A few years ago I had a gut-friendly soda that I actually liked, but completely forgot what flavor or brand it was. I've been casually searching for it ever since. Buying random cans here and there, but not putting that much energy into it.
My half-hearted search ends today! I finally found it!
I have a few days off work, so even though that Ollipop I tried before may or may not have caused me multiple days of stomach pain, I wanted to try the other flavors of Prebiotic sodas I already had in my fridge so I can toss the cans in the recycling.
While these are not overtly Halloween-themed, in my mind, they're Trick-or-Treat-adjacent. Stick with me and you'll see.
I don't drink booze, I rarely drink coffee, and I don't do artificial sweeteners or diet beverages. What I DO drink is a lot of water, seltzers, and soda. Soda is my coffee. (Soda is a god. Soda is the breeze in my hair on the weekend.)
Soda is my go-to caffeine boost, but we all know soda is not good for you, and I do like to make healthier choices when I can, so when I spotted these "healthy" sodas at Lidl I thought this could be a great alternative. That is, if they actually taste good.So, healthy mushroom-based sodas, a trick? Or a treat?
Happy Almost New Year! I'm back!
After my last post, I tested positive for COVID, and the symptoms hit me hard and fast. Much worse than when I had it before. Luckily, I had bought my cats a heating pad on Black Friday, because it came in clutch for the body aches. By day three, I lost my sense of smell and taste. (Which took all the fun out of my scented candle advent calendar.)
It took five days for my sense of smell to return, but it was pretty weak, and my taste was definitely off. Garlic, something I cook with and eat all the time, tasted unnaturally sweet, almost like a caramel. And in every form! I tried powdered seasoning, fresh garlic, and some garlic infused olive oil just to make sure something didn't expire on me, but it was me. ("I'm the problem, it's me.") It took two and a half weeks for my body to bounce back.
So, I'm here to celebrate with some seasonal kombucha!
When I spotted this, the gold and white made me think this was a New Years' item. So, I assumed this was like, champagne-themed or something. But, if I had bothered to read the label, this is vanilla, allspice, and cacao flavored? So, cookies? Cookie-bucha? I don't know about that...
If you're new here, I have a reaction to sucralose, which is a very commonly used artificial sweetener. A sip is fine, but a normal 12-16oz beverage containing the stuff can trigger vertigo that will not go away without medical intervention. Vertigo, for those lucky people who've never experienced it, causes a feeling of dizziness. This can range from mild annoyance to debilitating. For me, I was bedridden for over 24 hours while I attempted to "sleep it off," but I ended up in the ER where they finally gave me medicine that made it stop.
Sucralose is in a LOT of products (Sparkling ICE beverages were the cause of my ER visit), so I avoid them like the plague. That said, A PR rep for this kombucha brand reached out and sent me a pack of all five flavors to try. So while I got these products for free, this is not a paid promotion, and I always say exactly what I think, so this is, like always, a honest review. These contain less than 2% of erythritol, and I am not a foodie scientist (I'll leave that to CandyHunting), but after reading this 2005 article about sucralose vs erythritol, I felt safe enough to give these a try.
We have 5 flavors in total, Strawberry Lemonade, Tropical, Lemon Lime, Raspeberyr Dragonfruit and Blueberry Ginger.
Colorful packaging always wins me over, and this features every color in the rainbow PLUS a bunch of appealing fruity imagery. Other than it being labeled "Iced tea" and having tons of fruit on it, I know absolutely nothing about this product but...
Technology is really amazing you guys. I have a Pixel phone, so I took a photo and ran it through Google lens, and not only did it translate some of the bottle for me instantly, but it reverse image searched and found out that this is Master Kong brand tropical fruit iced tea. (And you can scan the code on the cap for...something. Prizes I presume?) We're living in the future.
Now that I know what it is, let's see how it tastes.
Tea Time
Long story short, I like tea, but my ex was obsessed. He would steep bags of green tea, peppermint tea, jasmine tea, and black tea, all mixed up, for hours at a time. Tea snobs would probably have a heart attack looking at the concoctions he made, but, I enabled him. (My bad.) Especially during the pandemic.
He went through tea so quickly that last March, when things started shutting down, I stocked up. People probably thought I had a bunker somewhere, but with his heavy usage of about 12 bags a day, what I bought would have been about 2 months worth. Imagine a large kitchen drawer filled with peppermint and green tea bags. Not long after that, he was gone. And here I am, STILL drinking peppermint tea over a year later. (Because I'm stubborn and hate wasting things.)
I am so sick of peppermint tea. So let's shake things up with some fruity summer flavors from Lidl and Aldi.
Pepsi Blue - 7-ElevenI wanted to introduce this as a "taste from my childhood" but I was in high school. So it's more accurate to say it's a taste from frizzy-haired-awkward-teens.
I remember getting this from gas stations from time to time, so I was excited for it's return. Just looking at it brings back every lyric to Eiffel 65's, Blue (Da Be Dee.) I had their CD back in the day and used to stay up watching MTV2 on the weekends so I could see their weird music video with CG aliens (along with other animated videos like Daft Punk and Gorillaz.)
Without further ado, let's drink some Windex Da Ba Dee Da Ba Di!
