Marshmallow Hot Cocoa Pop-Tarts

S'more was my go-to Pop-Tart in my teens, and I am a HUGE fan of all things marshmallow, so I picked these up on a whim. 

Once I got it home, reality and buyers remorse set in. "Cocoa", like, "birthday cake," or, "churro," are grandiose names given to basic-flavored products for added marketability. Nine times out of ten, these items are just chocolate, vanilla, and cinnamon flavored. Fancy names sell, and they're right. They got me! I'm going to try these toasted and untoasted to see if I'm being overly cynical. 

On Monday, we review Wednesday

Limited Edition Wednesday Addams Gushers

Wednesday, the Netflix series, came out in 2022. It was very popular, mostly for Jenny Ortega's viral dancing, but it WAS a while ago. Which is why I find it strange that they waited until 2024 to release a bunch of products Wednesday themed food products. (Season two won't be airing until 2025.) I get that she's' spooky, and it's Halloween, but is that enough? 

Limited Edition Pepsi Lime

Limited Edition Pepsi Lime

(I actually started writing this weeks ago and never edited the photos. Oops. Here's a summer post before Spooky season takes over.) 

Summer is for the sodas, at least, it is so far. We've got all kinds of new flavors coming our way. Dr. Pepper has Creamy Coconut, Coke has their new Spiced, MTN Dew has so many new flavors I can't keep track, and Pepsi is coming out with limited runs of lime and peach flavored sodas. 

Of the two, I was really looking forward to the peach, but I haven't been able to find it yet. Just lime. After falling in love with Dr. Pepper Creamy Coconut I ran out and bought 3 cases, let's see if Pepsi is also stash-worthy. 

Has coconut gone main stream? - Creamy Coconut Dr. Pepper

Has coconut gone main stream? 

While -I- grew up in a coconut loving family, I always felt like it was an unpopular food-opinion. Like raisins. Or black licorice. (But I also like raisins and grew to like black licorice.) That said, this sudden trend of Dirty Dr. Pepper and coconut infused soda caught me off guard. Has this soda trend converted the, "tastes like sunscreen,"-crowd to the coconut-y side? Is it -that- good? 

Trick of Treat - Minecraft Edition: Suspicious Stew Pringles

Yesterday's not-really-Halloween-but-kind-of-Trick-or-Treat-adjacent theme continues! Today I have these Suspicious Stew flavored Pringles. 

Minecraft is something beyond my elder-millennial scope, so I asked my younger cousin to explain it's, "Suspicious Stew," item to me. She said it is kind of like poison, it makes your screen get all wiggly. Makes sense to me as an in-game item, but when there are other more positive foods in the game they could have gone with, I do think it's a strange choice for a limited run flavor. (A "sus" choice?)

Sadly, I bought these for whatever normal price they were going for at Walmart, but if you do want to try these for yourself, they seem to be popping up at Dollar Trees already for a lower price, which does not bode well for my snacking experience. 

Ultimate Mystery - Coke Creations: Ultimate

"Ultimate," the newest flavor in Coke's Creations line, has been released, and the novelty of these whimsical concept-based soda flavors still draws me in like a moth to the flame. 

This flavor is branded with a video game theme, more specifically, League of Legends (abbreviated as, "LoL." No joke.) 

Arcane, the Netflix series, is loosely based on the characters from LoL, and I really liked it, but from what I understand, the plot of the show has nothing at all to do with the gameplay, and from the looks of it, neither does this soda. 

"It's as if a standard sour cream and onion chip took a trip down the condiment aisle"

Lay's Wavy Cuban Sandwich (Limited Time Flavor) - Walmart

In college, I worked at Panera Bread, and it was awesome. Mainly because of our epic work-family, (imagine a soup and sandwich version of Empire Records), but the food was pretty great too. I still eat there today, (which is something I can't say for another food-related job I had as a teen). Panera will always hold a special place in my heart, and my stomach. I like to recreate stuff in my kitchen all the time. Especially the older discontinued stuff, like their Cuban chicken panini. 

Americanized as it was, it was my first experience with the sandwich, and I loved it. The Panera take had focaccia bread, sweet and spicy pickle chips (closest I have found are the horse radish pickle chips from Aldi),  ham, chicken, tomato-based-whole-grain-mustard, chipotle mayo and swiss cheese, all toasted in the panini press. It is a pretty far cry from a legit Cuban sandwich, but I didn't know that back then. 

A legit Cuban has: ham, roasted pork (not chicken), salami, swiss cheese, mustard and pickles. Which looks like what this chip flavor is based on. The real deal. So, which take will taste more legit? My bastardized Panera sandwich of choice, or these chips? 

I guess the accidental theme this week is...breakfast? - Apple Pie Toast Crunch

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. 

Coca-Cola Tic Tacs

Six years. That's how long it's been since I posted a Tic-Tac review. It was the 2017 Minions re-release, because they were finally banana-flavored. (The 2015 version was passion fruit for reasons I will never understand.) So to say, "It's been a minute," would be an understatement. 

Like most millennials I grew up with a pack in my pocket, and pretended they were medicine, a totally normal and healthy thing for a child to do. But as the early 2000's obsession with all things minty-fresh ended, I found myself reaching for them less and less. It's time to check in and see what they're up to. 

