Count Chocula Gets a Seasonal Makeover? - Chocolate Lucky Charms

Chocolate Lucky Charms  - Aldi

So Lucky Charms seems to be branching out and offering it's delightful marshmallow-y cereal in a new array of flavors, and I'm left asking, why?

Pancakes: Breakfast Champions? Or Glorified Syrup Sponges?

Trader Joe's Pancake Bread  - Trader Joe's

I haven't bought anything from Trader Joe's since I moved into my house two years ago. It's too far of a drive, so I've been living vicariously through my friends over at What's Good at Trader Joe's.  There have been some murmurs of a Trader Joe's AND a Costco being built in my area in the near future, but I'll believe it when I see it. We've been burned by business promises before.

Anyway, while my boyfriend fiance (still not used to it!) was out, he happened to see a Trader Joe's and popped in to grab me a pancake-y present because, "It looks like something you'd review." And he's right!  

Today I'm going to skip packaging and get right into the review! (For the record, packaging is cute, but a little boring.) 

Kari Poké! - Confessions of a Pokemon Hoarder

Kari Pori Pokémon Candy Sticks - Empty Boxes Being Sold HERE on eBay

Confession time, I haven't played a Pokémon game since the original Gold and Silver on Gameboy Color. Well, I have played a bit of Pokémon Stadium (love those mini games) and Pokkén, but I don't think those really count. 

I still consider myself a fan of the franchise, and I keep up with all the new Pokémon being released, but I just don't have time to play games like I used to. In spite of my lack of integration in the bread and butter of the fan-base, I still buy tons of random Pokémon merch! I have all of these boxes you see above, some regrettable gum that came with collectible stickers (as seen on my Instagram), some laser cut Pokémon seaweed sheets, and a box of pouches containing (what I believe to be) children's curry in my pantry. I just can't help myself. I see that sweet little electric rat's face and into my cart it goes. (I'm also hype for Detective Deadpool Pikachu.)  

I have a lot of Pokémon stuff piled up in my home...and I am running out of places to put it. A lot of it sits forgotten in bins that never see the light of day, and that is a shame. So, to fix all that, and to get hype for the upcoming movie, I decided to review it all and get rid of it. Time to Marie Kondo this b*tch! But...in true hoarder fashion, I don't want to just get rid of it all, instead I'll be putting all the packaging up on eBay so it'll hopefully find a new, loving, home where it can be displayed proudly. If that fails...I guess it'll go in the recycling bin, The circle of Poke-life and all that, but at least I tried!~

First up, these Kari Pori sticks. The candy is expired, but I'm going to review it anyway! 

Who's House? Cool's Haus!

Coolhaus Chocolate Molten Cake Ice Cream  - Aldi

I cheated on Aldi's $1.99 pints of ice cream (which are AMAZING) to give this a try. Hopefully it'll be worth the extra pennies....

Taste The Travel - Internationally Inspired m&m's

Internationally Inspired m&m's  - Walgreens $1.11 each

The most interesting thing about these new flavors is their lack of uniqueness. I'm getting flashbacks to the Chili Nut, Coffee Nut, and Honey Nut m&m's that were released back in ...2016?! Wow, it honestly feels like that was just last year, but (apparently) it's been a while.

Here we are again, in 2019, with a new trio of flavors to vote for, but are they really that "new?" Mexican Jalapeno is a call back to 2016's Chili Nut, We've had Coconut m&m's back in 2012, and Toffee? Okay, I'll admit, that one is pretty "new," but if it turns out that this is just caramel-flavored (which I suspect it is) we've already seen that before as well. 

So, will anything here impress me?

Frieza is Cool, but His brother is Cooler, Just Saiyan - Dragon Ball Beverages

Dragon Ball Beverages

I love Dragonball, especially Dragonball Z, but you know what I don't love? Their novelty products. I've had a few in the past, both snacks and beverages, and they were mediocre at best and inedible at their worst. One of these days I'll finally wise up and ignore the nostalgia pangs in my heart when I see these characters on the grocery store shelves, but that day is not today!

Pudding CORN BUH-BAH~!

Crown Pudding Corn BBA  - H-Mart

I have no idea how "BBA" is meant to be pronounced, it could be "bee bee ey," or it could be "BUH-BAH!" Since the characters are in all caps on the bag I imagine it being yelled in exclamation. Although I am 99% sure my pronunciation of it is incorrect, I am going to stick with it because it makes me nonsensically happy. CORN BUH-BAH!

