Sporked Awards: Best New Product We Tasted in 2022

New products are the spice of life—especially when you taste food for a living. Seriously, we’ve spent days doing the hard work (okay, not exactly hard work) of tasting a dozen brands of plain yogurt or unflavored oatmeal. That means when something new and exciting hits the market, we are rarin’ to try it. From cereal to candy and cheese to chips, there was no shortage of new products in stores this year (although, there were plenty of shortages of other things—I still can’t find fat-free whipped cream at my grocery store). But this is the best new product we tried in 2022, along with a distinguished runner-up.

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TRUFF Hidden Valley: If you’re a regular Sporked reader, you’ve probably noticed that staff writer Jordan Myrick loves sauces. Salad dressings, mustards, hot sauces—they don’t discriminate. Welp, two brands we all love here at Sporked—Hidden Valley of ranch dressing fame and TRUFF of truffle hot sauce fame—teamed up to create the sauce to end all sauces: TRUFF x Hidden Valley Ranch, a creamy, herby take on hot sauce. According to Jordan, part of what makes this special is that even though the sauce reads creamy, truffle hot sauce is still the predominant flavor profile. It’s just so unique and delicious. There’s basically no food that can’t be saved by the right sauce. And this is the right sauce for pretty much any food. Sadly, this was a limited edition release and is no longer for sale on TRUFF’s website. Bring it back!
Kellogg’s Instabowls: No milk? No problem. This year, Kellogg’s released a new innovation in cereal: Kellogg’s Instabowls, little plastic tubs of classic Kellogg’s cereals that contain powdered milk, so all you have to do is add water to enjoy. We tried the Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes varieties and absolutely loved both the flavor and the convenience factor. Take these camping or send your kid to school with one if they miss breakfast (again). The best part is that the powdered milk tastes good and actually seems to absorb the flavor of the cereal even better. If you love Froot Loops milk, you’ll love an Instabowl.

About the Author

Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks. Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown. What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction. Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home. Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.