The Impulsive Buy

REVIEW: KFC Nashville Hot Loaded Fries Bowl

Marvo / January 24, 2025 / Reviews / 2 Comments

I enjoyed KFC’s Nashville Hot Loaded Fries Bowl…without the chicken.

All right. All right. Let me back up a little bit. The chain’s newest thing with stuff dumped into a bowl features Secret Recipe Fries topped with coleslaw, pickles, cheese, Original Recipe Nuggets, and Nashville Hot Sauce, a Nashville Hot Mess, if you will.

However, I enjoyed the bowl more when my sporkfuls didn’t contain any of the C in KFC. I’ll get to that in a moment.

The Original Recipe Nuggets were just what I expected — meaty with a slightly crispy exterior and the flavor of the Colonel’s secret recipe of herbs and spices. The Nashville Hot Sauce gave the chicken a pleasant, sweet heat with a strong pepperiness that amped up the chicken’s flavor. Although not as coated in sauce as when Nashville Hot Chicken debuted at KFC, the nuggets were tasty.

(NOTE: The photos in the KFC app show an order is topped with five nuggets, but mine came with a bonus nugget. Yes, it happened again. )

But as much as I liked the chicken, and it tastes great with the other ingredients, after eating a sporkful without the poultry, my mind decided to push to the side whatever chicken nuggets were left and enjoy just the fries, cole slaw, pickles, and cheese mixed together. My tongue thought it was a more enjoyable and unique combination of flavors that the chicken’s meatiness got in the way of. I did consume them after.

I’ve never had cole slaw on any fries, and it sounds weird to bring the two together, but that combination, along with the seasoning on the fries, the cheese, pickles, and Nashville Hot sauce, works well and tastes delightful. I’m surprised how well the slaw and the sauce complement each other despite being kind of opposing ingredients. If you think about it, it’s sort of a vegetable salad with Nashville Hot dressing.

I imagine if Colonel Sanders found out about how I had pushed aside his Secret Recipe seasoned chicken, he would be rolling in his grave like a rotisserie chicken. Then he’d want to pull out my bones to flatten me like a spatchcocked chicken and then shove a Coors Light container in one of my orifices like a beer can chicken. But his Secret Recipe does play an important role in how much I enjoyed KFC’s Nashville Hot Loaded Fries Bowl, although it was on the fries and not the chicken.

Purchased Price: $7.00*
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 910 calories, 60 grams of fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 80 milligrams of cholesterol, 2530 milligrams of sodium, 63 grams of carbohydrates, 8 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar (including 0 grams of added sugar), and 26 grams of protein.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

SPOTTED: Kettle Brand Limited Edition Chamoy Potato Chips

Marvo / January 24, 2025 / Spotted on Shelves

I totally forgot about “chamoy.” I have to use it for this year’s Season of Giving. (Spotted by Prentice at Meijer.)

If you’re out shopping and see new products, snap a picture of them, and send them in via an email ([email protected]) with where you found them and “Spotted” in the subject line. Also, if you want to send in photos and are wondering if we’ve already covered something or if they’re new, don’t worry about it. Let us worry about it.

SPOTTED: Mother’s Mighty Dynamite Dinosaurs Cookies

Marvo / January 24, 2025 / Spotted on Shelves

This is also available in a large pouch for those who have the appetite of a dinosaur. (Spotted by Amanda Y at H-E-B.)

REVIEW: Taco Bell Mountain Dew Baja Dream Freeze

Amber / January 23, 2025 / Reviews / 3 Comments

A small chunk of my misspent youth was… well, spent in an area of the western US known for dirty soda. If you’re not familiar with it, a dirty soda is basically soda with cream of some sort mixed in, kind of like a less frozen version of a float or an ice cream soda. Similar vibes. We usually made ours with Dr Pepper and coffee creamer.

Anyway, as of late, it seems like variations on dirty soda have been spreading beyond the area they originated from, and the Baja Blast Dream Freeze feels in line with that trend.

If you haven’t had Baja Blast, it’s a lime-forward Mountain Dew flavor created for and available at Taco Bell in both standard soda and freeze/slushy versions. The new “Dream” versions incorporate “vanilla crème.”

I actually liked this freezy, cool concoction a lot! The vanilla crème brings out the lime flavor in a really pleasant way, reminiscent of lime sherbet. It mellows out the sharper notes and rounds out the overall citrusy edge of the Dew nicely, and finishes with a nice sweet aftertaste.

The vanilla crème doesn’t change the consistency at all, which I found surprising. I expected that adding the cream in would make it, well, creamier or at least somewhat richer the way adding coffee creamer to Dr Pepper does. However, it still has the same texture as any other Taco Bell Freeze but with a nice complementary flavor enhancement.

I hope this one sticks around for a while because I’ll definitely be ordering it along with my Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco Supremes for as long as it’s available.

Purchased Price: $3.69
Size: Large
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 230 calories, 1 gram of total fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, less than 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 55 milligrams of sodium, 59 grams of total carbs, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 57 grams of total sugar, and 0 grams of protein.