REVIEW: Jack in the Box Mummy Wrapped Monster Taco

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Jack in the Box’s Monster Taco has been a monster success for the chain. Actually, I don’t know this because I’m not privy to the company’s internal numbers, but it’s been around for several years, so I assume it’s a popular item. For the Halloween season, the chain has pulled out from a sarcophagus the Mummy Wrapped Monster Taco.

It’s a Monster Taco topped with the usual American cheese, shredded lettuce, and taco sauce that’s “mummy wrapped’ in a cheese sauce and bacon-stuffed warm flour tortilla.

If you’re reading this review, you’re probably familiar with the taste of Jack in the Box’s tacos, so I’m not going to mention much about it. While I enjoy them, this version is disappointing.

Adding the flour tortilla, cheese sauce, and bacon bits adds a noticeable amount of heft to the Monster Taco, making it a bit more monstrous. However, the cheese sauce and its warmth are trapped under the flour tortilla, making the taco’s center even soggier than a regular Monster Taco. Thankfully, that’s kind of okay because the tortilla prevents any leakage from happening.

However, I don’t know if mine was made with more cheese sauce than the kitchen instructions say, but I felt there was too much of it in my order, and it made things overwhelmingly cheesy. While that sounds nice for fondue, a cheeseburger, or Wisconsin, it’s not in this case because it also makes the menu item too salty. Yes, water is wet, and fast food is salty, but this was particularly so sodium-heavy that my taste buds started to wonder if they should tap out after getting halfway through. I eventually had to convince myself to finish the last three bites.

Besides the overwhelming cheesiness and saltiness, there is also an underlying smokiness from the bacon and the usual mild kick of pepperiness and heat from taco sauce and the seasoned meat. But I wonder if those pork bits also contribute to this being too salty.

While a clever idea, Jack in the Box’s Mummy Wrapped Monster Taco is a monster disappointment. I don’t plan on ordering it again, and I think it should be placed back in its sarcophagus and buried in the tomb of fast food ideas. Or it should have less cheese sauce.

Purchased Price: $3.00
Rating: 4 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 580 calories. No other nutritional numbers are available on the Jack in the Box website.

REVIEW: Limited Edition Coca-Cola Oreo Cookies

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It’s the brand crossover we didn’t even know we were waiting for. America’s #1 cookie and America’s #1 soda brand* have combined forces to create not only a new cola but arguably the most intriguing Oreo flavor to date.

*According to America’s #1 search engine, the A.I. cluttered and less reliable by the day, Google!

I’ve been starting to get a little bored with Oreo flavor trends. Sure, I just reviewed its Sour Patch collab, but outside of that, I’ve felt like its creative ideas were starting to lose their luster, and each new flavor just ended up tasting like one it had previously made. A shot in the arm was needed.

Enter Coca-Cola Oreo – a jab everyone should agree on. … Let’s move on.

Upon popping the tab on the bag, I was smacked with an amazing scent. This is probably the best-smelling snack I’ve had in a long time. They instantly smell like Coca-Cola but also don’t lose the “baked good” scent of the cookie. It’s a perfect mix. I want this as a candle.

The great start only got better when I saw the dual-colored wafers, with the red side having three distinct Coke-branded designs. The attention to detail is unrivaled by any Oreo in the past.

My nose liked ’em, my eyes liked ’em, but what about my big fat mouth?

Oh yeah, my mouth liked ’em. These are great. I expected them to be, and they met my expectations. They taste like Coca-Cola. Simple as that. Job well done.

Actually, I think they taste like a Coke float, which is arguably even better.

If I had to be specific beyond, “it tastes like Coke,” these remind me of Cherry Vanilla Coke. The crème, which is speckled with popping candies, gives it that vanilla/ice cream/almost marshmallow-like addition, and there is a distinct cherry hint within the Coca-Cola flavoring itself.

The Coke website claims the brown cookie is made with Coca-Cola syrup, while the red cookie is just a dyed Golden Oreo. I separated the two, and that checks out. There’s also definitely some Coke essence within the crème.

Speaking of the crème, my only complaint is that I wish the popping candy… well, popped off more. It’s a fun addition and a great way to ape the effervescence of a refreshing soda into the cookie, but the crackling is few and far between. Also, just to nitpick, I wish they were red and speckled the crème better than the moldy off-white bits they are now, if only for aesthetics.

Cola is not a flavor we really get much outside of the drink itself, so it was cool to have that profile in something edible. The only other things I could really think of were random candies like Bottle Caps or my dearly departed Betty Crocker Soda-licious Fruit Snacks. For the love of all things holy, please bring those back.

So yeah, Coca-Cola Oreo Cookies are a hit. One more tiny knock I’ll give is something about the cola flavor sweetness overload gets a little cloying after a few cookies. I was missing that crisp, bubbly taste of an actual Coke. Also, I won’t step on the review of the corresponding Oreo Coca-Cola, but I definitely liked these more. That said, they’re both a must try.

Purchased Price: $4.88
Size: 10.68 oz package
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2 Cookies) 140 calories, 6 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 gram of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 85 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and less than 1 gram of protein.

REVIEW: Limited Edition 2024 Mtn Dew VooDEW

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Personally, I love that Mtn Dew has continued the tradition of offering a mystery flavor here in 2024.

I hope the brand never stops pumping out these flavors.

No other brand has had the creativity to keep this up for this long, with Oreo and Peeps doing it for a couple of years and then giving it up.

Keeping in line with previous VooDEW varieties, this one is also flavored like a particular candy.

So, much like all other Mtn Dew mystery flavors, the soda’s label design, ingredients list, and milky color don’t hint at what this is supposed to taste like.