Dr. Pepper & Cream Soda
Last I heard, Dr. Pepper had a limited edition birthday cake flavor that was only available through some kind of online birthday club thing. I love Dr. Pepper, but I hate the anxiety and rush that comes from chasing down limited edition products, especially when they're limited to online releases, raffles, sign-ups, and social media contests. So, I didn't participate, but I was sad that I missed out. Then there was a 2015 Dr. Pepper themed water ice at Rita's that was only available in Texas, no where near me. Again, kinda bummed I missed out on that as well.
That was the last I had heard about anything Dr. Pepper related. So when I saw Dr. Pepper and Cream soda at Walmart I thought, "huh, why not?"
I normally like to be detached and light hearted in food posts, and I know this has been a difficult time for everyone, but somedays I'm able to take it in stride, and other days it just sucker-punches me in the gut. This month was filled with a lot of sucker-punch-days.
But in the end, my little food blog here is one of my happy places on the internet. So let's all take a breath, get cozy, and have a cup of tea to forget about all the hard stuff for a minute.
I'm certainly no stranger when it comes to pumpkin teas. Over the years I have had three different varieties: Celestial Seasonings, Trader Joe's, and HT, and while that is but a mere scratch on the pumpkin-themed-tea surface, I still feel like I have a pretty good base to judge this new contender.
I live for the summer, but I also adore Halloween, so I find myself feeling very conflicted when the season starts to change, and it's hitting me harder this year than ever before. On one hand, the days get shorter, and the temperature drops, so no more sun and tank tops, but there's Halloween candy and spooky decor to look forward to, which warms my black little heart.
Why can't there be a real Summerween, like in Gravity Falls? It's like it was custom made for me!
Anyway, I spotted these watermelon themed kombucha flavors at Lidl and thought they would be a fun foodie send off for the dumpster-fire that was summer 2020.
We're cutting back on soda, as a household, and we've been looking to bubbly water to curb our cravings, and you know what? It's kind of working.
Although all the sugar and citric acid in soda isn't great, our real reason from cutting back is the amount of caffeine we've been ingesting. Between coffee, tea, and soda...it was just too much and it wasn't helping with our already erratic sleep schedules. (Well rested who? We don't know her.)
Thankfully, Aldi has a lot of sparkling water/seltzer varieties to choose from including the bougie mainstream brand La Croix. It's been two weeks of bubbly water, so, here are a few of the items I picked up and what we think!
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, Icall BSdeclare 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.
After going to the doctor for the first time in five years....I've been trying to get a little healthier. Don't worry, if I ever do get back to regular blogging (which I really really want to do), I won't be getting all health-foodie on you guys. I just need to start taking better care of myself. Ah, the joys of adulthood.
I lost 14 lbs. of body weight...and gained 14 lbs. of Pomeranian. Meet Pepper! Jack-Jack's new little brother who we adopted a few weeks ago!
So, all of my pants don't fit, I have a new pup, my day job has been crazy busy, my tomato plants are sprouting, our Chinchilla is getting more and more snuggly, and I bought a butt-load of cool drinks from the Asian Food Market. That pretty much catches you up on my life, so let's crack open some of these bottles and do some quickie reviews!
This line of teas has the BEST illustrations on their labels. Seriously, each one looks like it should be printed onto fabric and turned into trendy clothing and throw pillows. I feel in love with their visuals and reviewed their Peach Oolong tea awhile back, and now I'm back again, this time with a BANG. A Big Bang.
I actually found an awesome Lionel Richie mug with that exact saying at the thrift store.
Most of you know that I got a new job a few months ago, I'm still a graphic designer, but instead of making business cards and custom invites, I'm working with food! Right before the holidays I received a big gift basket filled with different specialty products, like these tea-flavored candies. They sound really refreshing, so let's get this review started!
(Remember when, "like a boss," was a thing?)
I think it's common knowledge that Japan loves their vending machines. You can buy hot and cold drinks, snacks, canned soups and even mystery boxes covered in ghost stories. (Okay, that last one isn't as widely known as the others.)
I've have friends that have been to japan and told me that Boss coffee was the best vending machine coffees they've ever had. I've been waiting for a can/bottle to make it's way to the Asian Food Market every since, and it's finally here!
It's not limited edition, holiday-themed, or "on-trend," but this yuzu and lemon drink sounded so light and refreshing! I had to have it. Into my cart it went, along with some other bottled beverages, way too much candy, and some Pop'n Cookin' kits that have been done-to-death on YouTube. (That won't stop me from trying them for myself!)
I'm really excited to drink this, so let's (very briefly) cover the packaging and get right into the review!
I love vinegar! In my early 20's I had intense stress-related stomach issues that put me out of commission for several months, and the cure? Vinegar! (And less stress. I love vinegar, but let's not be click-bait-y. It's not a cure all!)
It's popular to use vinegar for pickling, sauces, and dressings, but I straight up drink it! I'm sure that sounds weird to most people, but I'm not alone!
Pumpkin spicers will have to pry summer out of my cold, dead, hands. (Says the girl who reviews 20+ pumpkin spice items each fall. #hypocrite)
Don't get me wrong, I am hype for all the Halloween goodies lining the shelves, but August is (almost) over and the only tan I have is on my left arm, courtesy of my long rides to and from work each day. This cannot be! I refuse to let summer disappear without having some fun and adventure. Or, at the very least, evening out my trucker tan.
Sadly, I don't think I'll find the time to even out my tan, but I did find some watermelon juices to prolong my summertime sadness.
