Reviews – Page 331 – The Impulsive Buy

REVIEW: Lay’s Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup Potato Chips

Marvo / October 22, 2019 / Reviews / 5 Comments

There are some of you who are looking at Lay’s new Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup Potato Chips and thinking to yourself, “Dammit! That was MY Lay’s Do Us a Flavor submission! Frito-Lay stole my idea!” or “Dammit! Lay’s ripped that flavor idea out of my head! This tinfoil hat I made doesn’t work!”

If you have no ill will towards Lay’s, I’d recommend purchasing a bag of this limited time flavor if you’re interested in experiencing the comfort food combination of tomato soup and grilled cheese without having to worry about burning your mouth with savory liquid or getting your fingers greasy with buttered bread.

I’d also recommend this new variety if you like pizza. I’ll get to that in a few moments.

The crunchy fried potato slices look like they might taste either super cheesy or a little spicy, but they are neither. They smell more cheesy than tomato soup-y, but that flips when being eaten. The tomato is sweet, slightly acidic, and at the forefront from the first chomp.

The cheese is still around but in the background of the chip’s flavor. Also, like with Lay’s previous sandwich-flavored chips, it tastes as if the food scientists were able to add a little bread flavoring, or maybe that’s my imagination. But what I do know is real is that Lay’s Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup Potato Chips are delightful.

The flavor profile is easily recognizable. However, as someone who has dipped his hands into many bag-shaped universes of chips, the combination of tomato and cheese, at times, reminds me of pizza-flavored snacks. But if you think about it, it does make sense since pizza is a few food chromosomes away from tomato soup and grilled cheese.

These chips aren’t as comforting or warming as a grilled cheese sandwich dipped into hot tomato soup. But, since chips go well with sandwiches, this crunchy snack would make an appropriate and tasty side.

DISCLOSURE: I received a free sample of the product from Lay’s PR team. Well, actually, I received two bags and ate half of one within 30 minutes for, um, testing purposes. Getting free samples did not influence my review. Although I can totally see how some might think so. But I assure you it did not.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 7 3/4 oz. bag
Purchased at: Received from Lay’s PR
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (about 15 chips) 160 calories, 10 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 180 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 2 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Campfire S’more Pops

Meghan / October 21, 2019 / Reviews / 2 Comments

What are Campfire S’more Pops?

Move over cake pops because there’s a new sweet-on-a-stick in town! Designed to deliver a perfectly portable take on the classic treat, each pack of pops consists of Campfire’s standard-issue marshmallows enrobed in a milk chocolate and graham cracker shell.

How are they?

If you’ve ever eaten a regular s’ more, then you should know what to expect here. The milk chocolate and marshmallows both taste like any generic equivalent, and the graham cracker crumbs are identical to the dust at the bottom of a box of Honey Maid. Oddly enough, even though I suppose everything tastes more or less as they’re intended to, I can’t think of any better word to describe these pops than “adequate.”

Each component of the traditional toasted dessert is here, but what these treats lack is the messy, gooey nostalgia that makes s’ mores a special occasion kind of food. You don’t eat s’ mores on any old Tuesday night, because nobody wants to go through the work of gathering the ingredients, tending the fire, and cleaning everything up at the end if they know they have to wake up to go to work the next morning.

Although I suppose some people might like that these s’ mores-on-a-stick are ready to eat, I think Campfire’s taken a midsummer culinary icon and removed the shared sense of cultural experience that makes it special in the first place.

Is there anything else you should know?

Considering how lackluster these were to me in every other regard, I have to knock Campfire a little for how expensive these are. I mean, two bucks for only three pops? Seriously? Even if I’m only eating by myself, I’d want at least five of these to feel somewhat satisfied. By the time I’ve invested enough money to buy a reasonable portion, I may as well have bought a bag of Campfire’s regular roasters and cooked my own s’ mores at home in the toaster oven.

Conclusion:

Although these might look cute sitting in a candy shop, or nested in the pastry case of a chic café, I’d advise passing on these in favor of making your own s’ mores at home.

