Twinings Pure Peppermint Tea

Moderation is not king. Either eating a single cookie destroyed me, or the stress that eating a single cookie could destroy me destroyed me. Tragically, I still want to disambiguate by eating more cookies, but I can't, because I have a job to (badly) do. So my cookie experiments will wait a few months more. In the meantime, I somehow consumed 20 bags of Bigelow mint tea, so I figured we can get our jollies by trying the Twinings mint tea. They have the same ingredients ("peppermint") and the same allergy policy (top 9 free), but this one is a cuter box, even though you can't really tell from the picture. It's a nice green. 

How is the tea? You may be shocked to hear that it tastes almost indistinguishable from the Bigelow peppermint tea. It smells a little stronger, though: first like mint (makes sense) and then a little like a bowling alley (not sure what's going on there). I say it tastes almost indistinguishable because I feel it's a little less sharp, with a little less (yes, even less!!) flavor. This is only my first cup, so I should really check back in a month, but for now I think Twinings > Bigelow. Neither brand seems to have any other teas I can consume presently, but I only did a shallow dive into the catalog, so we'll check back later to see what else we can scrounge up to get through the long autumn. 

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

Fancypants S'mores Cookies

Moderation is king, so there's nothing wrong with just trying one of these cookies to see how it goes, right? Well, we'll see. Anyway, it was good. Very very similar to all the other cookies (buttery, sweet, crispy) but a little fruitier and chocolateyier. Definitely tastier than the birthday cake ones. Is it worth ruining my ability to go through the day without vommin'? Not quite, so let's hope it doesn't!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Martinelli's Pear Cider

Must be pear drink season! Suddenly I went from never trying a single pear drink to trying two in one week (so far). But this guy also has apple mixed in (classic cider move). Pear is a much better apple juice complement than cherry was. And this is much less weird-smelling than the pear juice that didn't sparkle. I've been feeling a little manic lately, even though I am still abstaining from sweet sweet coffee, so I thought maybe it's because my health is (slightly, slowly) improving. But in retrospect, it's maybe just because I've increased my sugar intake substantially. But maybe I've done that because my health is improving! Or maybe those supplements have finally come home to roost? Or maybe the brain diet is real! Or maybe these are all totally unrelated factors and enough neurons finally melted? Listen, I'm not a doctor. I'm just a pear devotee (née strudel devotee). But I enjoyed this as a fun sweet drink. Not too overpoweringly sweet to taste, but extremely sweet compared to Plain Rice et al.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Frosted Flakes with vanilla flavored marshmallows

You might think this is something I wanted, but really I wanted regular frosted flakes and this was less than half the price of regular ones. Similar story with the marshmallowed froot loops -- maybe Dr. Marsh's kid just got hired at Kellogg's. Anyway, these taste like regular frosted flakes (good, no forbidden ingredos) with somewhat bad chewy marshmallows mixed in. They certainly don't add anything, even though I'm not a marshmallow hater. I used to always wheedle my parents into getting Marshmallow Alpha-Bits as a kiddo and that was one of my earliest "omg they discontinued my beloved" experiences! These, on the other hand, are ripe for discontinuation. But it's not bad as a cereal, it's just we made a tasty cereal somewhat worse, which is unfortunate. The price of innovation!

Overall
Cost: 7/10 [2$]
Taste: 6/10

fancypants Birthday Cake Cookies

I'm following the letter of the law if not the spirit with these cookies -- white chocolate isn't really chocolate, and there's no citrus! Unfortunately, they are birthday cake flavored, which is a historically disprefered-by-me flavor. They smell like my mom's white chocolate chunk cookies though, which I used to like a lot (before my macadamia-and-walnut allergies took shape). They taste very similar to all the other fancypants cookies! Even though it's been a month or so since I tried the other flavors, this is very evocative of those ones. Which is good, because it means it's more "brown butter sugar cookie" and less "birthday cake". I wish the white chocolate chunks were a little chunkier, but otherwise there's nothing I'd change (although they taste more like funfetti cookies make with cake mix than actual cake, which again is fine by me)!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Gerber Pear Juice

This is a baby juice. It is in the baby aisle and not the grocery aisle where adult products are. But listen, it is impossible to find pear juice otherwise!! I even looked on bad bad Amazon and the cheapest bottle you can get (other than Gerber) was 30+ dollars including shipping. That is too many dollars for juice. Plus the ingredients are just pear juice and water, so like, just because there's a baby on it doesn't mean it's a special thing. I feel very defensive about this issue. Anyway, I never had pear juice before, so I was curious to try it. It's OK. The smell is pretty horrible (rotting? floral?) but the taste is pleasant enough. Nothing to write home about, but muddled with basil/mint and sparkling-watered up, it's a nice "mocktail". Honestly, maybe I should see what other kinds of products are available in the baby aisle.

Overall
Cost: 6/10 [3$]
Taste: 6/10

Ocean Spray Sparkling Cranberry Juice Cocktail

Mm, cocktails. But no, this is just cranberry-grape fizzy juice. It's in a nice slim can, and brain-diet-approved, but the reason I usually stick with 100% cranberry juice is not because it's lower sugar (I think it is clear that I enjoy sugary candies, chocos, cereals, etc) but instead because grape juice tastes bad. And this tastes like fizzy grape juice. It turns out years of wine drinking did not change my long-held opinion of grape juice. However, it is something to consume!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10