nosh nook #180 - sunday, november 22, 2009

a kid's idea, for dogs to savor (link)
11.20.09 - the ny times - by susan dominus

thanks to a bounty of boring snack-related news stories on thursday & personal laziness on friday, i decided to delay friday's edition of the nosh nook to today, where i'm bringing you a TOTALLY SPECIAL weekend edition of the nosh nook. seriously, at the end of last week, the big news in snacking was that, on the heels of kraft attempting a hostile takeover of cadbury, everybody & their mother (nestle, hershey, fererro) was thinking of buying the candy egg-making british company. YAWN. i'm so sick of hearing about people wanting to buy cadbury. other than that, there was another snack mix recall. BORING.

this weekend, things have remained pretty quiet on the snack news front, but i did come across a ny times article about christian liendo, a 16-year-old "bright-eyed science buff" from queens who's trying to make snacking more fun for dogs. he had to think up a product idea for a program/competition that he's enrolled in & after a few meh ideas & some childhood reminiscing, he eventually settled on "blizzard dog," an ice cream for dogs. he started out making the doggie ice cream with "carob powder (chocolate is dangerous for dogs), soy milk and lactose-free milk" & had friends' dogs try it out. since dogs aren't always all that bright, as far as flavors go, "corn and carrot were bigger hits than chocolate and vanilla."

in the end, he ended up losing to a "young woman who made vegan cookies," but he did take home $250 & an honorable mention for his idea. he hopes to eventually take his idea to the big time & wants to do so in a unique way--the ice cream would not be sold in pet stores. it'd only be sold in ice cream stores so "dog owners won’t feel bad when they stop for a cone and their dogs whimper in longing." i don't know, christian. that sounds like a pretty specific (& possibly health code-violating) target market--dog owners out buying ice cream while walking their dogs. you might want to think bigger than that if you want to one day make "blizzard dog" a household name. as it stands, your current business plan is for the birds.

nosh nook #32 - tuesday, april 28, 2009

biz news: one snack for man and beast (link)
04.27.09 - loudon times - by jason jacks

down in virginia, they seem to do things a little bit different, whether it's the hippies in charlottesville, the yuppies outside of d.c. or the folks in the hills. i've never been able to put my finger on it, but when i'm there, although the state is cool & i enjoy myself, something just seems a bit off. in leesburg, a town of almost 30,000 about an hour west of d.c., a woman has embraced this slightly-off virginia spirit with a new snack invention.

as jason jacks explains, "marisol fernandini-gaffney has devised an organic cookie made from oats, honey, flour and several other simple ingredients. it's tasty enough to satisfy the snack-attack needs of most mammals."  after some local distribution, she is now selling the cookies online under the name "toats."  they're both organic & green manufactured, so yay for naturalness.  that's toats awesome.

i suppose it makes sense that we could share snack foods such as organic cookies with other mammals, but therein lies that virginia spirit i spoke of.  while it's pretty neat that you & your dog can enjoy the same treats, that doesn't necessarily mean that you should.  there's something slightly unsettling about it.  anyway, since the idea came from virginia, i'm not all that surprised.  i just shrug it off...those crazy, oddball virginians.