REVIEW: Silk Soymilk Pumpkin Spice

/ / Reviews / 23 Comments

With the holiday season comes a plethora of holiday flavors. One of the most popular is pumpkin spice, which is not only a Starbucks Latte variety, available only this time of year, and a limited edition Bath & Body Works scent, it’s also a seasonal Silk Soymilk flavor.

I believe Pumpkin Spice was also the name of the fired sixth Spice Girl who had one mean muffin top and a penchant for spray-on tans.

Silk Soymilk Pumpkin Spice isn’t as tasty as the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte and it doesn’t make me extremely horny like the scent of the Bath & Body Works Pumpkin Spice Body Lotion does, but it’s better tasting than Silk’s other holiday flavor — the mediocre Silk Soymilk Nog.

According to Silk, their Pumpkin Spice can be consumed either chilled or warm, but I like my soy milk the same way I like my interactions with ex-girlfriends — chilly. With a name like Pumpkin Spice, you might think it’s going to taste somewhat like pumpkin pie, but if you’re coming in with those expectations, you need make like a Match.com subscriber who hasn’t found any matches and lower your expectations.

The Silk Soymilk Pumpkin Spice has a pleasant pumpkin flavor with a hint of cinnamon, but it’s definitely not as pungent as a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte and it doesn’t make you think you’re eating a pumpkin pie. Perhaps its most disappointing characteristic was its lack of creaminess. Although it contains carrageenan, which is known to be a thickening agent, it was as watery as skim milk. I was hoping it would be as rich and creamy as egg nog, but like most of Silk’s soy milk products, it had the same creaminess as the water coming out of the breasts of a statue on the Playboy Mansion grounds.

Overall, I did enjoy it, but I think it’s because I’m a regular soy milk drinker. If you normally drink moo milk, you might find the flavor and consistency of the soy milk a bit odd. Like all Silk Soymilk products, the Pumpkin Spice is dairy-free, cholesterol-free and lactose-free, so if you’re looking for a healthier egg nog replacement, and you don’t mind soy milk and the fact that soy milk really isn’t milk, then the Silk Soymilk Pumpkin Spice might be something you should try.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 cup – 170 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 2 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 1 gram of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 300 milligrams of potassium, 28 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 24 grams of sugar, 6 grams of protein, 4% calcium and 4% iron.)

Item: Silk Soymilk Pumpkin Spice
Price: $2.99
Size: 1 quart
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Pleasant pumpkin flavor. Better tasting than Silk Nog. Cholesterol-free. Lactose-free. Low in saturated fat. Decent source of soy proteins. The way the scent of the Bath & Body Works Pumpkin Spice Body Lotion makes me feel down there. Statues that shoot water out of naughty parts.
Cons: Doesn’t taste like pumpkin pie. Non-soy milk drinkers might not enjoy it. 24 grams of sugar per cup. Consistency was thin, like all Silk products. Having to lower your expectations on online dating sites.

PRIZE DRAWING: Because It’s The Season of Giving

/ / Announcement, General, Prize Drawing / 101 Comments

Agoraphobics call it, “The Season of Avoiding Shopping Malls and the Post Office.”

Retail workers who don’t work on commission call it, “The Worst Time to Work in Retail.”

But for many, they call this time of year, “The Season of Giving.”

Right now, I’m in the mood to give and if I could give you all a gift, I would. But with several thousand regular readers, it would be extremely pricey to do so. If I had a stolen credit card with a large credit limit, I might be able to pull it off, but I don’t and I’m afraid of going to prison for identity theft and becoming a white-collar bitch.

Instead, I’m going to have a prize drawing. I have three prizes to give away — one I reviewed recently, another I reviewed a long time ago and another I didn’t review at all, but you might be able to get some DNA off of it and clone me. Here are the three prizes:

1. Twin Lotus Herbal Toothpaste – The poop-looking toothpaste I reviewed last year. I recently received a new tube.

2. Terracycle M&M’s Candy Wrapper Speakers – Portable speakers made out of candy wrappers and other recycled materials.

3. Bunny Ears Cap from San’s Little Frog – The same bunny ears cap I wore in Episode #8 of The Impulsive Buy Podcast. It’s a handmade fleece hat that I wore for less than an hour while shooting the episode. It’s a large size, made for heads that are 25 inches or larger around).

To enter this prize drawing, leave a comment with THIS post. Your comment MUST include the prize you’d like to win and whatever else you’d like to say.

Please don’t forget to fill out the email field because I’ll be emailing the winners for their mailing addresses. The Impulsive Buy will stop accepting entries on Sunday, December 6, 2009 11:59 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time. Only one entry allowed per person and it’s only open to those 18 years old or older, anywhere in the world.

Good luck!

Fine Print: The Impulsive Buy promises your email address will not be used to send you press releases about some stupid cookbook from some stupid chef you’ve never heard of. The Impulsive Buy also promises your mailing address will not be used to send you Costco coupon booklets. Bribes will not be accepted. The Impulsive Buy will not be responsible for lost mail, damaged mail, or a reindeer’s antler up your ass.

