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