REVIEW: Oreo x BTS Cookies

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BTS gets top billing

Before the Saja Boys in KPop Demon Hunters, there was BTS.

If you live under a rock (no shade), BTS is a seven-member South Korean boy band that officially crossed over to the US charts around 2017 and was absolutely on fire – breaking Billboard records and creating catchy tracks that had everyone’s Spotify Wrapped looking a little different.

Then, one by one, all seven members headed off for mandatory military service in South Korea.

But their comeback? Wild. Their fanbase, called ARMY, is voracious and ready, and the proof is in the cookie: BTS’ World Tour sold out, and on top of that, they completely sold out their Oreo x BTS Cookies on the Oreo website (including the pre-sale) before most of us could even get to checkout. But now the cookie collab is available in brick-and-mortar stores.

Prince would've loved these. Purple and pancake flavored.

The flavor they chose is appropriately personal: hotteok, a warm brown sugar-stuffed pancake popular in Korean street food markets that BTS has fond childhood memories of.

To honor their 13th anniversary as a group, BTS apparently designed all 13 unique embossments themselves, which already puts this above other Oreo music collabs (looking at you, Selena Gomez: only six special designs? Ha!).

13 designs. Would've been cooler if was 13 different flavors.

The embossments include things like the BTS light stick (a wand that pulses to the beat of their music), member names, Korean finger hearts, and love notes to ARMY. Three of the designs even piece together into a hidden message – spoiler: BTS loves ARMY. Cute! The embossing itself is also impressively crisp and clear. No accidentally merged letters. Props!

The wafers are a pleasant lavender color. Oreo’s first-ever purple cookie was created specifically to honor ARMY, since purple symbolizes love and trust within the fandom after one member coined “I Purple You.”

Eating it, though, it turns out it’s a dyed golden Oreo, and that’s perfectly fine by me. Some cookies arrived cracked and/or broken, boo, but most were intact.

The creme is a combo of two flavors.

It smells like sweet caramel, but the creme’s flavor gives big brown sugar boba vibes in the best way. The creme has a mixed swirl of tan and white with little flecks throughout. Scraping some with my front teeth, I realized the flecks are sugary flavor crystals that enhance the whole experience. Eaten whole, it’s dang good, and the cookie part nods to the pancake-y exterior of a hotteok.

This is probably my favorite Oreo flavor in a long, long time. If you find this limited edition flavor, cop it!

Purchased Price: $5.29
Size: 10.68 oz
Purchased at: Meijer
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2 cookies/29 grams) 140 calories, 6 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 90 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 12 grams of sugar (includes 12 grams of added sugar), and less than 1 gram of protein.

REVIEW: Kirkland Signature Chicken Strips

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A glorious sign of things to come. Also, I like how Costco puts new on the board.

Costco’s food court is elite. The value is fantastic, the offerings are limited but finely curated, and I have shamelessly eaten a hot dog at 10 am.

The warehouse store chain has been rolling out, replacing, and testing quite a few new items lately – churro and double chocolate chip cookie swaps, streamlined pizza options (everything/combo pizza, I still think about you), and rotating sundae flavors.

Shhhh! They're sleeping.

The latest shake-up is the Signature Chicken Strips, which replaced the calzone. It’s five pieces with dipping sauce for $6.99. Look, I’m not Ben Wyatt from Parks and Recreation, so I have no strong calzone loyalties. A higher-protein option at Costco prices? I’m in.

Strips and sauce.

When I picked it up at the window, my first thought was “wow, hefty,” and that applied to the Costco-sized dipping cup too. A second sauce is only $0.79 if you want one, but you won’t need it.

The first one was a tad bit stringy.

The strips themselves were juicy, seasoned, and savory, with a solid breading-to-chicken ratio. Mine had some scorched bits, though you’d never know it from the taste. My one gripe: the texture on my first strip was a little tough and stringy, like cutting a steak with the grain instead of against it. All of it was still edible, and the remaining four were fine.

The breading itself had enough flavor that I didn’t need sauce to enjoy them. That said, I absolutely did dip anyway, because the sauce deserves a mention. It was honey mustard but slightly smoky – almost more like a honey mustard BBQ than your standard packet. I liked it better than just dipping it in ketchup, which is my usual go-to for chicken strips.

Why not? Dip a pizza into the chicken strips sauce.

