McDonald's Pumpkin Pie

Autumn is one of the best seasons for many reasons. One of the reasons I love it so much is the weather starts to cool without getting too cold. Halloween spirit is in the air as people begin to dress their homes with outlandish decorations. However, one of the things that I look forward to the most is pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie is something that you don't usually get after the month of December. Of course, stores still offer pumpkin pie during other seasons, but it doesn't seem right to eat it after the holiday season. That being said, I also enjoy it when food and candy makers start putting out pumpkin-flavored items.

McDonald's has put out pumpkin pies for the season, and I certainly do not object. The apple pies that McDonald's offers are not necessarily what you think of when you think of pie, but they're delicious nonetheless. I was as excited as that man on the box was about the pumpkin pie that I just bought. However, that may be a look of fear on his face. It's hard to tell.

The insides of a McDonald's Pumpkin Pie

The flavor of the crust and the smell really overwhelm the filling. That is to say, I think that I was eating McDonald's pie crust with mushy filling. I couldn't taste or smell anything remotely close to pumpkin spice. All I could taste and smell was the crust of the pie. I scooped out some of the filling and it felt like I was eating a plain custard or tapioca pudding without any hint of pumpkin spice. While this item isn't bad, it was very disappointing to me because it didn't remind of pumpkin outside of the texture. For only $0.50, I wasn't expecting the best, but c'mon, I'd take an apple pie over this any day.

McDonald's Pumpkin Pie: 6.5 - 7/10

Soda-flavored Cotton Candy

Cotton candy used to be something of a rare treat. It was something you would get if you went to an amusement park, fair, sporting event, or some other special occasion. However, as you grow older, you realize that cotton candy is just spun sugar. You also learn that it’s pretty widely available. The pre-packaged cotton candy you can buy in stores may not be as good as the one you pay $5 for at a game, but it gets the job done. Much like movie popcorn, it’s not just the snack, but the experience itself that enhances things.

The packaging for the cotton candy

Enter this cotton candy. I have no idea what it says, but I love soda flavored things and I like cotton candy. I should clarify this, I like cotton candy when it’s at a special event or when there’s something extra in it. What made me excited about this product is that when I’ve bought cotton candy from Japanese markets, there’s always something extra. For instance, there is a grape variety that has popping candy in it, giving you a pleasant surprise, and there’s a cola variety that turns into gum after a period of time. Think about that for a second, cotton candy that turns into gum. When I bought this soda flavored candy, I had a bit of buyer’s remorse seeing as how there were only three ingredients listed on the back (sugar, coloring, artificial flavoring) which meant that there would be a slim chance of getting a surprise.

They come in packets of two

Well, the best way to describe this candy is that it’s certainly cotton candy. You could buy pre-packaged cotton candy anywhere else and it would taste about the same. The only thing that makes it different is the soda flavoring. There’s no extra pizzazz to make you think “Oh ho ho, now that’s something.” While good and acceptable, I suppose I’m just not a big enough fan of pre-packaged cotton candy to buy it again unless it came with something special inside. If you like cotton candy, then this is worth trying,

Soda flavored cotton candy: 6.5/10

Hawaiian Typhoon Popcorn

Like Terrell Owens, I love popcorn. Popcorn can be a sweet or savory snack, depending on what’s put on it. It’s the perfect snack for the movies, watching television, or for most relaxation activities. The problem with purchasing popcorn at the movies has to do with the price. Everything is overpriced at the movie theaters due to convenience, and it’s not like you can pop your own corn while you’re there.

Meet Hawaiian Typhoon Popcorn, popcorn that has a price that is even more ridiculous than movie popcorn. While a large popcorn may cost quite a bit at the movie theater, some theaters give you a free re-fill. There are no refills with this popcorn unless you buy another bag. How much would that cost? Roughly $5 - $6 per bag. Trying to purchase it online doesn’t help either as you have to pay for shipping as well. I bought this bag to see if it was worth the price of purchase.

