A Jello Makeover: Cool Cups

March 18, 2011   5 Comments

Healthy packaged snacks are incredibly hard to find. The "snack" aisle is filled with stuff, but much of it is just plain junk food.

What to do?

Well, many small business people are trying to make a difference by giving consumers a chance to buy something OTHER than what the large food manufacturers create.

Tom of Cool Cups, has taken on Kraft with his "Cool Cups" gel snacks. Somehow, Tom managed to avoid using high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and flavors, and gelatin (derived from horse hooves) to create his snacks.

Yes, these are vegan, gluten-free, preservative free and truly tasty. How does he do it? He uses carrageenan which is made entirely from seaweed harvested from the ocean to make it "gel" and fruit juice.

The color produced is actually from the fruit itself. My kids were THRILLED when I brought these home from (you guessed it) Whole Foods.

Tom had sent me a $10 gift card to use at Whole Foods, and it occurred to me that I could use it for anything in the store. Fortunately for Tom, I made it past the artisan chocolate to the Cool Cups.

They come in Orange, Peach-Mango, and Black Cherry - cost $2.99 for four and can be found at health food stores and Whole Foods (see here: Cool Cups).

Kraft's version is $2.99 for 6 cups, so you are paying 50% more for your freedom from additives. These are a great fun snack for a treat!

I am adding one more product find to this post today. Check out GoGo Juice!

Have you ever tried "Organic, Peeled Pear Juice"? Well, I hadn't until Betty sent me some from sunny California. This juice tasted AMAZING and disappeared from my house in record time.

Betty has worked hard to make her juice special. She states:

We take ripened fruit, peel the skins, remove seeds and cores, and juice them. That's it! We do not add any sugar, colorings, fake flavors, preservatives, press aids, filter aids, chemicals or other stuff. And, our ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is not made from corn or soy.

I guess there are juice companies that don't do this and use all sorts of mechanical techniques including rice hulls, ground wood, and tiny fossilized critters to get the juice out of the fruit.

(I may go buy a juicer!)

Check out her site at GoGo Juice.

These products were received for review consideration. No other compensation was provided.

Please share any packaged snack ideas that work for you.

Want to read about snacks?
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