I also dipped a pizza slice into it because I contain multitudes and because the food-hack potential here is enormous. My fellow foodies are going to have a field day with this one. All in all, not the best chicken tender I’ve ever had in my life but a really, really solid one. I wish I had brought my food scale because the value here is strong, as it is with almost all Kirkland offerings. I’m probably going to choose the $1.50 hot dog combo most of the time still, but I’ll definitely add this to my rotation of eats!

Purchased Price: $6.99
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 1130 – 1640 calories. No other nutritional information available.

REVIEW: Domino’s Slice Sauce

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Gold lid, but is it the gold standard for pizza dipping sauce?

As a consumer, fast food pizza is like a tennis match out there, and I’ve been watching Domino’s and Papa Johns volley back and forth. Earlier this year, Papa Johns launched toasted sandwiches, a mainstay on Domino’s menu. Then Domino’s was like, Oh yeah? We’re going to launch a Slice Sauce and stake our claim right on the packaging: “The Ideal Sauce for your Slice.”

Bold claims require bold evidence, and as a self-declared garlic butter loyalist, I was ready to officiate.

For context, Papa Johns’ Garlic Butter is one of the primary reasons that its pizza is my #1. I always have a spare garlic butter cup in the fridge; you know, for these moments, or impulsive late-night pizza eating.

Domino's Slice Sauce on the left and Papa Johns Garlic Sauce on the right

So a direct head-to-head was non-negotiable.

The Slice Sauce runs $0.99 as an add-on in the app, where it’s described as “creamy and zesty with a hint of Parmesan.” Respectable price point.

Domino's Slice Sauce looks like fry sauce.

In the container, it skews orange-ish, closer to Thousand Island dressing with the flecks and everything, but the smell is zesty and promising. On the first bite, the Parmesan and Asiago cheese blend shows up – genuinely the first taste, not just marketing copy. But it quickly gives way to something more ranch-coded, with a buttermilk finish that keeps things interesting.

Dipping a slice of MeatZZa into the sauce.

To keep this tennis analogy going – here’s where it goes to deuce: I preferred it on the MeatZZa, where it amplified the cheesiness and left a tangy, ranch-like aftertaste that worked. On my mushroom vegetarian slice, it overly accentuated the tomato in a way that felt like there was too much tomato sauce.

Dipping a Domino’s slice into a Papa Johns sauce seems saucealigious.

Papa Johns’ Garlic Butter, by contrast, played nice with both – universally complementary, and deeply buttery in a way that just hits like a Serena Williams serve.

Would I buy the Slice Sauce again? Nah. It’s not bad, it’s just fine, especially when Papa Johns’ garlic butter exists and is elite. Domino’s talked a big game, and the sauce is a solid showing, but it wasn’t the upset I was hoping for.

Purchased Price: $0.99
Size: 1 cup (35g)
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 170 calories, 18 grams of total fat, 3.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 15 milligrams of cholesterol, 370 milligrams of sodium, 2 grams of total carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 1 gram of total sugars, and 1 gram of protein.

REVIEW: Van Leeuwen Lovely Day for a Guinness Ice Cream

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Van Leeuwen Lovely Day for a Guinness Ice Cream pint

With so many ice cream brands out there, it’s easy to forget how genuinely good Van Leeuwen ice cream is. I’ve been to its NYC and LA scoop shops and have enjoyed numerous pints from the grocery store—particularly its Earl Grey tea flavor.

It went on a tear of chaotic collab flavors for a while that I just wasn’t that into, like Hidden Valley Ranch andGrey Poupon Mustard, but Van Leeuwen caught my eye again with the new beer collaboration with Guinness.

There’s no splitting the G with its “Lovely Day for a Guinness” ice cream, but I’d be splitting hairs if I said this wasn’t a fantastic drop.

Van Leeuwen Lovely Day for a Guinness Ice Cream top off

Technically, it’s a re-release. It first dropped last year at its scoop shops, but it was good enough to bring back for a full rollout at Whole Foods. Whole Foods coming in clutch! The name itself is also a re-release – it’s a nod to Guinness’ classic 1950s tagline “Lovely Day for a Guinness.” The flavor features roasted Guinness stout ice cream with dark chocolate chunks.

Many chocolate chunks in the ice cream

First test of any pint: scoopability. Rock hard and bending my spoon makes me sad. Happy to report this scooped easily. The base is a consistent light brown – think the color of the dome on a freshly poured Guinness – flecked with chocolate chunks.