Hawaiia Typhoon Popcorn

The first thing I noticed when I opened the bag was the smell. It definitely had a sour cream smell to it, which I assume you can get by getting some sort of popcorn flavoring powder in stores. There are bits of nori on certain pieces of popcorn, but like movie popcorn and microwavable popcorn, not every piece is going to have all the flavoring. I was kind of disappointed due to the fact that I could have probably bought several packets of microwavable popcorn and a shaker of popcorn seasoning and gotten almost the same effect for less money. It’s a good popcorn, but I’d be hard pressed to purchase another bag of $6 popcorn unless I got free re-fills with it.

Hawaiian Typhoon Popcorn: 6/10 (7 - 7.5/10 if you don’t mind the price)

Lenny & Larry's Complete Peanut Butter Cookie

I don't know much about vegan food. Rather, I don't know much about vegan pastries. I've always imagined that butter was an essential ingredient to making moist pastries. Eggs seem like they're essential in some as well. Anyway, before actually trying vegan pastries for myself, I've heard stories and read accounts about how they weren't just inferior to the "real deal", but that they were down right terrible. Because of this, I decided to try one out.

Enter Lenny & Larry's Complete Cookie. I wouldn't know where to start when trying to finding a shop that does vegan pastries (Google and Yelp come to mine...), so I decided why not 7-11. Alright, so this may not be the cream of the crop, but why not. I kept the price sticker on there because I found it to be outrageous to sell 2.29 for one cookie. Albeit, it's a rather large cookie, but for another 50 cents or $1, you could be having some Pepperidge Farms cookies or a whole pack of Oreos. I guess they wouldn't be vegan and be a "complete" cookie though. Also, the more I look at Lenny and Larry, the more terrifying they look. They're like two decapitated Gorgon heads or something.

Pretty much

A piece of the cookie

To my surprise, the cookie wasn't terrible. It was a bit dry I suppose, but the flavors were alright for a peanut butter cookie. Heck, I might go search up a bakery that sells vegan goods just to try other things out. However, again, the price was a bit outrageous (very outrageous). Overall, if this had been $1 or so less I could sort of see not being so harsh on it on the point about price, but as it is, I think you're better off getting a pack of Chips Ahoy and going to town on them.

Lenny & Larry's Complete Peanut Butter Cookie: 6/10

Ben & Jerry's Red Velvet Cake

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream is known for their unique flavors. Whereas some ice creams would have a vanilla flavored ice cream with peanut butter cups, Ben & Jerry's goes beyond that by adding things such as chocolate and peanut butter swirls in their ice cream. Instead of using bits of peanut butter cups, they will use big chunks, or, in some cases, halves of peanut butter cups. It's no wonder then that they have a large following. Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream has tapped into that part of the human brain and appetite that keeps craving for more, more, more.

Enter Ben & Jerry's Red Velvet Cake flavor. I will admit in this entry that I have never had red velvet cake or cupcakes before. I've heard of people raving about how good it is, but I've never really had the drive to go out and try it for myself. This ice cream is supposedly cake batter flavored with cream cheese frosting swirls and bits of red velvet cake scattered throughout. I figured I might as well try this flavor and see if I liked it enough to go out and buy some actual red velvet baked goods.

Ben & Jerry's Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream

The ice was good enough; it was smooth, and didn't give too much of a cake batter flavor. Sometimes ice creams will have too much of that raw cake batter flavor that is off-putting to me. I liked the cream cheese swirls, as their slight tartness cut into the sweetness of the ice cream. However, the component that I didn't like so much were the red velvet cake pieces. The pieces all tasted a bit too gummy for my liking. Instead of eating cake, it felt like I was eating clay. I can't compare this to real red velvet cake, but I will say that the ice cream and swirls were good, and the only thing I didn't like were the gummy pieces of red velvet cake.

Ben & Jerry's Red Velvet Cake: 7/10

Yaki sauce potato chips

This purchase was another spur of the moment, “Why the heck not?” kind of buy. Barbecue is a great flavor for potato chips. It’s hard to go wrong with sea salt & vinegar. However, sometimes you want to break away and try something new. Sometimes you want to try something that you might not see again. Who knows how long a new flavor will last? Maybe it’ll last a few weeks, or maybe it’ll be good enough to be permanent. Regardless, you can’t take those kinds of risks and assume that that flavor will still be there tomorrow.

