Here are the winners of our recent prize drawing for a pack of Extra Dessert Delights Rainbow Sherbet Gum:
and
Congratulations, Arcadian Warrior and casey!
Thanks to everyone who participated and be on the lookout for our regular gift card prize drawing later this month.
Update: Click here to read our Doritos JACKED review
Thank goodness the folks at Frito-Lay didn’t call their upcoming Doritos Jacked variety, Doritos Xtreme, because that would’ve been cliche. It would’ve been as cliche as me saying their new Doritos Jacked, which are 40 percent bigger in size and thickness than regular Doritos, are like regular Doritos on steroids.
The new thick variety of the triangular chips will come in two flavors: Enchilada Supreme and Smoky Chipotle BBQ.
Doritos Jacked will make their debut this week at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference in Austin, Texas, and will be available nationwide the week of March 26. The hefty chips will be available in three sizes: a 2.62 oz. bag for a suggested retail price of $1.09; a 3.375 oz. bag for a suggested retail price of $1.49 and a 10.5 oz. for a suggested retail price of $4.29.
Cheetos Crunchy Salsa Con Queso es la mejor variedad de Cheetos!
Yes, I really do think Cheetos Crunchy Salsa Con Queso is the best variety of Cheetos I’ve ever had, and you should go buy some.
Now, I could just end the review right here, drop my wireless keyboard on the floor, and walk away with two Cheetos dust-covered fists in the air, but I have to elaborate because as I learned in high school debate, I can’t win an argument by only yelling, “I’m right, you’re wrong. So suck it!”
For those of you who didn’t take Spanish at any education level or don’t watch Dora the Explorer, “queso” is Spanish for “cheese,” “con” is Spanish for “with,” and “salsa” is Spanish for “salsa.”
If you’re not familiar with the different varieties of Cheetos, regular Cheetos Crunchy has a radioactive orange cheesy coating, while Cheetos Crunchy Flamin’ Hot has an evil red cheesy and spicy coating which makes the snack look as if the Devil used them as cotton swabs to clean his ears.
If you look at the closeup photo below, you’ll see these Cheetos Crunchy Salsa Con Queso look like they have a level of seasoning somewhere between the two. There’s some evil red flavoring, but it’s mostly harmless orange flavoring. Because of the dark red seasoning on these Cheetos, I thought they would be somewhat spicy, but they’re not. There’s a slight chile pepper heat to them, but if you hate the spicy, Cheetos Crunchy Salsa Con Queso plays nicely. (I’m sorry, that last sentence sounded better in my head.) At first, I was disappointed about its lack of spiciness, but the more I ate; the more I realized the heat would’ve overwhelmed the wonderful flavor of this crunchy snack.
I’ve never tasted salsa con queso, nor have I tasted the messy result of me with an open bottle of salsa in my hand tripping into someone else carrying a bowl of melted Velveeta who also tripped, leading to a “you’ve got salsa in my Velveeta and you’ve got Velveeta in my salsa” conversation, but if it tastes anything like these Cheetos Crunchy snacks, I’m going to have to clog my arteries by experiencing some real salsa con queso.
Cheetos Crunchy Salsa Con Queso’s flavor has a bit of everything Chester Cheetah is throwing into the bowl of low viscosity cheese on the packaging — tomatoes, chile peppers, and limes. Those three flavors are equally balanced and back up the cheesy flavor perfectly. They’re so good that they’re, by far, my favorite Cheetos variety, and I think, since Taco Bell and Frito-Lay have already put Fritos in a burrito and used Doritos as a taco shell, I’d like to see these Cheetos stuffed into a Gordita or Chalupa.
On the back of the bag it says, “Salsa Con Queso snacks, a flavor that will leave your taste buds begging for more,” and I have to agree with that statement. Even before I finished the first bag, I bought another. As a matter of fact, I’m eating that second bag right now as I type with just my right hand.
Oh dear, these Cheetos Crunchy Salsa Con Queso are so addictive that they’re forcing me to use my computer with only one hand. It’s as if I’m an internet porn addict.
Please take this bag away from me!
(Nutrition Facts – 1 ounce/21 pieces – 150 calories, 90 calories from fat, 10 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 220 milligrams of sodium, 13 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, less than 1 gram of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.)
