Miss Jones Organic Mini Pumpkin Donut Muffin Mix

This company seems pretty nut-free overall; on their frostings they explicitly say so and on these mixes they don't, but they do may-contain other stuff so I think it's still safe. Nice. Also, even though they suggest butter and milk, you can substitute oil and water (and use egg) which works for my non-refrigerated quar life. So this was a bit of fun. It makes a lot more than those lil 6-muffin packs from Betty though! 24 mini muffins, for one lady, that's a lot! I only had regular size muffin liners, but that worked fine I think, even with the water + oil subs. They didn't have a suuuper strong pumpkin taste (or pumpkin spice taste?) but they had a good texture, were a pleasant treat, and pretty easy to make. They also cooked through just fine. I'd make these again I think. The included flavored sugar that I brushed on top didn't seem that relevant at first, but it really grew on me and adds a fun textural element too, so use it!

Overall
Cost: 5/10 (About 4.50)
Taste: 7/10

Ore-Ida Golden Crinkles French Fries

These are "America's Favorite Fries", but I always hated them as a kid. Too mushy, not as good as fast food, that's for sure. But in these Quar Times, I'm excited to have anything frozen, so it was a special treat when I made these. They got cold weirdly fast and they weren't as good cold, so you should eat 'em quick. But they were still better than I remembered as a kid, and straightforward to cook. Good with salt added but better with tons of ketchup. A fun snack and it's always nice to have Warm Food in the wintertime, especially these days.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 6/10

YumEarth Giggles

I get that "Giggles" is supposed to evoke "Skittles", but my professional linguist opinion is that "Giggles" is a weird name for a candy. Weirder than "Chuckles" even. Anyway, these are essentially allergen free Skittles. I mean, do skittles have allergens? Well, I guess they have food coloring in them, which isn't a Top8 but which is probably annoying if you like fruit candy but have that allergy. So I'm in support even though I can just, yanno, buy Skittles. The taste of these is unfortunately way off-base. It has a weird chemical flavor to me -- soapy almost? The texture is right, and overall they did get better as I ate them, but I don't know if I'd go for these again. The green had a good flavor, and purple and yellow were also distinct and decent, but the red and orange were the most "off" to me. Fun fact: this has spirulina in, which I was scared I was allergic to, but I guess I can handle at least this small amount! Woo!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

A La Mode Vanilla Ice Cream Bars

Is it. . . for me? 🥺

As you know, I love all nut free ice cream. This is no exception. They're not super large, I think -- but that's probably good. Just a good, small, pleasant ice cream treat with chocolate coating. The worst part is the curséd wooden stick, but that's par for the ice cream bar course I believe.

Overall
Cost: 3/10
Taste: 7/10

Swedish Fish Mini Tropical

Ah, glorious nut-free candy. Don't worry, I only had one bag, not a whole box. So, I like regular red Swedish Fish pretty well. These were not as good. Overall I thought they were too chemical/mineral-oil-y and just kind of weird. Not "food" enough. The flavors were similar to other tropical candies, but a little worse on average:

Pink ('Beachy Punch') - This tastes like a tropical candy all right! Grapefruit,  maybe? It is pleasant, with a good texture -- a little bit old or firm, maybe because expiration is soon. 6/10

White ('Pina Colada') - Never my favorite flavor in a mix. I do get mild coconut and mostly pineapple flavor. OK, but I don't love this flavor just as a flavor in general. 5/10

Orange ('Tropical Island') - Mango vibes? This is my least favorite one, it has a strong flavor but I don't like the flavor. 4/10

Purple ('Passion Fruit') - Ooh, this tastes like the equivalent of "blue" in other tropical candies. What is the flavor supposed to be? It tastes like flowers and plum. Or it tastes like how the garden store (plant poupourri in my region) smells, but in a good way. Like lilac?! It's softer than the other flavors too, which is weird. 6/10

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10

Bear Creek Soup Mix - Creamy Potato

This made a ton of soup! It was also quite filling in itself, and not terrible tasting, but it made me feel pretty bad on my insides and also has a taste that gets worse as you keep eating and not better (the anti-wine, if you will). I added carrot to this, which worked well enough, and I wasn't SUPER allergic to this because I ate at all up, but it wasn't worth it to me. Cheap to buy but still not worth it. Idahoan mix is better!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10

