Big Slice Cherry Vanilla Kettle Cooked Apples - Target

Big Slice Cherry Vanilla Kettle Cooked Apples - Target

By now I think most of you have realized that I'm cheap frugal. I love shopping the clearance racks and Target tends to have a bunch of really interesting food products on their discount food end-cap. I've gotten awesome Avocado Oil Salt & Vinegar Chips, great Indian meal kits, and now...some kind of apple sauce packet? To be honest I'm not entirely sure if this is apple sauce, or some kind of pie filling, or how you're even supposed to eat it, but for $1.74? Why not find out?

I picked this up in the first place because the packaging was really unique. It's some kind of squeezable packet. It's square. It's a peg-bag, and it has this beautifully modern design with bright pops of color. At first glance, I was really surprised that this was a clearance item. It looks so nice! 

The packet is pretty large, a bit larger than a CD case, and thin. At first I thought this was one of those single serving applesauce-style fruit on the go packets that have been really popular the last year or two, but there's no spout or cap. It's a tear open, one and done, kind of thing, but it's pretty large. Is this a single serving? According to the package it is.

I tore the top off that bag, which came off really easily, and inside was...not pretty.

Oh god. It looks like...well, we all know what it looks like. And squeezing it out of the package wasn't doing it any favors. I understand why it looks so...brown. It's a kettle cooked apple, mixed with kettle cooked cherries. Apples oxidize and turn down, cherries oxidize and turn purple brown, the colors together look...barf-y, but this stuff smells AMAZING. I can smell real vanilla bean, and see flecks of vanilla bean in the sauce, and the fruit smells deliciously caramelized but fresh. Imagine apple and cherry pie filling, with actual vanilla bean. If this were a perfume or a candle it'd be an insta-buy for me. The smell is amazing enough that I braved the ugliness of this fruity sauce and popped a spoonful into my mouth. 

WOW! It's fan-freaking-tastic! It's all the goodness of a fruity pie filling and less than 100 calories? I guess the one caveat is how it looks, which is definitely off putting to consumers used to red food dyes and all those preservatives, but if you close your eyes and take a taste of this stuff, it's absolutely heavenly. It tastes like homemade, gourmet, cherry pie filling, mixed with apples and real vanilla bean. The fruit still has some texture to it, and the sauce is thick and syrupy. It's way more decadent than it has any right to be, especially when it's only 90 calories, and I imagine it would be even more amazing heated up and served with a big scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. (Oh man, that sounds good right now.) 

I looked this stuff up online, and it looks like you're supposed to eat it out of the pouch with a fork, which would probably help with the ugly factor, but once I got over my immaturity over it's looks, I really fell in love with this product. This is one of those classic, "Don't judge a book by it's cover" kind of foods. The packaging is pretty, the product is ugly, but the contents are absolutely delicious. I will be going back and grabbing a few more packets of this stuff for my work lunches, if it's still around, because it is just THAT good. Big Slice is a really interesting product, and I never knew it existed until I saw it on Target's Clearance rack, but now that I know it's out there, I look forward to finding more and trying new flavors.   

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
Like me on facebook to keep up with all my adventures!