Category: Reviews

REVIEW: Chocolate Peanut Butter Corn Pops (2019)

Vin

Kellogg s Chocolate Peanut Butter Corn Pops Cereal

What are Chocolate Peanut Butter Corn Pops?

An expansion of the Corn Pops line of cereals that first hit shelves in the simpler days of 2007 but somehow didn’t catch on.

How are they?

Well, do you like Corn Pops? How about Reese’s Puffs? Ever had the urge to mix them together?

Here ya go, well, kinda.

Kellogg s Chocolate Peanut Butter Corn Pops Cereal Dry

The texture is distinctly Corn Pops. Each piece is caked in a clingy chocolate peanut butter powder that reminds me a bit of the sugar on the sweet “Muddy Buddy” Chex Mixes.

These smell and taste just like Reese’s Puffs – briefly. As that fades, I start to taste old school Corn Pops. Just hearing that, you’d think Chocolate Peanut Butter Pops were an all-time great, but I have to admit, I’m a tad disappointed in the overall flavor.

They start as Reese’s and end as Corn Pops but only get to about 75% of each’s best. This is a very good bowl of cereal, it’s just not as elite as I had hoped.

Is there anything else you need to know?

Kellogg s Chocolate Peanut Butter Corn Pops Cereal Spooned

These Pops stay impressively crisp in milk. I’m almost suspicious of how it’s possible. There’s gotta be some freaky preservative using dark magic.

I can’t recall the last bowl of cereal I had where the pieces weren’t even close to soggy by the last bite. The powder remains the entire time as well, so don’t expect much cereal milk runoff.

Conclusion:

Kellogg s Chocolate Peanut Butter Corn Pops Cereal with Regular CP

I love Corn Pops. They’re not my ultimate “end boss” favorite, but I’d be satisfied if they were my desert island cereal.

These come up a bit short of my expectations, but I’ll still destroy the box, and I imagine most people will be happy. I’m hoping these do well this go around, because I need some new Corn Pops flavor in my life. *insert famous Corn Pops slogan here*

Purchased Price: $3.99
Size: 10.5 oz
Purchased at: Shop Rite
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 cup) 160 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 190 milligrams of sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Dairy Queen Reese’s Lovers Blizzards

Denis 4 Comments

Dairy Queen Reese s Lovers Blizzards

Should it be Blizzards of the Month or Blizzard of the Months? Or should we throw in some random apostrophes somewhere? The reason for these grammatical and punctuative predicaments is that Dairy Queen has unleashed both the Reese’s Peanut Butter Lovers and Reese’s Chocolate Lovers to battle for the title of Blizzard of the Month for June.

OK, so there’s no battle, but with two choices this month, plus the previously announced Summer Blizzard Menu with five other options, it’s enough for a Blizzard party!

Apparently with two new offerings to create, the Blizzard wizards at DQ could only muster half the creativity this month, as each of these are about as straightforward as can be. The peanut butter version has Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups mixed into a blend of vanilla soft serve and peanut butter topping, while the chocolate version substitutes fudge topping instead peanut butter.

While DQ will collect no prizes this month for thinking outside of the box, that doesn’t mean these Blizzards are not good just because they are close cousins to several previous Reese’s-inspired concoctions. In fact, they are genuinely good, proving again that sometimes the tried-and-true simple approach works just fine.

So, which one is better? That will depend largely — and not surprisingly — on whether you prefer peanut butter or chocolate.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Lovers

Dairy Queen Reese s Peanut Butter Lovers Blizzard

My go-to Blizzard has always been the straight-up Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, but with all the new varieties being offered recently I can’t remember the last time I noshed on my old friend. (Note to self: Never use that phrasing again). So I got a little misty-eyed when I dug into the Reese’s Peanut Butter Lovers Blizzard.