2018 Bellula Chardonnay

I was so scared to drink this because I've been reading too much Allergy Internet these days. Also, the tasting notes said "nutty"! Eek! Frankly, life is just terrifying. But I had the 2017 version and survived, and this had no cork, so I drank it up. It was OK. I don't think I enjoyed it as much as the '17 one though -- it wasn't as sweet and was a little more "wine heavy", you know? More tart/acidic/puckery. Not too bad nevertheless; I still drank it all of course. A somewhat mild sweet/fruity wine.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Organic Valley Thick Cut Shredded 3-Cheese Italian

I can't resist cheese y'all. I did email them about allergies and they gave a very vague/general "we follow good manufacturing practices" answer without any specifics about CC or whether they run nuts on the cheese lines. So they probably do, but whatever, I always trusted labels until I got into the NUT FREE MOMS facebook group and those moms are a lil bit intense. Glad I'm not a mom these days.

Anyway, this was fine. I couldn't really notice it when it was in pasta with sauce, and it also didn't melt super cleanly. On its own it tastes pretty much like cheddar, not so much mozz. (Too bad!). Worked better on nachos (aka melted cheese on chips), so that was how I finished it up.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Dunkin Polar Peppermint K-Cups

I'm a big fan of peppermint flavor, so it's no surprise that I really like this one. I think it's my favorite Dunkie K-Cup so far. There's a nice, light pepperminty flavor. I will say, that unlike the nutmeg winter flavor, this does not mesh well with my bottled-coffee creamer. It tastes extra weird and chemically with that added, but on its own I am a fan.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 [15$ for 22]
Taste: 7/10

Classico Tomato & Basil Sauce

This sauce was so deeply boring to me. Like yes, it's pasta sauce, and I appreciate it not having any sugar, and it's a competent plain red sauce, but I'd much rather have one with spice, or heat, or flavor, or veg, or meat. You know? The comments online are all about this being too sweet, which wasn't my experience. Just too boring.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Dean's Sweets White Mocha Hot Chocolate

OK, I have one quibble about the labelling here -- it says dairy free on the front but it has dairy in it. What's going on lately? Label issues with this, with the Idahoan potatoes, with the A La Mode ice cream...it's like you can't trust labels!! Luckily, I'm fine to have dairy but it's still not a good omen. Ignoring that, since they're a nut free place I still feel safe. And I actually made this with water instead of milk (hoho) since I don't have milk due to not leaving my home ever. Even with water I still found this to be really tasty, although it was a little gritty. Maybe I didn't heat the water enough? I loved the white chocolate pieces that remained after I drank it all, lol. Mostly it tasted like regular hot chocolate, I didn't get a ton of coffee or "white" flavor, but it was tasty nevertheless. 

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 8/10

Kraft Deluxe Cheddar Cheese Macaroni and Cheese (Easy Mac)

Ah, fancy easy mac. Much like the white cheddar version, this is good, though noticeably different from non-deluxe mac. There's a goo packet instead of a cheese powder packet, but mixed in it's pretty good like a Kraft singles sticky coating. The packet is annoyingly hard to open (it's foil, not paper) but otherwise these are pretty addictive. I wish they were bigger, because I have a porblem.


Overall
Cost: 6/10 (about 1$ each)
Taste: 7/10

Tabasco Original Red Hot Sauce

What a very cute and small bottle of hot sauce! The good news is, their website makes clear that this contains no nuts. The bad news is, I do not like this hot sauce. The good news is, it was a very small bottle! While I do really like the Victoria's Hot Sauce I've been pouring on quesadillas all year, this is very different in terms of flavor. Less bright, less tomato-y, less sweet? More burnt. Also, it really was hot (spicy) compared to what I'm used to! Maybe it's just a familiarity thing. In any case, I did not like this on my taco.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 4/10

2017 No Fine Print Cabernet Sauvignon

What a stylin' bottle. This tastes like cab sav, alright! I'm growing to like its familiar notes now that I've had so many of them. Plum, cherry, wood (I guess people call this "tobacco" but that disgusts me, so I'ma call it 'wood'). Not too bold or acidic, which I appreciated. 

