College Inn has been offering some premium lines of upscale and up-market
soup broths for a while, which I really have been enjoying.

One line is called 'Culinary Broth' and it features a White Wine and Herbs
broth and a Thai Coconut Ginger broth, both of which have lots of flavor.
They make it remarkably easy to throw together a delicious and complex soup
in very short order, which, with a little care and planning, taste like I've
slaved over a hot stove for hours. ;-) These are labeled as 'College Inn
products, but only in the small print, IIRC.

They also have another premium line of 'Bold Stocks', marketed under their
own 'College Inn' label. One is a 'Bold Roast Chicken' and the other is
'Bold Sirloin Steak'. Each of these have very flavorful stock, which make
these products standouts among the very bland general chicken and beef
stocks, which make up most of the general soup stock shelf space, in the
supermarkets in these parts.

Both of these product lines are sold in those 'block-shaped', soft-sided
containers, with the little plastic flip-top, resealable spout in a top
corner.

My problem is that they seem to have all but disappeared from any and all of
the major markets, within my home area. I've had great difficulty finding a
reliable source for these impressive broths (to my taste buds, anyway,) in
the northeast portion of Massachusetts, or southern New Hampshire, near the
seacoast. For a few months, I could find them, here and there, with some
patience, or by phoning around in advance. The 'Market Basket' chain of
stores, (formerly 'DeMoulas Market',) claims to be able to special order the
Bold Stock line, if one will commit to buying a case at a time, but this has
only worked once for me, over the past six months...

During the run-up to this holiday season, College Inn has been airing a
mini-flood of television ads for all of their soup stocks and broths, and
they mention both of these premium-priced lines of products, but the problem
is that the stores know nothing about them, other than that they are
getting lots of questions about availability from shoppers, who are trying
to buy them, having seen the ads. Very odd! I've even checked Amazon,
which used to carry them for mail orders, but even Amazon seems to be unable
to produce any for delivery!

Does anyone know what might be the problem? Has anyone else tried the items
I've mentioned, and did you find them superior to the flavorless chicken
squeezings and cow dribbles, which crowd the shelves these days? I suspect
that these products were developed to compete with the growing success of
soup base products in jars, which have had considerable growth within our
markets for the past few years, by simply offering substantial flavor. What
do you think? Are these products available in other sectors of the USA?
I'd really like to hear from others, who are familiar with these stocks. I
have no connection with College Inn, nor with any supermarket. I just wish
I could buy the products, which seem to be head and shoulders above the
generic stocks crowding the aisles.

Paul, in Massachusetts