Today we're finally putting a dent in my ice cream freezer. A triple-Aldi post, two seasonal novelties and a bonus "Super premium" pint. Let's get to scoopin'!
First up, Shamrock Swirl - Mint ice cream with yellow fudge chips & Choco-cookie crumb swirl
I would love to label myself as an 80's baby, but I arrived too late into the decade. Like it or not, I'm a 90's kid. (But I'm not a normal 90's kid, I'm a cool 90's kid.)
One of my 90's-kid hobbies was collecting stickers in an album, counting them, and never sticking them on anything. Ever. Partially because my parents wouldn't let me, and partially because I didn't want to "waste" a sticker. It's a weird hang-up I still wrestle with. It took me until I was 30 to place a sticker my PC tower, and not feel like I had just ruined it forever. But, thanks to my bizarre sticker hang-ups, I still have an album full of stickers from my childhood, and some of the best ones are Lisa Frank.Holographic hip-hop-bears, strawberry-scented white Maltese dogs, and ballerina bunnies. Lisa Frank stickers were some of the best, and some of the weirdest. It seems like they quietly faded into obscurity, but now that former children are adults, with money, and desperate for any small bit of happiness we can grasp...Lisa Frank has made a resurgence. It's mainly rainbow-unicorn-based, which wasn't really my thing, but I still had to buy these.Let's see how they taste and take the quiz to find out my "unicorn name!"
I lied, and I'm a food hoarder (but we already knew that). I DO have something for St. Patrick's Day so you're getting a bonus review this week!I was going through my fridge when I found this green St. Patrick's Day themed package of Lucky Charms cookies...and another non-holiday themed package of the exact same thing from almost a year ago.(Almost!) I completely forgot about them, but the red package is probably still good...right? I figure I'll bake both up and we'll find out!
Brookie-O Oreos - Target
Oreo has dropped three "new" flavors, Java Chip and Chocolate Hazelnut, which are permanent additions to the line-up, and this limited edition Brookie-O.
Good News: We already have three new flavors of Oreos for 2021.
Bad News: They're mostly repeats/rebrands, AND Pistachio Oreo Thins are discontinued! (Apparently they were discontinued in 2020, another strike against a terrible year.)
Java chip is a coffee and chocolate mashup, similar to the previously released Dunkin Donuts Mocha, or Tiramisu, or Oreo Thins' Latte, and Chocolate Hazelnut is a re-release of the 2018 Chocolate Hazelnut, but the golden cookie was swapped out for classic chocolate. This could be the start of a trend, where limited edition flavors could have the potential for permanency, but I think "permanent" is too strong a word. Similar to most of the Lay's Do Us a Flavor contestants, I give it a year or two before they fade into oblivion. (Honestly, I don't know why Carrot Cake or Red Velvet have lasted as long as they have, especially when flavors like Reese's were so. damn. good. )
Then we have these Brookie-O's, which are the only limited edition flavor of the bunch. They are a mashup of classic Oreos, 2014's Cookie Dough Oreos, and 2015's Brownie Batter Oreo. While the combination of all three at once is new, each of these flavors has been done before. Are they worth the buy?
Have any one you seen a real-life Pop-Tart that looked anything like the picture on the front of the box?
It seems that both Pop-Tarts and fast food burgers never look anything like their advertisements. Here we have perfect icing and giant sprinkles on the outside of the box which look amazing, but inside...
A while back, Aldi introduced a new premium ice cream line that looked suspiciously like Ben & Jerry's. In fact, each Aldi flavor corresponded to a popular Ben & Jerry's flavor, making them nearly identical...except the Aldi-version is LESS THAN $2.00 USD per pint!
That's right, you can buy two of these pints for the price of a Ben & Jerry's one, and the best part? Not only is it cheap, but it tastes nearly identical!