In comes Yaki Sauce potato chips. Do I know if this is even the right name? Of course I don’t. What I do know is that I don’t know what Yaki sauce is. There’s a cow on top, and it looks kind of tired. It’s like the Eeyore of cows. Well, maybe it looks so dejected because there’s a steak in the bottom right corner. From this, I will assume that this is something that you dress your steak in.

A Yaki sauce potato chip

The texture of the potato chip is dryer and a bit thicker than a regular potato chip, but not as thick as a kettle chip. The flavor is sweet, like a barbecue flavored potato chip, but there is no salty flavor at any point. There’s also a slight curry flavor that comes at the end. I liked this chip and found it to be very flavorful. It’s a nice detour from the flavors that are available everyday at your local supermarket.

Yaki sauce potato chips: 8/10

O'Zack Gyoza flavored chips

BBQ, Sour Cream, Cheddar, Salt & Vinegar...these are some of the flavors we normally see when we buy potato chips at the supermarket. However, instead of BBQ, why not have BBQ brisket flavored potato chips? Why not have a fried chicken flavor? Maybe it's because it would be difficult for chip manufacturers to emulate the flavors and aromas. However, in the past I wrote about chips that tasted like beef tongue sprinkled with a bit of lemon (gyutan). If that flavor can be made, why not the above listed?

From the country that brought you potato chips that somewhat did the flavor of grilled beef quite well, we have gyoza flavored chips. Gyoza, potstickers, whatever you want to call them is probably not on the top of the list of potato chip flavors that Americans want. It's probably not on any American's list. However, Japan has decided to be more adventurous with their flavors, and thus has produced gyoza flavored chips.

An O'Zack chip

The aroma of the chip is very reminiscent to that of a pot sticker. You get a hint of pot sticker skin an then you get a slight pork flavor to finish. Overall, it was quite a surprise that they were able to do this. It is not just a novel chip, but it is a good chip as well. It seems as if Doritos is the only chip that dares venture out of the normal chip flavor comfort zone. One day I would like to find steak flavored potato chips or something ridiculous like that in a grocery store.

O'Zack Gyoza flavored chips: 8.5/10

Twix Coconut

Coconut is a touchy subject for some people. Some love it, some hate it. When I'm talking about coconut, I'm not talking about the fresh kind, I'm talking about the flavoring you find in candy of course. There are some people that love Almond Joys, while others may have a strong dislike for it. However, what would happen if you were to mix coconut with a beloved candy bar?

It's hard not to like Twix. Flavor wise, it's delicious. Texturally, it combines chewy and crunchy in a pleasing fashion. The only Twix variety I see a lot of in stores that isn't Original is Twix PB, so Twix Coconut is a bit of a risk, but it's Twix so it has to be good, right?

Cross section of a Twix Coconut bar

Texturally, this is still the Twix you know and love. However, when it comes to flavor, you have to ask yourself, "Do I like Twix more or do I like coconut flavoring more?" Well, if you like Twix more, you might not like this as much as Twix Original just because the coconut flavoring pretty much overwhelms everything else. I happen to like coconut, so I didn't mind it at all, but if you have an aversion to coconut this won't be your favorite. Overall, this is was good, but I think I would prefer Twix Original.

Twix Coconut: 8/10

Puccho Grape Gummyball (I think)

On the day of July 3rd I panicked. I owed my students candy, but some of the candy they wanted wasn't available at my regular candy spot. I drove a little farther and found not just the candy I was looking for, but I found some I had never seen before. I decided that this would be a perfect time to pick some up, seeing as how I wouldn't have this chance until the next weekend.

First up is a candy which has a name that I don't know. When it comes to these, it's usually really good or really bad. I'm not sure what's up with the mascot on the candy. He/she/it seems very angry for some reason. Probably because you're going to eat it. It sort of reminds me of a Buu from Dragon Ball Z. I do know, however, that it was grape because of the color. Purple always means grape.

