SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 10/17/2012

Here are some new products found on store shelves by us and your fellow readers. We may or may not review them, but we’d like to let you know what new items are popping up. We’ll also occasionally throw in an unusual product.

CPK Frozen Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Hey, mon! Do you like your frozen pizza topped with a spicy and sweet sauce, Jamaican jerk-style chicken, mozzarella cheese, roasted bell peppers, onions, and scallions? If so, CPK has a limited edition pizza for you to eat after skankin’ to some Eek-A-Mouse. BIG UP!

Delimax Tostizzas

Ugh! Tostizzas! I thought Taco Bell was the only company that made Tex-Mex products with names that have the ability to make Microsoft Word’s spellcheck cry.

Folgers Fresh Breaks

The best part of waking up is knowing there’s an extremely quick and easy way to make a single serving of Folgers coffee in your cup!

New Pace Salsas

New Pace Dips

I find it a little weird Mexican restaurants have homemade salsa, but Pace has restaurant-style salsas. Is that Pace’s way of saying they have homemade salsas? I am confused.

Wasabi Mayonnaise

What!?! Only now I learn there’s a lazier way to get wasabi mayonnaise. I wasted years of my life trying to discover the right wasabi and mayonnaise ratio. Why must you torment me, wasabi gods?

If you’re out shopping and see a new product on the shelf (or really unusual), snap a picture of it, email it to us at theimpulsivebuy@gmail.com with “Spotted” in the subject line, and you might see it in our next Spotted on Shelves post.

REVIEW: Burger King Italian Breakfast Burrito

Burger King Italian Breakfast Burrito 1

I’m guessing there was a conversation between two junior execs at Burger King Headquarters that went down like this.

Junior Executive Douche #1: “Hey, would you rather do an Italian chick or a Latina?”

Junior Executive Douche #2: “What kind of Spanish chick? That’s important.”

Junior Executive Douche #1: “Good point yo, hmmm….Mexican. Mexicans are hot, Selma Hayek is hot. Those broads on Univision are friggin’ balls hot.”

Junior Executive Douche #2: “Bro, so true, so true. Italian chicks are cute too, like that bangin’ one with the nice rack (gestures with two hands by his chest as if he were holding oranges) on that witch show.”

Junior Executive Douche #1: “Witch show? Buffy?”

Junior Executive Douche #2: “No, that’s vampires or something. You know that girl who was a kid actress with Pesci or Danza, I think.”

And after twelve offensive minutes with numerous references to “Sabado Gigante” and Xuxa”, the sordid origins of Burger King’s Italian Breakfast Burrito went from spank bank ammunition to reality.

I imagine this because the burrito tastes exactly like what douchbags would make, rave about, and chow down on before drinking a Red Bull and vodkatini. The name is funny too…Italian…Breakfast…Burrito. Seriously. I can already see popped collars and smell the Axe body sprays.

I have to give Burger King credit for adding a little Italian flavor to make their stale menu a little more eccitare. They had to do something to help them get back the title of Number Two Burger Chain from Wendy’s.

What else can Burger King do?

Well, maybe bring back the subversive King to the forefront in their ad campaign. I love that guy. Also, take this burrito off the menu.

There are several reasons why, including one that is not the corporation’s fault but the individual franchisees. Now before I wake up with a horse’s head next to me wearing a frosted mane and a sombrero, let me plead my case.

Burger King Italian Breakfast Burrito 2

Junior Executive Douche #2: “Ya gotta make it the size of my cock!”

Junior Executive Douche #1: “Yeah, Broski. Not mine because the amount of sausage would bankrupt BK if it were the size of mine! (high five slap)”

Yes, Junior Executive Douche #1, the burrito was the size of a porno boner. I was impressed it was similar in size to one of those Taco Bell seven layer behemoths. I incorrectly assumed it was going to be one of those rinky dink skinny breakfast burritos from McDonald’s. The burrito had an alarming heft and I was left stunned because I wasn’t expecting this. Of course, the old adage is quantity does not mean quality and this crappy burrito proves it with an exclamation point.

Burger King Italian Breakfast Burrito 3

Forget about the projected bacon shortage, Burger King must be aware of a tomato shortage we know nothing about because I’ve had their chicken parmesan sandwich and there was very little marinara. That was also the case with this lousy burrito.

