I didn’t publicly predict this, but when Reese’s Popcorn popped up on shelves last year, I thought to myself we’ll probably see a Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme Popcorn someday. And here it is. I am Nostrasnackamus. (Spotted by Robbie at Sam’s Club.)
When a friend sent me a video of a Trendy TikTok Teenager™ happening upon these, I immediately assumed it was an elaborately Photoshopped April Fool’s joke. But the siren song of curiosity compelled me to my local Five Below, just in case, and I’d never been so excited to be proven wrong. It’s not often that you genuinely have no idea what a snack food is going to taste like (or why it even exists in the first place), but this review gave me that dubious pleasure… and as it turns out, not many others.
These do not, in fact, actually taste like macaroni and cheese. Nor are they supposed to. If you’re a more reasonable person than I am, you might now be breathing a sigh of relief, but I found this disappointing. Van Leeuwen’s recent (and bizarre) Kraft Macaroni & Cheese ice cream has been widely described along the lines of “Huh, this really does somehow taste cheesy and creamy and salty… and honestly pretty good,” so why couldn’t these be like that too!? But, for better or worse, their flavor is fruity—tangerine-y, but in that nebulously synthetic way common to many gummies. The texture necessitates a workout for your jaw; rubbery and requiring some effort to chew. If these gummies really were pasta, I’d send them back to the kitchen.
The box — an adorably dedicatedly crafted (or Krafted) facsimile that was probably my favorite part of this experience — cleverly gives no spoilers about what the heck these candies actually taste like, making for a prime opportunity for a prank or just a gimmicky surprise.
Whether you find the concept queasy, uneasy, or just plain cheesy, Frankford’s Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Gummies probably have more shock value than flavor value, and only one of those values lasts past the first bite. I think they’re still certainly fun enough to justify a one-time novelty purchase, but fittingly for the store where they’re found, I can’t bring myself to rank them above a five (at least it’s not below)!
Purchased Price: $4.00
Size: 5.64 oz box
Purchased at: Five Below
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (7 gummies) 90 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of sodium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 13 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.
Hardee’s has reintroduced a classic from the ’90s: the Frisco Burger. It was a childhood favorite of mine, so I pulled up an old commercial on YouTube that slapped me in the face with nostalgia and reminded me how excited 7-year-old me was to try the sourdough bread. How exotic! I’d only had regular, non-sour bread before. Sourdough bread isn’t quite as novel these days, but Hardee’s has brought back its San Francisco-inspired burger as the Frisco Angus Burger. Will it live up to my fond childhood memories?
I order and receive my hamburger in under a minute. The cynical adult in me says that means it’s been sitting under a heat lamp for who knows how long, but the little kid in me is excited to have food so quickly.
As cynical adult me feared, the hamburger patty on my burger didn’t seem to be the freshest. The outer edges were attractively crisped, but when I cut the patty, it was a dull grey color. And once bitten, it was dry and unremarkable. The bacon was thin and unremarkable, as fast food bacon almost always is.
I’ve always been skeptical of the Angus branding of beef, and even more these days when I can get an Angus cheeseburger at my local gas station. Hardee’s Angus Thickburgers used to be a premium fast food offering, and it’s sad to see the quality dip.
As a child, I wouldn’t have noticed how much the two large tomato slices contribute to this meat-and-cheese-heavy sandwich. I was assiduous in removing every tomato from sandwiches until my early thirties. These days I can tell that the tomatoes here contribute some needed freshness and are better than the wet, flavorless discs on other fast food burgers.
The sourdough bread is plain white bread, just as it was in the past. The sliced round pieces were innovative in the ’90s and allowed a pleasantly toasted presentation, but no wild bacteria are flavoring the burger bun here. I don’t really expect that; good sourdough needs a mature starter that’s fed and cared for like it’s family. In my experience, great, really funky sourdough needs a starter that’s been burbling away for years (and occasionally forgotten) so that it’s surly, nearly sentient, and plotting its escape. And that’s a lot for a fast food company to deal with. My point is the bread is fine.
The 2022 Frisco Angus Burger is a decent sandwich, but it’s missing the crucial special sauce that made the ’90s sandwich a standout. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but years later, when the internet was finally a thing, I asked Jeeves (look it up, Zoomer), “What is the Frisco Burger Special Sauce?” and he responded, “Onion mayonnaise, sir.” My Frisco Angus burger had plain mayo that combined with the processed Swiss cheese into a white goopy mess. Just like the old days! But without the onion mayo, it’s just not the same congealed goo I loved as a kid.
Despite my disappointment, the Frisco Angus Burger is a perfectly serviceable sandwich. Perhaps it could have never lived up to my memories, and mine seemed particularly heat lamp-struck, but it gets the fundamental combination of toasted bread, meat, and cheese right.
Purchased Price: $7.49
Size: N/A
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 760 calories, 50 grams of fat, 17 grams of saturated fat, 120 milligrams of cholesterol, 1550 milligrams of sodium, 43 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 7 grams of sugar, and 36 gram of protein.
Update: We tried it! Click here to read our review.
We can now spread Cinnamon Toast Crunch on toast. Wait. I should rephrase that. We can now spread Cinnamon Toast Crunch on toast without having to crush Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal into tiny pieces and mixing in a little milk to create a slurry to spread on toast. (Spotted by Amanda Y at Kroger.)
With the recent temperature increases in Florida, my slush cravings have hit hard. As if magic (or just a targeted ad), Sonic Drive-In’s new Red Bull Summer Edition Strawberry Apricot Slush was popping up on my feed. I’m already a huge Red Bull fan, so a chance to try the limited edition summer flavor in slush form seemed like an easy choice.
While Red Bull has been periodically releasing Summer Editions since 2014, it wasn’t until 2020 that Sonic started offering the limited edition flavors as part of its slush lineup.
As with most fast food companies, Sonic is very much pushing the use of its mobile ordering app. I bring this up only to note that if you order a drink through the app, they are all half price all day. I ordered a medium of the summer slush and raced it home. I had worried the 20-minute drive would cause it to lose some oomph. Luckily, the styrofoam cup kept it at the perfect temperature.
Before transferring it into my Tervis tumbler, I took a few sips of the light pink slush. Red Bull tends to have a very sweet start and a slightly tangy finish in the flavors I’ve tried. This one was sweet all the way through. In fact, had you not told me it was part of the Red Bull brand, I would have thought it was just any other sweet-flavored slush. The strawberry and apricot (which comes across as more peach flavored) are subtle but present and blending the energy drink with the slush ice made for a pleasant sipping experience.
I reached out to Sonic about the caffeine content (I couldn’t find it anywhere on its website). I was shocked when I was told a medium has only 40 milligrams. For reference, the 8.4-ounce can has 80. It would appear it uses half a can which explains why the flavor might be more subtle than if you drank it straight. Honestly, learning that it wasn’t even an entire can in the medium (20 oz) lowered my opinion of the item. If I’m getting a Red Bull drink, I’m looking for the caffeine that comes with a Red Bull.
While a fine treat, the Red Bull Summer Edition Strawberry Apricot Slush doesn’t deliver on what I feel a Red Bull slush should. The flavor in this form doesn’t stand out as uniquely as a Red Bull, and the lack of caffeine (in relation to what is expected from Red Bull) doesn’t have me racing back to get it again. If you’re curious, make sure to use the app to order so you get half off because I wouldn’t recommend it at the regular $3.99 price.
Purchased Price: $1.99 (half off via the Sonic app)
Size: Medium (20 oz)
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (Medium) 250 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 75 milligrams of sodium, 65 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 65 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.