REVIEW: Burger King Cup Cake Sundae Shake

/ / Reviews / 16 Comments

I wanted to use the festive-looking Burger King Cup Cake Sundae Shake as my birthday cupcake replacement, but it probably wouldn’t have been suitable.

Because by the time someone lit the candle and everyone finished singing “Happy Birthday” to me in English and Japanese, while holding sparklers, the candle probably would have melted through the whipped cream and sprinkles and then extinguished itself in the ice cream.

Also, since I wouldn’t have blown out the candle, my wish for either world peace or the 2010 Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year to be “redonkidonkulous” wouldn’t come true.

By the way, “redonkidonkulous” is used to describe how ridiculous it is to use the word “redonkulous” all the time.

Like all fast food milkshakes, the Cup Cake Sundae Shake is high in saturated fat and sugar, which means, if you have children and want to lower their weight and your electricity bill, just get a hamster wheel that your child can fit in, connect it to something that can convert the motion of the wheel into electricity and let the dozens of grams of carbohydrates and sugar power your child as they provide energy for your home by making the hamster wheel move and a brisk, consistent pace.

The milkshake really did taste like a cupcake, thanks to the yellow cake-flavored ice cream. It looked and tasted like I was eating yellow cake batter, except without the possibility of getting salmonella or getting my tongue stuck in a hand mixer. It also almost tastes like egg nog ice cream. The milkshake was really good and brought back memories of those days when my classmates would call me “Cupcake Face,” not because I ate a lot of cupcakes, but because when I put a rain hat my head, it would look like an upside down cupcake, thanks to my chubby cheeks and lack of a hamster wheel for me to get some exercise.

The whipped cream and candy sprinkles didn’t add much flavor, but it did make it look prettier, like normal clothing does with Lady Gaga. The sprinkles did end up getting stuck on my molars, but since I didn’t brush my teeth right after consuming it, I got a little treat about 20 minutes later.

Overall, the Burger King Cup Cake Sundae Shake was a pleasant treat, and if it could hold a candle without melting the dessert, I would blow it out and wish for it to come back again.

(Nutrition Facts – 22 ounces – 680 calories, 25 grams of fat, 17 grams of saturated fat, 1 grams of trans fat, 75 milligrams of cholesterol, 330 milligrams of sodium, 115 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 103 grams of sugar and 10 grams of protein.)

(NOTE: Thanks to TIB reader Nadia for suggesting the Burger King Cup Cake Sundae Shake.)

Item: Burger King Cup Cake Sundae Shake
Price: $2.89
Size: Small
Purchased at: Burger King
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Tastes like a cupcake. Also kind of reminds me of egg nog ice cream. Looks like yellow cake batter. Comes with a fat ass straw. Candy sprinkles made it look pretty. Hamster wheels for children to power your home. Lady Gaga with normal clothes.
Cons: Whipped cream and candy sprinkles didn’t add flavor. Not wise to eat with a value meal from Burger King, unless you love being overweight. Candy sprinkles got stuck in my molars. My head in a rain hat. Lady Gaga with whatever she usually wears. Excessive use of the word “redonkulous.”

REVIEW: TerraCycle/Fashionation M&M’s Candy Wrapper Speakers

/ / Reviews / 7 Comments

The company TerraCycle is much like a music producer who has to deal with Britney Spears’ recording sessions, they both take trash and turn it into something that can be marketed and sold. TerraCycle calls what they’re doing “upcycling,” while Britney’s music producers probably like to describe what they do as “panning in a river of diarrhea for gold.”

Some examples of what TerraCycle has done include: Taking discarded Capri Sun drink pouches and turning them into backpacks, using old circuit boards to make picture frames, making pencils out of newspapers and creating pencil cases out of Chips Ahoy packages. One of the company’s latest products is their M&M’s Candy Wrapper Speakers, which they created with a company called Fashionation and can also be found made with potato chip bags.

According to the packaging, these speakers are made with up to 80 percent of recycled materials, which is a lot, but significantly less than what can be found on an album by the cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. The speaker’s box is made out of a big M&M’s Fun Size package and cardboard that looks like it’s been made out of recycled paper. However, I’m not sure how much of the cables and speaker components are made out of reused metals and plastics.

The speakers fold into 3.25-inch cubes and can be unfolded flat again for easy storage and transportation, but I wouldn’t recommend doing it often because I found it difficult to reinsert the tabs into the slots needed to turn them into cubes. The uncooperative tabs and slots caused me to do a little digging, which caused me to accidental peel some of the M&M’s wrapper. When in cube form, they’re front-heavy, like Morganna The Kissing Bandit, so if you put them on an uneven surface, they might topple forward.

The speakers are attached to a standard 3.5 mm headphone plug, so you can connect it into your iPod, laptop, desktop computer or auto-reverse Walkman cassette player. Because the speakers don’t run on batteries, the plug also powers them.

