Even with my backlog looming over my head, we all know I can't resist an adorably packaged hard candy. I spotted these at Hung Vuong and next thing I knew, they were in my cart. Funny how that happens.
Portable purse sized desserts? Will they satisfy the sweet tooth? I guess we'll see.
I have been super into Thanksgiving flavors this year, more than ever before. Normally I try and restrict my food purchases to in-person only, but these flavors sounded so perfect and fed right into my cravings. So I made an exception.
This is the first time I have ever bought fancy ice cream from the internet. (They're available locally as a normal shop, but no where near me.) There were five different flavors in this release, and they came packaged in a recyclable cardboard box, with insulation that I am using in one of my winter cat shelters, and dry ice. Dry ice is so cool, and I have never gotten to play with it before, so I tossed some into a bowl full of water and added food dye to make fun videos on Instagram.
I haven't had a spoonful yet, and I am already getting my money's worth out of this purchase. Let's jump right in.
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?
We started our journey with Pumpkin Cheesecake, took a detour through the freezer section with the Swirlin' Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream, and now we're bringing things to a close with a decadent, spiced, cinnamon roll cheesecake. The kicker? I normally don't like cheesecake, and yet, I really liked the first two items. Will this Cinnamon Roll cheesecake end my positive review streak? Or am I officially a cheesecake convert? We shall see.
The packaging for this product is exactly the same as the Pumpkin version I reviewed earlier this week. Again, I love this portioning, but there's nothing much to talk about here, so let's jump right into the review.
For someone who doesn't like cheesecake, I'm sure eating a lot of it.
Swirling' Strawberry seems to be an Aldi-fied version of Ben & Jerry's (surprisingly un-funly-named) "Strawberry Cheesecake." This was released, along with Peanut Butter Cup, and I'm not entirely sure what do make of these, are they just seasonal offerings? or new permanent additions?
As we saw earlier this week, I wasn't a fan of the new "Peanut Butter Cup," and to be honest, I'm not too thrilled about the idea behind this one either. Originally I was really scared that these two new flavors would phase out one, or all, of the previous flavors which I absolutely love, but now these flavors seem to be disappearing without being restocked. So I guess these were seasonal switch ups?
That's the problem with Aldi, you never know what's coming, going, and if something will never see the light of day again. (I lovingly refer to products like these as "Aldi Unicorn items." They're rare, and elusive, and you aren't sure if you'll ever see them again or if they even existed in the first place.)
Seasonal offering or not, I couldn't resist trying both of the new ice creams, I mean they're only $1.99 a pint! So, frugal curiosity wins again! Will this flavor balance out the disappointment of the previous pint?
Pumpkin-pocalypse 2017 wasted no time taking over grocery store shelves. I was going to wait a little longer before dipping my toes into any pumpkin spiced products, but apparently stores have begun putting up Christmas displays?! It's insane how quickly stores cycle through holiday goods! There's no use fighting it, the seasonal limited edition product gods have spoken, it's pumpkin-time.
I won't be going full-force into the pumpkin product reviews like previous years where I did a new pumpkin product pretty much every day from now until Christmas (and sometimes beyond), because...well, I'm sick of pumpkin. (*collective, internet gasp*) I know, I know, a food blogger, sick of pumpkin? In the fall?! I used to live for this season, and I purchased every pumpkin product that came my way, but I've pumpkin'd myself out to the point where one full foodie-cycle through the year just isn't enough time for my taste-buds to recuperate. I over-pumpkin'd, and now these items that I was once so hype for, make me cringe a little. I'm sure with time I'll be back to my basic, pumpkin-loving, self, but for now, I am taking baby steps to get myself back into the fall-spirit.
Personally, my mind is still in summer mode. However, this was the last package of this particular flavor at Aldi, and it won't keep for very long, so my curiosity, practical nature, and frugality banded together to inform me that it's better to review it now than to let it slip through my reluctant fingers.
