It's official, I've finally been doing this long enough that I've started to forget products.Take a look at this, vs, 2019's Apple Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Similar, yet, different. And 2019 wasn't even that long ago! (I guess that means that the flavor combination was rather forgettable.)
Welp, at the very least, the cereal shape is different. So let's see how this compares to my old post. As always, I'll do a dry taste test and then a bowl with milk.
We have a new Big Cup, and this time there's Reese's Puff cereal inside.I found the last two flavors, pretzel and potato chip, pretty disappointing. Not bad, but far from great. I bought them once to review them, and then never again. But, the one with the Reese's Pieces inside? Amazing. I actually like them more than the original!
Reese's-ception, doubling down on the good stuff we all know and love, seems to be where their products really shine. And we've gone full-circle. The cereal's slogan was, "It's Reese's, for breakfast!" But now we have...breakfast for Reese's? (The line delivery from that TV ad lives rent free in my head.)
Another, normal, year-round product with a spOoky makeover. Now I got this as a gift, so part of me feels obligated to gush over it, and yes, it has great seasonal box art, but I'm going to take this opportunity to voice a (potentially) hot take instead.
Reese's Puffs. Are Garbage. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Before avid Reese's-fans roast me, let me explain.
I'm one of you! I love Reese's Cups, and mourn the loss of the really awesome Reese's Oreo collab. I may not be a peanut butter addict, BUT I do love peanut butter breakfast cereal, and when it comes to great peanut butter flavor, this ain't it.
Froot Loop Gummies
Like most novelty items, I thought this was a gimmick. That these would look like Froot Loops, but taste like generic fruity flavors: cherry, lime, grape, etc. Turns out, I was wrong.
I should have known better. Froot Loop Pop-Tarts were impressively accurate. Why would gummy candy be any different?
When I first started blogging, I would find out about a new product and purposefully go out to several stores just to find it. Hitting up three Targets in a day to find exclusive limited edition m&m's or different flavors of Peeps. It was fun while it lasted, but I don't do that anymore. I just go about my day, run errands, and if I happen to see stuff while I'm out and about, I'll get it. That's what happened here. I saw this flavor released on Instagram, what feels like ages ago, and then I spotted it at CVS in a Key Lime Kit-Kat display box while buying Neosporin. (Living that glamourous cat-owner life.) By now, Blueberry Muffin Kit-Kats have been released, which means Fruity Cereal is old news,but it's still Rock n Roll to me. I'm still excited to give this a try.
Limited Edition Bantam Bagels - LidlBack in 2015 I attended the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York, and there was booth for Bantam Bagels in one of the many MANY rooms of the convention center. The brand rep was baking up these bite sized bagel morsels in a little toaster oven on the convention room floor, the booth operators were really friendly, and overall I had a really positive impression of the product and the brand, so much so that after seeing hundreds of products, I still remembered them all these years later.
I felt a twinge of happiness seeing these in the freezer section, I'm glad to see they were picked up by a few grocery chains and were expanding into seasonal flavors. So I grabbed one of each to give them a try.
I'm no food scientist, so I can't explain to you the chemical make-up of...whatever this is. Instead, let me explain it to you with childhood memories and products.
I still have a few Eastery-y products to review, so I might as well knock them out now while everything is still available (and likely on clearance.)
First up, this Blueberry Waffle Cotton Candy I picked up at Target!
Is there anything more comforting than a toasty bagel filled with cheese, egg, and bacon (my breakfast meat of choice) on a cold winter morning? Especially after shoveling snow. Just thinking about it makes me feel warm and cozy.
While the east coast NJ/NY/PA area has always taken their bagels quite seriously, it seems like other food-stuffs have taken notice and bagels, or more specifically "everything," has become an American obsession.
In the past year we've had everything bagel seasoning in several flavor variations from tons of different brands (including Aldi), everything bagel potato chips, and even everything bagel ice cream!
Personally I prefer onion bagels, you get similar flavor but less stuff all up in your teeth, but I get it. The mixture of sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried onions, dried garlic, and sea salt can amp up any savory breakfast sandwich combo, but we all know what it tastes like. So, when I spotted a brioche version at Aldi I thought I would see if changing the base would make a huge difference.
With all the health and safety risks these days, I have been trying to stay home as much as possible and avoid stores, in doing so I've been safe, but I've also missed out on trendy food items. For the most part, missing out on a few Oreos and a bunch of novelty breakfast cereals didn't bother me, but then there were items like these that I found really intriguing. I finally got my hands on them, so let's hope they were worth the wait.
