REVIEW: Lemon Creme Pie Pop-Tarts

Lemon Creme Pie Pop Tarts Box

What are Lemon Crème Pie Pop-Tarts?

Pop-Tarts has experimented with inventive flavors like sodas, cupcakes, and even Jolly Ranchers, but this time the brand is keeping it classic with a toaster pastry inspired by the summertime favorite, lemon cream pie.

Lemon Crème Pie Pop-Tarts join a lineup of new flavors hitting shelves, including Peach Cobbler, Banana Crème Pie, Tropical Mango, and the limited edition Mister E Flavor.

How are they?

Although lemon is a simple (and, to me, underrated) flavor, Lemon Crème Pie Pop-Tarts dressed up for their debut. Each tart features a swipe of pastel icing and crunchy golden sprinkles that lend extra sweetness and flair.

Lemon Creme Pie Pop Tarts Split

The pastry carries a subtle lemon taste, like a flavored shortbread. Thinking about the inspiration dessert, I expected the filling to be lighter and creamier, the sort of texture found in a Strawberry Milkshake variety. Instead, the filling is that of a standard fruit Pop-Tart: concentrated and a little jam-like.

Lemon Creme Pie Pop Tarts Frosting

The lemon flavor is sharp and citrusy but artificial, with a hint of vanilla mixed in. The filling tastes good, but the vanilla flavor doesn’t represent a cream element that well. A streak of vanilla or even marshmallow cream filling would have helped to recreate the experience of enjoying a fluffy, creamy pie.

Lemon Creme Pie Pop Tarts Filling

While I have bigger dreams for the filling than Pop-Tarts realized, I still wish there were more of it. The thin layer sits in the center of the tart, as the thick edges protect all of the lemony goodness. More filling, please, Pop-Tarts! This is how the “Is a Pop-Tart a ravioli?” debate got started!

Anything else you need to know?

Fresh from the toaster, these are still enjoyable, but I found the pastry lost its lemon-tinged flavor when heated. (I tend to prefer my Pop-Tarts untoasted, an opinion that others react to as though I’ve just spit on the graves of their ancestors, so I was surprised to see that the box suggests serving them frozen. Does eating frozen Pop-Tarts classify as deviant behavior?)

Conclusion:

Lemon Crème Pie Pop-Tarts deliver scant filling and simpler flavor than their name suggests. They won’t replace your favorite variety but are tasty enough to satisfy a citrus craving.

Purchased Price: $2.19
Size: 13.5 oz box / 8 pastries
Purchased at: Wegmans
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (per 2 pastries) 380 calories, 10 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 340 milligrams of sodium, 69 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 28 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Pop-Tarts Mister E Flavor

PopTartsMisterE 1 pkg

What is Pop-Tarts Mister E Flavor?

Pop-Tarts is rolling out its first-ever mystery flavor, and since it’s really into humanizing its products lately with hair, eyewear, and backstories, we have Mister E — a mustachioed investigator in shades who’s hellbent on cracking the case of who broke into the Pop-Tarts factory to create this new flavor. Vigilante P.I. tracking down off-hours criminal pastry enterprises. Mmmmkaaayyyy…

PopTartsMisterE 2 back

How is it?

The aroma in the package didn’t give much away, but the filling was white, so I started thinking coconut. But the second I bit into Mister E Pop-Tarts, the word BUTTER shot through my brain. They were sweet and savory in a really strange way – both tastes were competing for the spotlight. Maybe they were Terrible Buttercream Frosting flavor? I had to drag someone else into the mystery – their guess was swiss cheese. Now when I re-tasted, that seemed closer – a mild cheese flavor. But it still felt wrong – a wrong guess AND a wrong flavor to exist in the world.

PopTartsMisterE 3 fill

There’s a related contest website where you can get clues and enter your guess to win prizes. I’ve figured out the flavor based on the clues, and I will say it’s NOT any of the guesses above. But I’ll let you make the call…

Anything else you need to know?

These were very crumbly and started falling apart the moment I opened the foil wrapper. Once toasted, they broke into large and small pieces that promptly fell into the unreachable crevices of my toaster (ugh). I hope Mister E can solve the mystery of how to get melty, funky Pop-Tart crumbs out of small appliances.

