Look, they have Raisin Juice

Do you get excited when you find a new product at the grocery store?  I do.  Every time I go to the store, I look for new items to try.    This is something that I inherited from my Mom.  When we were growing up, Mom always came home from the grocery store with some new item to try, like Space Food sticks (you remember them, they were a “Good for You” snack food, with the texture of a tootsie roll that was the same type of food the Astronauts ate in space).  Of course, we also had Tang (is was the early 70’s where space was the cool thing), and Moon Dust Cereal Topper, which was dried fruit peaces mixed with flavored sugar that you  would use to put on your cereal.  I’ve already talked about Fortified Oat Flakes and Koogle.  Every new food item that came to the store, she would bring home so we could try it.  I remember one time we were in Canada at the store, and we found a power drink mix that said the flavor was Raisin.  We were so excited about what the raisin juice would taste like.  While walking through the store, imagining how interesting Raisin juice would taste, I noticed on the other side of the box it said Grape.  We then realized that the side of the box that said Raisin was in French, and Grape in French is Raisin.  We then laughed, since what are raisins but dried up grapes.  Of course raisin juice would be the same as grape juice.  How funny.  Oh well.  The grocery stores in Canada are a great place to find new items.  They have always had different items than what we had at home, like butter tarts, peameal bacon, Aero bars, wheat hearts, and a lot of different flavored potato chips.  They had Salt and Vinegar and Jalapeno flavored chips, long before we had them.  I have had dill pickle, ketchup, steak, chicken, bacon and even grape flavored potato chips in Canada.  Grape was not my favorite!  When I was in France, on the first day while we were waiting to learn about our tour, I wanted some water, and there was a grocery store connected to our hotel, so I went over to get a bottle.  No one went with me, and I don’t speak French, except for a couple words, but I found all kinds of stuff there that I wanted to buy, but where was I going to put them, and some of the things I wasn’t sure what they were, so I only bought the water.  It was hard to get out of the store with only a bottle of water, but later on, at one of the truck stops the bus stopped at I did by some different chips and candy bars.   I guess I couldn’t help myself.  I bet if Mom went to France, she would do the same thing.  The latest item I found at my store was Mio water enhancers.  This is a zero calorie liquid that you can add to water to give it a flavor, such as Berry, Fruit Punch, Strawberry, or Ice tea.  It’s like those individual packets of crystal light that you add to a bottle of water, except it’s a liquid, and you can add as much or a little as you want.  Instead of individual packets, it’s one bottle.  I also found chili cheese fries flavored potato chips, which were OK.  I wish we had all of the flavors of chips that Canada has, but then it wouldn’t be that fun to go to the grocery store in Canada.  Next time your at the store, you should take a look and see what’s new.  Now if they would only bring back Haagen-Dazs Brown Sugar Ice cream.