Yeah, I'm not sure what this says. The English label with the nutritional information literally says "candy" where it should have a name

It looks kind of like a purple moth ball

The gelatinous inside of one of these suckers

The first thing that I thought was, "This is a pretty good sour candy, it even fizzles like soda candy". Generally, soda candies are sweet, but not this, it was very sour. Not Warhead sour, but still good. After a while, the candy began to crack, and I got to the second layer. The hard exterior was crumbling while I got a hit at the chewy insides. I didn't know whether it was gum or not because it was dissolving at a fast rate, but it seemed to get smaller. It eventually all melted and I thought, "That was pretty darn good." Because of the depth and many layers of the candy, I thought this was very good. I would like to try the soda flavored one in the future.

Puccho Grape Gummyball: 10/10

Ben & Jerry's: Phish Food

It's summer, it's hot, so that means it's time to indulge in everyone's favorite summertime treat: ice cream. Admittedly, I like ice cream during any weather, but during summer it tastes even better. It's a cool relief from the heat and it tastes delicious. Ergo, I decided to do a piece on it.

Ben & Jerry's is famous for not just their unique flavors, but for their price as well. A pint of Ben & Jerry's is around the same price as a quart of most other brands. However, you won't find flavors like Cherry Garcia or Chubby Hubby with other brands. That being said, I can appreciate a simple vanilla as much as something like Phish Food. This was inspired by a topic that I saw on the forums of bodybuilding.com, so I decided to go with a flavor that was regarded as one of the best.

The story behind the name. The band Phish apparently really likes Ben & Jerry's.

Overhead view of Phish Food

Given the choice between vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate ice cream, I would probably choose the first two over chocolate. I'm also not a big fan of Rocky Road, which is what this flavor's description was leading me to believe. However, this was a very good flavor. It was rich and like the other Ben & Jerry's flavors I have tried, there was a lot of stuff going on outside of the chocolate ice cream. It wasn't too sweet, and despite the picture above, there's A LOT of marshmallow and caramel swirls, which are also delicious. I guess the only thing that I can't gush about are the fudge fish. Whereas the rest of the ice cream is smooth and rich, the fudge fish are somewhat of a hindrance. They're like a protective measure to make sure you don't finish the ice cream too quickly. Even though they got in the way, the fish are still good and just think of them as overgrown chocolate chips. Unless you truly detest chocolate, I would say that this was a great flavor.

Ben & Jerry's: Phish Food: 9.5/10

Green Tea Oreo Soft Cookies

Today is my birthday. That doesn't mean there's going to be a special post or anything, I'm just putting it out there.

Summer is a bad time for candy. I'm not saying it's a bad time to eat candy, it's just that when you walk out of the store, you'd better eat that candy bar soon, or else you've got liquified candy. I've had a protein bar liquified after I left it too long in my car. It's a particularly bad time for chocolate candy because chocolate loses its shape so easily. As opposed to let's say, a bag of Skittles, a Hershey's chocolate bar is going to start melting in the first minute in the heat. Well it's a good thing the item I'm going to write about isn't candy then.

Green tea and Oreo cookies? Why not. I've had crisp Japanese cookies that have had green tea filling before, and they've been good, so why not the king of creme filled cookies? Admittedly, I've never had an Oreo Soft Cookie before, or a Cakester, as they're called in American stores. I always believed that it's hard to improve upon the original Oreo design, but why not give this a try.

These are individually wrapped

It looks a lot less appetizing in real life, let me tell you that. I think the heat pulled the cookies apart

This was the stain that was left behind. Kind of concerning

The initial flavor of the cookie is very much like the cookie part of an Oreo in that it is not sweet, but slightly bitter. The texture is much softer than an Oreo cookie (hence the name Soft Cookie), and it felt kind of oily. The filling, to my surprise, lacked sweetness. This was new to me because the cream filling of an Oreo is generally recognized as the best part of the cookie. When the cream is not sweet, but only subtly sweet, I'm not sure if I like it or not. Well, I guess if I have to ask myself, "Was this good?" then I think I know the answer. The smell of green tea was there, but I was hoping for a sweeter cream. If you're a fan of green tea and don't like your sweets to be too sweet, then this would be for you. However, I would probably spring for a bag of good old Oreo cookies instead of this.

Green Tea Oreo Soft Cookies: 5/10

Oh Henry!

