6 Other Things I Consumed (August 2025 Edition)

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Here are six other things I consumed last month that I felt like writing about:

Nescafe Ice Roast

Nescafe Ice Roast.

I’m sure coffee fanatics would roll their eyes at the thought of cheap instant iced coffee, like this Nescafé Ice Roast, but like raccoons and cockroaches, I don’t discriminate against how it tastes. As long as its flavor is fine with lots of creamer and non-dairy milk, and carries caffeine into my system, I’m as cheerful as a morning show personality.

Unfortunately, the bottle doesn’t indicate the amount of caffeine in each serving. Fortunately, someone on the internet inquired about its caffeine content and learned it’s approximately 60 milligrams per teaspoon. There are a gazillion teaspoon servings per bottle, which will last us a month.

I love how quickly and easily I can make my morning iced coffee now. Will be repurchasing for the rest of my life. Or until Nescafé discontinues it.

7-Eleven Hawaii Banana Bread Slurpee

7-Eleven Hawaii Banana Bread Slurpee.

Another Slurpee flavor you can only get here on this rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! I wrote about a couple of others in a previous post, but this flavor appeared in August, and it’s not as sweet as the standard Banana Slurpee.

It has that artificial banana flavor that I love (Go Banana Runts!), but with a little something something that I’m not sure what it’s trying to emulate. Walnuts? Baked goodness? Banana overripeness? Speaking of overripe bananas, the Slurpee’s color reminds me of them. I’ve slurped this multiple times in August.

Baskin-Robbins Oreo ’n Cold Brew Ice Cream

Baskin-Robbins Oreo ’n Cold Brew Ice Cream.

Not a new flavor, but it’s one I’ve never had before until this past month. It features cold brew coffee flavored ice cream made with cold brew concentrate, Oreo cookie pieces, and chocolate cookie swirls. I was a bit disappointed with it.

Cold brew coffee is supposed to have a smoother flavor than regular coffee, and I guess you could say that this ice cream’s flavor was smoother than coffee-flavored ice creams I’ve had. However, perhaps it was too smooth because I didn’t taste a noticeable coffee flavor.

It’s not awful, and I would eat it if offered some, because the Oreo pieces and swirls complement the ice cream base’s mild coffee flavor. Also, it’s been a long minute since I’ve had Jamoca Ice Cream, and I can’t remember what it tastes like, so I’m unable to compare.

Monster Ultra Violet Energy Drink

Monster Ultra Violet Energy Drink.

I’m 100 percent certain I’ve never had this Monster Ultra flavor before this past month, despite it being available since 2017. I’m 100 percent sure because how can I forget something so delicious?

There are so many Monster Ultra flavors that it’s easy to miss one, but I usually opt for the standard one in the white can or any of the other flavors that have been released within the past five years or so.

But on a whim, I decided to pick the purple canned one, and I’m glad I did. I drank this three times in August. I guess I’m making up for lost time with this excellent grape-flavored energy drink.

Panda Express Cream Cheese Rangoon

Panda Express Cream Cheese Rangoon.

Another new-to-me product. If you’re not familiar, these rangoons are fried wonton wrappers filled with cream cheese and served with sweet and sour sauce.

I have skipped over these for years and years because I didn’t think I would like them. But it turns out, they’re okay. However, they’re so mid that I would be fine if I never had another for the rest of my life. People must like them, though, because they’ve been on the menu for a very long time.

Doritos Twisted Queso

Doritos Twisted Queso Other.

Our reviewer, Sean, has already written a full review of this chip flavor, and he loved it. So, when I saw it at 7-Eleven, I decided to pick up a bag. And I have to second what he wrote. These are delightful chips that perfectly capture the cheesy and peppery flavors, evoking thoughts of queso.

Now that I think about it, I should’ve heated them in the microwave for a few seconds to feel the warmth of the queso. It was a seasonal flavor, but it’s so great that I expect it to come back next year.

LATE TO THE PARTY: Just Egg

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Just Egg Bottle

Late to the Party posts are about first time experiences with products or brands that have been around for a while.