PopTartsMisterE 4 toast

Conclusion:

Not the best Pop-Tart flavor I’ve ever tried – in fact, maybe the worst, but I loved trying them! This is exactly what mystery flavors should be – the questionable stuff we definitely wouldn’t buy if they called it what it is.

PopTartsMisterE 5 design

DISCLOSURE: I received a free product sample from Kellogg’s. Doing so did not influence my review.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 27 oz./16-pastry box
Purchased at: Received from Kellogg’s
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2 pastries) 380 calories, 10 grams of fat, 3.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 500 milligrams of sodium, 68 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 24 grams of total sugars, including 24 grams of added sugars, and 4 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Pop-Tarts Pretzel Salted Caramel

Pop Tarts Pretzel Salted Caramel Box

What are Pop-Tarts Pretzel Salted Caramel?

Everyone’s preferred toaster pastry is pillowed in a puffy pretzel… pjacket. Okay, I took some alliterative stretches there, but it felt good and so I just went for it. This new flavor — which joins its previous pretzel brethren Cinnamon Sugar and Chocolate — is meant to capture the hearts of breakfast pastry aficionados who need some salt with their sweet.

How is it?

Pop Tarts Pretzel Salted Caramel Top

Well, salty and sweet. And (to my surprise, I’ll admit) really good! The outer shell — the “pretzel” component, if you will — is just a bit crispy and quite salty. There’s an icing drizzle on the outside that you don’t get much from, but the inside filling is sweet (though not overwhelmingly so) and a bit chewy with a decidedly pronounced caramel flavor.

Pop Tarts Pretzel Salted Caramel Filling

My only complaint at all is that there just isn’t enough caramel filling. It’s a very thin layer that seems to primarily reside solely down the middle of the tart. Evening it out — and providing more — would elevate this a full point.

Anything else you need to know?

Pop Tarts Pretzel Salted Caramel Bottom

I’m a firm believer that Pop-Tarts can be enjoyed both toasted and in their natural, raw state; not so with this variety. I tried it both ways and found the un-toasted one, well, frankly pretty bad. The outer shell was chewy and bland and the filling lost some style points, too. If you don’t own a toaster, you should get married because you’ll get a few of them, but in the interim, you may want to skip the pretzel Pop-Tarts.

Conclusion:

While the Pretzel Salted Caramel isn’t going to displace Brown Sugar Cinnamon or Chocolate or Frosted Strawberry or Blueberry as anyone’s primary Tart of choice, it is fine as a new addition to the Kellogg’s breakfast pastry family. Just make sure you actually toast it first, please.

Purchased Price: $2.79
Size: 8 pastries (4 packs)
Purchased at: Sun Fresh
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2 pastries) 380 calories, 12 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 710 milligrams of sodium, 66 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 23 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Frosted Chocolatey Churro Pop-Tarts

Kellogg s Frosted Chocolatey Churro Pop Tarts

What are Frosted Chocolatey Churro Pop-Tarts?

There is one food so glorious that one is willing – happy, even – to buy them from the woman on the grungy subway platform with a Saran-covered baking tray of them teetering atop a granny cart. Churros! If you’ve never had those crusty-on-the-outside, soft inside, star-shaped tubes of fried dough sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, what kind of life are you living?

Well, Pop-Tarts have brought the chocolate-dipped churro experience to the breakfast table, and I, for one, was stoked. They have the standard Pop-Tart pastry envelope with a chocolate-cinnamon filling. There’s even a little curly-bottomed churro dunked in chocolate on the box. Cuuute!

Kellogg s Frosted Chocolatey Churro Pop Tarts 2

How is it?

The first glance at these Pop-Tarts did not bode well. They were way too light. Like someone left the Churro Pop-Tarts from the photo on the box out on the window sill all summer in the sun.

Kellogg s Frosted Chocolatey Churro Pop Tarts 3

Churros can’t be pale! They should be “golden brown” at least, but I’ll always go for darker churros. Darker = crustier, and I love facing the danger of shredding the roof of my mouth with a dessert food.

Flavor-wise, I can sum it up in one photo:

Kellogg s Frosted Chocolatey Churro Pop Tarts 4

Yeah, these taste EXACTLY like the Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts. I love that flavor, I’ve eaten many of them in my time. But here, I wanted something different. The churro-flavored 2019 Mystery Oreo cookies were SO good – I was hoping these would be at that level or better. They needed to represent that slight savoriness that fried sweet things have.