The first bite made me stop and audibly “mmm” in both delight and genuine ponderance because it’s a fascinating flavor. The immediate word that popped into my head was “malty”; I don’t even like malty things like Whoppers or malted milkshakes, but this was dang good. I didn’t have a Guinness on hand for a side-by-side comparison, but it’s pretty spot-on to the one I had last week – except sweeter with zero bitterness. Apparently, they use Guinness 0, the non-alcoholic version, to nail the roasty flavor.

With Van Leeuwen’s French ice cream having double the egg yolks of standard ice cream, means it doesn’t need guar gum or other stabilizers to get its texture. The result is a gelato-adjacent creaminess with a luxurious mouthfeel. This one was no exception!

The sweetness takes over on the finish, so it lands fully in ice cream territory rather than anything bitter or beer-adjacent. The dark chocolate chunks are a perfect textural foil with Ben & Jerry‘s-caliber chunks. It all works better than expected as an ice cream.

At $7.99 a pint, Van Leeuwen is premium, but worth every spoonful. If this was sold this year-round, it’d be my permanent upgrade in the freezer.

The stout verdict: go get this one!

Purchased Price: $7.99
Size: 14 fl oz
Purchased at: Whole Foods
Rating: 10 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup – 108g) 310 calories, 22 grams of fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 100mg of cholesterol, 135 milligrams of sodium, 28 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 25 grams of sugar, 4 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Pop-Tarts Super Stuffed Strawberry Blast

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Pop-Tarts Super Stuffed Strawberry Blast box

It was only a matter of time before Super Stuffed Pop-Tarts showed up. Like Thanos, it was inevitable. They super STUF(fed) Oreos, so why not Pop-Tarts? Why not everything at this point? We are out here maxxing these days anyway.

Pop-Tarts launched Super Stuffed this month with three new flavors: Strawberry Blast, Molten Lava Cake, and Cinnamon Caramel, which is a Walmart exclusive. According to the box, these pack in 50% more filling compared to a regular Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tart.

Pop-Tarts Super Stuffed Strawberry Blast back of box

In this economy, where shrinkflation is rampant (think smaller packages, higher prices, or food that gets quietly downsized but gets rebranded as “new and improved”), I went in suspicious. Was this just the same amount of filling with a new name slapped on it? I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong. I did a side-by-side comparison, and okay, yes, there actually is noticeably more filling in there.

One pastry per package. Five pastries per box.

That said, Pop-Tarts did pull one sneaky move: instead of the usual two-pack pouch you’d find in a classic box, these come individually wrapped. So even with more filling per pastry, you’re only pulling out one at a time. For a treat that’s basically a dessert posing as breakfast, that felt a little abysmal.

50 percent looks about right.

Pop-Tarts Super Stuffed Strawberry Blast next to original Pop-Tarts Frosted Strawberry.

Now, the filling itself. The Strawberry Blast interior is noticeably different from a regular Pop-Tart. It’s a darker red and tastes more like strawberry candy than fruit, tasting very sweet to me. A regular Pop-Tart tastes pretty balanced, like a 50/50 split between the pastry shell taste and the filling. This one completely tips the scales, more like 30% pastry and 70% filling, which for me was a smidge over the top.

Pop-Tarts Super Stuffed Strawberry Blast toasted and split.

I also toasted mine, and no, I will not be taking questions about my toasting level. The sprinkles on top? Turns out those are sugar crystals, not the rainbow kind, so they added even more sweetness to something that was already running pretty hot in that department.

Pop-Tarts Super Stuffed Strawberry Blast sprinkles on the frosting. Red and green makes it look Christmasy.

Would I write off the whole line? No way. I actually think Molten Lava Cake sounds like it could be decadently amazing and genuinely benefit from all that extra filling. My advice: maybe don’t start with Strawberry Blast if you have a fondness for the OG, as I do. But if you love your snacks dialed all the way up to very sweet, this one was made for you.

Purchased Price: $2.89
Size: 10.9 oz/5-pack
Purchased at: Meijer
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 pastry – 62g) 230 calories, 4 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 180 milligrams of sodium, 46 grams of total carbohydrates, 23 grams of total sugars, 1 gram of dietary fiber, and 2 grams of protein.

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