Just Egg, a plant-based egg substitute, is made from mung bean. If this is the first time you’ve ever heard of mung bean, I want to let you know that I was in your shoes back in 2018 when I first read about this product. If you’d like to take up some space in your brain to learn about it, here’s the Wikipedia link.

While I’ve known about Just Egg for years and have wanted to try it for the same amount of time, I just never came across it. That ended while pushing my virtual cart through the aisles of my local Whole Foods via the Amazon website to find out what kinds of dairy-free milk alternatives it offers. (Side note: It’s A LOT.)

Why would I want to try not-eggs? While some people are fascinated with Star Wars, I’m that way with products that attempt to recreate meat and animal products using plants. Yes, you’ll regret asking me what my hobbies are at a party.

Just Egg Ingredients

While an egg is just, well, an egg, Just Egg has (takes a deep breath) water, mung bean protein isolate, expeller-pressed canola oil, dehydrated onion, gellan gum, natural carrot extractives (for color), natural flavors, natural turmeric extractives (for color), potassium citrate, salt, soy lecithin, sugar, tapioca syrup, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, transglutaminase, and nisin (a preservative).

All those ingredients create something that looks and feels like scrambled eggs. You might notice that I didn’t include “tastes” in the previous sentence. I’ll get to that later.

Just Egg Liguid

When it’s poured out of its bottle, it looks like an Egg Beaters product, but grainer. But the magic begins when the product starts to curdle in the pan. The liquid’s pastel yellow color turns into a vibrant yellow, it looks like scrambled eggs, and it has a soft scrambled eggs-like texture.

Just Egg Cooked

Just Egg Soft

While Just Egg can fool my eyes, it cannot fool my taste buds. The instant they got to experience the plant-based egg product, they knew something was up. Its flavor is like vegetables, although seasoned vegetables. But I think the way it looks and feels has my brain thinking it’s an omelet with A LOT of vegetables.

I’m fine with the way it tastes. So much so that if chickens went extinct for some reason, like bird flu or way too many foxes protecting all the chicken coops, I’d be okay with eating Just Egg for the rest of my life.

LATE TO THE PARTY: Jack in the Box Potato Wedges

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Jack in the Box Potato Wedges Plated

Update 9/30/21: It appears Jack in the Box’s Potato Wedges have been taken off the menu. Such a sad day.

Late to the Party posts are about products or brands that have been around for a long time, but I’ve only experienced recently for the first time.

I think Jack in the Box’s fries are mediocre.

But I can’t help but think they’re supposed to be that way. I don’t want to start any fast food conspiracies, like Grimace is actually an extremely expired ketchup packet, but perhaps they’re average because Jack really wants us to order the better tasting, and slightly more expensive, curly fries.

Look, I’m suggesting that without even knowing the curly fries’ profit margins. And I might be boring you with talk of profit margins. So let me get straight to the point. There is a fried potato product on Jack in the Box’s menu that I believe is superior tasting to its regular AND curly fries AND is cheaper — Potato Wedges.

Jack has had these on his menu FOR YEARS, so I’m super late to the party. It wasn’t until last year, when I started mobile ordering from the Jack in the Box app that I learned I could swap the standard fries with potato wedges, and do so without an upcharge like there is with curly fries. I haven’t had Jack’s regular fries since.

When I first tried them, I was blown away by how much better tasting they were. The coating has a light seasoning that’s good enough that I don’t need to dip them into anything if I forget to ask for ketchup packets. It also gives the finger food a pleasant crispiness that doesn’t get limp during the trip home.

Jack in the Box Potato Wedges Closeup

But I think what I’ve been impressed by is how crispy the exterior and fluffy the interior has been every time I’ve purchased them. Although, there was that one time, and I don’t know if this is a bonus or not, or something that happens regularly or not, they tasted like Jack in the Box tacos.

I assume the potato wedges’ freshness is the result of being fried when ordered and not produced in large batches that sit like the French and curly fries.

Unfortunately, while the wedges are cheaper than French fries if you order them a la carte, they don’t lower the cost of a combo meal if you swap them in.

To some of you, the greatness of Jack in the Box’s Potato Wedges may not be a revelation. But now I know about them, and it makes me sad that I could’ve been eating these wonderful potato wedges all this time instead of Jack’s inferior fries.

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