On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:18:57 -0500, "Paul O'Neill"
> wrote:

>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.
>
>
You don't mention the price, by sin of ommission I suspect you're a
troll, a spammer for College Inn. I'd think the product you describe
is probably too expensive for the average consumer and so it didn't
sell very well in the test markets. This doesn't sound like a very
economical method for folks who use stock by the gallon. From
perusing the price of canned soups lately I'd imagine this stock costs
as much if not more per liter as Crystal Palace. And the truth is
that the vast majority use the typical canned broth strictly as a
seasoning ingredient in recipes and only very occasionally, mostly at
holidays. I don't know of anyone who uses College Inn canned broth as
a sole base for a pot of soup. And in most recipes where folks use
College Inn a boullion cube works exactly as well... and in fact
College Inn is indeed a bouillion cube, only already reconstituted and
in a can, you're paying mostly for water, the tin, the label, and of
course 90% of the price covers marketing, shipping, and profits... the
original version is pretty costly already, for a gimmick. And so now
we have the gourmet version for the pinheads, made with artificial
flavorings from out of a lab, and likely at triple the price. I'm
sure it's far less expensive and the results immeasurably better when
one buys a chicken and makes stock themself... I don't make stock from
trimmings and saved trash now, I'm certainly not going to pay a
premium price for College Inn stock made from premium trimmings and
premium saved trash.