Dairy Queen Reese s Peanut Butter Lovers Blizzard Closeup

A Blizzard with just vanilla soft serve and peanut butter cups is perfectly good, but the addition of the peanut butter topping here really adds something. Again, no awards for creativity, but it’s a simple and solid improvement over the standard PB cup Blizzard. After tasting this version, I’ll be asking for a shot or two of that sweet peanut butter topping to be added to my standard PB cup Blizzard in the future.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: Mini
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: Not available on the DQ website

Reese’s Chocolate Lovers

Dairy Queen Reese s Chocolate Lovers Blizzard

If you really, really love chocolate, then you’ll likely really, really love the Reese’s Chocolate Lovers Blizzard. Perhaps my Blizzard barista got a little carried away with the fudge, but I found this one to be a bit too chocolatey to the point where the flavor of the peanut butter cups struggled to make much of an impact on my taste buds.

Dairy Queen Reese s Chocolate Lovers Blizzard Closeup

Certainly this is still a good Blizzard, even though, assuming you like chocolate, peanut butter, and soft serve, it’s hard to screw something like this up. But for me, it had just a little too much chocolate. Your results may vary.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: Mini
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: Not available on the DQ website

Dairy Queen Reese s Lovers Blizzards Party

So if one version is for hardcore chocolate lovers and the other is for peanut butter aficionados, what would happen if you combined them into one spoonful? Well, I’m glad you asked, or more correctly, that I asked myself.

Dairy Queen Reese s Lovers Blizzard Combo

The combination of both — not unlike when Mr. H.B. Reese brought together chocolate and peanut butter in cup form — is quite tasty. Depending on which part of the spoonful hit my tongue first, I got a nice alternation of flavors throughout my Blizzard meal. Sure, it was a bit awkward to order two Blizzards while dining alone and having people look at me sitting in a booth while wondering if my DQ date had stood me up, but I really don’t care.

By the way, in case the Grammar Police are (or is?) watching, the correct answer to the above is Blizzards of the Month.

REVIEW: McDonald’s Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich

Adam 1 Comment

McDonald s Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich Crispy

For many years, I thought American fast food was a shining beacon of liberty, creativity, and ingenuity —- in short, everything that won two world wars, put a man on the moon, and bequeathed the world such celebrities as the Jonas Brothers.

Reality, a hip college-aged friend of mine tells me, is often disappointing, although I think she stole that from a movie. Such is the case when you consider the rather pedestrian domestic offerings of chains like McDonald’s in relation to its overseas menus. Thankfully, we get to bask in a little international culture for the summer, as the Golden Arches have rolled out its “Worldwide Favorites” menu.

The Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich, an import from Canada, suggests an especially light and summery offering. You can get the sandwich in either a grilled or crispy version but because you only live once and can drastically reduce said life through gluttony, I got both.

McDonald s Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich Crispy Halved

Structurally, the crispy chicken sandwich holds up better than the grilled. Mine was well presented with multiple leaves of lettuce and surprisingly fresh Roma tomato slices tucked into a toasted, buttered Artisan bun. The crispy chicken was plenty juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside — everything you would want it to be, but for some reason it tasted just okay.

McDonald s Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich Toppings Crispy

The viscous tomato and herb sauce is less sweet or acidic than it probably should be, and what’s left is a garlicky sauce that doesn’t know what it wants to be. The mozzarella, warm but unmelted, cheesy but not milky, is serviceable. But like watching Canadian football, it’s not preferable.

McDonald s Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich Grilled

I found that the grilled chicken version tastes better than the crispy one if only because there is a warm succulence to the grilled poultry that melts the cheese more completely than the crispy version.

McDonald s Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich Tomatoes

The tomatoes and lettuce add a more pronounced relief to the protein and gooey cheese, but they also add structural instability. In rather cartoonish fashion, the contents of my sandwich squirted themselves almost completely free of the bun, of which the button half was basically useless. Also, there are onions on both sandwiches. They’re fine if not a little annoying.

Overall, the Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich is a little bit better than fine but not quite a solid good despite it’s obviously fresh ingredients and relatively sound engineering. If anything, the sandwich makes you appreciate the tried and true regular McDonald’s menu a bit more, while still cultivating a healthy curiosity for the warmth of drive-thrus on distant (or relatively close) foreign shores.

Purchased Price: $5.49
Size: N/A
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 700 calories (Crispy); 530 calories (Grilled) Full nutrition not available at publication time.

REVIEW: Mtn Dew Liberty Brew

Meghan 16 Comments

Mtn Dew Liberty Brew

What is Mtn Dew Liberty Brew?