Not only do these have a fun name, but they are also banana flavored! (If you're new here, spoiler alert, I freaking love banana.) I tried looking these up online to learn a little more about it, and not much turned up. Just a MunchPak page where this was once a featured item. Oh, and this page where it says the item was recalled. And this page. No big deal. Totally fine. 

If I hadn't Googled this for nonsensical reasons, I never would have known about the recall, which is scary to think about. Thankfully, it seems the recall was due to an undeclared dairy ingredient which some people with dairy allergies reacted to. With my history of buying interesting foreign foods that usually have stickers with translated nutritional information, I can see how the slip up occurred. There have been a lot of labels I have seen over the years with incorrect or mislabeled translations. Whatever software they use to create those seems to have the same accuracy as Google translate. Being the non-dairy-allergy risk taker I am...I'm going to eat these anyway.

Paczki Fever

Paczki  - Aldi $2.89

So, seemingly out of the blue, Paczki showed up on at Aldi.

Now, if you haven't heard of Paczki, you're not alone. I hadn't heard of them until a few years ago. From what I understand they are a polish dessert that is very similar to a doughnut, but richer, and they are usually eaten before the start of Lent. As I understand it, this is a last sugary hurrah that uses up all the not-so-Lent friendly ingredients in your pantry so you can indulge now and (ideally) won't be tempted later. 

Growing up in a mostly secular household, all of this was pretty foreign to me, but you don't have to observe Lent in order to enjoy this pastry, so let's give these a try! 

I found these on an end-cap new the check-out. Visually, they're not much to look at. We have a plastic clam-shell with a plain-looking red, white, and black label. The clear plastic allows the pastries to be the center of attention, but in my opinion, they don't look any different from a classic custard-filled doughnut from Dunkin. Since Paczki are trending right now, with the upcoming holidays, I decided to buy them in-spite of their lack-luster appearance. (Was that a mistake?)   

Once opened, they smell....like a typical creme filled doughnut. These smell like fried dough, sweet custard, and vanilla. The aroma is appealing, but it's certainly not unique. The scent is classic custard-filled doughnut. Maybe it'll taste richer or more complex?  

At first bite, I was immediately underwhelmed, but then after a few more bites...I graduated to full blown disappointment. The dough base is sweet, fluffy, and fatty. It kind of melts in your mouth, so texturally it's great, but flavor-wise it was so bland. When your doughnut is more texture than flavor, something is wrong. I thought the custard filling might help, but it too was rather bland and flavorless. It has the texture of vanilla pudding, and a bit of egg-y custard flavor, but again, it was mostly bland. This tastes sweet, like sugar, but not much else and while that isn't a bad thing, it certainly wasn't great. 

In the end, I feel like this was a waste of perfectly good calories. Oddly enough, my fiance was really into these. He liked the chewy doughy texture and that moist filling. I He thought they tasted much fresher and lighter than most cream filled doughnuts you'd buy in a grocer store, and I can see that. The filling and doughnut weren't overpowering, that's for sure, and and when you compare that to the sometimes crusty sugar bomb doughnuts you can buy in grocery bakeries, it makes sense that this more bland version would be so refreshing by comparison. This wasn't the best doughnut he'd ever eaten, but for a store-bought pastry he was pleasantly surprised.  

These are pretty okay doughnuts, and would pair nicely with coffee or tea, but as a stand-alone treat, I consider these a fail. (But to be fair, my fiance would buy these again in a heartbeat, he liked eating one for breakfast with a cup of green tea.) It all depends on your personal tastes, but I'd say you should get your Paczki fix elsewhere. 

In case you missed it, I posted a few stash-busting gum reviews over on my Instagram. I'm hoping to do a few of these each weekend to make myself less of a food hoarder. Check out my NEW Quik Review section.  

Keep Up with My Adventures on Social Media!

You Put The Lemon in the Coconut? - Coconut Lemonade

LemonCocco  - McFarlan's Market $2.29

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to accompany my mom on a trip to Rome. We saw coliseums, churches, and museums. You know what we didn't see? LemonCocco. 

Now, I'm not calling this beverage a liar, but...it's a liar. The text on the can claims that LemonCocco is THE drink in Rome with coconut and lemon vendors lining the streets, and unless this is some kind of recent development, I call BS declare shenanigans. 

To be fair, pretty much all food items puff up their chests and make these bold declarations to drum up buzz and business, so I can't really fault them for that. (Just like every pizza place claims they have the "best pizza in <insert area here>," or were "voted best in <random publication>.") I can't exactly fly out to Rome and search for street vendors to see if their claims are true, but what I CAN do is see if this drink is any good.