SPOTTED – 7/5/2019

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

Franz Limited Edition Lemon Donuts
Franz Limited Edition Lemon Donuts

(Spotted by Rachel J at Safeway.)

Lucky Charms Cereal with 3 New Unicorns
Lucky Charms Cereal with 3 New Unicorns

(Spotted by Robbie at Target.)

Idahoan Cheesy Hash Browns Homestyle Casserole
Idahoan Cheesy Hash Browns Homestyle Casserole
Idahoan Bacon  Ranch Homestyle Casserole
Idahoan Bacon & Ranch Homestyle Casserole
Idahoan Monterey Pepper Jack Mashed Potatoes
Idahoan Monterey Pepper Jack Mashed Potatoes
Idahoan Vermont White Cheddar Mashed Potatoes
Idahoan Vermont White Cheddar Mashed Potatoes
Idahoan Wisconsin Cheddar Mashed Potatoes
Idahoan Wisconsin Cheddar Mashed Potatoes

(Spotted by RaveGyrl at Meijer.)

Private Selection Seasoned Pork Belly Bites  Korean Inspired and Original BBQ Recipe
Private Selection Seasoned Pork Belly Bites (Korean Inspired and Original BBQ Recipe)

(Spotted by Sylvia at Ralphs.)

Natural Grocers Organic Dark Chocolate Almond  Sea Salt Bar and Milk Chocolate Caramel  Sea Salt Bar
Natural Grocers Organic Dark Chocolate Almond & Sea Salt Bar and Milk Chocolate Caramel & Sea Salt Bar

(Spotted by Robbie at Natural Grocers.)

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.

Also, if you want to send in photos and are wondering if we’ve already covered something or if the product is old, don’t worry about it. Let us worry about it.

REVIEW: Dairy Queen Sour Patch Kids Blizzard

Dairy Queen Sour Patch Kids Blizzard

When you look at the list of possible Blizzard ingredients on the menu board, which oddly DQ doesn’t really publicize you can use to create a customized creation to your liking, just about everything has been already done between the regular Blizzard menu, Blizzards of the Month, a plethora of seasonal Blizzard menus, plus special Blizzards with movie tie-ins or for the second Tuesday of Lent. DQ has essentially admitted that all the reasonable combinations have been tried, as they tend to recycle some of the same or very similar Blizzards now and then.

Enter the Sour Patch Kids Blizzard, which as far as I can tell after four seconds of online research, is the first time DQ has used these sweet and sour gummies. This latest concoction features vanilla soft serve with Sour Patch Kids Redberry flavor (don’t worry, I didn’t know it was called that either) mixed with Sour Patch Kids Bitz.

The first thing that caught my attention was the smell, which is not something I normally notice or think about with a Blizzard. But this one exudes a fragrant essence of Sour Patch Kids, just like opening a bag of the tasty little fellows.

I’m not sure if the Sour Patch Kids in here were mutilated by the magic Blizzard machine, or if DQ calling them “Bitz” means they were already hacked to pieces before the mixing process. Either way, the pieces of kids are approximately the size of Nerds (which made me pine for the long-deceased Nerds Blizzard of years gone by).

Dairy Queen Sour Patch Kids Blizzard Top

The Bitz in mine didn’t seem to be as large or as plentiful as the promotional photos show, but I might have had a frugal and overzealous mixer. As you might have guessed, the coldness of the ice cream changes the firmness of the Sour Patch Kids a bit. They didn’t have the same soft chewiness you might be accustomed to, but I didn’t find that to be a drawback, and they do pack a sour punch.

The Redberry-flavored soft serve tasted great, like DQ somehow liquified a bag of red Sour Patch Kids and infused it into the ice cream. But before they liquefied the poor little kids, DQ apparently removed the sour coating because the ice cream flavor was all sweetness, and it was splendid. As a standalone treat, I’d eat the ice cream part all day (and all night).

Dairy Queen Sour Patch Kids Blizzard Spoon

The kicker is the little chunks of Sour Patch Kids, which of course still have the sour coating and seemed to have a delayed effect on my taste buds. So first you get the sweetness of the Redberry-flavored ice cream, then slowly you experience the sour flavor in your mouth as the Bitz free themselves from their ice cream cocoons, and then finally you get the sweetness again when you get to the gummy part of the Sour Patch Kids.

Sometimes you don’t know how much you wanted something until you see it, or in this case, taste it. Of all the possible things that can be thrown into a Blizzard, I’m not sure I would have thought of Sour Patch Kids. But I’m glad the Blizzard wizards at DQ gave it a try because it’s a winner in my book and a nice change of pace from some other recent Blizzards that always seem to revolve around chocolate, Oreo, or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Since Sour Patch Kids are not a regular DQ menu item, this one figures to be gone for good after July. You have been warned.

Purchased Price: $3.79
Size: Small
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Small) 660 calories, 24 grams of fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 190 milligrams of sodium, 82 grams of carbohydrates, -1 grams of dietary fiber*, 86 grams of sugar, and 12 grams of protein.