Sometimes Spicy - CinnaFuego Toast Crunch

CinnaFuego is old news, so I wasn't going to blog about it...until I found out how unpopular it was. I knew I had to post something to clear it's good name.

What is CinnaFuego? 

Visions of Sugar Plums danced down my drain...

Continuing the trend of  knocking out seasonal stuff before it gets too late, I have this wintery kombucha I picked up at Lidl. 

I used to grab kombucha at Aldi, they had an in-house line with three main flavors and the Cherry Cassis was my favorite, but they've been MIA for a few years now. Thankfully Lidl keeps the kombucha coming. They have in-house brands, name brands, and rotating seasonal flavors. I could have sworn I had already tried this one, but it is no where to be found on the blog, so, here we go! 

Have Candy Cane Oreos been dethroned by Doodles?

Snickerdoodle is having a moment right now. We have these Oreos, a limited edition Pop-Tart, and a those new Little Debbie's Snack cake. 

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but Snickerdoodles are just sugar cookies rolled in cinnamon, right? (It's how I've always made them.) If true, are these items just cinnamon flavored?

I guess we'll find out. 

Cre-E-epy Crawlers! Rather, CREEPY Crisps

Creepy Crisps - Gift

Sticking with savory snacking for a sec, I have these Limited Edition Creepy Crisps from The Good Crisp Company. 

I had never heard of this brand before, but at a glance, these seem to be...healthy Pringles? The little blurb on the can says that as a parent, they wanted to have a snack for their children that they felt good about, and that this year they "added a spooky twist." Safe to say, my assumptions were correct.

What's the spooky twist? Judging by the package, the chips inside are black-colored, but normal, original, potato-flavor. Will they actually look as black as they do on the tube? Will they still taste okay? Will they cause the same colorful gastrointestinal aftermath as other black products, like the Black Cherry Fanta slush or the Burger King HA1loween burger? We shall see! 

This is What Dreams are Made of? - Coke Dreamworld

Coca-Cola's Creation line are sodas that are flavored using abstract concepts and unique labels. So far we've had Starlight, Byte, a collaboration with Marshmello (which was actually strawberry-watermelon flavored), and now we have Dreamworld. 

 

Normally I hate marketing that take a normal product and hypes it up to go viral, but I have actually been having a lot of fun with this! While I have found most of it's flavors to be rather conventional, with Starlight tasting like cotton candy, and Byte having a raspberry-fruity flavor, the elaborate labels and just barely unpretentious product descriptions keep me coming back for more every time. Is this the new limited edition Oreo for food bloggers? 

What does Hibiscus Taste Like?

Hibiscus Lemonade Kombucha - Lidl

Another day, Another 'bucha. 

I'm very familiar with lemonade, not so much hibiscus. I know what the flower looks like, they're pretty, and tropical. The flower of choice amongst surfers, Hawaiian shirt lovers and various resort wear companies. I know they tends to turn food and drinks they're in pink. But that's it. 

Is it perfume-y? Fruity? Will this kombucha taste like grandma's perfume? Pairing anything with lemon is usually a safe bet, so I'm not nervous. More-so curious to see what hibiscus will bring to the table. 

When opened, the kombucha has it's classic fermented tea tanginess, but it's extra sour. Like lemon juice. It smells tart, tangy and juicy, but right off the bat this makes me think of lemons more than it does lemonade, and I don't detect anything floral. Is hibiscus sour? 

I'll google hibiscus flavoring after I try it. I don't want it to influence me. 

Neapolitan vs. Neapolitan

Name Brand vs. Generic: Neapolitan Edition

This new Oreo came out, I bought it, and then I went to put it away and found this box of cookies from Aldi that were a different take on the same thing. In fact, they're an Aldi twist on a Neapolitan Trader Joe-Joe's item that's been around since at least 2018. 

I figured I'd take this opportunity to compare the two and see who did it better. Oreo? Or Aldi? 

Blurred Limes - A Trio of Lime Themed Reviews

3 Lime Reviews 

I freaking love lime, and I also love putting a dent in my foodie backlog, so today we have a triple dose of citrus. (No need to worry about scurvy!) Three lime products, one a returning classic, compared to two limited edition releases. Which is best and how do they rate on a scale of 1-10 in terms of lime-y-ness? We shall see!

Feeling Salty? - Salted Caramel Brownie Oreos

Salted Caramel Brownie Oreos - Target

During quarantine, I made countless batches of salted chocolate chip cookies, and got into the habit of adding crushed up potato chips to them as well. So when I saw that Oreo was getting in on the trend, by salting their classic cookie, I had to taste the results for myself.  

Triple Sweat, I Mean Threat - 3 Lay's Summer Flavors

Lay's Summer Potato Chips (3-Flavors) 

If any of you have been walking down the junk food aisle lately, you'll know Lay's has been quite busy. It released these three flavors for summer, and it just released three more wacky junk food mash-up flavors, Cheetos, Funyuns, and Cool Ranch Doritos, but in potato-chip form. I've been on the lookout for the latter three, but haven't had any luck yet, so I settled for the original summer release trio. We have Summer BLT, Wavy Jerk Chicken, and Chile Mango.  

I figured I better hurry up and review these, since it's August and all. But it's still summer so I'm not too late! 

Get into The Loop - Froot Loops Pop-Tarts - TOASTED UPDATE

 Froot Loops Pop-Tarts - Target

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.