Overall
Cost: 4/10 [22$]
Taste: 6/10

Dunkin' Cinnamin' Nutmeg K Cups

Yeah buddy! A fun new Dunkin for my at home life! I wasn't sure about how this would go, but I think I like it, even though the flavors all being TOTALLY ARTIFICIAL NOT NATURAL kinda weirds me out (although I guess I'm glad they're transparent about this, but like, artificial how???). There's a definite winter spice flavor, which is strangely distinct from pumpkin spice. I guess it is nutmeg rather than cinnamon, but I'm hard pressed to distinguish them in a lot of contexts. This tastes to me like my grandma's cinnamon log cookie seasoning, which is pleasant and nostalgic. It makes me a lil itchyweird, but not too bad, and it goes really well with a tiny bit of my creamerlatte. Just a subtle spice. Nice.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (15$ for 22)
Taste: 6/10

Betty Crocker Supreme Triple Chunk Brownie Mix

This only requires an egg and oil, which I have!! Wow! Brownies in quarantine. I actually bought this to make for my boyf's birthday, which was stressful because every time I've made brownies in the past, he thinks they are too undercooked. So, I made these in muffin liners and cooked like 5-7min extra, and yet when I ate a tester, even after 2hrs cooling, the inside was actually wet (and not fudgy wet, like smeary wet). Oh no! But, left to sit overnight, they magically firmed up and all was well. Boyf even ate 'em, aupposedly. As for me, I liked them just fine even when undercooked - they're very chocolatey, and the chips or chunks of choco are fun even though they aren't super distinct from the brownie itself. Muffin liners were a good call by me so that I didn't even have to scrub a pan after. This is a really good dessert to work/money ratio, so I recommend it (or other BC brownies) to you. The label has may-contains and not nuts, so I feel good about it even though they obviously make nut flavors too.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 (about 2$)
Taste: 7/10

Bob Snail Apple-Strawberry Stripe

This is a very "random" fruit strip! It is Ukrainian, which makes sense because "Bob Snail" is one of those just-weird-enough names to seem non-English and there it is. Their website is also hilarious, and to be honest I love the whole graphic design of this product line. But, I couldn't find any allergy info (in any language), so that is not great. It seems like they only make fruit bars though, so I ate it. The taste was pretty much a typical fruit bar; nothing terrible or amazing, so probably not worth the allergy risk unless you know Ukrainian and can contact the owners. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Dean's Sweets - Chocolate Turkeys

Aw, these are so quirky and festive. Their cuteness makes them a little bit impractical to eat, though. 

The dark chocolate one was very firm chocolate, and tasted like a classic dark chocolate, with a cherry-ish note throughout. I'm no dark choco gal but if you're a classy type, you'd like it. If only there were a white choco turkey! A good size treat. 6/10

The milk chocolate variety was much softer to bite into, and it tastes better too! Perhaps too much choco for one serving, but it was nice, like an easter bunny probably is. 7/10

Overall
Cost: 3/10
Taste: 7/10

A La Mode Ice Cream Pint - Chocolate Honey Comb

Oh, hello, fun seasonal ice cream flavors that I can eat!!! I know I've either given up on my future or made it big because I ordered this even though it was literally 10x the price of non-nut-free ice cream. God dang. Anyway, I was not expecting to like this flavor much because I'm not a fan of chocolate ice cream in general. But since I do like the Speed Bump flavor they make, I shouldn't have been so surprised that I actually really enjoyed this. This is really creamy, pleasant chocolate ice cream, with swirls of honey in it. The honey is good and sweet, and also has little crunchy bits in it (honey comb?) which basically taste like sugar crystals, and they're just OK. One weird thing is that the ingredients aren't on the pint, and online the list of ingredients doesn't include honey(???) so I might email them about that. I'm on a label emailing mission y'all. But anyway, this tastes really good despite my preconceptions. It's very fatty/sugary though of course, and I was a good lass and ate this in 4 distinct servings as recommended. 

