No-frills products are the way to go, especially when it comes to pantry staples, but there are some exceptions to the rule, like candy bars. It's really tempting to grab store branded sweets when filling your candy bowl, but are they worth it?
I grabbed candy from Target's house brand, Trader Joe's house brand, and the real deal, who will come out on top?
I'm a hypocrite. I rant about "birthday cake" flavoring being a scam, which I 100% stand by, and yet? I. Just. Keep. Buying. It.
After I searched for, "birthday cake," on my blog, and saw how many results came up, I realized how intense my hypocrisy has been. Why keep buying a product that infuriates me?
But, after looking at the results? They prove my theory to be true.
Any cake, any flavor, can be a, "birthday cake." Some of these products are chocolate with chocolate frosting, some vanilla, with vanilla frosting, sometimes a mix of the two...the only thing that stays consistent is sprinkles. Every single one of these "birthday" items has sprinkles, either actual ones, or implied specks of rainbow colors. And I am expecting this to be more of the same.
American Kit-Kats are finally getting a steady stream of creativity and innovation!
Previously, all my fun Kit-Kat reviews came from flavors that were sold overseas, like wasabi or bakeable Sweet Potato, but in the last four years we've had a healthy amount of American flavors. Seasonal offerings, like pumpkin pie, red velvet, and raspberry, a few local-flavors (like California Strawberry), and now stand alone packs of Apple Pie, Birthday Cake, and these Duos.
The mint Duo came out over a year ago, and I guess it was successful, because it's stuck around and now the line is expanding with this new mocha flavor. So, why not check both out and see what they have to offer?
Salted Caramel MilkyWay vs Peanut Brownie Snickers
Two classic candy bars slightly change things up, which is superior? The one that added salt, or the one that changed their nougat to "brownie?"
More items from my unexpected, "I just want to Walmart for Command Hooks," junkfood haul!
It's been well documented on my blog, and our defunct podcast, Candyology 101, that I I'm a MilkyWay kind of girl, but now-a-days I live in a Snickers household. My fiance and his daughter both love Snickers bars, it's their go-to candy bar and the first one to disappear in our candy drawer. (Does every home have a candy drawer? Or is that just a me-thing?) So I grabbed these thinking that I may not be a fan, but my family could potentially love them. Oh, how wrong I was...
You know the old, "stopped in for milk left with new bedding, a blender, and seasonal guest towels that are for looking, not touching," memes that gets tossed around online? Well, I just did that. With Walmart. And junk-food.
I went in to grab some command hooks and left with 3 different kinds of Pop-Tarts, Honey BBQ Frito Twists (the BEST), 3 different boxes of novelty cereal, Reese's Thins, and Brach's Marshmallow Easter Hunt Eggs. Oh, and Command Hooks.
To rationalize my junk-food shopping spree, I decided to review it all, starting with the candy bars.
The advertising behind these new Cookie Layer Crunch bars was...excessive. Hershey's posted these bold, hyped up, teaser images on their social media accounts acting like they had revolutionized the candy bar and that something big and possibly life changing was coming in December of 2016. In reality, their big reveal had been spoiled by stealthy food finder, CandyHunting, LAST APRIL. Whoops. Guess someone let the cat out of the bag.
So the big to-do was that Hershey's was going to release new Cookie Layer Crunch bars, and they were going to come in three flavors: caramel, vanilla creme, and mint. I like candy as much as the next food blogger, heck, I used to do a podcast all about candy with CandyHunting and Cybele from CandyBlog (FYI I really miss doing that), but I just..don't get it. I don't get the hype behind this product and I don't see what makes it different from tons of other (possibly better) candy-bars that already exsist. I was curious, but not curious enough to really hunt one of these candy-bars down. I do have a giant food hoard at home that I'm trying to whittle down, so I waited until I happened upon this bar chance (at a Walmart checkout) to give it a shot.
Hershey's are you going to prove me wrong? Will this blow my blogging mind? Let's find out!
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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Since we just recorded a store-brand focused episode of Candyology101, which will be out relatively soon, I thought this would be a fun post to write up. I don't think I'll end up making this a regular kind of thing, I just happened to have both of these on hand and I thought this could be kind of interesting.
Normally I'm not a brand loyalist. (Which is why I love Aldi so much.) I usually go with the off-brand items to save money, and a lot of those items are comparable and occasionally better than the big name brand versions, but once and a while a name brand product shows that it's truly superior. MilkyWay has always been my favorite chocolate bar, and so far I haven't found a cheaper alternative. Can Aldi's Titon bar beat it?
Now, this is a food blog, so I try my best to stay on topic and discuss foodie things, but every once and a while a food item touches on a little something else. In this case, 10% of the profits from this candy bar goes towards the conservation of various endangered species. I won't get all preachy on you (don't worry), I just wanted to say that I love all creatures big and small, but bats in particular hold a special place in my heart. I don't have any grand story to explain my love of bats, to be honest I have no idea what in particular attracted me to them in the first place, but I just adore them. How can I combine my love of bats and my love of food? With a bat-benefiting candy bar of course!
