Like Air Puffcorn - Cinnamon Bun

Ha! You thought I was done with these (and so did I), but this was in the little checkout area at my store and it was on sale for THIRTY CENTS! There's very little I wouldn't buy for thirty cents. Please. So, another sweet/savory combo, which is stupid, but actually (and maybe I was just so hungry, or so excited about such a deal) this only tasted sweet to me. It also tasted a little stale - like sweet Styrofoam - but I rate that better than sweet cheese puff. Would buy (for 30 cents) again. 

Overall
Cost: 10/10
Taste: 6/10 

Like Air Puffcorn - Classic

The gods of Puffcorn have heard my sweet x savory complaints and said "try original flavor, you fool, you buffoon". Fair do's. This is not sweet at all. It is only savory. I might have thought the "classic" flavor would be something like "plain" or "salt", cf. chips or goldfish or something. But no! The classic flavor is "artificial butter flavor", which is funny but I guess makes sense because this is supposed to be a popcorn replacement (although they do make 'plain' popcorn..). Do I like artificial butter flavor? Hmmm. I guess so, it's just funny. And very strong. I don't think it's actually "artificial" in the sense that it's janky chemicals; this has got lots of oils and some milk powder. So it's not butter, but it's not like, "what are you doing to my insides", but it kinda tastes like "what are you doing to my insides". Salty, too. I think it is a tasty success, just took me aback at first because I've never had a butter flavored cheese puff before. (Don't tell me they aren't cheese puffs! They are firmly in my cheesepuff typological class!!!)

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10 

Like Air Puffcorn - Salted Caramel

Ahhh this is weird. Slightly better than the pumpkin spice flavor, but still, too savory (cheese-puff) + sweet (brown sugar) disharmonic for my preference. Somehow normal caramel corn doesn't have this effect, it's just pure sweet/good, but there isn't enough sweet to overwhelm the cheese puff vibe here. They should use this flavoring on their tiny rice cakes instead!! Or make actual popcorn, which I would argue is also something like air. I should buy caramel corn... there must be a nut free version somewhere...stay tuned, bloggerinos... 

Anyway! The flavoring in itself does taste just like caramel corn, but it is weird to have caramel corn flavored corn. And no caramel. It's like, brown sugar dusted with a bit of milk/cream powder. It is good, I guess, but a bit like alien space food. We can no longer make caramel corn, only caramel corn flavored Styrofoam. Beep boop. The future is OK, but never as good as the past.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10 

Like Air Puffcorn - Pumpkin Spice

One thing these trendy allergy-free popup snack companies are sure to do is make way too many seasonal/limited edition flavors in their first few years. This is a total waste of resources and overwhelms the consumer! No wonder they all shut down soon after!! Stick to 1-2 per year like Haribo... fools..

Anyway, I do like a seasonal flavor. Hehe. This one is your typical pumpkin spice spice (though strong on the "spice" (nutmeg - allpice - clove) and light on the cinna-sugar), and the puffcorn is the same base as ever. The problem is, the base is savory by nature (although there's no onion or cheese this time, it still "evokes" those cheese puff vibes to me), and pumpkin spice (which does have some brown sugar in it) is sweet by nature. I think this is supposed to be a sweet snack, but it isn't quite sweet enough to get there. It's kind of like those spiced tumeric chai teas I got a while back. I can see how someone might enjoy this, and the base and seasoning are both pretty tasty on their own, but the combo disconcerts me as a sweet+savory combo hater. Anyway, it is nut free (actually, everything free) so I like it but I would not get this flavor again. I hope they defy the odds and keep pushing out nut free snacks! Go team! 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10 

Like Air Puffcorn - White Cheddar

Woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown: They're saying it's good for school lunches!!! 

This stuff is fine. Same company as those weird dessert puffed rices, but these are puffed corn, which is a much more canonical puff. Essentially this flavor (white cheddar) is simply pirate's booty, right down the random onion powder (whyyyy on a cheddar flavor) and yeast extract (obvi). The upside is, Pirate's Booty has gotten more and more evasive with their allergy info (esp regarding nuts), and this company is proudly nut free right on the front (for now). (Also gluten free! Two worlds collide... briefly!)

Maybe because of the onion, this tastes a little like a square school lunch pizza. One fun aspect is that the puffs aren't any particular shape, like sphere, but rather weird goobly octopus-shaped blobs. The packaging makes it seem like they're aiming to be popcorn shaped, but haha, they definitely aren't. Anyway, fun shape and size. Medium fine taste. Good allergy info. All in all I'm pleased with the experience (although I wish my store had Big Bag and not single serve tinybag, for earth and also My Deep Hunger).

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10 

Like Air Drizzled Rice Cakes - Cinnamon Bun

More cinnamon! More rice cake! Gotta get these reviews out while I still have time, after all. So, despite being a different flavor, this is really similar to the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor. Same overall buttery/sugary rice cake base. But there's a weird flavor note present in these that I didn't notice in the other ones - like a staple, or a cardboard box. Unpleasant. One other (positive) difference is the drizzle on these is some sort of cream cheese frosting deal instead of choco, and it tastes good and goes with cinnamon. There is also less of it, and it's more transparent, so the meltiness of it is less perturbing. I don't think the frosting is the source of the weird flavor. But then I don't know what is. Too bad. Maybe a bad batch?

One other random complaint: the front of the bag advertises that it is "80 calories for 24 pieces", but a serving is 34 pieces (=120calories). Just change your serving size, you freaks. God, I hate that kind of calorie-counter-pleasing ad copy.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Like Air Drizzled Rice Cakes - Cookie Dough

These are blowing up on Nut Free Internet, and miracle of miracles, I just saw them at the grocery store in a special display! Quelle trendy. Turns out they started on Shark Tank, just like apparently every new trendy nut-free company did. I don't really get it, but I'm happy about it! Unfortunately they have kind of a similar vibe/flavor profile to, e.g,. Oat Haus and Undercover Snacks, right down to the random quinoa (not that I have anything against quinoa; much better than random pea flour). The new element here is Rice Cake. A full size rice cake is already nut free, but mostly boring and way too messy for a work snack. These, however, are tiny little baby cakes, which I do like. (Some of my best friends are tiny little baby cakes). A serving is 36! Because they're "Like Air"! So, that is fun. They do taste like a rice cake with extra butter and brown sugar, but the "drizzled" of it all, which is a dairy-free choco stripe on top, is a messy disaster. You simply cannot eat these in the summer without a sticky, muddy horrorshow. I hate this very much. It also says "with sprinkles!" on the package, but I assume the sprinkles are made out of whatever the choco drizzle is made out of, because there are no sprinkles to be found, only crackery cake pieces and sticky bag goo. 

Anyway, I sound pretty negative here, but that's only because I hate the sensory experience of sticky things on me more than most people [both readings]. The ingredients are good, the taste is decent for a dessert-snack (even though I'd really rather have savory snack or full dessert), and it won't be summer forever. I will sample their wares when they are available, until their inevitable shutdown or pivot to legume-containing! 

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [3.50$]
Taste: 6/10