Published: August 07, 2007 06:45 pm            

Panel ponders frozen treats

If you want some learned opinions on food, it’s important to plug into folks in the know.

Looking for some thoughts on barbecue? Drop by a barbecue restaurant and chat with folks in line waiting to grab a slab or two. Searching for insight into chicken wings? Head over to a joint that specializes in those.

So, it stands to reason that if you want to find out what’s hot in the cool world of frozen fruit-flavored treats, you should seek out people under the age of 12.

We gathered Laurel Lown and Katie Watson, both 10, and Samantha Hutchins, 9, all of Carthage, and asked them to help us rate four different frozen treats. It wasn’t a hard sell.

The treats we selected for testing were Bomb Pops made by Blue Bunny; orange, cherry and grape Popsicles made under the Popsicle brand; Shrek Ice Cream Push-Ups made by Nestle; and Twin Ice Pops made under the Wal-Mart brand Great Value.

We asked the girls to sample each product, give us their immediate thoughts and then rate them in order of preference.

The first handed out to the girls were the Bomb Pops. We didn’t have to wait long for an educated response.

“Yummy,” is what Samantha said seconds after she sampled her Bomb Pop.

It should be noted that in the world of frozen treats, “Yummy” is high praise from a 9-year-old. It’s much like the coveted “Two thumbs up” movie critics Siskel and Ebert used to hand out.

The Bomb Pop received almost unanimous support from our tasters.

Laurel, who has a collection of more than 50 Popsicle sticks, said the Bomb Pop was “very, very good.” Samantha, in addition to her “yummy” comment, said the Bomb Pop was “awesome.” Katie also gave the Bomb Pop a positive review although she expressed a little uncertainty about the flavors of two colors on the multi-colored pop.

“I can’t describe the white part. I like the purple and red but I don’t like the blue and the white,” Katie said.

Next, we served up the Shrek Ice Cream Push-Ups, and the girls quickly noticed a difference in texture between it and the Bomb Pops.

“This is more like a sherbet,” Laurel said.

Katie agreed.

“It’s got a creamier texture,” she said.

Laurel and Katie both gave the Push-Ups high marks while Samantha was not so sure.

“I like it but I think I like the Bomb Pops a little better. I don’t like the texture (of the Push-up) as well,” she said.

The girls next tried the Popsicle brand frozen treats and again the reviews were a little mixed. Laurel was impressed with her cherry-flavored treat while Katie wasn’t as successful with hers.

“I’m having trouble getting a flavor out of it,” she said.

A few minutes later Katie decided she did indeed have a grape-flavored treat.

“But it’s more like grape juice,” she said.

Samantha was pretty straight forward in her assessment.

“It’s not my favorite. But if someone gave me one I would eat it,” she said.

Finally the girls sank their teeth into the Great Value Twin Ice Pops, and again we didn’t have to wait long for a response.

“Oh, I love these,” Laurel said as we handed them out.

“Yeah,” Katie quickly agreed. “We had these at camp.”

Samantha said the Twin Pops were “Really flavorful. I like them.”

If there was a problem with the Twin Pops the girls agreed it was in the design. As the name implies, there are two pieces in each Twin Pop and, as the treat begins to melt, it becomes difficult to keep both on their assigned stick.

“You sometimes lose a piece if it breaks off and you don’t catch it,” Katie said.

But, apart from the engineering problem, the girls were big fans of the Twin Pops and gave them solid reviews.

After the girls rated the treats in order of preference, we awarded each girl’s top pick a four rating, their second pick a three, their third favorite a two and their least favorite a one rating. Based on that formula, the results of our test taste are:

1st place — The Bomb Pop with a total rating of 11.

2nd place — A tie between the Great Value Twin Pops and the Nestle’s Push Up with a total rating of 8.

3rd place — The Popsicle brand with a rating of 3.



Mike Pound writes for The Joplin (Mo.) Globe.

        

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