Though, the label does tell us that this is the sixth VooDEW iteration with an eye inside a red number six.

Also, for those who wish every soda flavor had a zero sugar version, VooDEW 2024 has a zero sugar version, but I’m only going to cover the full sugary version in this review.

Right now, I have to say that this might be my favorite VooDEW so far, although every year has been good to great tasting.

Before I tell you what I think the mystery flavor is, I should say that it’s fruity, a tad sour, and maybe creamy, which pretty much narrows down what it could be.

Um, sorry, Snickers, Twix, M&M’s, Reese’s, Hershey’s, etc, you’ll never have a VooDEW flavor that tastes like any of you.

Really, with the first sip, I thought I was drinking a previous VooDEW that tasted like Skittles, but after taking a few more swigs, my taste buds helped me come to a definite answer.

So what do I think it is?

Take the first letter of every sentence in this review, which I’ve separated for convenience, and put them all together for my guess as to what this delicious VooDEW mystery flavor is.

Purchased Price: More than one should pay on eBay
Size: 20 fl oz bottles
Purchased at: eBay
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 bottle) 270 calories, 0 grams of fat, 85 milligrams of sodium, 73 grams of carbohydrates, 73 grams of sugar 73 (including 73 grams of added sugar), 0 grams of protein, and 91 milligrams of caffeine.

REVIEW: Jack in the Box Witch Please Shake

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I’m not sure how familiar the general public is with the purple yam called ube. Sure, Trader Joe’s has rolled out several ube-flavored products over the past few years, but for the most part I feel it’s still a little known flavor.

However, on this rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it’s a common option with pastries and desserts. Even our local 7-Eleven locations had an ube-flavored Slurpee. I guess you could say it’s ubequitous here. I apologize.

If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s sweet and a bit coconut-like. And it has found its way into Jack in the Box’s latest dessert, the Witch Please Shake. It’s an Oreo shake mixed with ube flavors and topped with more Oreo pieces and whipped topping. The ube gives it a pleasant lavender color, but it’s not dark enough to bring witches to my mind. It replaces the Basic Witch Shake that showed up on Jack’s menu board the past two fall seasons. That was a pumpkin spice shake with Oreo pieces.

The sweet coconutty taste is boldly there with every sip, but it’s the only flavor I taste. While I can see and feel the Oreo pieces floating in the ice cream, they only offer texture as I don’t taste their slightly bitter chocolate, even when I come across a decent-sized cookie chunk. This lack of cookie was also the case with the Basic Witch Shake. Although a little chocolate would’ve been nice, not noticing the cookie pieces is not a completely bad thing because it allows the ube to stand out, and that flavor is so delightful.

Jack in the Box’s Witch Please Shake is a delicious follow-up to the Basic Witch Shake. For those who have never tried ube, it’ll be a tasty introduction to the purple yam. For those who are familiar, I recommend sipping on this seasonal shake while you can because it’s witch-ed good. Ubetcha.

Purchased Price: $6.29*
Size: Regular
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 770 calories. Other nutrition number aren’t available on the Jack in the Box website.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

REVIEW: General Mills Kelce Mix Cereal

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General Mills has teamed up with the Kelce brothers to offer the Kelce Mix Cereal, a combination of Reese’s Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Lucky Charms. Yes, it just combines three cereals that already exist, but how many of you have had all three in your house at the same time to combine them?

All three cereals are favorites of mine; I will not turn down a bowl of any of them. But if I had to rank them for funsies, I’d put Cinnamon Toast Crunch at the top, followed by Reese’s Puffs, and then Lucky Charms.

Now, with that said, I feel Lucky Charms slightly brings down the whole cereal in this mix. Not the magical marshmallows, though. Much like Jason Kelce was great at blocking opposing defenses, the oat pieces do a good job at blocking this cereal from being a truly great one. (Obligatory shoehorned Kelce football reference completed.)

As I ate through every bowl, there were these bursts of flavorful, sugary goodness when I got a spoonful of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Reese’s Puffs, and Lucky Charms’ Magical Marshmallows. But with those spoonfuls that had too many oat pieces, I felt the magic of this combination wither. General Mills and the Kelce brothers should’ve added the Magical Marshmallows but left out the oat pieces. They somewhat dilute the intense flavors from the other two cereals and prevent the Kelce Mix from being a truly delicious combination. Look at the picture below. Doesn’t that seem like there are too many oat pieces? Travis Kelce should’ve picked out all of them, much like he picks footballs thrown by Patrick Mahomes out of the air. (Bonus shoehorned Kelce football reference.)

But, again, when those oat pieces are sparse in a spoonful, it makes me go a little cuckoo for Kelce Mix. (Sorry, Sonny. And sorry you were left out of this mix.) Cinnamon Toast Crunch’s cinnamon sugar and Reese’s Puffs’ chocolate go g-r-r-reat together (Sorry, Tony), and because the peanut butter flavor in the puffs isn’t overwhelming, it’s a nice complementing flavor. And the Magical Marshmallows add wonderful pops of sweetness that are like the icing on the cake. The milk at the bottom of the bowl was a tasty, but mild, combo of cinnamon, chocolate, and peanut butter.

Overall, the Kelce Mix Cereal is a winner, and it has convinced me that maybe I should have Reese’s Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Lucky Charms Magic Marshmallows in my kitchen at all times.

DISCLOSURE: I received a free product sample from General Mills. Doing so did not influence my review.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 11.5 oz box
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 cup w/o milk) 150 calories, 3 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 230 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar (including 11 grams of added sugar), and 3 grams of protein.

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