If your question isn’t answered here, please contact us.

GENERAL

What is Bite of the Best?
What is a Bite?
What do you mean by interactive site?
Are Bites paid for?
How do you find your products?
I have a product I’d like to recommend, who do I tell?
Why register?
Why should I log in?
Why doesn’t the password you sent let me log in?
How do I change my password?
What if I forgot my password?
Is it correct that only registered users can post a comment, rate a product, or take advantage of the special offers?
How can I review a product?
How do I rate a product?
How can I search for a Bite?
How does the archive work?
Why is the price in the store higher than in your product description?

MARKETPLACE

How can I include my product in your Marketplace?
How can I advertise in the Marketplace?
Why don’t all items in the Marketplace offer deals?
Why aren’t all items in the Marketplace written about in the Bites?
What is a MarketplaceBite?

NEWSBITE

How do I sign up for your NewsBite?
What’s the difference between subscribing and creating a login account?
How can I unsubscribe?
Why do I only get a piece of the Bite in my email?

BITE OF THE REST

What is Bite of the Rest?
What is a BOTR product?
How does a product become a BOTR listing?
What is a free listing?
What is a featured partnered listing?
How do I search through the BOTR product listings?
How did you classify foods in each of these categories?
Are BOTR products available to purchase now?
Where can I buy the BOTR products?
What is “To Bite or Not to Bite?”
Who will answer questions about BOTR products?
I have a product I would like to list on BOTR. How do I do that?

GENERAL


What is Bite of the Best? An interactive site that contains Bites written about a sampling of the best products we’ve tried and recommend, and a Marketplace with offers for you.

What is a Bite? It’s our NewsBite (the photo and factoid sent in an email) plus postings from the three of us—Bonnie, Bryan, Eric—about that product.

What do you mean by interactive site? It’s interactive in that we write our Bites, you comment on what we’ve written, and others comment on what you’ve written.

It’s also interactive in that you can rate each product with one to five crowns, five being the highest. The ratings are from you—our registered users—not from us. Since we recommend all the products, we don’t rate them.

Are Bites paid for? Absolutely not! We write about the products we’ve sampled and think are outstanding—ones we feel must be tried!

How do you find your products? Since I’ve been reviewing products for 25+ years, the products often find me! The manufacturers or public relations folks representing these products send me samples, hoping I may include them in one of my many media outlets. I also attend various trade shows and find some items at them or when traveling.

I have a product I’d like to recommend, who do I tell? Thanks ahead for suggesting something you feel is outstanding. Use our “Suggest a product” link to send ideas. Include as much information as you have about the product. And do let us know if you’re a PR person, manufacturer/producer of the product or a friend of one of those. If so, give us the contact info, making it easier for us to find and get samples of the product.

Why register? Registering allows you to be part of our online community. Once you register, you’re allowed to log in and review and rate products, comment on postings, and take advantage of marketplace offers.

We’d like you to have easy access to additional information about our recommended products and to be able to take advantage of free offers, coupons, recipe booklets and other goodies the manufacturer decides to provide.

We do this to prevent spamming.

Why should I log in? By logging in, you can take advantage of the marketplace offers, participate by posting your thoughts about and rating our Bites, and sign up to receive the RSS feed to your reader, if you like.

Why doesn’t the password you sent let me log in? Give it a try again, this time by cutting and pasting it in the “Password” box, and making sure there’s not a space before it. Our passwords are case sensitive.

How do I change my password? Just login, click “My Profile” under the side Login menu, go to the “update your password” section and enter your new password (twice). Be sure to click the UPDATE PROFILE button. The new password takes effect immediately.

What if I forgot my password? Click the “forgot password” under the side Login menu, complete the form and a new password will be emailed to you. Once you get your new password, login and change it to something you can remember on your profile page. (See changing your password above.)

Is it correct that only registered users can  take advantage of the special offers? These offers are solely for registered users. Makes you feel special, huh?

How can I review a product? Once you’ve registered for the site, you may make a comment or review a product. Just log in, click “Review or Comment” and write and give us your opinions. We do want to hear them, whether or not they agree with ours. (Especially if they don’t agree with ours!) Once completed, be sure to click “Submit Comment.”

We have the right not to include comments. See Terms of Use #2.

And, if you’d like to know when someone else posts a comment on the product you’re reviewing, be sure to check “Notify me of follow-up comments via email” and we’ll do so.

How do I rate a product? Just log in, click on the gray crowns to turn them golden to indicate the number of crowns you want to give the product; 5-crowns is the highest rating. When rating, ask yourself: Would you recommend this product? Would you buy this product? Your crown-rating will be averaged into that of all others. By the way, you can only rate a product once, and can’t change your rating once you’ve submitted it.

How can I search for a Bite? Use our Search function. Type in a word or two and click on “Search”.

How does the archive work? Once a Bite is posted, it’s automatically stored in our archives. You can view the archives by date of post, category, brand name or reader rating.

Why is the price in the store higher than in your product description? That’s the manufacturer’s prerogative! At the time of the Bite posting and sending of the NewsBite the price was correct. All prices – and availability – are subject to change.

MARKETPLACE


How can I include my product in your Marketplace? You can’t unless we invite you. Let’s back up a step. First you can suggest your product, then we’ll evaluate it to see whether we’d select it to be featured in one of our Bites. If so, we will invite you to participate in the Marketplace and offer Coupons, Freebies & More to our registered users.

