but I was doing a continuation of a reply to Weller
and decided he wouldn't mind that number. It was
going to be a list of bad and/or bad-for-you
products I've had recently. Here it is.

PureVia stevia - no brand of this stuff has ever
worked for me. In this case, I tried it alone,
against Equal, and with Equal. Equal was best;
the synergy between the two sweeteners was
disappointing, as the stevia took away sweetness
if anything. By itself, it wasn't as bitter (though
a little) as most artificial sweeteners, but it
didn't do much if any sweetening.

Nu Lait cranberry pistache with orange rind spread.
Apparently this company came out with a nondairy yogurt
by this name, and it apparently did okay, so it
decided to make a sort of chutney of this flavor combo.
The detectable components are cardamom, cranberry, and
orange, no discernible pistachio (pretentiously referred
to as pistache, so you already know something is wrong).
I'd warn you against this stuff, but it seems not to be
made any more, and the company seems to be out of business
altogether. There is some justice in this world.

Doritos salsa verde flavor - nice tart spicy aroma.
Greenish flavor, rather like Jalapeno, but with much
glutamate (Lilli thought it was salt). Substantial
heat. Not horrible, but the moreishness is cheating.
Flavors dissipate, and the finish is almost pure corn.

Doritos Blazin' - strange. Aroma of soy sauce and green
peppers; on the palate, jalapeno, onions, pineapple, soy
in a rather unpleasant fake teriyaki mishmosh. Very
pronounced soy and corn finish, horribly long, as in minutes.
The heat was considerable - a few chips won't do it, but
this is one of the few snacks I've ever had that give
meaning to the term "mouth surfing." That's not a good thing
- the endorphin rush doesn't work for me, and I really
believe it may be a bogus pseudoscientific phenomenon.

Doritos spicy nacho flavor - almost indistinguishable
from regular nacho flavor. Maybe the flavoring powder
has a few more Scovilles than the standard, but it's
hardly noticeable at all, erring in the other direction
from the above example. In addition, there seems to be
less of it, so each bite is more corny and less umamified
than what I remember of the real thing. Even filling my
cheeks so they puffed out with them didn't lead to an
endorphin or any other kind of rush. As far as I can see
there's no reason to prefer this over the ordinary issue.

Aunt Jemima Butter Rich syrup - natural butter flavor
with other natural flavors - contains no butter.
Ingredients: corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup,
water, natural and artifial flavor, salt, cellulose
gum, sodium hexametaphosphate, sodium benzoate and
sorbic acid (preservatives), caramel color. Surprisingly
(not), no butter or maple-type flavor at all, just a
sort of candylike taste. Thicker than maple syrup, so
the strange nonflavor flavor stuck with me a long time
- until I drowned it out with Pepsi, actually. I'm
wondering how they get away with calling this butter
rich when there's no butter, and it's not rich.

Turkey Hill vanilla bean no sugar added fat free light ice
cream - ha ha. I didn't object to the artificially creamy
texture produced by a witch's brew of gums and additives
nor so much to the artificial sweetener, which was almost
tolerable (Splenda plus ace-K) but rather by the hideous
fake vanilla flavor, which is caused by "natural and
artificial flavors." I had a scoop of this and desired
no more. I refused to serve it to the guests for whom it
was bought (at Rosemary's. one can find a wide variety
of guests with a wide variety of dietary issues). This
stuff seemed like a good idea at the time. It wasn't.

And to balance that out, something not so bad - the
Turkey Hill Colombian coffee premium ice cream - a lot of
overrun, very scoopable even when very cold. Good coffee
flavor, not too sweet. A touch of acid added verisimilitude
to the coffee, but it got a little tiresome. I would
recommend this but for a serious lack of richness.
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