5 Other Things I Consumed This Week: 11/28/2025

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Lindt Dubai Style Chocolate Bar wrapper

Lindt Dubai Style Chocolate Bar

Unless prices start going down, this might be my first and last Dubai-style chocolate bar. This bar, which was not that much bigger than a Left or Right Twix, was over six dollars. Yes, it shouldn’t have been surprising since other Dubai Chocolate products on this site have had Dubai-ble, I mean, double-digit prices. Now that I’ve tried it, I have to admit its flavor and textures are really great. However, I can’t say I would regularly pay its price to experience them.

Lindt Dubai Style Chocolate Bar innards

The creamy Lindt chocolate pairs wonderfully with the even creamier, crispy pistachio-flavored filling. It’s all like a melted milk chocolate Nestle Kit Kat with pistachio-flavored creme between the wafers. Oh geez, that last sentence almost convinced me it’s all worth it. I could spend the six dollars on another bar, or spend it on a few bags of holiday-shaped Reese’s after Christmas at 50 percent off. The latter sounds like a better deal.

Liquid Death Severed Lime and Doctor Death

Liquid Death Severed Lime and Doctor Death cans

I’m attempting to spear all the Liquid Death flavors. These two are the ones that readers said I should smash. Ugh. How does Liquid Death cram violent verbs into its names so easily? My fingers can’t keep stabbing my keyboard to stuff violence into every sentence. Ugh. They’re dead.

Oh, they’re alive again to type how much I enjoyed both sparkling water varieties with the right amount of flavor. Severed Lime has a light lemon-lime soda vibe, while Doctor Death has a Dr Pepper-like flavor. Although I got more recommendations for Severed Lime, I loved Doctor Death much more. But both make me regret not getting on the Liquid Death train earlier. So much hydration I missed out on. If you’re not into Bubly or La Croix because you want more flavor from your sparkling water, Liquid Death will give you what you want. Now that I’ve consumed and liked three flavors, I want to buy all the different variety packs on Amazon.

Nerds Strawberry Punch Juicy Gummy Clusters

Nerds Strawberry Punch Juicy Gummy Clusters pouch

As I mentioned many times on this site, Nerds Gummy Clusters surprised me. I didn’t think something as simple as sticking Nerds candy to a gummy would be so pleasing. But after trying it, I was hooked. Since its introduction, other flavors have been introduced, all of which are great. However, I think its latest evolution makes it even better.

Nerds Strawberry Punch Juicy Gummy Clusters innards

Think of these as Gushers candy inside a Nerds coating, but with a better gummy candy. The liquid-filled candy creates larger clusters and gives the candy three levels of texture: chewy, crunchy, and gooey. I absolutely love chewing on these. Then there’s the flavor. Nerds have a sourness to them, but the gummy candy and its filling amp up the sweetness, giving the candy an almost equal balance between sour and sweet. It’s a difficult candy for me to put down. This should be the default Nerds Gummy Clusters.

Too Good & Co Sweet Cream Coffee Creamer

Too Good & Co Sweet Cream Coffee Creamer in a mug with my morning caffeine jolt

After trying to gain some market share in the crowded yogurt market, next to its cousin, Dannon, Too Good & Co is now attempting to get into the crowded-but-not-as-crowded-as-yogurt coffee creamer game next to its cousin, International Delight. I guess it’s competing with Coffee mate’s Natural Bliss line.

Along with this Sweet Cream flavor, there are also Lavender (seasonal) and Roasted Vanilla varieties. The creamers are made with real milk, have 40% less sugar than leading coffee creamers, and have no artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, added gums, oils, or preservatives, and come in small 25.4-ounce cartons.

As someone who buys mainly sugary coffee creamers with artificial flavors, added gums, oils, or preservatives, and sometimes artificial sweeteners in 32-ounce bottles, I enjoyed the mild but sweet taste and the creaminess from this Too Good & Co creamer. But I wouldn’t replace my usual choices with it. Much like the Natural Bliss line, price is an issue. These natural products are more expensive. And on top of that, it comes in a smaller bottle.

Bloom Pop Limited Edition Winter Pomberry Soda

Bloom Pop Limited Edition Winter Pomberry it's clear

Is this supposed to be pomegranate- and cranberry-flavored? I ask because it tastes like a cranberry soda to me. And I’m pretty sure the “pom” in pomberry isn’t for pomelo. The ingredient list says it has cranberry juice, but no pomegranate juice. However, it does have pear juice. Maybe the “P” in pomberry stands for pear, while the “om” stands for something else. Of course, all of this confusion could’ve been avoided if this soda’s flavor were called cranagranate, which is a 100 percent better name than pomberry. Om well. Anyhoo, this tasty cranberry-flavored soda has prebiotics and a tiny amount of sugar, but no fiber, which is a bummer.

4 Other Things I Consumed This Week: 11/14/2025

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Slice Shirley Temple Healthy Soda can

Slice Shirley Temple Healthy Soda

This was not my first Slice Healthy Soda, nor was this my first Shirley Temple-flavored soda. While this might not be my favorite Shirley Temple-flavored soda, it’s definitely my favorite Slice Healthy Soda. Granted, I’ve only had two Slice flavors, counting this one.

