REVIEW: McDonald’s Caramel Apple Sundae and Caramel Apple Parfait

/ / Reviews / 17 Comments

McDonald's Caramel Apple Sundae

McDonald’s once used fresh apples slices for good, but with their new Caramel Apple Sundae and Caramel Apple Parfait, they’ve now gone over to the dark side of the Force.

I’m sorry. I should warn you that this review might be sprinkled with Star Wars references because I have both trilogies in my head thanks to Spike TV, who showed Episodes 1-6 multiple times over the Labor Day weekend. This is not the first time I got caught up in watching all the Star Wars movies on Spike.

Much like Bothans losing many lives to provide the Rebel Alliance with information about the second Death Star, I have lost many three-day weekends watching all the movies multiple times since 2008, when Spike TV started broadcasting all the films. Although, to be honest, it’s not a complete waste, if you count the custom permanent butt mold in my couch that was made with all the sitting I did.

With all the Star Wars in my head right now, my dreams are a little weird. Do you know what it’s like having Jar Jar Binks popup in your dreams? It’s like having a car alarm go off in your head. Not even imagining gold bikini Princess Leia can help overcome that.

Wait. What was I talking about before? McDonald’s Chewbacca Anakin Solo? McDonald’s Calrissian Antilles Padmé?

Oh, that right. McDonald’s Caramel Apple Sundae and Caramel Apple Parfait.

Both desserts use the apples found in the much more wholesome Fruit & Walnut Salad and Fruit & Maple Oatmeal. The apples in both desserts are smothered with a generous serving of gooey caramel, making the apples look like they’re floating in a Dagobah swamp. While the apples will keep the doctor away, the caramel might not keep the dentist away. The sundae version also includes McDonald’s reduced fat soft serve ice cream, while the parfait has low fat vanilla yogurt.

McDonald's Caramel Apple Parfait

The caramel is the Order 66 that turns the apples from wholesome to evil. And when I say evil, I mean really good.

Both desserts had a delicious caramel apple flavor. Although I could taste the apples more with the parfait. The crunchy apples were cut into small enough pieces that it easily allowed me to mix everything with the included spoon and, thanks to the added calcium ascorbate (calcium and vitamin C), the apples looked as golden and fresh as a recently cleaned C-3PO. As I mentioned earlier, there’s a lot of caramel, but there’s also enough apple chunks to ensure you get a little bit of everything in each spoonful.

Now, the thing is the caramel is the dominant flavor in both the sundae and parfait. It’s dominant enough that it negates the flavors of the soft serve ice cream and vanilla yogurt. Basically, the Caramel Apple Sundae and Caramel Apple Parfait pretty much taste the same. So deciding which one to choose really depends on how much you’re willing to spend or how many calories you’re willing to take in. Although, the Caramel Apple Sundae’s serving size looks smaller than McDonald’s regular sundaes, so you should also take that into consideration.

However, whichever one you choose, you can’t go wrong. The McDonald’s Caramel Apple Sundae and Caramel Apple Parfait are both really good desserts.

May the Force be with you.

(Nutrition Facts – Caramel Apple Sundae – 330 calories, 9 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 120 milligrams of sodium, 55 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 35 grams of sugar, 7 grams of protein, 8% vitamin A, 130% vitamin C, and 20% calcium. Caramel Apple Parfait – 180 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 85 milligrams of sodium, 34 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 24 grams of sugar, 5 grams of protein, 130% vitamin C, and 20% calcium.)

Thanks to Impulsive Buy reader Lane for letting me know about these.

Other McDonald’s Caramel Apple Sundae and Caramel Apple Parfait reviews:
On Second Scoop
Brand Eating

Items: McDonald’s Caramel Apple Sundae and Caramel Apple Parfait
Price: $2.29 (Caramel Apple Sundae)
Price: $1.99 (Caramel Apple Parfait)
Size: N/A
Purchased at: McDonald’s
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Caramel Apple Sundae)
Rating: 8 out of 10 (Caramel Apple Parfait)
Pros: Tastes like caramel apples. Lots of caramel and apple chunks. Small apple pieces made it easy to mix. Star Wars. Custom couch butt molds. Gold bikini Princess Leia. The Force.
Cons: More expensive than regular sundaes and parfait. Sundae and parfait pretty much taste the same. The Caramel Apple Sundae’s serving size looks smaller than regular sundaes. Wasting a three-day weekend watching nothing but Star Wars movies multiple times. The dark side of the Force.

