Im alive!

Well I kind of let this blog die, but it's summer and I'm bored....so if you are still reading please give a comment on this post. If I get more than a few I will start posting again!

Review: Yoplait Light Boston Cream Pie

Yet another yogurt review. These Yoplait cups seem to cyclically go on sale at my store every few weeks, so I decided to pick up a flavor I hadn't seen before. Ive never had a real boston cream pie, but Ben & Jerry's BCP is one of my favorite flavors of ice cream, and anything cake related usually peaks my interest. Seaking of which, is boston cream pie actually more like a cake? From the picture they display on the front it sure looks like it...but I digress.

Upon opening the foil lid I was greeted by a standard white yogurt. No frills here with artifical coloring or anything mixed in. I gave it a nice stir regardless just to even up the texture and then dug in. Unfortunately the taste was just mediocre at best. I didnt detect any real pie or cake flavors, and it was more of just a variant of vanilla. All of the yoplait flavors I've tried always sound better in theory. I realize with a mere 90 calories, its not going to be some decadent cake dessert, but Im always hopeful of that. It's not a bad snack by any means, and it is still quite tasty, but to me I didnt detect anything that would warrant it being called boston cream pie.

At just 90 calories, this makes a nice snack or accouterment to your lunch. despite not being much of a BCP flavor, it is still tasty and quite sweet and can curb a sweet tooth without any guilt. I will probably try to make my way through the rest of the line before picking this one up again but its certainly worth a try.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Monster Rehab Rojo Tea + Energy

Another day, another energy drink. Seeing as its the end of the weekend and my perpetual hangover is at its peak I figured trying one of these "rehab" drinks might be beneficial. I have a ton of homework to get done and this seemed like the perfect thing to get myself going. This is my first time trying this line of monster but Im a big fan of the rest of their products so I had high expectations.

As you can see it looks pretty much like a standard tea, with just a hint of red to it as the name implies. After the first sip I was hooked. This stuff tastes awesome. It reminds me of a sweeter version of an arizona iced tea with the slightest bit of a berry after taste. I imagine the berry component is probably what makes this "rojo"tea. There is a bit of a lemon/citrus flavor to it as well and the two flavors work well together. The lack of carbonation makes this a real smooth beverage, and it was extremely easy to slam it down in just a few minutes.

The "Rehab energy blend" is a bit different than most energy drinks and contains a few tea extracts, as well as coconut water, among others. Ive read coconut water is great for hangover cures so thats a nice inclusion. After doing a bit of research I also found it contains 170mg of caffeine, which is a solid dose. Not too high, but it still gave me a hell of a jolt. I drank this on an empty stomach and it was almost too much for me, but assuming you have it with a meal or at least with something in your stomach you should be fine. A few hours after drinking it I felt no crash and my hangover is all but subsided. Major props Monster, major props. This is definitely a nice change from other energy drinks I've had and it seriously is one of the best tasting. I will certainly buy this one again and will give the other flavors from this line a try. Next time you need that hangover cure give this one a shot. Just make sure you follow the warning below!

Gotta love a beverage that has a warning on it!

Rating: 9/10

Review: Rockstar Sugar free PerfectBerry

As I mentioned in my last Rockstar review, Ive recently become somewhat of an energy drink junkie, specifically low carb/sugarfree options. I picked this one up on a whim because I had never seen it before and it sounded different. Sure, the can is somewhat emasculating, but that cant deter me! 

As you can see, there isn't that much carbonation, especially when compared to its big brother Rockstar Zero Carb. Whether or not it is "perfectly carbonated" as the can states will be a personal preference, but to me I like more, rather than less. This lack of carbonation does lead to an extremely "smooth" drink though, which makes this one easy to slam down. The taste is really quite good as well. Its similar to the zero carb, but a little sweeter and has more of a berry taste. All in all, its very good and a nice change from standard energy drinks.

The "energy blend" is pretty standard here and contains all the usual suspects.It packed a decent punch, but didn't leave me overly "stimmed"...120mg of caffeine is kind of low for me, but I still felt a nice burst of energy and it was enough to get me through my workout. I prefer larger cans, due to a prolonged "beverage experience" as well as a larger dose of energy inducing compounds, but I think this drink is clearly aimed at the female market. Still, I will give this a thumbs up and would definitely buy it again if I run into it. If you want a nice change from the standard energy drink give this one a shot

Rating: 8/10

Review: Talenti Sea Salt Caramel Gelato

I had always heard great things about this flavor, but always passed it up due to it's steep price tag. At my supermarket it's usually about 5 bucks for a pint, which is more than a half gallon of blue bunny! Well, last week while I was doing some grocery shopping, I stumbled upon the back freezer that houses the Talenti and other "premium" frozen treats and realized they were on sale. 2 pints for $6 (I also picked up tahitian Vanilla. will try to review as well) which is still a little more expensive than it's main competitors, but I decided to pull the trigger anyway...And boy am I glad I did! 