The soda has a tasty cherry flavor, with a hint of citrus hanging out in the background. It has a different flavor profile than the Shirley Temple 7UP I had last year (which is back this year if you missed it). That 7UP had a flavor that reminded me of an Orange Julius. Oddly, this Slice Soda smells creamy, like an Orange Julius, but its taste doesn’t convey that creaminess. 

Favorite Day Banana Pudding Ice Cream

Favorite Day Banana Pudding Ice Cream pint

I’m a sucker for anything banana-flavored (see: banana water). So this easily made its way into my basket, although I had to do some body contortions to get this pint from the back wall of the bottom shelf of the freezer case. Was it worth tweaking my arm? Yeah, I guess so, but again, I’m REALLY into banana-flavored stuff.

The pint features banana-flavored ice cream, whipped cream-flavored swirls, and vanilla wafer pieces. While there are other components to this ice cream, it’s ALL banana. Even when I got a spoonful of the swirls, I didn’t taste anything like whipped cream. It was bananas. Even the vanilla wafers couldn’t make their flavors come through, although their texture added some chewiness. But despite the swirl and cookies not making their flavors known, I really enjoyed this pint. Because, again, I love bananas, and I’m delighted that there’s another banana-flavored ice cream available.

Oh, one last thing, when I pulled this pint out of the back wall from the bottom shelf of the freezer, I was surprised by how light this container was.

Poppi Cream Soda

Poppi Cream Soda can

I’ve been wanting to try this for about a year now, since it debuted as a limited-edition flavor late last year. I finally got my hands on one because it’s now a permanent flavor. Apparently, this was the best-selling Poppi flavor when it was first available. Perhaps that explains why I couldn’t find it.

But now I’ve experienced it, and it smells better than it tastes. Its aroma is similar to cream sodas from A&W and Jones, so you might think it tastes like them. However, its flavor still has that “Poppi-ness” from the apple cider vinegar that all of the brand’s sodas have, which is what I expected. However, it is significantly more pleasing than Olipop’s Cream Soda, and it’s great tasting for a prebiotic soda. I taste why this became a permanent flavor, and it’s definitely one of my favorites.

Liquid Death Cherry Obituary Sparkling Water

Liquid Death Cherry Obituary Sparkling Water can

I’ve never had a Liquid Death before. I thought it would taste disappointing, like all the other flavored sparkling waters I’ve had from Bubly and La Croix, which have flavors that I’d call ghostly and not pleasing to my palate.

But I thought I’d give Liquid Death a try. So I asked the internet what Liquid Death flavor I should taste first. Many of the responses were for Severed Lime, so I had my mind set to obtain one…eventually. However, my neighbors trashed all those plans by handing me this can of Liquid Death Cherry Obituary.

After drinking it, I have to wonder why the other sparkling water brands have such weak flavors, while this has just the right amount of pleasing cherry flavor. It’s surprisingly great. But then I dug deeper and learned that Liquid Death sparkling water flavors contain sweeteners, while the other brands don’t. This Liquid Death has broken my stereotype of what sparkling water is, and now I’m going to find a can of Severed Lime.

Click/Tap here for our previous Other Things I Consumed posts.

REVIEW: Sparkling Ice Starburst Flavors

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Who among us hasn’t been sitting around eating a fistful of Starburst when the thought suddenly occurred — “This candy is great and all, but what I’d really like to be doing is drinking it”? Well, friends, the good people at Sparkling Ice have read your mind (don’t ask why they were there to begin with; you don’t want to know) and are here with a solution: new Starburst-flavored Sparkling Ice.

If you don’t know Sparkling Ice, it is the primary product offering from Washington State’s Talking Rain beverage company, which started in 1987 and had roughly $500 million in retail sales in 2019. (I couldn’t find more recent sales figures; its website DOES have an extensive FAQ section, however, with real think pieces like, “Why did strawberry kiwi turn pink?” “Is the color safe?” “Is Sparkling Ice vegan?” and “Is it normal to have sediment floating in my Sparkling Ice?”)

And if you don’t know Starburst… that’s just weird.

So, does the low-calorie drink accurately capture its chewy sugar cube inspiration? As an avid fan of regular Sparkling Ice products, I was eager to find out.

Orange

This was the first one I had, and it was the worst. The taste was somewhere between “citrus aspirin” and an orange-Flintstone vitamin that’d been dusted with a heaping of artificial sweetener. The very first part of the drink made me go, “Hey, this tastes like an orange Starburst,” but everything after made me want to rinse my mouth out with paint thinner. Here’s the deal with artificial sweetener — I have no issue with it. Regular Sparkling Ice has it, and I’m a staunchly Zero/Diet guy when it comes to soda. But this was SO bad that it reminded me of being young and first trying Diet Coke, back when it just tasted like poison to a palate honed on only the finest real sugar cane (or, you know, high fructose corn syrup). In any case, I had no desire to drink more than two sips of this.

