look pretty smooth. That's a full pureed one.

You can practically drink it.

Wow. A lot of cinnamon, too.

Well, that tastes like apple and cinnamon to me. And it doesn't. The last one, I'm not surprised, had the concentrate in it because it had that dense, like, apple juicy flavor. This one really just tastes like apple and cinnamon. It delivers on the promise on the little plasticky, foily pouch thing.

I bring them with me when I'm teaching and have them in between classes pretty often. So they're nice on the go snack. They're 54 cents a pouch, so the cheapest of the pouches. Tim, what was your opinion on that one?

It's a lot of cinnamon. I don't know if I needed that much in there. I appreciate it. Again, we were just saying there's not a lot of seasoning or embellishment on a Lot of these. This clearly has it with the cinnamon. I don't know if I needed it, though. I almost would rather just have plain applesauce at that point.

And it's not unreasonable. I like the cinnamon. I think more would be annoying, and I think you could do less, and it still tastes like it. But I like that they made a choice. And it is. It did go in a direction at least.

they committed to it.

Yeah.

Any final thoughts about the pouches? What was our the winner of all these pouches?

Probably that first one. The long list that I don't even remember.

Mango, apple, banana, avocado, kale. That one's facing me right now.

It seemed also like that was a decent value for how many things are in it. Like, it seems like you need a good variety of nutrients. So not that I'm thinking of these as pure nutrient based, but it seems like you're getting a good variety of things. The price point seemed reasonable enough. Like, I think that was my favorite as well. I liked some of the ingredients. Like, the squash puree as an ingredient is kind of interesting, but I can also buy, like, a whole butternut squash for, like, $2, and it's, like, big enough to, like, weigh more than, like, half of a kid or part of a kid.

Looking back at these as well, the wild rumpus avocado. I think as much as I don't like the marketing around it, I did enjoy that more than some of the other ones.

Yeah.

I'm also looking at the front. It has a cute little hedgehog smiling and poking out of the top. I did not see that before. That's a plus for me.

That's the one that had, like, the pineapple and banana as well?

This was the pineapple, banana, apple, avocado, and mint.

I am in favor of cute little animals on those things. I think that's. That's a great choice. The mint was. I like that. They again chose a lane and tried to make something interesting. I could see the right kid loving that and then wanting mint in everything because it makes it bright and fun.

That's one I'm curious when we get home to see how our little guy reacts to that. Cause I think it's gonna be a strong reaction one way or the other. And I'm not sure which way he's gonna go on that.

We did consider late last night, what if we brought him and let him sample things on mic? And then we're like, oh, we'd have puree all over everything.

This studio would be in a sorry state.

I'm not sure if Rode. I have to check the website. I'm not sure if they made it puree proof. Like, I'm not sure they made it much proof, but puree is probably not on the list. List.

We can report back and let them know.

I don't think you want prunes on your soundboard. Any other final thoughts about all of these snacks? Strong winners, surprises, Anything?

There wasn't anything here that was bad. Like, nothing that I found revolting. Yeah, there were very few that I found great. And I'm kind of curious to see how long our son's going to continue to enjoy these and gravitate toward them. You know, he really likes sampling whatever is on our plate and will generally try and steal whatever he can and seems to enjoy experiencing new flavors. But these are also still a favorite. I think a lot of the sweetness and stuff draws them to that as well. I'm curious to see how long that remains to be the case or as he starts to grow older and mature. Like, if his tastes change. I don't know.

And some of the little snackies, like the biscuits and the yogurt bites are more because he can't chew fully like a pretzel or something. So I'm sure he'll outgrow those with time. But some of them are fun and convenient.

I'm looking at the purees mostly and yeah, I'm curious how long until he's like, "nah, I'm done with these."

I mean, I say hand in one of those Snyder's Old Fashioned pretzels that can like, that you could use as a weapon. The crunchiest thing that has ever existed. I gotta say, like, there's not a lot since we're not talking about like the baby food, right? That is like so, like, so processed to be essentially nothing. I like that a lot of them really did taste like the ingredients it said on the bag. I like that generally it delivered on what things were saying. I'm still confused by the little meringues. I'm not dismayed by them, but I'm confused. I think that fig bar might have been my. Like, I don't love fig as a flavor and texture, but I love that. That one, I could see that saying, oh, that's one I would want to get for a kid because it's. It is just things that are good and together. I think that was the clearest message overall. Like, not I didn't dislike as much as I thought I would.

Yeah, there's a lot of good options out there today. I think it's changed. A lot from 10, 20, 30 years ago.

To be fair, there were some very interesting flavors that we didn't end up bringing. Being vegetarians, we steered away from some of the meat based pouches.

There are literally like beef tenderloin in a pouch, like, which I find revolting, or like chicken curry and things like that so fascinating. But also, ew.

So why would you need to use a tenderloin? Like, that's where. That's what you have beef shin for. Like, it'd be way cheaper and way more flavor per beef.

But then you can charge like 4.99 a pouch. I don't know, man. Well, thank you both for coming in and trying all these snacks with me today.

Of course.

Thank you! I guess if people want to check out other shows on Lunchador, since I'm here, go to lunchador.org check out all the other shows. We've got 14 different shows on the network now. You know, it's been great having, you know, new shows. Like, it's a lot come up and other ones. It's just been great to see where we're heading. So thanks everybody for, you know, paying attention and embracing what we're doing here at Lunchador. And thanks for Emily for being a part.

Thank you!

This has been a presentation of the Lunchador Podcast Network.

Put more MSG in your food for kids, cowards!!