Two-Bite Churro Dulce De Leche Cupcakes

Strike's over... back to work... on some cupcakes!! You know what they say -- the best way to get over an allergy fear is to get under some cupcakes. Etc etc. Anyway, these are fun and look like animal's eyes (frosting-wise). They also contain graham flour, which if it's a typo for gram flour will be my downfall. But I think I remember saying that about another flavor, so probs not. (Also you'd think an allergy company would be careful about such things, but ah, I lived long enough to know it isn't so). 

Anyway, where were we. The dark brown blorp is a caramel goo - not frosting! - but very sweet. Like a chocolate bar inside caramel. Fine, fine. The frosting is just typical mini cupcake frosting, maybe mildly cream cheese and/or cinnamon flavored. And the cake is just regular vanilla cake! Oh, frabjous day! I thought it'd be filled for sure, and that would have been major overkill. Kind of like the concept of "churro dulce de leche cupcake". Did they just pick two Hispanic treats? Whither flan?  

There are some crumbley lookin blorps on top, evoking I suppose churro, but they are indistinguishable from the general frosted scene. 

This isn't terrible, but it actually is. The plain ones are much better. The only redeeming factor is: I'm not allergic to it. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10 

O Organics Rosemary

Now that all my herb plants are gonezo, I buy this when I make a nice little creamy garlic rosemary chicken dish. It tastes nice and classy, but I've noticed that whenever I make it, I get itchy and hivey and my gums sting. You'd think an allergy blog owner might recognize this to be an allergy, but the ingredients are all things I've had many times before (rosemary included) so I disregarded. But now....I think I'm allergic to (this?) (fresh?) rosemary. It's a cruel cruel world. Anyway, this tastes so good that I bought it many times in spite of a negative physical reaction to it, so that's something. You get about 4 long tufts, and they hold up pretty well in the fridge. I probably won't buy this anymore though. Sigh!!!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10 

utz Mike's Hot Honey chips

Sometimes I forget utz makes chips, what with all their pretzels! Anyway, these are interesting. Mike's Hot Honey was pretty trendy for a while there, but the only time I had it was at Mod Pizza, where I did enjoy it. As a chip flavor I'm not really sold. The sweet + hot combo reminds me a little of a BBQ chip, but the honey really is present, and so is the basic salty potato chip flavor, and so is a pretty hot heat (if you eat a bunch). Those elements are all good on their own (well, maybe minus the chip), but I am not a big sweet + savory fan and this is a bit too sweet for me. It's not boring or terrible though, two common chip sins.

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [4$ish]
Taste: 6/10 

Turkey Hill Lemonade

Wow, catering at my old school has evolved to include new and different packaged foods! Anything is better than a massive bowl of peanut trail mix like at my current school, but this is fun because I can drink it. And boy did I drink it! And boy, is it sweet! (100% daily value sugar in one pint size package...) But also, major Turkey Hill nostalgia. Turkey Hill is of course from Lancaster County, like many packaged classics, and we had these lemonades for lunch every day in school when I was a kid. In retrospect, not great for the ol' growing brain, but this was pre Michelle Obama. Anyway, tastes very nice. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [free for me, probably like 2$ for the dept though]
Taste: 7/10 
 

Jelly Belly Barbie Mix

A single serve 100 calorie pack of jelly bean? This is amazing. Give me a shot of cofe and I'm microdosing all the things that matter. I'm neutral on the Barbie branding, IDK why there's so much all of a sudden (is there a new movie coming out?), but pink is cute. Here is the flavor assortment:

Jewel Very Cherry: Is "jewel" just meant to indicate it's shiny? I think this is just regular cherry. It's a good cherry bean. 7/10

Strawberry Boba Milk Tea: Strawberry Boba Milk Tea tastes a lot like Strawberry. Which is pleasant enough. Wait, what I thought was strawberry boba milk tea must be cotton candy. This is horrible. Tastes like a chemical foot. A foot with a chemical peel on it. Ugh, ergh. I do hate boba, too. There's no strawberry though? What is this? Why is this? Why, Barbie?! 3/10

Cotton Candy: Cotton Candy tastes a lot like Strawberry. Which is pleasant enough. Psych!, that must have been something else. 4/10

Jewel Bubble Gum: You can really taste the "jewel"! Actually, this might be the milk tea. WTF is going on. OK, there are two distinct flavors that taste bad. The opaquer one isn't AS bad, and is more cloy-y milky flowery, so it's probably the boba one. But it could be "jewel" flavor. What the hell is happening here. Wait, I got one normal gum flavored one. So it's the Milk Tea and Cotton Candy that are jank. Whew. 7/10

Strawberry Cheesecake: Love this one. Old faithful. 8/10 

 A wild journey with Barbie.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 6/10 

San Giorgio Cavatappi

This has always been a favored shape of mine! I went with SG over DC because of the price, but the allergy label is actually great (may contains listed!) and the taste was too, so now I'm like, hmm, time to switch my pasta allegiance? Cava tappi is Italian for "extract corks", if you were wondering (thus the corkscrew shape). But yeah, the vibe is like an extra fun big elbow. Plump, not starchy, strong, whimsical. A top tier iteration of a top tier shape! Plus each individual pasto is so large, which is its own reward. Bigger than the Knorr cavatappiti by like, 500%. 

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10 

Signature Select Fresh Basil Leaves

This isn't what the container looks like, but whatever, it was bad anyway. I saw this at the store for 1 whole dollar cheaper than the fresh basil plant I usually get, and I thought "yeah, OK", but the container says not to refrigerate for over 24 hours, so I didn't, and then it completely went black and slimy in a matter of 2-3 days. So instead I had no basil at all. (Upside: turns out the lasagna tastes better without basil anyway, but it was the PRINCIPLE of the thing!)

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [2.50]
Taste: ???/10