Nicholson Elementary fifth-grader Lexie Olson took a swig of sour apple drink and didn't pucker up.

"It's not as sour as I was thinking it would be," she said. "It's really good."

Andy Sharp/AJC (ENLARGE)

Hayes Elementary School kindergartners Amy Reid (left), 6, and Elaine Acree, 5, taste test Popsicles. Kids were able to participate in Cobb County's 'New Product Preview.'

Andy Sharp/AJC (ENLARGE)

Argyle Elementary School fourth grader Darius Redmon has mixed reactions to a product made with chicken. Kids in the Cobb County public school system converged on the Cobb Civic Center to sample foods and drinks the school system will consider for the next school year's menus.

RELATED LINKS: • More Cobb news • Photos: Students' taste test

It didn't rate a smiley face from her on the vendor's chart, but it didn't get a frowning face either.

About 2,000 students took a break from class Tuesday to taste test the latest offerings for the Cobb County school lunch menu next year.

"It wasn't the best," said classmate Mackenzie Barmen, of the sour apple drink. The fifth-grader preferred the strawberry-kiwi flavor. It rated 11 smiley face stickers.

The kids used the stickers to let school nutritionists know their opinions.

After all, they're the target market in Cobb's $48 million school food program.

Last year, school food program participation in Cobb was about 84 percent, school officials said. The 107,000-student school district serves about 82,000 lunches and breakfasts each day.

"Very Vanilla Soymilk" rated a big "yuck" from one taster, but it won 12 smiley face stickers and four frowning faces by midmorning.

Still fifth-grader John Catton stuffed his mouth full of beef patty at Table 29 and pronounced it "wonderful."

The whole grain penne pasta was a coin toss 10 thumbs down, nine up.

At its table, Riptide nutrition drink sales representatives talked up the healthy advantages of their product: less sugar, fewer calories than skim milk, calcium, fiber and low sodium.

Yeah, but does it taste good?

Would a kid be willing to spend their change to buy it as an a la carte item on the lunch lines?

Students and their teachers leaned in through the crowd at the Cobb Civic Center on Tuesday for plastic cup samples of the neon-colored beverages.

Barbie Poore, a sales representative with the food brokerage firm, First Flight Foods, was at the next table, offering teriyaki beef blasters, and packaged turkey and grilled cheese sandwiches with a cute cartoon character logo on the front.

"We're pulling out all the stops on packaging so that it will appeal to kids. The nutrition drink had switched to cans resembling power drinks," she noted. "But if it's not tasty, they're not going to eat it."

Cobb's Food and Nutrition Executive Director Cynthia Downs said she was more interested in what's inside the packaging: whole wheat, low fructose sugar, zero trans fat, lower sodium, no high caffeine and a price tag that's within her budget.

Do kids' votes count?

"Absolutely," Downs said. "It's a starting point for us. We change out some items every year. But, sometimes, the items may be too costly."

Members of the public, Cobb school administrators, and food service personnel from neighboring school districts were invited to the daylong "New Product Preview."

The latest possible offerings for lunch ranged from batter-dipped and toasted green beans (a surprising favorite) to vinegar barbecue.

The green bean sales representative Sharon Bologna with Innovative Concept food brokers, grinned.

"It's another way to get a vegetable in them," she said. "We're trying to be as healthy as we can be. Whole grain is the new buzz word."

Students chowed down on Bell Blue ice cream's newest offerings, including frozen yogurt.

By the time they returned to their buses for the trip back to school, the kids were stuffed and curious to know what would make the cut and show up on the lunch line next year.