Honoring all fifty states Dewnited under the Dew Nation flag, this limited edition brew promises to do its country proud by packing each bottle with 50 different flavors and enough Blue #1 to put Old Glory to shame.

How is it?

Much like shave ice in Hawaii, which you can mix and match all kinds of syrups, it’s hard to decipher where one flavor in Liberty Brew ends and another begins. If I had to pick, Blue Raspberry is probably the most prominent one of the bunch, but everything’s so blended together that it’s hard to pick any individual taste out.

Mtn Dew Liberty Brew Glass

Lacking the slight citrus-lime punch featured in regular Mountain Dew, Liberty Brew somehow seems even sweeter by comparison, and no aspect of it made me want to finish my bottle. Actually, it kind of reminds me of a melted Blue Raspberry ICEE, just without the disappointment of anticipating a frozen treat and finding out the machine is broken.

Is there anything else you should know?

This is a drink best enjoyed in one sitting. Despite the cap, it gets flat pretty quickly, and I thought it began to taste unsettlingly close to cough syrup once it wasn’t fizzy anymore.

Conclusion:

Despite its distinctly patriotic branding, I’d skip on offering Mtn Dew Liberty Brew at cookouts and gatherings this summer. Just stick to buying the original stuff.

Purchased Price: $1.88
Purchased at: Walmart
Size: 20 fl. oz.
Rating: 4 out of 10
Nutrition Facts:: (1 bottle) 280 calories, 0 grams of total fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 90 milligrams of sodium, 75 grams of total carbohydrates, 75 grams of sugars, and 0 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Pringles Mystery Flavor U.S. (2019)

Marvo 6 Comments

Pringles Mystery Flavor U S

I have to say it’s more exciting to see a mystery flavor from Pringles than from other brands. If the vast number of Pringles flavors has taught us anything, it’s that anything is possible for the food scientists who come up with new varieties for the potato crisp. They’ve done so many things with savory, cheesy, spicy, and sweet that these Walgreens-exclusive Mystery Flavor Pringles could be ANYTHING.

Its can looks similar to the Pringles Mystery Flavour that came out last year in Canada, minus the mandatory French. While this is the first year the U.S. is getting a cryptic-flavored crisp, our friends up north have had two years of mystery flavoured Pringles.

I could tell you what I think the flavor is, but I feel bad about ruining the mystery for some readers. I’m no a-hole on Twitter or Facebook who spoils long-awaited movie sequels and TV show series finales. So I wrote the non-food related paragraphs below to tell you what my guess is in a simple puzzle you can decipher using a fifth-grade code-breaking technique. Not interested in my guess? Feel free to skip the next three paragraphs.

Pringles Mystery Flavor U S Closeup

Celebrating an eardiggers find is not worth celebrating. Hearing might be improved by it, though. Even though the risks of doing it might do the opposite of improving your hearing. Every doctor might tell you never to put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear. So maybe the cons outweigh the pros in this situation. You should probably let whatever is in your ear come out naturally.

But, sometimes it’s hard to ignore the irritation it causes. Also, you have fingernails to help, so why not use them? Cleaning with your nails might be your best option if you don’t have anything that can provide instant relief. Or, if you can tolerate it for a while, you can buy ear wax removal drops. Note: do not use cotton swabs that can push the earwax further into your ear.

For some of you, this isn’t an issue because you have your nanobots to clean up the ear wax for you. Really rich people from a previous generation have dedicated ear sweepers who are on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I don’t have any of those things. Eventually, when I win big in Vegas, I’ll have nanobots do the cleaning. So, until then, it’s fingernails and letting the ear wax come out naturally.

Overall, the first Pringles Mystery Flavor in the U.S. is a tasty crisp. Although some might find one of the dominant flavors to be too artificial, I think it helps nail home what it’s supposed to taste like. It’s a great combination of previous Pringles flavors.

DISCLOSURE: I received a free sample of the product. Doing so did not influence my review in any way.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 5.5-ounces
Purchased at: Received from Pringles
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (about 15 crisps) 150 calories, 9 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 290 milligrams of sodium, 16 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 0 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.