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