Overall
Cost: 2/10
Taste: 8/10

Idahoan Buttery Homestyle Mashed Potatoes Cup

During this corona holiday season, I'm a moper without my traditional foods. Sure, it wasn't my first Thanksgiving alone (and probably not my last), but I couldn't even go to the store and buy snacks! So I appreciate the convenience and shippability of this Mashed Potato Easy Mac Cup. It is super easy and fast to prepare (less than 2 minutes), decently filling, and not too calorific. It tastes just like mashed potatoes, which normally I am "eh" on, but they fit the winter bill. So what's not to like? 

Well, I'll tell you what. On the outer box, these say "Contains Milk." but then on the individual cup (with no actual ingredients or nutritional info on it), it says "Contains Milk and Soy". What??! If that were peanut instead of soy I'd be crying furiously. Why are they different?! The best case scenario is that they don't actually have soy, but even just seeing that disparity is so terrifying. I emailed them, so we'll see what happens. 

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10
Labelling: 1/10

Organic Valley American Singles (Colby-Style)

These are packaged like Kraft singles, but they aren't individually wrapped, so I had to bag 'em up! They are certainly more "cheese" like than your Kraft American, but I don't know if that's necessarily good - it depends what you're looking for, I guess. The taste is basically a sharp cheddar to me, but I'm no cheese expert. I used these for quesadillas as always, and they were actually better than the provolone was, since they weren't deli-tasting. More like grilled cheesers. Tasty product, but I really wish the allergy info was more clear -- I think I might not do Organic Valley anymore, I'm just too scared to die.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Classico Four Cheese Sauce (Red)

On the Classico website (very official source), this is one of the highest reviewed red sauces. But it didn't impress-a me much. I thought it was super boring. Yes, you can taste ricotta in there, but it's so smooth and wet and not in a fun way. I want veg! Or meat! A serviceable sauce but I will keep trying other flavors instead.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

YumEarth Candy Corn

Ah, it's so hard to find nut free candy corn! So I appreciate YumEarth pumping this out. This tasted mostly like normal candy corn, but unfortunately it wasn't quite there. It was a little "off", and the colors especially were really dark and muted which made it look funky. I wouldn't eat this if I just saw it in a bowl or something, even if someone told me it was safe, lol. Maybe the Jelly Belly brand version is better, but I seem to remember that being too sweet and not the right texture. Alas. Still - I like candy corn.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Starbucks Bottled Frappuccino - Coffee

The pretty green color makes this seem like a fun holiday flavor (mint? mocha?) but it's just regular "coffee". Too bad. Still looks sleek though. I think the plain ones used to be a brownish color instead, right? Anyway, I use this to sweeten my coffee since I can't get creamer delivered. It's basically the same idea. As a drink on its own, it's basically the same as all of these dumb bottled coffee drinks - way too sweet and watered down to enjoy. Works decent as a creamer though!

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 6/10

Goldfish - Pretzel

Apparently, the pretzel goldfish character has a name, and it's Gilbert. I'm sure there's other Goldfish lore out there, but I am going to wait for it to come to me naturally. Excited to learn it though. 

Gilbert tastes pretty good here. The pretzel fish almost have a buttery note to them when compared to your standard pretzel, and are a nice salty savory snack in a cute shape. What's not to like? 

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 6/10

2018 Tora Bay Sauvignon Blanc Estate Selection

This was a classy lookin' bottle. Screw top and all. I'd never had Sauv Blanc, apparently, but I think I like it, even though it made me feel mad vommy (probably because I was just not in the practice of drankin'). The description cited tropical fruit, and holy crap, my first thought was "this really does taste like tropical fruit! wow!" It tasted exactly like pineapple juice, with maybe a little papaya note. Nice and sweet and sour. Really unique. Then when cold, it took on a little more acid, but still had a nice pineapple juicy finish. Ignoring my bad physical reaction, I like this!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Norr Organic Probiotic Skyr - Plain Whole Milk

