Being a Food Blogger Made Me Bananas about Bananas!

I started ranting about this in one of my reviews and it got out of hand, so I made it into it's own post. It's a food post about writing food posts and running a food related blog, but I think it's fun and interesting, plus you get to see a few photos of product reviews to come!

I've always liked bananas and banana flavored sweets, but over the last four years it's morphed into a near-obsession. I mean, I just paid an embarrassingly high amount of money for a packet of Australian banana flavored m&m's on eBay last month! That's something I never would have done when I started the blog, but it's what being a food blogger does to you.


When you're blogging about food and trying new products all the time, you get desensitized by the "normal" stuff that the average consumer would really enjoy. For example, strawberry, apple, and grape and three of the most popular fruity flavorings I see when I walk through American grocery aisles. At the end of the day food companies want to sell product that will get them their money back (and then some) so they aim for those three easily recognizable flavors because they have a low-risk factor and they're practically guaranteed to make their money back.

Shallot Cookies? Sure! Sounds interesting! I'll get around to reviewing these eventually...

Those practices make for good business, but what about the food bloggers who try all this stuff all the time? We get bored! How many times can I review a strawberry or grape flavored candy or snack before I go insane? After a while it all becomes a blur, so when a companies deviate from the norm and try something new, I'm all over it! (And so are all of the other food bloggers.)

Safe recognizable flavors don't give me the same thrill that they used to. (Wait am I talking about food, or drugs?) After 4 years of blogging, I find myself looking for more unique foodie finds to recapture the the joy and excitement I used to have when I started Sometimes Foodie. I end up searching online for things like curry flavored ramune or watermelon flavored Oreos. These new products stand out from the others because they aren't playing it safe and they're typically available for a limited time only. Not only does it give me back the fun factor I've been looking for, but it adds a ticking clock to it! Tracking down all these limited edition products can be a little stressful, but it's also fun because there's this unspoken competition going on between all of us food bloggers. We're all out to be the first ones to get a product and review it, and even if we aren't the first, it's still fun to compare our reviews and see how our palettes and personal tastes differ. 

I hate coconut water, but can coffee and vanilla make it taste better?

Food blogging has made me expand my palette and seek out less popular flavors, like banana (which people either love or they hate). Do I still love strawberry, apple, and grape candies? Sure! But I won't review them unless there's something really special or unique about it, because at this point, I already know how they're going to taste without ever opening the package. It's predictable, and that's no fun. I rather blog about something like watermelon cookies, starfruit, or even onion flavored cookies. Those are the products that keep food blogging fun because I have no idea what I'll be in for!

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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