Kellogg s Frosted Chocolatey Churro Pop Tarts 5

Anything else you need to know?

I’m not usually a fan of toasting, but I tried it here (churros are best hot, right?). While it did add a crispiness to the pastry, it did not raise this Pop-Tart to churro-level perfection. However, I decided to lightly brush the pastry with a mixture of water, brown sugar and cinnamon and drop that in the toaster (using a non-stick bag meant for making grilled cheese in the toaster). Once cooled, this hack did give the pastry a granular sugar feel like a churro, and certainly made it look more like something I’d buy on the Atlantic Avenue R train platform.

Kellogg s Frosted Chocolatey Churro Pop Tarts 6

Conclusion:

Meh. Just buy the Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon ones. They’re easier to find.

Purchased Price: $3.68
Size: 20 oz. box / 16 toaster pastries
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 6 out of 10 (for unoriginality)
Nutrition Facts: (2 pastries) 400 calories, 13 grams of fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 330 milligrams of sodium, 68 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 31 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Limited Edition Froot Loops Pop-Tarts

Limited Edition Froot Loops Pop Tarts

Do you hear that?? The music playing that’s growing in volume?

There’s some chanting. Hmmm, interesting, there are also some background noises (maybe a bird of some sort), and what’s this, a sun rising?! Except, it’s rising above a grocery store aisle? Ahhh, I get it now, it’s the Circle of Life breakfast-style!

Around one year ago, Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts made a slight leap down the aisle to the cereal section for a new rendition of Pop-Tarts Cereal. And now it’s coming full circle as a cereal appears in toaster pastry form, namely Froot Loops, in a limited edition flavor. Toucan Sam is of course along for the ride as well to make sure you know it’s official.

Limited Edition Froot Loops Pop Tarts Back of Box

The Pop-Tarts come frosted so that they can be emblazoned with fun designs, six in total, including many representations of the cereal itself. The artwork itself is colorful but the actual images of the cereal pieces are little grainy/pixelated. It seems like they wanted to showcase the true cereal, but the photo-real images are not that amazing, unfortunately. I was excited about the Toucan Sam one, but sadly I went through my entire box and he didn’t make an appearance. Points for the “I’M WITH SAM” one though, like seriously who wouldn’t want to be his friend?

Limited Edition Froot Loops Pop Tarts Printed Frosting

Once I opened the silver inner package of one of these, I got hit with that distinct frooty flavor almost so much I was half-expecting Sam to pop out and slap me in the face with his beak. It’s undeniable and also uncanny how much they smell like their namesake. Follow your nose, indeed! I remember experiencing this same mesmerizing sensation with the donuts from Carl’s Jr./Hardees.

Limited Edition Froot Loops Pop Tarts Split

Breaking open the pastry exposes a delightful pink interior. It’s a light pink that I can best as describe as a color for something that I would expect to be guava-flavored. Impulsive Buy readers, I’m happy to report that, like the donuts, these taste exactly like Froot Loops! That tangy, fruity flavor, which the internet tells me is a mixture of orange, cherry, and lemon is spot-on and intense. Whenever you think the flavor is too much, though, the sugar frosting and pastry crust flies in and offsets it nicely for a well-rounded bite. Good job, Toucan Sam and Kellogg’s, color me impressed.

My one misgiving is that as a Pop-Tart these should be delectable in a variety of prepared temperatures, most notably straight out of the box and once nice and toasty. As mentioned, they are a home run at room temperature but fall woefully short after some heat is applied. Even though the box tells me about all the natural fruit flavors present once toasted, the flavor profile seems to change to something more chemically induced and not as delightful as before. No Bueno.

Nevertheless, if you love Froot Loops, colorful toucans or even the cyclical nature of the world we live in, pick these up, you won’t be disappointed. Just keep them away from your toaster, and let’s hope Kellogg’s continues mining its brands across its portfolio. Eggo-branded limited edition maple flavor Pop-Tarts (with a special edition waffle-y crust), anyone??

Purchased Price: $3.68
Size: 27 oz. box
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2 pastries) 370 calories, 9 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 3.5 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 2 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 320 milligrams of sodium, 70 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 30 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.