Aw yeah, dairy 4 me. I got this in my produce box, but it hasn't been back since, which is sad because it is dairy 4 me. The best part is that it's nut free, confirmed via email with the company. So any of their flavors would be safe to try, if I could get my hands on them! That's very exciting and puts this above Organic Valley Cheesers in my ranking, even though cheese is objectively more delicious than skyr. Skyr is basically Greek Yogurt, btw, it's just Icelandic and therefore much cooler. Honestly I wouldn't be able to tell the difference though, I think. This is perhaps thicker. It's very thick, creamy, and filling. Without any added flavor, it's a little bit of a slog to eat, like porridge or oats, but I like that. It's good to have protein and calcium (if only it had Vitamin D, too!!), and nice to have around. I added a little cranberry sauce to it one time and that was fun.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Tropical Skittles

Skittles are a classic, but tropical skittles could go either way in theory - the blue makes it look fun, but "tropical" often means Weird Coconut flavor, so you never know. Luckily, these were overall pretty nice. There's 5 distinct flavors in the mix:

Yellow - This tastes exactly like a banana runt. So, I love it. 8/10
Green - This is more Lime than Kiwi, it basically tastes like the normal green skittle. I like it. 7/10
Pink - At first bite this was bad and tasted like cough drops, but then it pivoted to tasting a lot like the pink runt! Confusing. I think I miss Runts. 6/10
Orange - This was pretty neutral, much like the normal orange skittle. 6/10
Blue - This is the weirdest one in the mix. I guess it's kind of pina colada-y, but the passionfruit part of it is bad.  5/10

A lot of flavor overlap with the Tropical Starburst, which were also overall pretty nice.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Poshi Artichokes

I hate that I am this way, but I really don't like pickled foods. I got these because they're so convenient, and veg, but like...I can't do it long-term. I ate maybe 2 packs and now the idea of eating another one horrifies me, even though I'm due to eat a veg. They're just so unappealing in terms of smell, and vibe, and IDK what it is. They aren't actually bad - I ate the packs fine, the texture is good and firm yet yielding, the herbs seem well-chosen, it's a small portion, it's healthy, but I just can't do this anymore. Sorry Poshi.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Oreo Thins

Let me be very clear: I'd rather have Oreo Thicks. I got this as a free sample, and my particular little packet tasted kind of "off" to me -- chemically? Like a weird flavor. But it might just be a fluke, I'll have to try more to know. Anyway, these have a thinner cookie and a thinner coating of frosting. I assume the actual contents are the same as Oreo Standard, just thinner, but it didn't taste the same, which is weird. Maybe that's down to the proportion? But if it is, I don't like it. Regular Oreos are just much better. This tasted like a weird fake-sugar cookie or something. Sorry Oreo! Allergy-wise I was scared but it looks like there are no nut-flavor Oreo thins out right now, at least, so that's comforting(ish).

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10

Chex Mix Bold (Party Blend)

Much like Count Chocula, Chex Mix is one of those foods that I used to eat, and then one day it appeared with "peanut" as the veeery last ingredient (which is a super crappy move). But now, this is gone, and many Chex Mix flavors are (ostensibly) nut-free. So far so alive. This is a basic Chex Mix flavor IMO,although I didn't eat the 2-3 rye chips in my bag so it was just two types of Chex (brown? and yellow?) and pretzels. Not bad tasting, seasoning wise, it was more "salty" than "bold" but that makes for a good crunchy snack anyway. I was a little nervous eating this, but I guess it all worked out!

 

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Dunkin' Mocha Latte Cereal

Mkay, so I should disclose that I really love cereal right now (since I don't have milk at home regularly) and of course I also love Dunkin'. So I'm predisposed to like this, even though I don't usually like chocolate flavored things. The flavor was pretty mild here, I didn't get very much "coffee" or "mocha" flavor. It tastes good, but I don't know what it tastes like. I guess chocolate, mildly. Still, I like this product. Cute box also. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Starbucks Toasted White Chocolate Bottled Frappuccino

Alas, while I enjoyed the dark chocolate version of these bottled cold-brew coffee drinks, this one is not hitting the spot. So sad because I like white chocolate as a food!! But this tastes basically just like the typical starbucks bottles, thin and too sweet. I can't taste any cold brew notes at all here, or any coffee at all, for that matter. Way inferior to the dark choco bottle, which of course I haven't seen since I bought it that time!

