Cap'n Crunch's Birthday Crunch Cereal

Happy birthday, O Captain my captain! I always get a little scared to eat Captain Crunch because I know there is a peanut flavor, but the label reads as safe. I also don't like birthday/cake flavored food very much, so I wasn't too keen to try this. But, blessedly, there isn't a strong "cake" flavor at all -- in fact, even though the cereal is orb shaped (like the berries and not the crunch) it tastes a lot like regular Capn Crunch, nice and buttery. Maybe a "lite" version of regular. And there are fun colors, so this is a solid option. I sure do like cereal, even though it destroys my insides sometimes.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 8/10

Heaven & Earth - vegetable medley chips

Ah, mysterious healthy companies with no web presence or allergy info, how you vex me. These didn't mention nuts so I ate them and survived, but they're very similar to other, more accessible chip brands that make a "medley" chip. I do like the concept of different root veg, even though the cassava streaks still weird me out and a little beet goes a long way. These also arrived very smashed up, but the taste was fine. A little spicy even. Decent chips but I wish they had more info about. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Doritos minis - Nacho Cheese

Are mini doritos any better than normal doritos? Actually, I think they are. Small things are cute. Of course, these arrived crumbled into teeny tiny pieces, so maybe there's a limit to the ideal smallness, but if they were triangles, they'd be ideal. They taste like regular dorito. The can is fun although actually impossible to eat out of with my giant hands, so I should probably pour them into a bowl like a soup. They remind me of the little dorito bits you'd get in the fun mix(?) and I do like a fun mix.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Green Mountain Sumatra Reserve Dark Roast kcup

The whole "single origin fair trade" text on this kcup implies to me that the other Green Mountain cofes are not fair trade, which is having the opposite effect on me they intended here. Anyway, it sure doesn't taste any different. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Panera Bread Colombian Roast Kcup

Good news: this is almost the end of my unremembered kcup reviews. Just a few more to go! I don't like Panera because of their horrible peanut butter grilled cheese incident, but this kcup is Keurig brand so there's no peanut in it. But it didn't taste like anything special.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

McCafe Premium Roast Kcup

Ooh, premium roast. That sounds pretty special, but yet, I do not recall the taste of this coffee either. Shoulda called it Typical Roast I guess.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Caribou Coffee Caribou Blend k-cup

I remember nothing of this k-cup, though I did drink it. So it can't have been very good. But it can't have been very bad, either. This is what I hope for myself as a person, to be honest. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Hormel Square Table Slow Simmered Pork Roast Au Jus & Savory Sauce

Suddenly my webps are being accepted at a satisfying rate! Is the web (blogger) finally adapting to webp? Am I finally adapting to pre-cooked meat? Maybe. This was certainly pork and I like that it's safe and very quick to cook. The serving size (two meat blops) is also pretty decent, it made at least 3 portions for me, although I did add an onion also. Like the beef, this smelled a little like pet food (and looked it, might I add), and it was very wet. Too wet. But it tasted fine and looked better once it was all shredded. Actually fairly pink inside, but I didn't die. Could be tender-er, but that's how I always feel about pork. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Green Mountain Breakfast Blend kcup

This is apparently my mom's favorite kcup -- I think she just bought like a 120 pack at Christmas. I can only assume she hasn't tried Dunkin kcups yet because this is not as good. It is fine, pretty watery, but nothing to write home (or the 120-count store) about!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Vermont Nut Free Peppermint Crunch Bark

Ahoy-hoy, friends. I just got back from the dentist, so it's a perfect time to review a cronchy candy! One weird situation with this bark is that it's 6 servings but comes in 4 long pieces. What am I supposed to do with that? It's obviously 4 servings. Gosh. Otherwise, it's pretty good. A little too thick to actually chomp on, but the chocolate (layered dark and white) is good, and the mints aren't too crunchy or too minty. I do prefer the white half but at least it's a noticeable amount of the choco ratio. Better than the Dean's Sweets version (though I love them as people), and better than the VNF pretzel bark (though that sounds better on paper)!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Santa Hat Hershey Kiss

This was a sweet little Christmas gift to me from my parents. It is, as it appears to be, exactly like a normal Hershey kiss but with a santa-hat wrapper and a larger size. The texture is decently chompable, it's cute, and not insanely decadent (I think about 200 cals), so really I have no complaints.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Green Mountain Dark Magic kcup

Yep, this was a dark roast kcup! I think Green Mountain is a keurig house brand, so it's supposedly nut free. Well, I mean, it was, 'cause I drank it. It was just fine.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

2021 La Perdrix Costiere de Nimes Rosé

Ah, it's the reunion of two old friends: wine and me being sick for a very long time. Luckily, wine is the cool friend. I had some allergy fears with La Perdrix  ('the partridge'!) before, and with this one I did too at first -- maybe it's just particularly tingly (a secret hidden fizz? it did pop my wine-topper off in the fridge!). This is a nice sweet rose other than that, a little acidic but a pleasant drink both hot and cold. No fish soup for me though.

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [17$]
Taste: 6/10

McCafe Colombian k-cup

Unfortunately, we are about to embark on a large number of kcup reviews where I have nothing to say, mostly because I drank them a month ago and don't remember anything about them anymore, but also because I've been sick for over two months and therefore am overwhelmed by woe. But not enough woe to just NOT review something that I consumed! Alas. Keep calm and carry on, frail me. Anyway, this was probably fine but not as good as Dunkin. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Stouffer's Mac & Cheese Bites

This was my first experience with mac and cheese bites of any type, so I can't say whether Stouffer's necessarily did a good job with them, although I suspect they did -- these were crispy on the outside like a mozz stick (good) and goopy inside like mac and cheese, but it wasn't what I wanted -- I wanted a mozz stick! Or a fried jalepeno or something else. Alas. They're good I guess, but the texture/taste profile didn't whet my appetite, especially for how rich these are and how rich you gotta be to buy 'em. A waste of butter!