Enough rambling, let's eat some cheesecake!
Ah, Green overly-sexualized m&m, we meet again. It feels like only yesterday I was staring at your blinged-out Christmas packaging (reviewed here), but it was actually a week ago. I think we need to have a talk about "boundaries."
Confession time: I knew these were going to suck before I even bought them, but I got them anyway. Why? Well, two reasons: 1- My b/f's sister wanted these, and I just so happened to be at Walmart so I grabbed them for her, and 2- it's trending food-blog-fodder.
I've been trying random new food stuffs for a few years now, and even though I'm not as seasoned as my more knowledgeable foodie friends, like CandyBlog, JunkFoodGuy or ImpulsiveBuy, I still know a dud when I see one. Usually when anything shelf stable tries to taste like cheesecake, you know you're in for a bad time. But, who knows, maybe I am being cynical and I'll be proven wrong. There's only one way to find out...
Hold on to your cheesesteaks Philadelphians, I'm about to say something shocking.... I don't like Tastykake.
Tastykake is a hugely popular snack company in the NJ-PA region. The company's offerings are pretty similar to Little Debbie and Hostess, so we're talking grocery-store-quality cookies, snack cakes, pies, and doughnuts, but they're more unique items are their baked pies, "Koffee Kakes" and "Kandy Kakes." If you haven't noticed by now, the Kompany really likes Kreative spelling.
You can find their items at every 7-Eleven, Wawa, corner store and grocery shop in the area. I grew up with this company and it's offerings but I never really understood it's devoted fanbase. When people move away from the area one of the things they always miss (other than cheesesteaks and Wawas) are Tastykake's products. I just don't get the appeal. Then again, before you all start pelting me with soft pretzels and chasing me out of town, I don't like most grocery store cookies and snack cakes. It wasn't until very recently that I was converted by the ever awesome banana Twinkie and decided to give more of these products a chance. So, here we are with another Tastykake product, will this be the one to finally make me see the light? (Or is it more like drinking the Kool-Aid...let's hope not.)
Oh man, that long weekend wasn't relaxing at all! I don't know about the rest of you, but I am super sore and more tired now than I was when I left work on Friday. Then again, I did go to First Friday in Philly, and the next day I hosted a BBQ where I cooked a ton of food, and the day after that I went back to Philly to paint a room in my grandfather's house (including the ceiling) and to top it all off, yesterday I went through my giant backlogged food-hoard and photographed a ton of stuff to get ready for the upcoming pumpkin-fest that is fall.
Oh well, at least this will be a short work week.
We're all heading back to school and work, and what better way to celebrate than with a doughnut for breakfast.
And we're back with more pumpkin 2013 posts!
These little cheese bites are one of the new pumpkin items Aldi released this year. (A lot of the things I previously reviewed returned, which is awesome, but there weren't many new items this season.)
My first impression in the store was that this package is tiny. The photo in Aldi's ad was really small, so I wasn't sure how big the container would be, but I never thought it'd be this compact. The entire package is about the size of my hand! (For the record, I have fairly large hands.) Other than the label, there are no other design elements to critique, so I'll just say that I love the typography! The font choices and simple black and white color scheme creates a very sophisticated look for this no-frills product. (The typography is similar to the seasonal labels and designs used last year for Aldi's brand.)
Inside the plastic clam-shell container there are 11, chocolate truffle-sized, cheese balls. It's a little odd that the container is tapered to only allow 11, why not a full dozen? Oh well, time to open this thing up.
I just realized, a lot of my 2013 pumpkin haul came from Target. Last year I had a ton of Aldi stuff, so I guess it's Target's time to shine.
I am not a big fan of pre-made baked goods. I feel like a lot of them taste the same and the only Pepperidge farm product I occasional buy is the Gingerbread. (Those cookies are so light and crispy! How do they do it?) I wanted new pumpkin items this year, ones that I hadn't reviewed before, and this just happened to be out on the shelves.