NEWS: Upset This Year’s Trick or Treaters By Passing Out Chips Ahoy! Halloween Cookies

/ / Spotted on Shelves

If you’re looking to piss off the trick or treaters in your neighborhood and ensure your home will get either egged or TP-ed, then pass out Chips Ahoy! Halloween chocolate chip cookies. Their chocolatey goodness puts them just a step above a roll of pennies, but their fragility puts them several steps below any candy.

Chips Ahoy! Halloween are somewhat similar to Chips Ahoy! American Summer, except instead of red. white, and blue candy coated pieces, they just have orange candy coated pieces. Since they aren’t very different, I also expect Chips Ahoy! Halloween to taste just like regular Chips Ahoy! cookies.

Let’s just hope Nabisco decided this time to make Chips Ahoy! Halloween in an appropriate country, unlike with Chips Ahoy! American Summer which were made in Mexico. So I hope Nabisco had these Halloween holiday chocolate chip cookies made in Transylvania.

Chips Ahoy! Halloween are currently available for a limited time in 13 ounces packages.

NEWS: Wendy’s Hot ‘N Juicy Cheeseburgers Coming Next Month

/ / Fast Food News / 2 Comments

Wendy's Cup: Logo

Thanks to girl’s/women’s clothing companies, I associate Hot, Juicy, and Hot ‘N Juicy with words printed on the backsides of sweatpants. But Wendy’s, the world’s third largest hamburger fast food chain, might change my word associations with their upcoming Dave’s Hot ‘N Juicy Cheeseburgers.

Wendy’s new burgers have juicier, thicker 100% North American beef patties, crinkle-cut pickles, sweet red onions, and thick tomato slices in between buttered, toasted buns. The Hot ‘N Juicy Cheeseburgers come in three varieties: a 1/4 lb. burger with a single beef patty, a 1/2 lb. burger with two beef patties, and for real meat lovers, a 3/4 lb. burger with three beef patties.

But if you LOVE apostrophes, you’ll enjoy any Wendy’s Dave’s Hot ‘N Juicy Cheeseburger.

A Hot ‘N Juicy 1/4 lb. Single has 580 calories, 33 grams of fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 1.5 grams of trans fat, 1,240 milligrams of sodium, and 31 grams of protein.

A Hot ‘N Juicy 1/2 lb. Double has 810 calories, 48 grams of fat, 21 grams of saturated fat, 2.5 grams of trans fat, 1,580 milligrams of sodium, and 51 grams of protein.

Finally, a Hot ‘N Juicy 3/4 lb. Triple has…do you really want to know how Fat ‘N Salty it is? Well, if you do, it has 1,060 calories, 67 grams of fat, 30 grams of saturated fat, 4 grams of trans fat, 2,070 milligrams of sodium, and 72 grams of protein.

Wendy’s Dave’s Hot ‘N Juicy Cheeseburgers will roll out nationwide on October 3rd.

Source: Grub Grade

Image via flickr user El Gran Dee / CC BY 2.0

NEWS: Nabisco Expands Wheat Thins Line With Smoky BBQ Version

/ / Spotted on Shelves

Update: Click here to read our Wheat Thins Smoky BBQ review

You know what the world needs?

More Wheat Thins flavors…and Wheat Thins coming in a box size that’s as large as a Cheerios box. Perhaps a 32 ounce box of Wheat Thins.

While a large Wheat Thins box may never happen, a new Wheat Thins flavor will soon be hitting shelves. According to the super food blog, Foodbeast, Nabisco will be releasing Smoky BBQ Wheat Thins later this month.

A serving size of 14 pieces has 140 calories, 45 calories from fat, 5 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 180 milligrams of sodium, 65 milligrams of potassium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 4 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein. A serving also has 10 grams of whole grain.

Smoky BBQ Wheat Thins will be available in 9.5 ounces boxes.

REVIEW: Ben & Jerry’s Fair Goodness Cake!

/ / Reviews / 7 Comments

Ben & Jerry's Fair Goodness Cake!

Hey so guess what — I found the damn ice cream.