If you’re an audiophile, or an audiophile poser, these candy wrapper speakers won’t come close to satisfying your hoity-toity tastes. They don’t come with a subwoofer made out of recycled candy wrappers and they aren’t very hi-fi, so they sound as good and treble-y as a cheap AM/FM radio alarm clock.

I connected them to my iPod and they have the ability to fill a small room, but in order to do so I had to turn up the volume on my iPod to at least 75 percent to get a decent amount of decibels, which can be a problem if you don’t remember to turn it down before you plug in your earbuds for some personal listening.

I thought the TerraCycle M&M’s Candy Wrapper Speakers would be a useless novelty, like glow-in-the-dark condoms. But they weren’t bad, considering they’re mostly made out of recycled candy wrappers and cost less than $20. At that price, I don’t feel bad if I have to destroy the speakers when a Britney Spears song comes out of them.

(NOTE: Below is a video demonstrating the speaker’s audio quality.)

(NOTE: Grub Grade has a couple of posts about turning potato chip bags and Capri Sun containers into purses and handbags.)

Item: TerraCycle/Fashionation M&M’s Candy Wrapper Speakers
Price: $16.99
Size: N/A
Purchased at: Radio Shack (or The Shack, if you want to be lame)
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: Decent sound for something made partly out of candy wrappers. Sound from them can fill a small room. Made from mostly recycled materials. Foldable and portable. No batteries required. Has a standard 3.5 mm headphone plug.
Cons: Not for audiophiles or audiophile posers. Can be difficult to repeatedly put together. May topple forward on uneven surfaces. Have to turn up the volume on your device in order to get a loud enough sound from the speakers. Using references that are older than some of your readers. Britney Spears.

REVIEW: Limited Edition Mint Fudge Covered Oreo

/ / Reviews / 21 Comments

They say every time you reject a Girl Scout’s offer to buy their cookies, you take one step closer to hell.

Because I believe there is some truth to those words, I have yet to decline the saleswomanship of a Girl Scout who comes up to me as I walk out of my favorite grocery store and ask, “Would you like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?” It’s also hard to decline them because they say staring into the eyes of a Girl Scout is like staring into the eyes of an angel.

But whenever I’m posed the question of whether or not I would like to buy Girl Scout Cookies, an internal quandary occurs. My cold heart says, “Begone Brownie Scout for I wish not to partake in your hedonistic cookies,” but because my heart is connected to my circulatory system and not my digestive system, which my mouth and stomach are a part of, it has no say in the matter when the following words come out of my cookie hole: “Do you have Thin Mints?”

My cold heart feels the way it does because deep down I want to reject every Girl Scout that steps in front of me, just like every girl who rejected me when I needed a date to my Junior Prom. I don’t care if I’m going to end up in hell, because all of my friends are going to be with me. I want to break free from this stranglehold because my wallet cannot take being asked every week if I want to purchase Girl Scout Cookies. But it’s difficult to do so due to the guilt I may bring upon myself from bruising the confidence of a young woman, because I remember the pain of having my ego bruised by the throngs of women who rejected me before bids were due.

But I think I may have found a weapon to help break the chains of guilt and to block the pleas of Girl Scouts — the Limited Edition Mint Fudge Covered Oreos.

Just like German pornstars are comfortable with being covered in bodily fluids, Oreos are no stranger when it comes to being covered in fudge, having been coated with regular fudge and white fudge in the past. The mint fudge used with these Oreo cookies made them taste like Nabisco stole the recipe for Thin Mints, because they taste surprisingly similar. Although, the Mint Fudge Covered Oreo has less of a minty flavor than the Girl Scout Cookie. But nonetheless, these cookies are good enough that they make me want shove my hand in the face of a Girl Scout and say, “Not this year, tween she-devil! Not. This. Year.”

As good as these cookies are, I wish they tasted a little more like an Oreo. The mint flavor seems to have nullified the white vanilla filling. Also, I was disappointed the box contained only 12 cookies. Sure, the fudge causes the cookies to be a little thicker, but the amount of cookies makes me feel like I’m getting jacked.

Girl Scouts may make me feel guilty, but they don’t make me feel like I’m getting screwed.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 cookie – 90 calories, 5 grams of fat, 3.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 1 gram of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 65 milligrams of sodium, 40 milligrams of potassium, 13 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 9 grams of sugar, 1 gram of protein and 4% iron.)

Item: Limited Edition Mint Fudge Covered Oreo
Price: $2.79 (on sale)
Size: 7.5 ounces
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Tastes very much like Thin Mints. Allows me to say “hell no” to Girl Scouts. It’s fudgerrific! Has one gram of monounsaturated fat. Staring into the eyes of a Girl Scout is like staring into the eyes of an angel. Breaks the chains of guilt.
Cons: It’s frickin’ limited edition. Couldn’t taste the white filling. Only 12 frickin’ cookies. Contains high fructose corn syrup. Bruising the egos of young women. Bruising the ego of a guy looking for a date to the prom.

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