Lemon

Though my first thought when I poured this one into the glass was, “Welp, this looks a little like urine,” I had it immediately after Orange, so, you know, there was nowhere to go but up. It managed to taste like its namesake flavor all the way through and had a fraction of the Sucralose taste, which earned it a second-place finish overall.

Cherry

It tasted like a cherry Starburst, but it also managed to fall somewhere in the middle of the prior two in terms of the artificial sweetener taste. I also caught subtle cough syrup notes, which didn’t help my enjoyment. (Come to think of it, the actual cherry Starbursts sort of have that medicinal taste, too. So they really nailed the flavor on this one.)

Strawberry

Everyone knows that the pink Starburst is the best Starburst, case closed. (Out of the original flavors, that is. Tropical and Baja varieties really muck up the overall rankings with their deliciousness.) This, too, was the best Starburst Sparkling Ice. It captured the candy’s essence well but was once again marred by the sweetener. While it didn’t reach Orange levels of intolerability, it was still more noticeable than the Lemon kind.

In the end, I was surprised by how much I disliked these. The heavy application of Sucralose kept them from being anything I’d feel the need to purchase again. I’ll stick with regular Sparkling Ices and pilfer the Starburst two-packs from my daughter’s Halloween candy.

Purchased Price: $1.19 (each)
Size: 17 oz bottles
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 1 out of 10 (Orange), 3 out of 10 (Lemon), 4 out of 10 (Cherry), 5 out of 10 (Strawberry)
Nutrition Facts: (1 bottle) 5 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 0 milligrams of sodium, 0grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 0 grams of total sugars, and 0 grams of protein.

REVIEW: AHA Fuji Apple + White Tea, Blackberry + Lemon, and Pineapple + Passionfruit Sparkling Water

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AHA Fuji Apple + White Tea Blackberry + Lemon and Pineapple + Passionfruit Sparkling Water Cans

Since its debut in 2020, AHA Flavored Sparkling Water has become a standout in the beverage aisle due to its refreshing flavor combinations and vibrant, colorful packaging. The Coca-Cola-backed brand, along with popular competitors like La Croix, bubly, and Spindrift, leads a surge in seltzer sales by appealing to crowds who want a healthier, just-as-fizzy alternative to soda.

When AHA first appeared on shelves, I had only dipped my toe in the sparkling water, uh, waters and generally missed the sweetness I’d become accustomed to in other carbonated beverages. But, determined to cut back on my diet soda intake, I bought a few cans of AHA, which lists only carbonated water and natural flavors as ingredients. Two years later, the brand remains a favorite.

At my local Giant Eagle, I recently discovered three new AHA flavors: Fuji Apple + White Tea, Blackberry + Lemon, and Pineapple + Passionfruit. I exclaimed, “Aha!” before loading them into my cart because I couldn’t resist. (One day, you’re cool, and before you know it, you’re making puns at the grocery store.)

AHA Fuji Apple White Tea

First, I sampled the Fuji Apple + White Tea flavor. Unlike the other two flavors, this variety is caffeinated, containing 30 milligrams of caffeine per can (about the equivalent of 1/2 cup of green tea). It is also the only variety to include electrolyte sources (calcium and magnesium chlorides and potassium bicarbonate) in its list of ingredients.

Although I don’t often gravitate toward apple flavors, I love this product. The water’s carbonation had the same sharp, refreshing bubble quality as other AHA products. It perfectly recalled the taste of a sweet, crisp Fuji. The white tea component was mellow but still detectable in the drink’s smooth finish. Also a fan of AHA’s caffeinated Citrus + Green Tea and Mango + Black Tea flavors, I will add this newest variety to my rotation.

AHA Blackberry Lemon

Up next: Blackberry + Lemon. This flavor sounded the best to me on paper but was my least favorite of the three. I detected no lemon notes, which left a dominating blackberry flavor that didn’t taste very realistic. Its perfume-y quality left a harsh aftertaste. The product is not undrinkable, but I won’t buy it again.

AHA Pineapple Passionfruit

Last was Pineapple + Passionfruit. This one made me double-check the ingredients list for fruit juice or sugar. Nope. The sweet, smooth tropical taste, including a subtly tart undercurrent of passionfruit, was purely the product of natural flavors. This product was not only my favorite of the bunch, but also a rival to my favorite AHA flavor, Peach + Honey.

AHA Fuji Apple + White Tea Blackberry + Lemon and Pineapple + Passionfruit Sparkling Water Glasses

“Aha!” is defined as “an expression of triumphant discovery, surprise, or derision,” so it is appropriate that my reaction to AHA’s new flavors involved a little bit of all three. See? Zero calories, zero sweeteners, and zero sodium do not have to equal boring.

Purchased Price: $3.99 each
Purchased at: Giant Eagle
Size: 8 pack of 12 oz cans
Rating: 9 out of 10 (Fuji Apple + White Tea), 10 out of 10 (Pineapple + Passionfruit), 4 out of 10 (Blackberry + Lemon)
Nutrition Facts: (per 12 oz can – all varieties) 0 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 milligrams of sodium, 0 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.

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