Irony is a bitch, amirite?  After literally weeks of searching for the latest Ben & Jerry’s flavor and eventually settling for Breyers Chips Ahoy! as a consolation prize, I finally located Fair Goodness Cake! before I’d even submitted that last review.  Yeah.  That’s like getting a friend request from the girl you had a crush on in high school two weeks after you’ve gotten married.

Except… often when that happens, you realize almost immediately that, old infatuation be damned, you absolutely ended up with the right person.  That happened to me — it’s crazy to think that if I’d actually had the stones to ask her out back in the day, I could right now be with a diehard Twilight and Justin Bieber fan who’s never heard of capital letters.  (Because: hi, we’re 31 years old.  The Biebs should not be on anyone’s radar who was born in the ’80s.)  So I approached Fair Goodness Sake! with anticipation, but just a little hesitance as well.

Juliet famously pondered what was in a name, to which Ben and Jerry’s response is clearly, “An opportunity for a double pun, duh.”  Fair Goodness Cake! isn’t the slickest of their ice cream names, but you’ve got to respect the sheer ambition of referencing both the fair trade nature of the ingredients and the flavor itself in the title.  I’d been looking forward to this one for a while because, beyond the fact that B&J rarely steer me wrong, I was curious to see if I could taste the difference between standard chocolate ice cream versus “German chocolate cake” ice cream.

Ben & Jerry's Fair Goodness Cake! Closeup

In answer to that question: yes, although it’s subtle.  I’d say the chocolate is probably a little darker and richer than what you’d consider “ordinary” chocolate, both in appearance and flavor.  Texture wise, while there are some crumbled cake bits in it, they’re pretty unobtrusive and blend well into the smoothness of the ice cream.  If anything, they could’ve added a little more German chocolate cake without anyone complaining, I’m guessing.  FGS! also contains coconut, which I personally can take or leave.  To me it’s like the kid sidekick of the ice cream world — I’m not going to complain if it’s there, but if it happens to get accidentally left out, or blown up or beaten to death with a crowbar, I’m kind of okay with that.  Anyone who got that reference, collect five nerd points and give yourself a wedgie immediately.

But I know that many of you, like my wife, are avowed coconut lovers, and rest assured that Ben & Jerry have not forsaken thee.  Fair Goodness Cake! boasts a strong, distinctive coconut presence that can’t be ignored.  Arguably a little too much so — the container boasts of a coconut caramel swirl, but the caramel is almost an afterthought, disappearing quicker than a bartender’s attention when you sit down and order a water (or so I’m told by people who order water in bars).  In all seriousness, the caramel is there, but very subtle and definitely overpowered by its bigger, more prominent cousin.  Damn your diva-esque ways, coconut!

Despite what the name might lead you to believe, there’s nothing especially esoteric about Fair Goodness Cake! ice cream.  It’s not some incredibly niche flavor that like three people will appreciate; it’s just solid, non-flashy ice cream.  Nothing wrong with that (other than the price… five dollars?!), and while I might’ve desired more parity between the coconut and the caramel elements, overall it’s still tasty stuff.  Coconut lovers can probably add an extra point to that score, but for everyone else: don’t hesitate to pick some up if you see it, but I wouldn’t drive more than a mile out of your way to get some either.  Although it is a limited batch, so if you DO decide to partake, don’t wait too long — he who hesitates does not eat cake.

(Nutrition Facts — 1/2 cup — 260 calories, 120 calories from fat, 13 grams of total fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 65 milligrams of sodium, 33 grams of total carbohydrates, 2 grams of dietary fiber, 27 grams of sugars, 4 grams of protein.)

Other Ben & Jerry’s Fair Goodness Cake! reviews:
On Second Scoop

Item: Ben & Jerry’s Fair Goodness Cake!
Price: $4.99
Size: One pint
Purchased at: Acme
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Finally finding the damn stuff.  Further confirmation that you married the right person (not that any was needed).  Cake chunks that enhance the rich chocolate.  Nice texture.  Double puns.  Doesn’t spare the coconut, if that’s your thing.
Cons: Does EVERY new frozen dessert have to have an exclamation mark in its name?  Kid sidekicks.  Remembering you never would’ve stood a chance with the girl you’re making jokes about.  Who hid the caramel?  $5 is pretty ridiculous for a pint of ice cream.

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