About a year ago I reviewed the Strawberries and Cream version of these Pillsbury Grands rolls, and (spoiler alert) they were super disappointing. Why did I buy this new Peach version? I blame pandemic panic at the grocery store for my lapse in judgement. But there's a silver lining, I have something to blog about, and trying some new weird foods can be fun for the family. Plus, who know, maybe these will taste great too! (I doubt it, but a girl can dream...)
I don't like eating actual peanuts, or spoonfuls of PB straight from the jar, but peanut butter breakfast cereal? That's my Jam.
Speaking of jam (segues are hard), I'm a strawberry kind of girl, and while the combination of strawberry and peanut butter was a rarity in my childhood, in recent years, we've gone through a strawberry-based PB&J renaissance. We've had strawberry and PB Pop-Tarts, Skippy Minis and fruits bites, snack bars, m&m's, Greek yogurt, and more...but sadly, a lot of these products were either limited edition, or discontinued far too soon. (R.I.P. PB&J Pop-Tarts.)
A perfect example of this is the Jif PB and strawberry breakfast cereal. It was released back in 2015 and, although I didn't get the chance to try it for myself, Cerealously spoke very highly of it. Thankfully, Aldi swooped into the food-flavor graveyard and stole the concept for itself. (Just like it did with the cheesy garlic bread potato chips Lay's abandoned.)
So, without futher delay let's examine this re-animated breakfast-food corpse!
Another part of my "I went to Walmart for Command Hooks and left with two bags of junk food," haul. Will this Split flavor be better than the last?
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?
I'm a dry-cereal advocate, but only for certain brands/lines. Take Cinnamon Toast Crunch for example.
When in milk, all the granulated sugar and flavor-dust washes away to create a coveted cereal milk concoction mimicked by fancy foodies, but to get to it, you need to power through a lackluster soggy cereal situation. Now, I can appreciate some delicious cinnamon-infused cereal milk, but have you ever tried...just eating the cereal? I am now a 30+ year oldfuture corpseadult, and I eat Ziploc baggies of dry cereal at work, and it's amazing.
So far I have found the dry cereal rule to be true for both classic Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch, but what about Apple? Will this cereal will be the exception to the rule?
Rounding out the faux-ice cream trifecta is this box of limited edition Cocoa Puffs Ice Cream Scoops. I found these at Ollie's Discount (which is where all limited edition food goes to die), and even though I am pretty sure these are going to taste gross, I couldn't pass up having a third Neapolitan review on the blog.
A while back I reviewed the Target Exclusive Neapolitan Peeps
A few days ago I finally posted the American Neapolitan m&m's
and now, we have faux-ice cream for breakfast!
A few years back, Aldi (as a company) bought out a rival low-budget grocery chain, Bottom Dollar Food. Both businesses were known for their low prices, but Bottom Dollar was known for having name brand items, while Aldi was no-frills and store-brand. Since the buy-out, brand-name products have slowly been popping up at Aldi, but...it's mostly breakfast stuff. Even weirder, Aldi gets all the holiday-specific releases, like these Pop-Tarts.
I used to buy a box of Pop-Tarts here or there when new flavors were released just for my own curiosity/blogging purposes, but now? I have a whole new appreciation for them.
Limited Edition Pop-Tarts, unlike Oreos, are pretty low-risk when it comes to writing food reviews. I can easily recall a few failure/nightmare Oreo products that haunt my tastebuds to this day, but when it comes to Pop-Tart flavors, I have no regrets.
Even the slightly more risky flavors, like Maple bacon were pretty great! I liked them so much that I bought several clearance boxes for my at-desk snacking needs. Unfortunately, Pop-Tart's winning track record is now being put to the test with these new Soda flavors.
Limited Edition breads usually don't interest me.
Every single month Thomas's releases something seasonal, and even though they all sound yummy, I usually pass them by. Until now. When I was looking for some new Twinkies this limited edition flavor caught my eye. My boyfriend loves blueberries, and his daughter loves French toast, so this was too perfect a product to pass up.
I know it's not Thursday but...I GOT THE HOUSE!
I have been working with lawyers, realtors, and banks since the beginning of October to seal this deal and my short sale journey is finally at it's end. We start the closing proceedings next week and then I have to start tackling repairs and cleaning before I can move in, but still...I'll have a HOUSE!
This also means I need to bust through as much of my food-hoarding-stash as I can to lighten my future moving-load, so expect a lot of off-season throwbacks!
Let's kick off the throwback frenzy with these Pop-Tarts!