Continuing with the theme of candy bars that not many people buy we have:

I’m not sure what to make of the name “Oh Henry!” but it apparently comes from the man who invented it, Tom Henry. It’s a good way to get your name out there I suppose. There are other theories out there, but I’ll just accept this one as the truth. Anyway, the wrapper looks very old-timey like a Mr. Goodbar. Candy bars like this seem like they would have been advertised in my brother’s old comic book collection, and they probably were. The description is nothing special, chocolate, fudge, caramel, and peanuts, which you can get with Snickers.

A cross section of an Oh Henry! bar. They come in two mini-bars

How would I rate an Oh Henry!? Well, the flavors are okay, there’s nothing special about them. The texture of the caramel is a bit rubbery and gives it a bouncy feel. The peanuts are just a smidge better than Baby Ruth peanuts. Overall, it’s an okay candy bar, but it’s not as good as the big names like Snickers. Try it for the texture, if nothing else.

Oh Henry!: 7/10

Apple Crisp Poppycock

Most Americans are familiar with caramel corn. Cracker Jack is one of the most recognized snack foods in the United States because it’s mentioned alongside peanuts in “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”. Outside of Cracker Jack, there are other brands selling caramel corn, but, sadly, none of them feature a prize.

Poppycock comes in a fancy re-zippable bag and offers different kinds of nuts outside of peanuts. This particular flavor interested me because who does Apple Crisp flavored anything? I suppose there are cookies flavored like this, but it seems odd to do this with caramel corn. However, I guess it makes sense, since caramel and apples go so well together. I don’t know how well dried apples and caramel corn go together though.

After assuming that I would be eating something that tasted like an apple crisp, I was mildly disappointed. The flavor of cinnamon was absent, and I couldn’t taste the apple due to the strong caramel flavor. If you poured this into a snack bowl and didn’t tell me that it was apple crisp flavored, I would have thought it was very good. It’s still very good, but it has undertones of disappointment due to my assumption that the cinnamon and apples would come through. Overall, good, but it’s hard to tell this from any other variety of Poppycock.

Apple Crisp Poppycock: 8/10

Big Cherry

Cherry and chocolate is a combination rarely seen outside of cherry cordials. Many people like chocolate. Many people have a preference for cherry when they eat fruit candies. Why not combine the two? Keeping in theme with candy you don’t really come across very often, I decided to write about another one.

Big Cherry certainly would be a big cherry if it were really that big. However, it is a cherry surrounded by cherry syrup, covered in chocolate, and sprinkled with nuts for good measure. I’m not a big fan of cherry cordials, but I am a big fan of adventure when it comes to food.

This looks kinda bad

Oh my...

Welp

Well, it tastes better than it looks is all I have to say. The chocolate wasn’t an enjoyable experience as it was far too nutty for my liking. Honestly, every bite was too nut-laden to enjoy the chocolate. The syrup was a bit too sweet for my liking and didn’t lend enough cherry flavor or smell. The cherry was a cherry drowned in syrup and dying of sugar asphyxiation. This was not a very enjoyable candy for me, but if you enjoy cherry flavored candies then you could give it a try.

Big Cherry: 6/10

Cup o Gold

There are some candies you don’t run across unless you’re in a place like a convenience store or the impulse aisle somewhere. For some reason or another, certain candies aren’t featured as much as other candies. An example of this is Whatchamacallit. While these can be found in impulse aisles at Target and other stores, rarely have I seen it sitting next to a big bag of candy in the candy aisles.

Cup o Gold is a candy that you rarely find even in convenience stores and impulse aisles. They are plentiful in candy shops, but not outside of candy shops. Cup o Gold is a rare treat for me seeing as how it’s kind of hard to find, unless you’re at Fry’s or a candy shop a lot, and because I don’t often buy it because I never can remember if I like it or not. I figured why not and decided to give it a go.

A Cup o Gold

The center of a Cup o Gold

Texturally, Cup o Gold is very solid. This meant that I could cut through it, so I had to resort to biting it to expose the middle. The cream in the middle is a bit fluffy and has a marshmallow whip type of texture. In the chocolate you’ll find bits of almond and coconut. Flavor wise Cup o Gold is good, but its fault is that it may be too sweet. It may sound ridiculous to say something tastes too sweet when it comes to candy, but maybe it’s because I was expecting something like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. I have an affinity toward Reese’s PBC and PB M&Ms because the sweet is cut by the salty peanut butter. Overall though, if sweet is your thing, and you don’t mind having to bite a little harder to get to the center of a chocolate cup, Cup o Gold may be your thing.