Im a huge fan of the salty/sweet combo, so I knew this was going to be a hit. I also had not had gelato since my trip to Italy about 10 years ago. Needless to say I didn't quite remember what distinguished it from regular ice cream. Well after some quick googling it seems like gelato has slightly less fat, and is also churned differently which doesn't allow nearly as much air into the mixture. This results in a denser product, and the lower fat changes the mouthfeel....Okay after that quick debriefing I was ready to jump right in. I dug my spoon into the pint and I immediately noted the difference in texture just from how the scooping felt. Ben&Jerry's has nearly broken my spoons from how hard it is to scoop, but this stuff was like butter in comparison. It scooped out so easily and cleanly and to my surprise, there were chocolate candies plentifully buried within the pint. I went ahead and took my first bite, which included one of these truffles, and OH.MY.GOD! Heaven in a pint. The saltiness is very very subtle, but perfectly contrasts the rich caramel flavor from the gelato. The base really coats your mouth in a foreign way and leaves the flavor lingering. Then the little truffles turned out to be carmel filled, almost like mini rolos. The combo is perfect. I cant think of a bad thing to say about this. I was in pure bliss while eating this, and savored every bite. I had to exercise extreme self control to not go and kill the rest of the pint. This may very well have dethroned BnJs cinnamon buns as my favorite frozen treat, which is a feat I never could have foreseen. The only change I could possibly think to make to this product is to maybe add a bit more salt. I really like the contrast, and like I mentioned it is very slight here. Still it will appeal to the masses with the current ratio, and I cant stress enough how great this was. Go buy this now.

Nutrition facts:
serving size: 105g
cals: 240
fat: 11g
carbs: 38g
pro: 4g

Rating: 9.9/10

Review: Pumpkin Pie Pop-tarts

The words limited edition, combined with my newest obsession of pumpkin, made this one an easy decision to pick up. The fact I have been binging on pop tarts lately only fed the desire to sample all of their seasonal offering. 

I tore open the package and mustered up enough self control to only eat one of these (a mortal sin? possibly) I prefer my pop-tarts lightly toasted and the slightest bit above setting 1 is perfect for me. It leaves the pastry just golden brown and the filling perfectly warmed. There is probably no wrong way to eat a pop tart though, I've even heard of people freezing them (any of you guys try this? let me know in the comments if so). Anyway, as I took my first bite I was extremely underwhelmed. I suppose this is the case with most pop tarts, you are always expecting them to be much better than they truly are, and this was no different. The taste was slightly reminiscent to a crappy pumpkin pie, but really, it was just a generic sweetness that overwhelmed it. Now im wishing these came in a smaller pack, as the bulk of these will most likely collect dust in my cupboard until next fall. Dont get me wrong, they weren't "gross" or anything, but I can think of one hundred better ways to consume 200 calories. If I want a pop tart ill probably stick to Brown sugar cinnamon, confetti cupcake, or possibly a fruit flavored one. I think after being let down time and time again by these crazy flavors I have finally learned my lesson. Stick with the classic. 

These sadists at Kellogg's have the serving size as 1 pop-tart. How many people only eat just 1 (besides me)? Probably not many. If they were packaged in a resealable bag or just single wrapped this would make sense, but as it is now most people probably scarf down the two cookies in just a few bites. YIKES!

Rating: 6.5/10

these were just very "meh." Nothing special about them, wont buy again.

Review: Nabisco Mallomars

I had never heard of these things until a few weeks ago. After some googling it seems they have somewhat of a cult following and they are only available seasonally starting in September. The legend goes that they cant be carried year round because the outer chocolate shell would melt during transportation in the warmer months. I think this is just a marketing scheme, but I digress.  Anyway it seems that supermarkets make a huge fuss the first week they are back. My local Shoprite had a 10 foot tower of these badboys in the front as well as smaller stacks at the end of seemingly every aisle...well I hate to admit it, but the marketing got to me and I tossed a box in my cart. The fact they were on sale for a mere $1.50 per box makes me less ashamed.

Upon arriving home I cracked the box open to see what all the hype was about. I snatched out a couple of these cookies and my first impression was how light they felt. I guess since the bulk of the volume is the marshmallow interior this makes sense, but it was still a bit odd. Oh well, I'll just have to eat more of these suckers to be satisfied! After watching this tutorial on how to eat Mallomars, I was ready to dive in.

The food blogger faux pas: bite shot.

I went ahead and broke the first rule of food blogging; Posting the bite shot. For this type of cookie I deemed it necessary so you could see the distinct layers. From the box picture I wasnt sure what exactly the base cookie was, but it turns out it is a graham like. So this is basically a cold, inside out smore. The outer chocolate layer has a nice snap to it and is somewhat of a dark variety if my pallet is correct. It's nothing special but for a cheap box of cookies its solid. The marshmallow is very soft, and lacks that sort of outer "skin" a regular marshmallow has. Taste wise its just like a standard 'mallow though. Lastly, the graham base is really lackluster in my opinion. It is very soft and has no crunch. When I have smores the nice snap of the graham cracker really brings it all together but with this you don't seem to get that. The flavor is there but I really which it was more of a cookie rather than what I would call pressed graham crumbs. 

For how un-filling these are, the calories are pretty high. To be fair, they are cookies and not some health food so you really cant expect much, but if you are looking for a decent snack expect to eat 6 or more of these. The calories definitely add up quickly with these. Overall these were really very average to me. I can see now why Nabisco has to come up with a gimmick to get these to sell, they aren't anything special! Anyway I will finish the box but will probably never buy them again. If I want a smore Ill go ahead and go for the real deal. As always guys, I appreciate any comments. Let me know if you are still reading and enjoying or if you have any products you would like to see reviewed!

Rating: 7/10