The New Year is here and due to the holidays there has not been much news about the future sale of the different Hostess brands, including Home Pride bread.

I did however see a couple of interesting news reports from Utah about how the lack of Wonder Bread and Home Pride Bread was affecting the WIC program. Luckily they have several new bread brands approved for the program so the children are still getting bread. It is interesting how the bankruptcy of Hostess is affecting people in different ways.

I also saw some interesting pictures of a Redneck wedding cake made with Hostess snack products. Any couple wanting to have a similar cake will have to wait awhile to get married.

The next step in the process will be for Hostess to announce who the Stalking-Horse bidders are later this month. We will then have a good idea as to who will be buying the different brands.

Perhaps by March we will have some of our favorite brands back again :-).

So now for the update on my quest for the temporary replacement for Home Pride.

First we had my initial post: Not My Bread!!

The first candidate was Safeway’s Butter Top Wheat.

I covered this candidate in Home Pride Update.

Then came Sara Lee 100% Whole Wheat.

This was a good candidate and is the current front runner but now has some competition, see the details in Home Pride Update II.

The next candidate was Oroweat Soft Family 100% Whole Wheat.

I was a little disappointed with this loaf of bread. See Home Pride Update III for details.

During the last couple of weeks I tried out Oven Joy.

Oven Joy is another one of Safeway’s store brands. I liked the look and texture of this bread. It has actually been the best bread so far for making toast, which is a very important feature that I am looking for. The toast soaks up the butter and is transformed into a nice textured surface. I have even been putting cinnamon and sugar on the toast as it absorbs readily unlike some of the other choices.

The bread is not as good as the Sara Lee 100% Whole Wheat for sandwiches, but is a good choice. I am trying to decide which is more important, toast or sandwiches. Which one needs the best bread?

So what bread is the next candidate?

I decided to give Sara Lee Honey Wheat a try since I liked the Sara Lee 100% Whole Wheat that I tried earlier. Initial returns are not promising, but we will see whether the taste grows on me. I also spotted another bread that I want to try, so may still have time before I make my choice for a Home Pride replacement.

I am looking forward to seeing who the bidders will be for the different Hostess products. I am hoping that a good solid company with a great national distribution system will buy Home Pride. I just hope it is not a regional company that doesn’t include California in their distribution area. Oh, and not Wal-Mart or Kroger which have been rumored to be looking at Hostess assets. Let them have Twinkies if they want part of Hostess 🙂

Do you know what a Stalking-Horse Bid is? Check out the definition at Investopedia.

Steven

For more posts on this subject, click on Home Pride Bread.