Both times I purchased it, there was only a smidge (smudge?) of marinara. I actually got angry about it and wanted to place it on the floor so I could stomp on it.

Potatoes are awesome in a burrito and the hash browns in this heavy package were a welcomed surprise. This was a smart move by Burger King. We love fried potatoes and we love them in burritos dammit! They were still crispy despite the moisture that collected inside, but it also may have been due to the minute, non-existent ghost of tomato sauce.

Burger King Italian Breakfast Burrito 4

The sausage was too peppery and a bit salty. The flavors were intense on its own, but the hash browns really tempered the pork. The scrambled eggs were just sad puffy yellow blobs but they too assisted in keeping the overpowering sausage at bay. It was, at best, on par with airline scrambled eggs where they look like an obligation rather than something edible.

Along with the marinara sauce, I’m assuming the diced red and green peppers with onions make this Italian. The watery vegetable slurry did give the burrito a nice bitter edge, but something didn’t taste right. I felt there were too many flavors beating each other “Goodfellas”-style trying to grab your taste buds’ attention.

You know “A Tale of Two Cities”? Well, let me give you a tale of two cheeses.

In casseroles, the cheese is important because it binds things together. The melted mozzarella in this burrito was creamy and it blended very well with the multiple ingredients. The mozzarella did its job.

However, the mozzarella couldn’t do its job in the second Burger King Italian Breakfast Burrito I purchased because instead of mozzarella, I was given a burrito with slices of American cheese (which I suppose made it an Italian Americano Breakfast Burrito).

What’s with that, Burger King? You’re as consistent as the writing of How I Met Your Mother this year. Oh, and Ted, you’re a fucking loser…

A Vespa scooter, which I proudly own but can no longer ride, is an iconic Italian image. This burrito is not a Vespa, it’s a clunky Buddy scooter from China with scuff marks and questionable stains on the seat. Avoid.

(Nutrition Facts – 490 calories, 28 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 175 milligrams of cholesterol, 1220 milligrams of sodium, 40 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of sugar, 20 grams of protein.)

Item: Burger King Italian Breakfast Burrito
Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: N/A
Purchased at: Burger King
Rating: 4 out of 10
Pros: Fried potato in a burrito. Big for a fast food breakfast burrito. Vespa! Potato was still crispy. Red and green peppers lend well to the flavor. Placing things on the floor and stomping on them. Sabado Gigante and Xuxa.
Cons: American or Mozzarella cheese couldn’t save it. Hardly any marinara sauce. Sad eggs. Axe products. That guy who screams, “Gooooooaaaaaaaal!!!” (drives me nuts). Over-seasoned sausage. This season of How I Met Your Mother. Porno boners.

SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 10/15/2012

Here are some pumpkin spice/Halloween products found on store shelves by us and your fellow readers.

Country Crock Pumpkin Spice

Hey, Pumpkin Spice Country Crock tub, your contents are not only great on muffins, sweet potatoes and yams, but I imagine they would also be awesome on pumpkin spice bread and pumpkin spice waffles. (Thanks for the photo, Anna!)

Pumpkin SpiceMallows

If I stab a stick through these pumpkin spice flavored marshmallows and then toast them over an open fire, will they make the air smell like pumpkin pie?

Chips Ahoy Halloween

Chips Ahoy Halloween have to be the least scariest cookies ever. They should revamp the cookie with a zombie green cookie and blood red chocolate chips. Or maybe they should be like these Chewy Gooey Chips Ahoy with a gooey blood red chocolate middle, blood red chocolate chips, and brain colored cookie.

White Chocolate Candy Corn M&Ms

I’m eating White Chocolate Candy Corn M&M’s while I typing this. But I’m only eating the white ones because the keys on my keyboard are white and I’m afraid if I eat the orange or yellow ones, they’ll stain the keys. These are very good, but, thankfully, don’t taste like candy corn.

If you’re out shopping and see a pumpkin spice product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, email it to us at theimpulsivebuy@gmail.com with “Spotted” in the subject line, and you might see it in our next Spotted on Shelves post.

NEWS: KFC Introduces Dip’ems ANOTHER Dippable Chicken Product

KFC

When KFC introduced their KFC Bites, I thought to myself, “Don’t they already have popcorn chicken?” They did.

And now after learning about their new KFC Dip’ems chicken tenders, I’m thinking to myself, “Don’t they already have dippable chicken strips?” They do.

