SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 4/20/2016

Here are some interesting new and limited edition products found on store shelves by us and your fellow readers. If you’ve tried any of the products, share your thoughts about them in the comments.

Wise Food Truck Favorites Potato Chips (Beef Barbacoa Tacos and Loaded Chili Cheese Dog)

Wise Food Truck Favorites Potato Chips (Beef Barbacoa Tacos and Loaded Chili Cheese Dog)

Is 2016 the Year of Products Inspired by Food Trucks? (Spotted by Timothy at ShopRite.)

Russell Stover Pistachio Bark and Orange & Almond Bark

Russell Stover Pistachio Bark and Orange & Almond Bark

Back in my day, there was only peppermint bark and it was available only during the Christmas season. Now we have fancy summer barks. (Spotted by Rachel C at Target.)

Cape Cod Roasted Black Garlic Seaside Pop Popcorn

Cape Cod Roasted Black Garlic Seaside Pop Popcorn

Hey! Cape Cod’s Roasted Black Garlic Potato Chips have a cousin! Or is it sibling? They’re related, but I don’t know how. (Spotted by Aaron S at Giant.)

Frank's Red Hot in Squeezable Bottle 1

Frank's Red Hot in Squeezable Bottle 2

Frank's Red Hot in Squeezable Bottle 3

Frank’s Red Hot in Squeezable Bottle

I prefer the glass bottles. They’re much more handy in a restaurant fight. (Spotted by Rebecca W at Price Chopper.)

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Finding Dory

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Finding Dory

I imagine finding Dory in the movie will take awhile, but finding Dory’s face on food products will be really easy for the next few months. (Spotted by Robbie at H-E-B.)

Curate Kids Bars (Chocolate & Banana, Apple & Cinnamon, and Oatmeal & Chocolate Chunk)

Curate Kids Bars (Chocolate & Banana, Apple & Cinnamon, and Oatmeal & Chocolate Chunk)

The adult Curate bars have names like Decadence, Tempting, and Indulgent. I think these Curate Kids Bars should have fun names too. Here’s some ideas that popped into my head: Delight, Merriment, Sparkle, and Joie de Vivre. (Spotted by Carla at Target.)

Thank you to all the photo contributors! If you’re out shopping and see an interesting new product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, and send us an email ([email protected]) with where you found it and “Spotted” in the subject line. Or reply to us (@theimpulsivebuy) on Twitter with the photo, where you spotted it, and the hashtag #spotted. If you do so, you might see your picture in our next Spotted on Shelves post.

SPOTTED ON SHELVES: Mountain Dew DEWcision 2016 Pitch Black and Baja Blast

Mountain Dew DEWcision 2016 Pitch Black

Mountain Dew DEWcision 2016 Baja Blast

I’d like Pitch Black to win DEWcision 2016 because I can already get Baja Blast at Taco Bell. So if it loses and disappears from shelves, no big whoop. Go to Taco Bell and get it with my combo #9. (Spotted by Spencer at Kroger and Tim at Walmart.)

If you’re out shopping and see an interesting new product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, and send us an email ([email protected]) with where you found it and “Spotted” in the subject line. Or reply to us (@theimpulsivebuy) on Twitter with the photo, where you spotted it, and the hashtag #spotted. If you’ve tried the product, share your thoughts about it in the comments.

SPOTTED ON SHELVES: Hostess Brownies made with Milk Chocolate M&M’s

Hostess Brownies made with Milk Chocolate M&M's

Hostess Brownies with Milky Way look much more interesting than these. Or maybe it’s the smug look on the Red M&M’s face that make these less appealing. (Spotted by Adam N at Walmart.)

If you’re out shopping and see an interesting new product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, and send us an email ([email protected]) with where you found it and “Spotted” in the subject line. Or reply to us (@theimpulsivebuy) on Twitter with the photo, where you spotted it, and the hashtag #spotted. If you’ve tried the product, share your thoughts about it in the comments.

SPOTTED ON SHELVES: Limited Edition Strawberry Cheerios Cereal

Limited Edition Strawberry Cheerios Cereal

Don’t confuse this cereal with Strawberry Yogurt Burst Cheerios. (Spotted by Carla at Walmart.)

If you’re out shopping and see an interesting new product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, and send us an email ([email protected]) with where you found it and “Spotted” in the subject line. Or reply to us (@theimpulsivebuy) on Twitter with the photo, where you spotted it, and the hashtag #spotted. If you’ve tried the product, share your thoughts about it in the comments.

REVIEW: Polar Unicorn Kisses Seltzer

Polar Unicorn Kisses Seltzer

When I was a kid, I often remember visiting a drive-thru wild animal park with my parents. Aside from the fact that the monkeys would wildly flail about while removing the piping from our minivan’s windows, it was a great place to go to take in the wonders of the savannah (albeit the Canadian savannah, but I digress).

We’d usually close our trip with a stopover at the petting zoo, my hands full of vending machine pellets ready to feed Larry the Llama and Gary the Goat. My three-year-old self was shocked at the vigor at which the animal’s tongue attacked the food in my hand – an image I still can’t forget. Regrettably, this is my only frame of reference for understanding the concept of “unicorn kisses.”

Thankfully, Polar Seltzer’s Unicorn Kisses is not a bottle of magical glitter pony saliva, but instead an April Fools’ flavor designed to elicit giggles in the grocery aisle. Polar is known for its unorthodox flavors (like eggnog and mint chocolate), but you typically have an idea of what they’ll taste like before you open them. Unicorn Kisses gives you no such advance warning.

Polar Unicorn Kisses Seltzer 2

Prepping for the worst, I set off on a quest to find a bottle. Polar released only 5,000 cases of Unicorn Kisses into the wild, so I had a difficult time finding a store that had any in stock. I felt like Dora the Explorer (minus the anthropomorphic monkey), walking from supermarket to supermarket trying to find a bottle. After what felt like countless days of searching, I finally picked some up at my local Star Market.

Upon opening, I half expected the bottle to explode into rainbows, but instead I was greeted with the scent of green apple and cotton candy. While Polar prides itself on its “all natural” label, this smell was all artificial, like a liquid Jolly Rancher. Based on my nose alone, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to drink a sip, let alone an entire glass, but I queued up “Charlie the Unicorn” for support and dove in.

Polar Unicorn Kisses Seltzer 3

Other blogs have tried to place the flavor of Unicorn Kisses, with suggestions ranging from melon to soap, but the only thing I could taste was candy necklaces. Surprisingly, the flavor wasn’t as pronounced as the smell – it actually took me some time to figure out that this seltzer tasted like penny candy. Because it was so cloyingly sweet, I couldn’t finish a whole glass, leading me to feel like I wasn’t respecting the countless unicorns who worked so hard on this product.

In the end, the takeaways from this review are as follows: Unicorn Kisses is a fun diversion but is gross to drink, and you should stay far, far, far away from Candy Mountain.

(Nutrition Facts – 8 fluid ounces – 0 calories, 0 calories from fat, 0 grams of fat, 0 milligrams of sodium, 0 milligrams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.)

Purchased Price: $1.29
Size: 1 liter
Purchased at: Star Market
Rating: 3 out of 10
Pros: Double rainbow. No calories. Revisiting childhood memories. Alliterative animal names.
Cons:Swiper, no swiping.” Llama tongue. Overly sweet and artificial. Vintage candy.

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