Much of the bottled water sold in the United States is really bottled municipal tap water. Government and industry estimates are that filtered municipal water comprises up to 40% of the bottled water sold. It makes no sense to buy this processed tap water. If you are not happy with the way your own tap water tastes, you would be much better off buying a water filter. You’d save money, gas, your own energy hauling, storage…not to mention the environmental benefit of reducing the amount of PET plastic bottles produced and disposed of by more than 40%.

New Zealand natural is natural, of course. The milk and cream come from rBGH-free cows, and there are no artificial ingredients or preservatives. It’s made with an egg custard. Thus far, it sounds like a lot of premium ice cream brands. Yet there is something very different about New Zealand Natural Ice Cream.

The product line uses less sugar and a lower percentage of cream (more milk) than a typical American premium recipe, making up the difference in the low overrun (air whipped into the ice cream). So you have a dense ice cream without the tongue-coating butterfat or the cloying sweetness.

Read the full review on TheNibble.com.

Before you get tired of healthy foods, the indulgences begin again on January 26, with three weeks of Valentine gift recommendations. Or maybe they begin right now, as we show how chocolate can be wholesome, vegan, organic, raw, primitive…and delectable. We polished off every last morsel.

When we first set eyes on Uli Mana, its packaging did not look like manna from chocolate heaven. But then we tasted the organic chocolate truffles, brownies, chocolate spread and more. Raw cacao was never more divine. And with nary a drop of refined sugar: It’s all sweetened with lower-glycemic agave syrup. There’s no cream, no butter, and more antioxidants than in regular chocolate. How could our New Year’s diet disapprove?

It also has what environmentalists might consider a flaw. Given the green movement and the desire of many people not to throw more plastic into landfills, the hard plastic cups that enclose the coffee or other beverage ingredient (here called T discs—other systems have different configurations and different names—for example, the Keurig system’s are K cups) make them distinctly ungreen. If that is your concern, you can go to an instantly degradable paper pod system as is used in the Senseo system. (There is a green offset: If you drink your coffee at home, you don’t waste a paper or [gasp] styrofoam cup, plastic lid, stirring stick, etc. with takeout.)

But if you’re not an avid recycler, one small plastic cup is the least of your landfill contributions, and we highly recommend the Tassimo for convenience, speed and delivery of a great-tasting cup of coffee…plus good hot chocolate and passable tea, the latter two major improvements on the original version.

Read the full review of the Bosch Tassimo System on TheNibble.com.