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
"Ice sand?" Looking at this product's name, some of you may be a little confused."Sand" is short for "sandwich." Or, "sando." Which is also short for sandwich. Basically, Japan doesn't have time for your long, not-cute, words. (Joking.) Reading manga and watching anime, I'm pretty familiar with this shortened term, but even if you weren't I think the context clues make it rather obvious that this is ice cream sandwich themed. In this case, a chocolate mint one.
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 werefinallybanana-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.
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?
I have a LOT of hobbies. There's this blog, my Etsy shop, feeding (and hopefully trapping) a few local feral cats, sewing, cooking, baking, art/drawing, watching/collecting movies, and on top of all that...I collect vintage goods. Mostly vintage cameras and projectors, but I also collect vintage books, records, 45's, and other knick-knacks. This summer in particular I went down a strange rabbit hole and found myself obsessed with vintage metal trivets. Why? How? I have no idea, but it happened, and now I am the proud owner of 5 of them hanging in my kitchen. So why not add vintage candy to the mix?
Are you even a food blogger anymore if you don't try weird new Oreos? What was once fun, rare, and unique has now become a monotonous status quo. A food blogger blinks, and Oreo releases three more flavors. Can you keep up with it? And more importantly, are they even worth it?
We've tried Super Lemon, Super Cola, Super Soda, Super Ginger, and Super Umeboshi. Now, get ready for Super Mint! Hopefully this "powerful" candy can clear the stale blog-post-less air!
Apparently the "Super" line of candies expanded when I wasn't looking. What used to be big bags of large, round, individually wrapped hard candies, have now added tiny powerful "tablets" to the mix. This new tablet candy comes in a small resealable pouch with the same bizarre pop-art comic-panel branding I know and love. This time we have a starry eye'd male character with a pale green mint motif. It's a little clunky and obnoxious, and I love it.
"Oh, Powerful Tablet!" The terminology sounds medicinal (and a little sexual), but in theory, these are powerful breath mints. Right? How intense can they be?
I've been out of the blogging game for a while...so I completely missed the chance to review these before the contest ended and the winner was announced.
If' you're like me, and completely out of the loop, m&m's ran a flavor contest with 3 variations of crunchy m&ms. The contenders were: Crunchy Mint, Crunchy Espresso, and Crunchy Raspberry. The winner would become a permanent flavor.
Since the contest ended (in August), and new packaging would be hitting the shelves, all three flavors were on clearance at our local Walgreens. I could have gotten all three, but I knew the raspberry ones were going to be a flop in our household, so I bought the two I knew we would enjoy. Would we like the same flavor as the one that won the contest? Let's hope so!
Good o'l Ollie's. Where all limited edition food goes to die.
If you're not familiar with Ollie's, it's a bargain shop that gets closeout goods and off-season products and sells them are lower price points. I was there buying last minute Christmas ornaments (because all I own are Halloween decorations) and couldn't resist picking up a few snacks.
If you search the blog you'll see that in all my years of blogging, I've never reviewed a Fudge Stripe cookie, and that isn't an oversight. I'm not a fan, but I love the combination of chocolate with mint, and I love a bargain, so maybe these will win me over?
Everything is right with the world. Novelty Minion Tic-Tacs are now banana flavored. We can all go on with the rest of our lives.
Sarcasm aside, it did bother me that Minion Tic-Tacs were banana flavored everywhere else in the world, except for America. It was one of the biggest talking points in my 2015 review. For some reason, we got passion fruit, and they were awful. It seems that Tic-Tac got the message. Behold, banana Tic-Tacs!
It's just another minty Monday...
Hershey's Layer Crunch bars have been out for a while and even though they're a new product, they're not very innovative. All three of the flavors are safe bets. Chocolate and vanilla? Classic. Chocolate and caramel? Been there, done that. Chocolate mint? The Girl Scouts called, they want their cookie back.
So yeah, these are new, but they're not new-new.
Even so, this candy bar sounded delicious, so I grabbed one at Walmart to munch on. I don't think there is any way for this product to be a failure, but you never know...
Are you sick of Girl Scout reviews? You're in luck! This is the last item I've got in my stash. (Until I find the caramel breakfast cereal anyway.) It may not be as exciting as the promise of cookies for breakfast, or as innovative as caramel coconut flavored chewing gum, but this was the product I was most excited for because a mint-cookie-to-breath-mint transition makes perfect sense.
Hello darkness, my old friend...