I guess it’s hard to come up with different products when you can use only chicken.

The new chicken product is made using 100 percent premium all-white meat chicken, marinated and double-breaded in special seasonings. They’re available in a bucket of 20 tenders, which includes all six sauces, or in a combo with three tenders, a choice of two sauces, a side item, a biscuit and a medium drink. Along with the Dip’ems, KFC also introduced three new dipping sauces — Creamy Buffalo, Orange Ginger and Bacon Ranch.

KFC Dip’ems commercial below:

Source: Grub Grade

Image via flickr user Marufish / CC BY SA 2.0

REVIEW: Limited Edition Milky Way Caramel Apple Minis

Limited Edition Milky Way Caramel Apple Minis

I don’t give out candy to children on Halloween.

Call me a Halloween Scrooge, a recluse, or someone who doesn’t watch enough Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network to know what kids are dressing up as today, but I don’t do it because I’m a hermit, cheap, or getting tired of kids pretending they’re Harry Potter.

I don’t pass out candy on Halloween because I eat it all before I have a chance to give it away.

I can’t help it. I buy the good stuff, like M&M’s, Twix, Nestle Crunch, Milky Way, Snickers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and Nerds, and I intend to pass them out to ensure local dentists will have work, but by the time Halloween rolls around I’m out of candy and I no longer fit into my sexy pirate outfit.

To prevent me from eating the candy, I could pass out frown-inducing sweets, like candy corn (blech!), chocolate coins (more worthless than pennies), Smarties (there’s nothing smart about them), Good & Plenty (not good and, unfortunately, there are plenty of people passing them out), Now and Later (there’s never a good time for this candy), cheap gum (gum from 1980s baseball card packs have better flavor), or Sixlets (more like Sixlet’s Not). However, I don’t want to be known as the Asian guy dressed up as a sexy pirate who gives away junk candy that’ll end up on my lawn the next morning. Instead, I want to be the Asian guy dressed up as a sexy pirate who passes out candy so awesome that children will think the stomachache they woke up with was sooo totally worth it.

However, it looks like I might be giving away some candy this year because I’m having a slightly hard time getting through a bag of these new Caramel Apple Milky Way Minis.

Limited Edition Milky Way Caramel Apple Minis Closeup

The new seasonal candy combines caramel and flavored nougat coated with milk chocolate. Each piece smells like the fruity and sweet aroma that wafts out of a Whitman’s Sampler after opening it. If you’re one of those douchebags who tries to appear cool by throwing food in the air and catching it with your mouth, these mini Milky Way are mouth-catchable and I hope a bird poops in your mouth when you open it to try and catch a piece.

If you’re expecting this candy to taste like a caramel apple, let me crush your hopes and dreams by telling you they don’t. Even if you used your front teeth to completely scrape off the thin layer of milk chocolate, the small morsel of nougat and caramel you’re left with also doesn’t taste like a caramel apple.

The nougat contains the apple flavor (along with a bit of nutmeginess), although at first it’s hard to determine it has an apple flavor. The apple is a bit more noticeable in the aftertaste, which is when it also become a bit more artificial tasting. The caramel tastes, unsurprisingly, like the caramel in regular Milky Way bars and does an equally awesome job of sticking to my teeth.

Although the artificial apple flavor is faint, my tongue gets sick of it before it reaches the five piece serving size. And that’s why it’s taking me so long to finish this bag. Now you might be thinking if I don’t complete enjoy them, then Trick or Treaters will feel the same. That’s true, but they’re much better than candy corn, chocolate coins, Smarties, Good & Plenty, Now and Later, cheap gum, and Sixlets.

(Nutrition Facts – 5 pieces – 190 calories, 60 calories from fat, 7 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 60 milligrams of sodium, 31 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 26 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.)

Item: Limited Edition Milky Way Caramel Apple Minis
Purchased Price: $3.29
Size: 11.50 ounces
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: It’s not bad at first. Better than candy corn, chocolate coins, Smarties, Good & Plenty, Now and Later, cheap gum, and Sixlets. Pleasantly chewy.
Cons: Doesn’t taste like caramel apples. Apple flavor is weak and artificial. Candy corn, chocolate coins, Smarties, Good & Plenty, Now and Later, cheap gum, and Sixlets. Not being able to fit into my sexy pirate costume.