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 5/10

Count Chocula Treats Cereal Bars

No nuts? In a Count Chocula bar? Sounds too good to be true, especially since there are also Reese's Puffs bars, but General Mills is supposed to be a good labeller, so I trust it. I enjoyed this a lot! It was basically Count Chocula cereal pieces (which basically taste like cocoa puffs) along with chocolate rice crispies (basically cocoa pebbles), and a few cereal marshmallows, covered in a chocolate drizzle. It really tastes like a cereal bar. I like it extra much because Count Chocula and all those Halloween cereals always used to have peanut in them inexplicably, but now it's apparently safe! Nothing like being denied something to make you want it, eh? I also suspect these are only on sale at Halloween time, so they're even more elusive. So cool.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

Smart Sweets Peach Rings

 

Low sugar candy seems sketch, but the sweetener here isn't stevia, so I was willing to try it. My first instinct: they're so chewy! And stringy like....taffy? But not too too gooey, they do have a little firmness, just not as much as I'd hoped or thought. Not a haribo toughness either at least. They have a good peach flavor, and random dust on them that isn't sugar I don't think - is it flour? They aren't giving me allergy problems, and only 100 cals for a decent amount of candy seems good. But wait -- they have a weird chemically aftertaste. Too bad. That really knocks 'em down for me! Major diminishing returns here.

 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

YumEarth Gummy Fruits

These are very tasty for fruit gummies! Usually gummies are too chewy but these have a great, firm texture that I really like. And the taste has a nice mild sweet fruitiness. The only downside is that these little packs don't have very much food in them, but they make a great snack otherwise.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Organic Valley Provolone Deli Slices

Mm, cheese. I just saw on their website they have a blanket "produced in a nut faculty" disclaimer, which is annoying to have online and not on products. Massive stress sigh. Anyway, I ate this. It's cheese and slices and I like that. My primary use for cheese was to put in a quesadilla, but this wasn't as good as munster for that, at all. It had a weird "deli" taste, like Swiss cheese-ish, so it's probably suited best for a cold sandwich. But I have only tortilla, so it's quesadillas for me anyway. It was still workable, but a little funky. Stringy like a mozz stick also. Tastes fine with cooked kale, too.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10
Annoyance at the company for their dumb allergy BS: 9/10

Dunkin' Rich Harvest Roast (Dark Roast) K-Cups

This is a fun new(?) fall seasonal flavor from my buds at Dunkin'. If it weren't for k-cups, my coronatine would have been a lot lonelier, so I appreciate the new flavors to keep it fresh, even if I don't know how "new" a dark roast flavor is since there's already a Dunkin Dark Roast K-Cup. But look at the pretty purple packaging here!

I will admit, this flavor tastes distinct from the regular Dunkin kcup. It has a little more "coffee" in it, if you know what I mean. Some chocolate notes, espresso notes. I do like it -- it feels more "adult" and less watery, but I'm not sure if I'd want it every day forever.

Overall
Cost: 5/10 (15$ for 22 cups)
Taste: 6/10

Barilla Rotini

These sure taste like noodles! Not my favorite shape, though, and without being made of veggie, I don't see the point. Better to have something tasty like ziti, or elbows, or whatever else is available. But they do the job.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Classico Florentine Spinach & Cheese Sauce

This is a solid saucer! It's cheesy and also garlicy; tastes a bit like a restaurant sauce, which is fun. It did make me feel a little itchy on first eat, but I think it's just the garlic/tomato and nothing dire. And it's got a veg in it, in theory! Not my #1 favorite of all time, but maybe better than I expected.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Enjoy Life Crunchy Mini Cookies - Chocolate Chip

Alas, these are not great. Even compared to other Enjoy Life cookies, which themselves are not great when compared to "normal" cookies. To be fair, this bag was expired by 1 week, so maybe I got a bad batch here. They had a weird flavor, not sweet, but somehow tasted "off" -- soapy almost. The texture is great, they look good, but the taste was very weird (and I don't think it's the choco chips to blame, just the cookie bit). 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 4/10

McCleaf Orchards Apple Cider

This is probably not widely available, since I got it in my somewhat regional produce delivery box. But that's too bad, because this is tasty (and has just one ingredient: juice from apples!). It was really sweet, but nice, not sour at all and tastes like fall even though it's just apple juice. What's the difference between juice and cider? I sure don't know. But cider is better than juice!