How can I advertise in the Marketplace? As mentioned above, it’s by invitation only. But you may suggest a product for review; if it’s selected as a Bite of the Best, then you’ll be invited to participate in the Marketplace.

Why don’t all items in the Marketplace offer deals? We invite manufacturers to participate in the Marketplace, requesting that they include some special offer, but what they choose to offer is entirely up to them.

Why aren’t all items in the Marketplace written about in the Bites? We haven’t gotten to them yet. Products—that we’ve tried and plan to recommend in a Bite—have been invited to participate in the Marketplace and offer you special discounts, free samples, recipe booklets, coupons and more.

What is a MarketplaceBite? It’s the Marketplace participant’s ad that includes the NewsBite plus information about the product and special offers. It also has links to our Bite, the manufacturer’s site and their “Coupons, Freebies & More”.

NEWSBITE


How do I sign up for your NewsBite? Click the NewsBite Signup arrow, enter your email address, click the Sign Up button and then be sure to enter the spam code in the text box and click on the “Complete Subscription Request” button. We’ll send you a verification link; just click on it to complete the sign up.

What’s the difference between subscribing and creating a login account? When you subscribe, you will receive our NewsBite by email, letting you know what product we’re recommending. Creating a login account allows you to be interactive on our site.

How can I unsubscribe? Just click on the link on the bottom of any NewsBite you receive. We only want to send our NewsBite to those who want to receive it. You’ll just need to verify by pressing the “Yes, unsubscribe me now” button.

Why do I only get a piece of the Bite in my email? The NewsBite is intended to be as unobtrusive as possible. You receive only the photo, the factoids (all the details about the product) and whether the manufacturer offers something special for you. Short and sweet. The NewsBite should take just a few seconds to digest.

If, though, you want the full posting—with all the dialogue and the opportunity to give us your opinions—just click on the “Read the Entire Post” link.

BITE OF THE REST


What is “Bite of the Rest”?
Bite of the Rest (BOTR) is an interactive section of Bite of the Best featuring the newest foods, beverages and appliances being introduced.

What is a BOTR product?
Any product – whether from a “mom and pop” company or a multinational conglomerate – that is in the introductory stage of its marketing cycle. BOTR products represent what will be, or have just been, released.

How does a product become a BOTR listing?
Company and marketing representatives (i.e. Kraft, Cabot, Birdseye, “mom and pop”) are allowed to submit recently introduced products to be listed in the BOTR section. BOTR also includes limited-edition items — those new products put on the market for a limited time.

What is a free listing?
Exactly what it says. A free listing allows manufacturers to post product information (i.e., variety, package size, price) for Bite of the Best readers to view.

What is a featured partnered listing?
In addition to the information in a free listing, featured partner listings allow manufacturers to include a company logo, product image, website link, video podcast and/or a coupon. Partner listings are also completely interactive, with reader comments going directly to the manufacturer for reply! Partnered Product Submission form.

How do I search through the BOTR product listings?
Site users can browse BOTR using the archives or site search by company, product name, or by one of the following 10 categories.
“Specialty” Foods
Beverages
Breakfast Items
Canned, Boxed & Bagged
Desserts & Snacks
Kitchen Counter, Drawer & More
Meats & Seafood
The “Spice” Rack
The Dairy Case
The Freezer Aisle

How did you classify foods in each of these categories?
Here is how we classified items in each of the categories.
1. Breakfast Items
Bacon
Cereal
Granola
Pancake mix

2. The Dairy Case
Cheese
Yogurt

3. “Specialty” foods
All Natural
Allergy Free
Calorie Controlled
Dairy Free
Enriched
Fiber
Fortified
Gluten Free
Natural
Organic
Peanut Free
Single-serve
Whole Grain

4. Desserts & Snacks
Baking Product
Biscuit
Cake
Candy
Chips
Chocolate
Confection
Cookie
Crackers
Frosting
Frozen Yogurt
Fruit (fresh, dried)
Ice cream
Nuts
Popcorn

5. “Spice” Rack
Chutney
Curry
Mayo, mustard
Oil, vinegars
Salad Dressing
Seasonings
Spices

6. Meats & Seafood
Deli
Pork
Poultry
Seafood
Pre-packed Meat

7. Canned, Boxed & Bagged
Canned Vegetable
Drink Mix
Dry Mix
Pasta
Prepackaged meals or sides
Rice
Sliced bread
Soup

8. The Freezer Aisle
Frozen Food
Microwaveable
Pizza

9. Beverages
Soda
Tea
Juice
Coffee

10 Kitchen Counter, Drawer and More

Are BOTR products available to purchase now?
All BOTR products will have an availability date listed with them.

Where can I buy the BOTR products?
That depends on the product. All BOTR products will list whether they are available locally, regionally, nationally or on the web.

What is “To Bite or Not to Bite?”
That is our question. For each listed product, we ask our readers if they would “bite” (purchase the product) or “not bite” (not purchase the product).

Who will answer questions about BOTR products?
BOTR offers one of the first chances for consumers to talk directly with the company offering the product — that is, if that company is participating. If the listing says “Click here to ask the company a question about the product,” then a company representative will answer your questions in the comment section for that product (answers will also be emailed to readers). All questions and answers will be posted under each product in the BOTR section.

If the listing only says “Click here to read or post comments,” then the company opted not to participate in receiving and responding to consumer questions.

I have a product I would like to list on BOTR. How do I do that?
Use the “Click here to submit your product” link.