Cup o Gold: 8/10

Honey BBQ Cheeto Puffs

If you recall, in my last entry I wrote about how chip makers don’t put out nearly enough BBQ flavored chips. After this post, it was as if the next chip brand decided to spite me and put out a BBQ flavor to accompany a chip I would have not seen coming.

Honey BBQ Cheetos. That sounds eight kinds of off to me. Cheetos are best known for their Crunchy and Flaming Hot variety. Any sort of deviation from this isn’t TOO far off the cheese or Flaming Hot trail. There are White Cheddar Cheetos, Hot Cheeto Fries, and Chili Cheese Cheetos, but I have to say that Honey BBQ caught me by surprise. The honey part in the flavor name especially got me because not even potato chips come in honey BBQ. The only snack that comes in Honey BBQ are peanuts and other varieties of nuts. This was interesting, to say the least.

A Honey BBQ Cheeto Puff

The first puff was a bit off smelling to me. The flavor was a mild BBQ flavor, but it was combined with some sort of cheese or butter smell. As you can see in the picture, this product still retains the trademark Cheeto orange. Overall, it was a bit odd and I’m not sure if it was good, but I know it wasn’t bad. Confusing, familiar, and somewhere better than below average is where this chip lies.

Honey BBQ Cheeto Puffs: 7/10

Andy Kapp BBQ Fries

In the chip world, most things come in the form of squares, circles, ovals, or triangles. However, there are certain chips that try to break out of this mold. Take for instance Doritos 3D. These came in puffed, three pointed…puffs. Why did they get rid of these? I’m not sure. One popular type of snack that falls into the chip category I suppose are fries. I don’t mean the ones one would get at a fast food restaurant, but rather the sticks that you would get in a bag at a convenience store, such as Hot Cheeto Fries. One company that I’ve seen a bit more of, though not as much as the big names like Cheetos, Lay’s, and Doritos, is the Andy Kapp line of fries. Sticking to the name, the mascot for Andy Kapp, I assume, is Andy Kapp himself. I just noticed that if you put an H in front of his name, he becomes Handy Kapp. That had nothing to do with this review at all.

While on a trip to grab a diet energy drink or two at a 7-11, I saw Andy Kapp BBQ Fries. BBQ is a flavor that is usually made with potato chips. I’m not sure why the corn chip or Sunchip market hasn’t embraced this flavor yet, but if you recall, Tailgate BBQ Doritos got a 10/10 from me. It was then never seen again a few weeks after that entry. Anyway, I decided to grab a bag of Andy Kapp BBQ Fries and go to town.

An Andy Kapp BBQ Fry

The flavor is very reminiscent of Lay’s BBQ chips. If you eat enough of these fries, the flavors become even more similar. This is a good thing because BBQ flavored potato chips seem to be a favorite with everyone. The texture is a bit different, but as you eat more, it all become indistinguishable in your mouth .I liked this product, and would like to see more BBQ flavored chips that aren’t made from potatoes. It’s a known fact that BBQ sauce goes great with everything, so chip makers have really nothing to lose.

Andy Kapp BBQ Fries: 8.5/10

After Easter Candy Bonanza

After Easter sales at Target. This cost me only 2.69

Jalapeno Jack Sun Chips

Though chips may come in many shapes, they are often made of the same things. Most chips are made of either potatoes or corn. However, there is one kind of chip that is made of something other than corn and potatoes. That chip line is the Sun Chips line. Claiming to be made of whole wheat, and also claiming to be "better" for you, Sun Chips are delicious.

Because of they are delicious, I found myself buying this bag on impulse at 7-11. The label states that this flavor is new and I certainly have not seen it anywhere else. Then again, I don't really pay that much attention to Sun Chips. Even though I like them a lot, I've probably only tasted the three original flavors which are Original, Cheddar, and, my favorite, French Onion. I haven't even tasted the ones that come in the loud bags like Harvest...something or another. However, this one came in a handy "big" bag and I decided it wouldn't hurt to give this a go.

