Savoring the best recollections: 25 years of Taster's Choice

Explore the world of packaged and prepared foods in order to find the best-tasting products in Bay Area grocery stores.

[...] after more than a quarter century, as we retire the column, we're taking stock of which products and flavors captured our fancy - and which ones we wish we'd never tasted.

Cola to caviar The foods ranged from fads like clear colas in the early 1990s to high-end items like caviar in 2007.

In 1989, the week after the Loma Prieta earthquake, we held an epic tasting of 374 microwavable food products suitable for an earthquake preparedness pantry.

Mark recalls tastings of coffee and peppermint ice creams - "a dream to get to taste so many at once."

For Luchetti, it was canned green beans: "all terrible!"

Strong reactionsIntensely flavored items, like anchovies, Dijon mustard and black licorice, which can overwhelm tasters' palates, have also proved challenging.

Food Editor Miriam Morgan recalls the 1997 tasting of sourdough baguettes, San Francisco's signature bread.

Double-checkingTo verify the results, Morgan called the panel back for a repeat tasting.

[...] only a couple points behind it, and for a fraction of the price, was Hershey's Old Fashioned Fudge Topping, in a can with a yellow label.

In the short time that I've run Taster's Choice, I've acquired a new appreciation for the wide range of products on market shelves, and for the subtle differences that can make a brand shine - or not.

25 years of fad foods Often fun, occasionally cruel (at least according to our panelists), yet always informative - here are some of the fad foods and other unusual items Taster's Choice has tasted over the years:

Green tea drinks (2003)

Hall of Fame Retrospective Here's a look back at the top-scoring products of each year for the past 25 years.

Pumate San Remo sun-dried tomatoes in oil

Knudsen single-serving apple juice, Cobb Mountain non-carbonated mineral water, Lady Lee vanilla extract, Regina and Star red wine vinegars, Kudos chocolate-chip chocolate-coated granola bars, Steve's premium vanilla ice cream

Plugra unsalted butter

2001: TIE - Santa Cruz organic unsweetened apple sauce & Laura Scudder's mustard pretzels

2002: TIE - Dagoba organic milk chocolate & Garden of Eatin' yellow corn tortillas

2007: TIE - Athenos Original pita chips & Aunt Jemima regular pancake mix

Kettle baked potato chips