Purchased Price: $1.98
Size: 3 pops
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (3 marshmallows) 190 calories, 6 grams of total fat, 3.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 55 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of total carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 24 grams of total sugars, 23 grams of added sugars, and 2 grams of protein.

S'mores

REVIEW: Coca-Cola Apple (Japan)

Marvo / October 18, 2019 / Reviews / 1 Comment

While we’re able to rot our teeth here in the States with Coca-Cola Cinnamon, those in Japan have been able to rot their teeth with Coca-Cola Apple. The fruity-flavored cola follows Coca-Cola Peach, which came out in Japan earlier this year.

Oooh, what would a Coca-Cola Cinnamon and Coca-Cola Apple mix taste like?

My friend Melissa picked up this bottle for me during her trip to Japan because I begged her to. She also tried it once she got back to her hotel and iMessaged me that she couldn’t taste any apple.

When I finally got the bottle of Coca-Cola Apple (and a bag of roasted chicken Lay’s she bought for me during her 2018 trip to France), I was expecting my taste buds to experience what hers did.

When I twisted off the cap and took a whiff, I could easily detect apple under the cola aroma. Then I took a sip. To be honest, I didn’t get any apple flavor with that first one. So after taking a second sip, I let the carbonated beverage sit in my mouth and swished it around like it was Coca-Listerine.

I imagine those of you in the dental field are screaming “NO” at your screen. But it was worth it because now I could notice the fruit with every sip. (I don’t know why that worked.) It tastes like a combination of Coca-Cola with more than a splash of apple juice. It’s mild, and I didn’t get it at first, so I can understand how my dear wonderful, smart, and beautiful friend who bought me this bottle and is probably reading this review, wasn’t able to notice it.

Now, I don’t know if this contains apple juice because I can’t read the ingredients list, despite many years of C’s in Japanese language classes. But it sure tastes like it does, which makes this cola quite pleasing to me.

But if you want to obtain an apple-flavored Coca-Cola the expensive way ($12-$15), you can do so by picking it up via eBay or from an online Japanese snack seller, like NapaJapan or J-List. Or you can pick it up the super expensive way, by flying to Japan.

Coca-Cola Apple is definitely not worth getting via the super expensive route, but, because it tastes like it has apple juice, it might be possible to recreate it at home, if you can figure out the right Coke-to-juice ratio. I think it’s an experiment worth trying.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 500 ml bottle
Purchased at: Somewhere in Japan
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (100 ml) 46 kcal, 0 grams of protein, 11.4 grams of carbohydrates, and 0 grams of salt.

Coca-Cola Coke Japan Soda

REVIEW: Snickers Pecan

Rachel / October 17, 2019 / Reviews / 11 Comments

What is Snickers Pecan?

Mars has created a new iteration of its Snickers chocolate bar for fall! To put it in simple math terms, Snickers – nougat – peanuts + pecans = Snickers Pecan. This one’s just nuts, caramel, and chocolate.

So far, it’s only hit the market in a limited edition 15-pack that comes in a drawer-style box. This release is all about Texas – the pecan are from Texas, the wrappers say “Proudly produced in a Mars Facility in Waco, TX.” The graphics all reference the Texas flag, but in muted tones. “Texas Proud,” “Fixin’ To Satisfy,” and “Dig In, Ya’ll,” are printed on the box and wrappers. It’s a beautiful presentation.

How is it?

On first bite, these Snickers bars screamed THE SOUTH. Like you just picked them off the Formica counter of some sun-baked granny with a drawl who whipped them up along with a batch of pralines.

The chocolate and caramel were the familiar Snickers formula (although the caramel felt stickier to me somehow), but the pecans brought a deeper, darker nut flavor than the usual peanuts. It worked really well. They were very sweet and felt indulgent enough as a once-in-a-while treat as opposed to an everyday snack. I really missed the nougat in these (big nougat fan here) so I dinged them a point for that.

Is there anything else you need to know?

These were offered online only and sold out in less than 24 hours. No word on whether they’ll be released in stores, but they SHOULD BE. They’re far better than Fiery Snickers and those got shelf space. Don’t ask if you can have any of my 15-pack, it ain’t gonna happen.