homefree chocolate mint cookies

God, I really am change-averse. I do not need to be tearing up over the fact that I will never get these only-mildly-OK cookies for free from work again, again! I can just buy the mildly OK cookies! Self!!

These cookies are just mildly OK. You know how vitamin water etc is like an eyedropper of juice in a bottle of water? These are the solids equivalent. Like a pinch of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie in an airy wafer of... neutral wafer. I like the flavor notes (choco, mint) and I guess it's nice that these aren't too sweet, but they just have very little flavor. This is not a gourmet resto, this is a desperation bag cookie snack, let me have some flavor! 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Birds Eye Steamfresh Super Sweet Corn

I've eaten 5 distinct foodstuffs recently (=in my sick sick 48 hour day), and all of them were corn in some form. (Cereal, muffin, chip, popped, this). I don't even like corn in non-corn form!! Things are dire. Globally, personally, and cornlally. Is there a corn vitamin? I doubt it. My hindbrain yearns for ... salt? Who knows.

Anyway. I had some great store brand frozen corn last year before my fridge died, but this time I thought I'd try the Birds Eye for allergy phobia reasons. Well, it wasn't as good. Super sweet? Ha! Hardly! And so on. My reaction to this, even in delicious nacho, was "this is fine. nothing special. I like corn and this is corn, but it's small". That's right. It's small corn. Not plump. Just regular. I'll eat it but I'll return to the risk of Store Brand Corn next time. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Tortiyahs! Restaurant Style

Oh, chip. I got these not because of the frankly unappealing branding, but because I was looking for Utz brand tortilla chips in support of their nut-free copy. And behold, THESE are the Utz brand tortilla chips! Must be a recent rebranding (or I'm just really ignorant about tortilla chips, also possible). How silly. I guess for those consumers who like to try new things (haha...) the gambit might pay off.

Anyway, these taste like tortilla chips. Good size (big), nice crunch, no complaints really. Actually, one complaint: 11oz is a stupid size for a bag. Every recipe is for 6oz, 12oz, etc, and you're giving me 11oz? Horrible. Other than that, no complaints. Uncooked they're very generic; baked for nacho (mm nacho) they have a delightful fried aroma (like chinese crispy noodles) the likes of which I haven't seen before. Perfect nacho chip; normie chip chip.

Overall
Cost: 5/10 [5$ish???]
Taste: 6/10

Sour Patch Kids - Peach

A-N-X I-E T-Y! Makes you wonder why you try! 🎵

I got these after googling "BEST CANDY FOR TUMMY ACHE"; the best candy for tummy ache seems to be ginger (no nut-free ginger candy exists, trust me I've looked) or peppermint (a choco-free mint is not a candy, thank you very much). So the second best candy is "sour candy", or so they say. Of course these have a little "not so sour" emblem which I didn't notice 'til I already bought them and thought "well these aren't very sour"!! Foiled again! They also taste like every other peach candy, and I realise I don't like peach candy much. Peaches are great. Peach pastry, very good. Artificial peach flavor? No thank you. I still ate many of them, but no thank you to the concept. Cute shape/coloring on these, though. And my teeth do hurt a little, which is sufficiently distracting. Wahee~

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Chifles Original Plantain Chips

Some of my best friends are platanitos! These are a nice iteration of plantain chip. They're thin and pliable, but not too thin to have a good bite. These are green plantains (so, less sweet/ripe) but they taste just as pleasant as the yellow ones. There's a slight sweetness, a slight saltiness, a slight oiliness, and an overwhelming starchiness. Which I like. Good snack. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Dunkin' Extra Extra Cold Foam Creamer

I waited so long [for brain reasons] to try the Dunkin' cold foam (which was originally in the black Reddi-Wip can) that they released their own branded version! Once I saw this, my [possibly fruitless] cold foam fast was over. Hooray, etc. This doesn't have any artificial sweeteners or flavors in it, anyway, so I like it quite a lot. Is it the same as the foam that Dunkin stores use? That I am not sure, because I didn't have it on cold brew, which is the only place I experience cold foam in Dunkin stores. However, the fact that I am not sure either way is a good sign. Tastes like unobjectionable sweet milky cream; melts properly; lasts 2 weeks. Didn't cause any urgent health issues. I don't get the flavor name (Extra Extra? is this little caesar's?) but that's OK, I don't have to get everything.

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

Strawberry White Chocolate Milano

Uh oh! These smell like medicine. Too bad I didn't have these first so I'd think that medicine smells like cookies instead. Alas, I started down the medicine path well before I was ever allowed to have Sweets. Now I yearn for sweets and protest too much about meds; let that be a lesson to all the parents out there. Just kidding (sort of, I dunno). 

Anyway, it's a bad sign that the best part of these is by far the (tasty) cookies and not the (cloying, medicinal) choco-center. This is definitely worse than the lemon flavor. I can see more clearly here that the choco comes in two layers, one light pink "strawberry" and one normie. I can't disentangle them without some serious tools, though, which would be fine if I didn't suspect that at least one layer was kind of gross (but maybe both, jury's out). Sad. Sad cookie disappointment. I'm still aiming not to have choco-choco, but I don't know how long it will last since (a) I feel like crap anyway (b) the external world is also very bad and (c) all these white choco foods are inferior!! 

Overall
Cost: 4/10 [5.20$]
Taste: 5/10