On The Dole (Dole Fruit Parfait)

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	Dole Fruit Parfait
Date:	13/11/07 (176 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lasts for 6 Months

Disadvantages: Artificially Flavoured and Expensive

Dole Food Company is an American based multinational corporation holding its headquarters in California. They are the world's leading grower and packer of food items such as grapes, pineapples, strawberries, bananas, and other such fruits both frozen and fresh. Founded in 1901 by James Dole in O'ahu, Hawaii under the name 'The Hawaiian Pineapple Company', the company has grown substantially and today has an annual revenue upwards of $5.3 billion, doing business in over 90 countries. Still holding a plantation in O'ahu, Hawaii, there is also now a further plantation in the Phillipines and a packing plant in Thailand.

With only a brief recollection of having seen the Dole name branded around, Dole Fruit Parfait was a fairly unfamiliar product to me. With flavours of Pineapple and Coconut crème, Apples and Caramel crème, and Peaches and Vanila crème; I was spoilt for choice when I got down to the local supermarket, however I eventually decided upon the 'Peaches and Vanila crème' variety as I am a massive fan of peaches and decided that this would no doubt be the best option for me. A horrible realisation upon arriving at the supermarket was that the Dole Fruit Parfait were not encased in the refrigerator section, in fact they were merely slung inanely on one of the supermarkets many shelves and thus were a nightmare to find. I have to admit to being quite put off when I read the use by date also, that being the 15th February 2008. I dread to think how many preservatives have been lined in the Fruit Parfait here in order to give a 6 month shelf life. Nevertheless, I was prepared to give the Fruit Parfait a try, and off I did trot to the nearest checkout to part with my £1.97 for the pack of four.


- The Packaging -

The four Fruit Parfait are housed in a cardboard container, with the top of the packaging picturing fresh and ripe looking peaches on a bed of delectable cream. From the outer packaging the Fruit Parfait are made to look highly appealing, and the side of the packaging furthers this appeal with four ticks and promising signs that these desserts are 'Made with Real Fruit', 'Low Fat', a 'Source of Vitamin C', and are also 'Gluten Free'. The packaging and branding of the product is the first confusion; although packaged as a Fruit Parfait of ' Peaches and Vanilla crème', the French and German writing on the packaging states the dessert to be Peaches on a base of coconut, with no such mention of the vanilla element of the product. When you flip the product over, you reveal in English this time that the product is a 'Peaches and Coconut Based Dessert' and with ingredients listed of 2.5% Coconut Powder; it becomes ever clearer that the premise of 'Vanilla crème' is somewhat of a faux par.

Each of the four individual Fruit Parfait are encased in small clear plastic containers which aren't greatly appealing to the eye. Very basically packaged, Dole have clearly not gone to much effort with these desserts, and with the plastic film lid merely having 'Dole' written across it several times over in a dull drone of a pale red colouring; there is nothing greatly appealing about the way the Fruit Parfait are packaged.

When it comes to actually eating the Fruit Parfait; removing the film lid from the product becomes a highly difficult process whereby I had to spend a good amount of time trying to prize the film lid away from the plastic container underneath. If this is aimed at children as a lunch box style snack as I feel to be the case; the packaging has not had a particularly intelligent thought process behind it as it is not at all easy to get inside the Fruit Parfait, and it takes great strength and determination in order to finally arrive at your dessert.


- The Smell -

After the difficultly of removing the film lid from the dessert, the smell you are initially greeted with here is actually rather pleasant. Once opened, you are graced with the smell of fresh peach; a smell which I for one greatly adore. Peach has such a beautiful scent and it was so great to open up the Fruit Parfait and feel the freshness hit my nostrils. It is therefore with great sadness that soon to kick in is a slight undertone of artificially produced coconut with an aroma which is rather off putting and doesn't leave you confident that the Dole Fruit Parfait will be tantalising to the taste buds. In fact, you pretty much no for sure that bringing yourself to eating the Dole Fruit Parfait is going to be an ultimately unpleasant experience.


- The Taste -

On their own the peach pieces taste rather nice; standard tinned peach slices which I happen to be a huge fan of. The problem I thus have with the product is not with the peach, but with the 'vanilla crème' it is drowned in with its vulgar artificial flavouring. The taste of the crème is not even remotely pleasant, and to me has a powdery feel to it on the tongue, leaving a disgusting lingering after taste long after you have stopped eating the Fruit Parfait. Fruit is clearly something that Dole specialise in, however they definitely need to go back to the drawing board with their crème as I can't imagine it having many fans. When you buy a product promising a 'Vanilla crème', it is always going to be with great displeasure that you discover it to have a coconut flavouring. Even I as a fan of coconut was greatly disappointed when I found this to be the case, however had the crème have been nice, my initial disappointment would have been overcome and I would have looked at the Dole Fruit Parfait with a favourable attitude. The taste of the 'Vanilla crème' here is so grotesque that never again could I possibly bring myself to eat another of their Fruit Parfait regardless of how hungry I happen to be.


- Conclusion -

Dole Fruit Parfait is not a product that I will ever feel inclined to buy again; it is a nightmare to even get in to in the first place, it has a horribly artificial tasting crème that leaves a nasty and overpowering after taste, and it is by no means a healthy snack. With its 'New' labelling and appealing outer packaging; Dole Fruit Parfait is no doubt going to sell well for the time being, however how well it sells after people have already tasted it remains to be seen. For many, Dole Fruit Parfait is bound to be a one time purchase avoided for evermore. I guess one plus point about the product is that it has a shelf life of 6 months so if you don't like it then it'll keep a while for feeding to unsuspecting friends when they come to visit, the flip side of this of course is that with such a lengthy shelf life the number of preservatives contained in the product doesn't bear thinking about.



- Trivia -

- Nintendo fans may be familiar with the Dole Food Company as in the first three Super Monkey Ball games - the bananas in the game have Dole stickers on them as if shop bought. After Super Monkey Ball Jr. was released however, Dole ceased sponsoring the Super Monkey Ball bananas. For all those not in the know; Super Monkey Ball is a popular Nintendo game and the bananas play an important part in the game as they are used for increasing points scores, buying items, and for the gaining of lives.

- The mascot of Dole Food Company is Bobby Banana; a foam figure of Bobby Banana was produced for some time, however is was eventually discontinued in the end as it was seen to be rather phallic an object. The figure of Bobby Banana was standing straight, with its body swelling towards the top, with large round shoes at its base.


For those wishing to visit the Dole website, it can be found at the following address:
http://www.dole.com

Summary: A disgusting dessert I shan't be buying again in a hurry.