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 6/10

Cheetos - Flamin' Hot Popcorn

I started out thinking this was super gross on first smell/chomp (and the bright red powder doesn't help it here) but it definitely grew on me as I ate it. Definitely a little flamin'-tingle to it. Unfortunately, no cheese flavor, which is what I really wanted especially after the cheddar version of this. Hot popcorn < cheese popcorn, but it is accurately portrayed I guess.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

2021 Bellula Rosé IGP d’Oc

Cute bottle, and I thought this was pretty good. My mom also enjoyed it! It is rather acidic, though, but otherwise nice and sweet.

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [17$]
Taste: 7/10

2021 Decibel 'Crownthorpe Vineyard' Sauvignon Blanc

The years march on, and so do the Decibel Sauvignon Blancs. This is the third year I've had, but unfortunately my memory is so shot that I can't make an accurate comparison for you, my dear readers. They did add in a little "Crownthorpe Vineyard" designation, which makes me lol. And Decibel is nut free so I'm always a fan. Sweet white wine, I think.

Overall
Cost: 4/10 [21$]
Taste: 6/10

2021 Grape Abduction Orange

I certainly like that this is orange. Unfortunately, I remember very little else about drinking it. I think it was unlike how I thought it would be. It seems like it ought to taste like orangina and I don't think that it did. Luckily, I have another bottle so I can try again later (even though the recommended food is cursed PB tacos). The song is good though.

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [20$]
Taste: 6/10

Lender's plain bagels (non-frozen)

Sad days in PA -- the store had only 1 thing of Lender's bagels in the freezer case, so they were purchased, but when I got to eating one, I saw it was much bigger than normal, didn't toast well, and also, tasted weird and bad. Missing the "bagel" flavor that you expect, with a little bonus "weird plasticy bread" flavor. It didn't kill me, but what happened was someone put the refrigerator/bakery version of Lender's bagel into the freezer by mistake. They are indeed larger, 220 cals, and they sure tasted worse, although whether it was due to being frozen or just their essence, I couldn't say. Woe!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10

nounós mixed berry

This was fine, although it did have some mystery "vegetable juice" that made me worry "what if this is peas"? But it presumably wasn't peas. The mixed berry bit on the bottom wasn't particularly fruity, but it was still, on the whole, fine. Wish it were more substantial though. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Arby's Horsey Sauce

My Arby's love has been severely dampened ever since they added "fresh baked" Reese's cookies to their stores and so I can't go there anymore. Freakin' Arby's, nuts aren't meat! So even as these at-home products are still safe, I'm less positively inclined toward them. Therefore, this is just fine. It's like a less intense and sweeter version of horseradish sauce. Less intense is good, sweeter isn't really good. A mixed bag. I should try it on fries instead of beef sometime maybe.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

nounós vanilla bean yogurt

Yogurt in glass jars is so hot right now! And I'm loving it, it's a very classy vibe. I have no familiarity with nounos, and they didn't answer my "allergy inquiry" email, but it doesn't look like any of their current products contain nuts so I feel pretty safe anyway. This is greek yogurt but it's not super thick or anything; it's basically a nice vanilla yogurt vibe. Decent and fun. I wish my local store carried them!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

2019 Sisla 'Rose Edition' Tempranillo

Aw, what a cute bottle. This is one of my more-liked wines, possibly just because I like Tempranillos more than most reds. It had a little tang, but overall was just a light fruity uncomplicated red wine. Maybe better warm than cold, but still good vibes for me either way. Definitely lifted my (sad sad) mood for a time, which I appreciate! Thanks, wine! (I didn't make the beer can chicken pairing because it's winter and I have none of the required things, but it sounded fun though.)

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Hormel Compleats - Turkey & Dressing

Hooray, friends, I lived to write another bad review! I really wanted to like this because I love turkey meals, and it was soy-free! But it was just so gloopy and tasteless. Also it had waterchestnuts in it (which are not real nuts), so there was a random crunch going on. What am I doing, I asked myself as I sadly glorped this into my glob. Do not recommend.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 4/10

2020 Bleasdale 'The Wild Fig' Red

O'lord, not only am I still sick, but my neck hurts something awful. Am I dying, blog? Is this the last average wine I will ever review!? I hope not, but if it is, tell the world that this wine was not my favorite red out there. It was less tart than other reds, but somehow more peppery, less sweet and fruity. You might think that'd be good, but for me, I guess as it wasn't what I expected, I didn't love it. 

Anyway, I eventually made the suggested Spicy Glazed Steak & Veggie Skewers, which were decent (even without the soy sauce) but probably not worth the effort for just a solo sick me, as with most of these meat-heavy recipes! Still, gotta do something to make life interesting, right? OK, hope you're all a lil less depressed than I am, and hope to catch you again in the near future ;)

Overall
Cost: 4/10 [22$]
Taste: 5/10

Vermont Nut Free Skippers (Milk Chocolate)

These are basically nut-free M&Ms, which is great. The only kinda weird thing is that instead of blue, there's a tan colored one, which reads as "ah! peanut!" colored, so it's a weird mind trip. But I got over that pretty quickly. This big bag is apparently 15 servings, so, we'll see :)

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Enjoy Life Gingerbread Spice Cookies

These are a solid EL cookie! Similar to the oatmeal ones and whatever other holiday one I had recently, they're sweet and flavorful and not in a weird "gluten free" way (no offense). Lots of ginger pieces in here, which is nice. Sure, they're still pretty dense little crumbly balls, but at least they taste good!

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 7/10