Overall
Cost: 5/10 (About 3.50)
Taste: 7/10

Airheads Xtremes Bites - Rainbow Berry

Airheads are great about nut allergies, but they don't taste very good, so I had low hopes for this thing. But these bites are way better than airheads proper! I liked them a lot, they weren't super sour but had a nice firm bite, texture-wise, and were tasty on the whole, even though you can taste the cornstarch(?) in 'em, or whatever makes them firm. I like it.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

2017 Anemoia Cabernet Sauvignon

Cab Sav is a wine for parents, and I am not a parent! JK, kind of. I do like the screw top on this bad boy. My first taste impression was not great - it tasted quite cloying, the usual red-wine vibe. A little sour, a little thin, very strong flavor, acidy. Also fruity, to be fair, with cherry notes. Of course I drank it all, but it wasn't necessarily a delight. Just drinkin to drink (don't tell my doctor).

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Twinings Cold Brewed Iced Tea - English Classic

Ice tea...bag?? What a country. I drank this at an apartment that didn't have ice in it (I'm so privileged to have an ice-making fridge!), but it wasn't bad, even with no ice (or sweetener or lemon or anything). Basically this is a less intense/less gritty English Black Tea. Well, apparently this is both black and green teas mixed, but I mostly tasted the black (aka normal) one. This is a fun/good option if I'm in desperate need of caffeine too! 

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 6/10

Stretch Island - Apricot Fruit Leather

This was decent, but not as fun as the nice grapey one. It has a slight apricot flavor, but overall it was basically the same vibe as all other fruit leathers (that is, mostly apple and pear flavors). Not terrible, but not impressive.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Stretch Island - Grape Fruit Leather

This tastes just like the space food version of grape jelly, which I like! (The grape part, not the space food texture so much). Usually grape jam is associated with peanut butter and I fear it, but I do like the flavor when it's safe like this! And for some reason, this grape is a rare flavor for fruit leather snacks. The texture was somewhere in the middle of the thin&snappy to thick&dense spectrum, but closer to that sticky dense side. Nothing truly amazing here, but the flavor makes it a lot more appealing than your usual fruit leather!

 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Artisan Tropic Plantain Strips - Naturally Sweet

This is the "unflavored" version, that is, just plantains and oil. I had pretty low expectations since my previous plantain snacks were not very "naturally sweet", more like thick salty oil chomps. But these actually were naturally sweet! So they were really good! Definitely more enjoyable to me than the sea salt type ones. They had a nice flavor, fun and new. Still a thick/crunchy chip but not too oily or anything weird. I'm impressed!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Crispy Fruit - all strawberry

Another Crispy Fruit from our old reliables at Crispy Green. These were pretty different from your typical apple/pear fruit pieces though, mainly due to a weird chemical kinda flavor they had. Or maybe more like a burnt flavor, like a fireplace? Anyway, I enjoyed it overall - it wasn't super duper sweet, and in fact it was almost sour. Lots of red dust lingering in the bottom of the pouch though.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

2017 Poggio "Belial" Anima

OK, Belials are an enemy you fight in my favorite video game ever (Shining Force), so this wine definitely stands out in my mind because of the quirky name. It took me a while to drink it anyway, though. The overall name is kind of inscrutable -- what type of wine even is this? Apparently it's 100% Sangiovese, which I've had before and liked, but the name does not make that clear. Nevertheless, this has a cool name & label art, and it has a screwtop, so it's got a lot of good features, even though it's a red and not a bubbly.

The taste was pretty good. It was still very "typical red", but I thought the texture was somehow more...thin? Less cloying? It was also a brighter red color than I'm used to seeing. Kind of like the Hawaiian Punch Fruit Juicy Red of wine, which is an overall compliment. This wasn't too sweet though, or too acidy, it was just generally good red wine, all throughout days 1-3. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10