I have a love/hate relationship with Project 7 products. They have great packaging, they support wonderful causes, and they had some really delicious products back when they were first introduced. Since their initial launch, they've branched out into all these trendy flavors of the week and, frankly, these new flavors have all been misses for me. They taste really fake and eating them is more like a chore than a joy. Every time I swear off their products, they drag me back in with intriguing items like this. I mean, it's Girl Scout Cookie GUM! (I am pretty sure they'd take away my non-existent food-blogger card if I skipped this one.) So, here we are again. I'll give Proect 7 the Benefit of a doubt...but my gut tells me this was a mistake.
All aboard the Girl Scout Cookie hype train! This year we've got cereals, chewing gums, and mints to add to the annual cookie craze, but only two of the most popular flavors made the cut: Thin Mints and Samoas/Caramel Delights.
That's right! You can now enjoy Thin Mints cereal, mints, and gum, as well as Samoa/Caramel Delight flavored cereal and gum. (Although if any of you follow my fellow foodie bloggers this is old news.)
The chewing gums and mints are made by Project 7, which I have a love/hate relationship with, but the cereals are made by General Mills, who really know their stuff, so I was excited to see how these cookies translated into cereal form. So, without further delay, let's have some cookies for breakfast!!
Did you know that Aldi and Trader Joe's are related? YUP! They're sister companies owned by the same German family. For the most part, each store releases their own items catering to different niche markets and trending flavors, but once in a while both stores will release the same product, with different packaging and price points. (Like these pumpkin scone cookies I compared and reviewed.)
Years ago, I picked up THIS beautiful dark chocolate passport gift item from Trader Joe's, and I completely lost it over the gorgeous packaging. Flash forward to now, when I see Aldi trying to release their own dark chocolate themed gift pack for the holidays. It's no-where near as cute as the Trader Joe's one, but this has something the Trader Joe's version lacked. Variety.
The Trader Joe's bars were all dark chocolates from various locations around the world, but they were just dark chocolate. No toppings, not mix ins, no nothing. They were pretty, but by the third bar I was bored and my palette was exhausted. I don't think I ever finished reviewing the box set, mainly because...my tongue just didn't care. I was craving some flavor, and (hopefully) Aldi will deliver.
Bah, Humbug. I may be a Scrooge-y old Grinch when it comes to the winter holidays, but even I can't resist the allure of yummy chocolate mints.
I picked these up on a recent trip to Aldi and thought it'd be a good idea to hurry up and review them while they're relevant, plus once photographed, I can share them at my annual cookie swap. This is my 6th year hosting a swap, and each time I model the party's theme after a movie franchise with that year's number of sequels. This year?
I went with the cinematic classic, Leprechaun 6: Back 2 tha Hood. I'm a big fan of bad horror franchises like Leprechaun, Puppet Master and Demonic Toys, so it's my way of working a little Halloween into the Holiday spirit.
Honestly, I'm starting to run out of ideas, so if any of you have some fun bad movie theme suggestions for next year, be sure to leave them down below. If I can't think of something I might just have to "reboot" next year's theme.
Okay, enough about future party planning, time to stuff my face with some chocolate!
Welp, I need a new CPU fan. My old one finally died on me and I need a new one or my PC will overheat. I'm hoping to pick one up on my way home from work tonight but in the meantime, let's prevent my brain from overheating with some refreshing lemonade.
I know, I know, I've been reviewing a LOT of Aldi products lately, but it's my go-to grocery store. I stop there twice a week to grab stuff for myself, my mom, and my grandpa. Since I've been reviewing so many Aldi products this week I figured I would take a break from their house branded items and try one of the name brand products they carry, like this summery Watermelon Mint Lemonade.
One more day until the weekend. Just one more day. We can do this...I can do this.
It's been another really intense week with my day job and side-work, for a closer look at all the stuff I do besides food blogging check out my personal/art blog HERE, but for now, let's dig into my giant food-stash for a minty, Christmas-y, #tbt review!
More stuff leftover from my Trader Joe's podcast haul? Yup, but I'm 99% sure this is the very last item! (Okay, maybe I'm only 75% sure, but that's because I didn't feel like digging through my giant food hoarding pile to double check.)
It took me a few months to get here, but you know what? Pretty much every product I reviewed was a winner, so it was totally worth it. These mints combine three of my favorite things, so I figured this should be a really good note to end on. (But you never know!)
Remember how I said I went overboard buying stuff for the Trader Joe's podcast for Candyology 101? Well, I think I finally made my way through that stash! It took months...but I did it! (Small victories, right?) Back when we recorded I bought these mints for the first time, and I absolutely loved them, and I even talked about them on the show. I meant to review them but...I ate them all. So I bought another bag to review. Then promptly ate that entire bag as well. So here we are, I don't even know how many bags later, but I'm finally able to review them for you guys to spread the word about how awesome these mints are. (What can I say, I have no self control.)
