Brad Enslen

This is a quick review of Olipop soft drinks. These are a lower sugar pop (soda) drink that also has fiber and prebiotics that are supposed to be good for your digestive health.

Olipop is very lightly carbonated, not much fizz at all. It’s a little bit thicker than a normal pop drink but there is no graininess from the fiber. You would not even know it is there. There is nothing in the mouth feel to put you off. Like most health oriented low sugar soft drinks Olipop uses Stevia extract for sweetening. Like with most diet sweeteners Stevia has it’s own unique taste and aftertaste which varies with each flavor. You either like Stevia, hate it or you get used to it.

I bought 4 cans in 4 flavors at the local Jewel-Osco store. They were in a refrigerator case and quite expensive at well over $2 per can. I used my own money, this is not a paid review. I’d read about this pop and was curious. Below is what I thought of each of the 4 flavors.

Classic Grape - I was surprised, because the Classic Grape was the best tasting of the 4 flavors, and I’m not usually a buyer of fruit flavored pop. The Stevia taste/aftertaste was the least noticeable with this one.

Ginger Ale - I’d rank this one second after the grape. It had a slightly medicinal edge to it. There was a Stevia aftertaste but it faded quickly.

Vintage Cola - this had a heavier aftertaste. It was drinkable. But I wouldn’t wait in line for it.

Classic Root Beer - to me this had a heavy Stevia taste and a long aftertaste. It was my least favorite of the 4.

YMMV, taste is completely subjective. To be fair, drinking only one can of each flavor (I rationed these out over four nights) gives you no time to get used to the flavor. Let’s face it, you can get used to diet pop, skim milk, and a lot of other things.

I’m not a big pop drinker anymore so I probably will not run out and try more, but if you have a soda pop habit you are trying to break Olipop might be worth trying. At some time I will probably buy it again. I’ve read Costco has multi packs available for a cheaper price.

Have you tried Olipop? What did you think of the flavors you tried and the price?

Also: Olipop on Wikipedia

I’m having trouble finding confirmation from mainstream, trusted sources, but it appears that Heinz no longer makes their Vegetarian Beans for the US market. On the Heinz website all I see for products is condiments and gravy.

I only discovered something might be amiss when I tried to place an Instacart order and the supermarket didn’t list Heinz beans of any sort. So today, I checked another local grocery supermarket and again no Heinz beans of any type. Now searching around the Internets I’m getting hints that Heinz has quit making staple products like their canned Vegetarian Beans in Tomato sauce, at least in the USA. Heinz appears to have just quietly surrendered the market (no Germans in sight.)

One of the search engines I used suggested: “heinz vegetarian beans shortage” and “heinz vegetarian beans discontinued in usa” as searches so I doubt I’m the only one that has noticed and is searching for answers.

What the heck has happened? Has enshittification taken over at Kraft-Heinz? Have the bean counters finally won?

Where’s my beans?

Trump must be jealous that President Elon Musk is getting all the media attention lately because he refuses to rule out force in taking over Greenland. Unhinged enough behavior that France had to warn Trump about the threats.

Beyond being an attention seeker, I suspect Trump is trying to distract us from his campaign promises that he knows he can’t keep: dropping the price of eggs and gasoline, controlling inflation, blah, blah blah.

And if Trump wants to “buy” Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal? How is he going to do that while cutting taxes? Money does not appear out of thin air.

Somewhere in all this is a lesson: don’t trust people like Trump who threaten to stab you in the back.