I've reviewed five different Aldi flavors so far: (Click the links below for it's review)
(Spoiler alert!) They're all awesome! Seriously! The only one I didn't care for was My Peanut Butter Half, but that's because peanut butter ice cream just isn't my cup of tea.
The original trio of flavors (Marked with an *) have become permanent Aldi items, available year-round, but every now and again they expand the line with seasonal releases which just so happen to be MORE Ben and Jerry's dupes! Last time we got two new flavors, Swirlin' Strawberry and My Peanut Butter Half, and this time we get three more!
Currently on the shelves are: For Real Dough, Turtley Awesome, and Banana Bonanza. Which dupe Ben and Jerry's The Tonight Dough, Phish Food and Chunky Monkey respectively. Since all the other flavors were fantastic, I couldn't wait to try these three, so here we go!
I bought the banana peanut butter for me, and this one I bought just for you guys. Looking at my older posts, and post made by my fellow food bloggers, the general public goes NUTS for cookie dough flavored stuff. I just don't understand it!
Don't get me wrong, cookie dough is amazing. Cookie dough flavored things? Not so much. I like to bake and I do so quite often, so I know what real cookie dough tastes like, and nothing "cookie dough flavored" has ever held a candle to the real deal. Do people just not remember what the real thing tastes like? Or do we all just turn a blind eye and accept it because of the convenience of not having to whip up a batch of dough ourselves? Maybe this peanut butter will prove me wrong, and I'll literally be eating my words, after all the banana version is great, but I'm pretty skeptical...
Aldi started offering pints of ice cream that look suspiciously like Ben & Jerry's, and it comes in three flavors: Brookie Dough, Make Fudge Not War, and Thank You Cherry Much...and they were only $1.99 each!?! Naturally I bought all three. First up, Brookie Dough!
That's right! The newest items to join the cookie dough craze are a Dunkin' Donuts coffee and latte. At first, it seemed like cookie dough was going to be a flavor trend for 2014, since two limited edition cookie dough items were released one right after another, but the trend petered out as quickly as it began. After a month of cookie-dough-less items, Dunkin' decided to revive the trend with these dessert coffees. After reviewing the unimpressive Cookie Dough Oreos, and a filled doughnut, I was a bit skeptical of this coffee, so I'm going into this review with fairly low expectations.
Since yesterday's post was getting a little out of hand, I broke my Insomnia Cookies review into two parts. Check out yesterday's post to see my thoughts on this company, the packaging, and their chocolate chip cookie.
I wasn't head over heels in love with the chocolate chip (even though it was delicious), but there are still 4 more delicious cookies to review!
I don't think I have ever mentioned this before, but I occasionally work in construction. That's right, I'm a construction worker by day and foodie blogger by night. (Sounds like an 80's movie, doesn't it?) It isn't a full time position, I occasionally do painting, finishing, sanding and detail work for my step-dad's company. I have a good eye for detail, so when he gets jobs in fancy (and insanely expensive) apartments in Philadelphia, I usually help out.
Why am I mentioning this? Well I was working with him today, doing some sanding, and there was an Insomnia Cookies store right next to our location! This is a franchise I had heard about a few years ago, and I was really excited to see that I could finally get some cookies to try for myself.
At this point, all of you know that my boyfriend is a total coffee junkie. He loves anything and everything related to coffee, so he is always finding these crazy creamers and syrups to make fancy drinks at home. I keep pretty up-to-date with sites like Food Beast and The Impulsive Buy, so I tend to know about fancy creamer flavors before they hit the stores, but he managed to find one I had never heard of.
Dunkin' Donuts brought back their festive, heart-shaped, doughnuts for Valentine's Day and they've added a new filling, chocolate chip cookie dough! (First Oreos AND now a doughnut filling? 2014 has just begun and it's already looking like a big year for cookie dough.)
I don't pre-made baked goods very often, so when I do splurge on something sugary I want it to be interesting. (Or at the very least photogenic.) We'll see which category these heart-shaped doughnuts fall into.
