Archer Farms Antioxidant Trail Mix

What? No red wine? No kale?

Still, it's an impressive collection of antioxidant foods, and it doesn't taste half bad either.

Nuts, berries, and dark chocolate might be found in any run-of-the-mill trail mixes, but they also happen to be antioxidant rich. It might be a marketing gimmick, but hey, it worked on me.

There's a good balance of nutty and sweet in here. As usual, there are too many pumpkin seeds, er sorry, "pepitas," but we can forgive this product for that, since there are plenty of almonds and cashews, too.

Honestly, it's a decent mix of all the ingredients. They didn't skimp on any one element. For six bucks, I'd hope they would be generous with everything.

The mix is unsalted. I wouldn't have minded a little sodium, but I won't complain too much since I get plenty in the rest of my diet. I just tend to eat trail mixes when I'm hiking or biking, and in the hot summer, I tend to sweat buckets. I drink plenty of water, but I've gotta recoup that salt somewhere, too.

Anyway, it's been a while since I've reviewed an Archer Farms trail mix. They've always been good quality. The resealable bags are nice, too. This particular mix is on par with the others I've tried in the past.

Six servings seems about right. I guess a dollar per serving isn't a terrible value. The ingredients taste and feel as fresh as any other shelf-stable snack. The wife really liked it as well. I'd definitely consider buying it again.

I give this trail mix 8 out of 10 stars.

Simply Balanced Grapefruit Sparkling Water

I may have mentioned this previously, but I used to be heavily addicted to soda. When I was just out of college, jobless, paying off student debt, and not yet living the dream that I am now, I did all my grocery shopping at the nearby Walmart. Now I only do 85% of my shopping at Walmart—and the rest at Target, obviously. Walmart Supercenter groceries are dirt cheap. A flat of 32 Dr. Thunders was just around $3 and some change. Each can was less than ten cents. I did the math. It was actually cheaper than water. Okay, maybe not cheaper than tap water, but tap is bad for you anyway.

Long story short: in those days, I drank more Dr. Thunder than water because it was cost effective.

But then I got obese and my digestive system no longer functioned thanks to high fructose corn syrup overload. So I slowly switched to diet sodas. I was slightly less fat, but the beverages were still wreaking havoc on my system—all that aspartame lowered my IQ a few notches and gave me chronic headaches.

I knew regular old water wasn't going to take the place of my nasty soda habit, so I tried sparkling water. I'd sampled my parents' Perrier as a kid and didn't mind it, so I started checking out all different brands. Now I'm a connoisseur of fine sparkling mineral waters. Aside from the fancy stuff like Perrier and San Pellegrino, I highly recommend Polar brand, too. Trader Joe's also carries some good sparkling water. So how does this offering from Target compare?

It's in the middle somewhere. The grapefruit flavor comes through nicely, but I feel like it leaves a slight unpleasant aftertaste. The cans are very convenient (eight 12oz cans) but I feel like the packaging is overly "girly." In general, the Simply Balanced line tends to give off a feminine vibe, but whatever. I keep telling myself I'm comfortable with my masculinity. I just wish their stuff were a little more gender neutral sometimes.

But I digress. I paid $2.50 for the box. It's not a bad value at all, but I think they were on clearance or something. Not sure what their original price might have been. Ah, look at that. $2.99 on Target.com. What score shall we bestow this refreshing beverage with today? A seven, methinks.

Final score: 7 out of 10.