A Jalapeno Jack Sun Chip

To be frank, I didn't taste any difference between this and French Onion. If there was some sort of jalapeno heat that was supposed to come off, I didn't feel it at all. Even though I was a bit disappointed that this flavor wasn't that much different from the other Sun Chip flavors I remember, that doesn't it was bad. Like I said before, French Onion is my favorite flavor of Sun Chips, so I still really liked this. However, I feel like I have to deduct at the very least 1/2 a point or maybe even a full point just because I expected something cheesy and spicy, but instead got something I already knew. From a flavor perspective this chip was still great though, so don't hesitate to give them a try for yourself.

Jalapeno Jack Sun Chips: 8.5/10

Diet Big Red Soda

My beverage of choice wherever I go is usually a diet soda. Among my favorites are Diet A&W Root Beer, Pepsi Max, and, of course, good old Diet Coke. However, sometimes, like with all good things, when you have too much of a certain diet soda, you grow tired of it. It doesn't mean that the soda isn't good anymore, it just means you've grown too accustomed to it, so you don't appreciate as much as you once did. That is why, for better or for worse, I'm always willing to try different diet sodas that I've never tasted before.

Enter Diet Big Red. I've read about Big Red soda before, but I've never tasted it. Wal-Mart sold non-diet versions of Big Red, but I would rather save my 150 or so calories for solid food. However, the other day, Wal-Mart did in-fact start selling the diet version of Big Red, so into the unknown I go!

Diet Big Red in my Christmas cat glass

There aren't many red colored sodas, so who knows what this was going to taste like. When most people think of Big Red, they think of Wrigley's Big Red gum, and I was almost certain that they wouldn't flavor a soda with cinnamon. Well, the best way to describe the flavor of this soda would be that it tastes like bubblegum. That's right, think about the flavors of Bazooka Joe or Big League Chew, and this soda tastes pretty much like what you're imagining. According to Wikipedia, the flavors are derived from mixing lemon oil, orange oil, and vanilla. Also according to Wikipedia, this soda is a favorite of several celebrities, including Karl Malone.

I can't say that I liked this soda, nor can I say I disliked it. It was refreshing at first, but after a while, I can see how it can turn disgusting. My friends did not seem to like the soda, with one of them describing it as tasting like cough syrup. I wouldn't go THAT far, but this soda is definitely not for everyone. I guess it's a soda that you would like if you grew up drinking it, but for the rest of us, it's a hit or miss.

Diet Big Red Soda: 5/10

Red Ninja Umeboshi flavored candy

I pretty much made the name up on the fly. There's no English label on the back, so I had to make up a name based on the packaging. Anyway, sometimes there are candies that are seen as "acquired tastes". One of the most popular candies that have an "acquired taste" is licorice. Some people love it, others despise it. Some people don't like sour candy. This is why candy comes in all sorts of different variations of sweet and sour. However, there are some candies that are seen as, "Why would they ever make a candy that tastes like this?" This is one of those candies.

It seems as if Japan took my image and decided use it as a mascot for a candy. I'm fine with that as long as I get some royalties. There's a grape variation of this candy, which has a stockier ninja on it I've never been a fan of umeboshi; having never tried it, how could I? I've seen several umeboshi flavored candies in Japanese markets, but the idea of eating a pickled plum in candy form never appealed to me. However, you know what does appeal to me? Great packaging. I bought this candy, not knowing what umeboshi tastes like, based off of the fact that the bag was interesting. I could only pray that this would taste good, or at the very least, decent.

An umeboshi gummy

Let me give it to you straight: Don't get this candy. That is, unless you like your candy to have a salty-sour flavor, akin to, as one of my friends described, "fish sauce". The taste gets worse the longer you keep it in your mouth. I thought my students were overreacting when they said this tasted terrible. I don't think I've had a candy that tasted this wretched since the double salt licorice I wrote about some months back. The smell is that of fermented something, which is never good with candy, and the taste is salty and sour and just wrong. The grape flavor tastes infinitely better when compared with this. Most candies would taste infinitely better compared to this.

Red Ninja Umeboshi flavored candy: 0/10