Frito-Lay isn’t done with putting its iconic flavors on other snacks. Now you can get Doritos dust on your fingers by dipping them into a bag of Smartfood Doritos Nacho Cheese Popcorn. A 17-ounce bag is now available exclusively at Sam’s Club until the end of April. (Image via the PR firm representing Sam’s Club, but I spotted it on Instacart.)
Nestle Toll House now has more Morsels & More. This time it’s a Kitchen Sink variety that joins previous varieties like Hot Fudge Sundae, Chocolate Peanut Caramel, and Pumpkin Spice Latte.
What does a kitchen sink tastes like? Well, mine tastes like three-day-old unwashed dishes. But the kitchen sink that’s in a pouch of this Morsels & More variety has semi-sweet morsels, butter caramel pieces, and pretzel sticks.
Like previous flavors, Nestle Toll House encourages you to bake them with your favorite treats, sprinkle them on your favorite treats, or just skip the favorite treats and eat them straight out of the bag. No shame.
Nestle Toll House Kitchen Sink Morsels & More will be available in 8-ounce pouches ($3.99 suggested retail price) at select Walmart locations in February and expand to other retailers nationwide in May.
Nestle Toll House will also be rolling out Ready-to-Bake Brownies at Meijer stores beginning in March with a suggested retail price of $3.99.
The chocolate chip brownies involve no preparation and come in its own baking pan. Well, I guess the only prep you really need to do is pre-heat the oven.
(Images via Nestle Toll House.)
Hudsonville Ice Cream is once again teaming up with Little Debbie to offer ice cream flavors inspired by Little Debbie’s snack cakes. Oh, don’t remember the other time these two came together? Here’s a reminder.
This time there are seven ice cream varieties:
Oatmeal Creme Pies – Vanilla creme ice cream with soft oatmeal cookie pieces and a hint of molasses.
Cosmic Brownies – Brownie batter ice cream filled with mini rainbow chips and brownie pieces.
Zebra Cakes – White cake ice cream with yellow cake pieces and a milk chocolate fudge swirl.
Honey Buns – Honey bun flavored ice cream with glazed honey bun pieces and a sweet cinnamon swirl.
Strawberry Shortcake Rolls – White cake ice cream with yellow cake pieces and a tart strawberry swirl.
Swiss Rolls – Chocolatey cake ice cream with chocolate cake pieces and a swirl of whipped cream.
Nutty Bars – Peanut butter ice cream swirled with chocolatey waffle cone pieces and a thick fudge swirl.
(Descriptions via @JunkBanter.)
All seven flavors will be available at Walmart starting February 1.
(Image via Hudsonville Ice Cream.)
Maybe I’m jaded by fall 2021’s original Crazy Calzony, but my first thought upon seeing this uncannily bat-shaped tangle of bread and cheese was not “Oh, the humanity!” but “Wait… this one actually genuinely looks cool, seriously, I’m not even being ironic this time!” Unlike the deformed plus sign of yore, the Batman Calzony packs more pizza than calzone. It’s shaped something like what would happen if you bit a giant chunk off the top and bottom of a normal pizza pie and then immediately felt guilty and grafted half a calzone onto each gap in the hopes that no one would notice. (If Frankenstein ever gets a new movie adaptation, I have ideas for the next Calzony tie-in.)
The pizza patches are definitely thinner than the typical Caesarean slice, but intriguingly, they retain that soft, chewy texture that can be hard to find outside of thicker pizzas. This worked really well for me, giving a satisfying snap as I bit through the toppings and into the dough and allowing all the tastes — savory cheese, meaty pepperoni, sweet sauce, and bready crust — to mingle together easily. But if the two components of the Calzony are a crime-fighting duo with the superpower of novelty appeal, let’s just say that the pizza parts are the Robin.
Living up to Batman’s rep, the calzone sections immediately appear more glamorous and mysterious, artsily dotted with flavorful cheese. Biting into them, though, is an inconsistent experience. The squared edge where the calzone separates from the main body of the pie is breadier, both at its base and because of the dough folded on top of it, which is distinct both visually and taste-wise from the tapered end. In promo pictures, you can clearly see julienned pepperoni swimming in the open-faced cheese, but I insist they were not so prominent in my Batman Calzony!
Starting from said bread edge, the experience was like a traditional fast food breadstick, mild, garlicky, and pleasantly airy. In my second bite, I was waylaid by a surprisingly spicy pepperoni. I don’t think anyone should find it too fiery to handle, but the zing was noticeable enough to be worth mentioning and tangy enough to deal a pretty potent blast of flavor. However, things were conspicuously un-cheesy until I reached the pointed edge. Even so, if you’re expecting a hearty mouthful of ricotta like you might get at your local non-Little-Caesars pizzeria, you might be disappointed. It struck me as kind of sneakily brilliant that the official press release does not actually describe this section as a calzone in and of itself, but rather as “a calzone crust filled with garlic white sauce, cheese, and julienned pepperoni,” because the filling isn’t exactly the most, well, filling, and while all the ingredients of a calzone are there, I found the whole thing lacking in cohesion.
Of course, cohesion is not likely to be anyone’s main reason for purchasing a novelty fast food pizza product shaped like the Bat-Symbol, so I’m still going to recommend this. After all, I’m not a superhero expert, but isn’t making sacrifices for the sake of looking cool kind of the whole point of Batman in the first place?
Purchased Price: $7.99
Size: N/A
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 pizza) 2650 calories, 123 grams of fat, 50 grams of saturated fat, 245 milligrams of cholesterol, 6010 milligrams of sodium, 256 grams of carbohydrates, 13 grams of fiber, 15 grams of sugar, and 109 grams of protein.
Starbucks in entering the energy drink game for the first time with its new BAYA Energy line.
Some of you might be thinking, “Wait a minute. Aren’t Starbucks’ coffee drinks ALL energy drinks, if you really think about it? Also, what about those canned Refreshers thingies? Didn’t they have caffeine too? So could they also be considered ‘energy drinks’?”
Look, I agree, but the press release says, “Starbucks is entering the energy category for the first time with the introduction of Starbucks BAYA Energy…” I’m just the messenger.
Anyhoo, BAYA Energy gets its caffeine naturally from coffee fruit. A 12-ounce can contains 90 calories and 160 milligrams of caffeine. There will be three flavors at launch — Mango Guava, Raspberry Lime and Pineapple Passionfruit.
Starbucks BAYA Energy will be soon available nationwide in-stores and online where groceries are sold with a suggested retail price of $2.89. Also, beginning March 1, it’ll be sold at Starbucks stores in the U.S.
(Image via Starbucks.)