*The DQ website inexplicably lists a negative amount of dietary fiber. I’m no mathematician or nutritionist, but that seems to be impossible on many levels.

Click here for our previous reviews

FAST FOOD NEWS: Sonic Mocktail Slushes

SONIC Mocktail Slushes

Update: We tried the Reaper Spicy Margarita! Click here to read our review.

Sonic is now offering three new Mocktail Slushes to help cool you down this summer. Okay, well, actually two will help you cool down and the other may make the inside of your mouth feel as hot as you feel on the outside.

The hot one is the Reaper Spicy Margarita, which combines a classic margarita flavor that’s infused with the flavor of one of the world’s hottest chili peppers, the Carolina Reaper, all of which is blended into slush form. A small has 190 calories, 0 grams of fat, 230 milligrams of sodium, 51 grams of carbohydrates, 50 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.

The non-alcoholic slushes that’ll bring relief from heat are the Strawberry Daiquiri, a combination of real strawberries and sweet coconut flavor, and Pina Colada, a tropical blend of sweet coconut flavor and pineapple flavor, each blended into a icy Sonic Slush. A small Strawberry Daiquiri has 220 calories, 0 grams of fat, 40 milligrams of sodium, 58 grams of carbohydrates, 50 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein. A small Pina Colada has 200 calories, 0 grams of fat, 35 milligrams of sodium, 54 grams of carbohydrates, 54 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.

They’re available for a limited time while supplies last and they’re available for half-price every day from 2-4 p.m. during Happy Hour.

If you’ve tried the Reaper Spicy Margarita, let us know what you think of it in the comments.

(Image via Sonic.)

REVIEW: Baskin-Robbins Scoops Ahoy U.S.S. Butterscotch Ice Cream

Baskin Robbins Scoops Ahoy U S S Butterscotch Ice Cream

Baskin-Robbins’ Scoops Ahoy U.S.S. Butterscotch Ice Cream is a new Baskin-Robbins pint flavor that’s a product tie-in with Netflix’s Stranger Things. It’s supposedly a flavor that’s available at the fictional Scoops Ahoy Ice Cream Parlor in the show.

My use of “supposedly” in the opening paragraph probably gave you a hint that I haven’t watched an episode of Stranger Things. I also haven’t seen Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Killing Eve, The Walking Dead, and many other critically acclaimed TV shows that friends say I should watch, but don’t, which lets me scan Twitter freely without caring about spoilers. But, I’m strapped to this chair to process Spotted photos and write reviews. That’s my life. Someone, please send help.

U.S.S. Butterscotch features butterscotch-flavored ice cream with butterscotch pieces and a toffee-flavored ribbon. It’s also Baskin-Robbins’ Flavor of the Month of July 2019.

The base has a mild butterscotch flavor that starts the potency at a two. Add the ribbon, and the Werther’s Original-like flavor gets kicked up to a five. When I include the butterscotch pieces with the other two components, the degree of sweet and buttery flavor gets turned up to a nine.

Why not a ten? Well, I figure if it’s at its max, then there might be too much butterscotch. But, at no point, while eating a quarter of the pint did I feel it was overkill.

Baskin Robbins Scoops Ahoy U S S Butterscotch Ice Cream Closeup

The texture of the ice cream base is creamy, but it’s softer and airier than a Ben & Jerry’s base. It scoops more like Dreyer’s/Edy’s Slow Churned. The super crunchy butterscotch pieces completely contrast the base’s texture. However, the toffee-flavored ribbon, which I expected to be gooey, wasn’t what I’d consider gooey. It was just there. But the thing about the mix-ins is that there’s not a lot of them throughout the pint. My spoon faced too many empty seas of off-white butterscotch ice cream.

Baskin Robbins Scoops Ahoy U S S Butterscotch Ice Cream Other Stranger Things Flavors

There are three other Stranger Things varieties — Praline Portal, Mind Flayer Mint, and Shadow Sherbet. But they’re renamed and repackaged versions of the following regular Baskin-Robbins flavors — Pralines ‘n Cream, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Rainbow Sherbet. Yawn.

Remember Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Ron Burgundy’s Scotchy Scotch Scotch with butterscotch ice cream and butterscotch swirls? If you miss that variety buried six feet under (another show I didn’t watch) in the Flavor Graveyard, you’ll most likely enjoy this.

Purchased Price: $3.00 (on sale)
Size: 14 fl. oz.
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 270 calories, 14 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 34 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 27 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

SPOTTED: Urge Glazers Donut Flavored Potato Chips

Urge Glazers Flavored Potato Chips

Most of us won’t be able to try this since it’s sold only at Kwik Trip, a regional convenience store chain. But, glazed donut would’ve been an interesting Lay’s Do Us a Flavor variety. (Spotted by @debo0053 at Kwik Trip.)

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.

Also, if you want to send in photos and are wondering if we’ve already covered something or if the product is old, don’t worry about it. Let us worry about it.

If you’ve seen the product, help out your fellow readers by letting them know in the comments what city and store you found it in.

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