DelMonte Fruit & Chia

I saw these new fruit cups at my local Walmart Neighborhood Grocery store and thought it was an interesting concept. I bought the Pears in Blackberry flavored Chia and Mixed Fruit in "Tropical" ? flavored Chia.

Here you can see where they are placed in the applesauce/fruit cup aisle. They are at eye level, which is where most new products usually appear. As you can see, there are several flavors. 

Here is the nutrtion label and ingredient list for the Blackberry flavor. 130 calories, 26 grams of carbs and 19 grams of sugar seems like a lot for a snack that is most likely targeted to those who care at least a little about health. Why eat chia seeds in your fruit cup  unless you care about the health benefits of chia? There are 5 grams of fiber here, which I suppose is a decent amount for a fruit cup 

Here is the nutrition label and ingredient list for the Tropical flavor. I just can't get over how much sugar there is in these. 20 grams is equivalent to 5 teaspoons. At least there are no artificial colors or flavors. 

This is what it looks like. The fruit is basically colorless and it's swimming in a weirdly gooey yet liquidy substance. Of course, those are chia seeds, which tend to take on a gelatinous texture in a liquid. I have eaten chia pudding ​(https://wellnessmama.com/59344/chia-seed-pudding/ ) and if you check out the link, you will notice that chia in liquid should be a little more solid than this product. I wanted to show the plastic lid that I took off of the Tropical flavor. It had a weird yellow color to it.  Also, it was almost impossible to differentiate between the fruits in the Tropical variety. The fruit was almost tasteless and the only way I could tell a pineapple from a peach is the shape. 

How does it taste?  Glad you asked!  The Blackberry flavor had a good blackberry flavor and the pears, though fairly tasteless, picked up the blackberry flavor well. The texture, as I noted, was strange. Just a little too liquidy. The Tropical flavor reminded me of those fruit cups I used to eat as a kid, except I didn't find a single maraschino cherry!  (that's because there aren't any, boo!)  It had a strange aftertaste and both flavors were far too sweet for my tastes. DelMonte could have used a natural sugar substitute (stevia, maybe?) and really cut down on the sugar content, calories and carbs. I just don't understand who this is being marketed towards. No one interested in health would choose such a sugar-laden snack and those adults who might eat a fruit cup probably wouldn't want their fruit in a strange gel-like liquid. 

I paid $2.18 for each pack of two. You can eat an apple or a pear and receive more health benefits for less money.