Item: Cheetos Crunchy Salsa Con Queso
Price: $2.99 (on sale)
Size: 9.25 ounces
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 9 out of 10
Pros: Addictive. Balanced flavor of cheese, chile peppers, lime, and tomato. Crunchy. Would be nice in a Taco Bell menu item. Learning Spanish via Dora the Explorer.
Cons: Needs to come in a bigger bag. Perhaps too addictive. Typing with one hand because the other hand is covered in Cheetos dust. Contains MSG.
Hello.
Would you folks like to help The Impulsive Buy?
If you have a couple of minutes, would you be so kind as to nominate The Impulsive Buy for a Saveur Magazine Best Food Blog Award. I’m asking you folks to nominate this semi popular product review blog because it would be quite funny if Saveur Magazine, which focuses on gourmet food, allowed a junk food/fast food review blog to end up as one of their food blog award finalists.
Because I believe the folks at Saveur probably don’t consider the types of products we review at TIB to be food, I think it’s highly unlikely we’ll end up being a finalist. But, I’d sure like to try with a flood of nominations.
So if you’d like to help The Impulsive Buy make the Saveur Food Blog Awards less savory, visit the Saveur Food Blog Awards Nomination page and fill out the online nomination form.
The online nomination form has 4-7 steps. The number of steps depends on how quickly you want to complete the form and whether or not you want newsletters you most likely won’t read in your email inbox.
Step 1 (required): Fill in the URL of this blog (http://www.theimpulsivebuy.com). Yeah, I know. Adding the “http://” is antiquated, like the print magazine industry, but that’s how Saveur asks for it.
Step 2 (required): Choose categories. You can choose up to three categories. The ones I feel best fit The Impulsive Buy are: Best Food Humor Blog, Best Group Blog, and Best Special Diets Blog. Some of you might be asking why Best Special Diets Blog. Well, because I think eating mostly fast food and junk food is a diet that’s special.
Step 3 (optional): This part of the form is where you let the folks at Saveur know why you’re nominating The Impulsive Buy. If you don’t have much time, skip this part, since it’s optional. But if you’ve got time to kill, I’d suggest putting a haiku in there. Here’s one you can copy and paste:
Step 4 (required): Input your name. This is pretty simple, unless your name is longer than 100 characters. The input field only allows 100 characters. Yes, I checked.
Step 5 (required): Input your email address. Again, this is pretty simple, unless your email address is more than 100 characters long.
Step 6 (optional): Uncheck boxes next to newsletter and special offers. By default they’re checked, so uncheck them, unless you want to fill your email inbox with newsletters and special offers you won’t read.
Step 7 (optional): Click SUBMIT.
If you’re willing to help, visit the Saveur Food Blog Awards Nomination page and fill it out. Nominations close on March 29, 2012.
If you did nominate us, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to do so.
Sincerely,
Marvo
Editor-in-chief
Here at The Impulsive Buy, new ice cream products tend to receive very positive reviews. Häagen-Dazs flavors, in particular, have never received lower than 7 out of 10. I think these scores are perfectly reasonable. Häagen-Dazs routinely comes out with interesting and well-executed new products but, look, when your product’s primary ingredients are sugar and cream, you’re set up for success. It’s just much harder to mess up ice cream than, say, microwaveable dinners, or breakfast sandwiches, or well-constructed lists of three things.
I propose, then, that we hold ice cream to a higher standard by applying what I call the pint test. The premise is simple: Is the ice cream so good that you would sacrifice your health and self-respect to eat a whole pint in one sitting? Häagen-Dazs would be held to an even higher standard since they now sell ice cream in 14-ounce containers, not in full pints (cost-sensitive bastards). Applying the scoring system to them, then, implies that I would hypothetically buy one carton, eat the whole thing, go back to the store, buy another carton, and eat at least 2 more ounces of that one. For this review of three new limited edition Häagen-Dazs flavors, I’ll offer a rating on the classic 1 to 10 scale as well as a “yes” or “no” on the pint test.
Coconut Macaroon
These new products all apparently fall under an international theme of “Small World, Big Flavors,” and this variety is “inspired by centuries-old recipes spanning from Europe & Asia.” I hadn’t realized there was anything particularly exotic about coconut macaroons, but I guess a brand with two made-up but vaguely Scandinavian words as its name has lots of practice in drawing upon the faintest of foreign connections.
Coconut ice cream filled with small bits of coconut macaroons might sound like too much coconut, but I thought they got the flavor just right. Both the cookie bits and the ice cream contributed to the coconuttiness in similarly pleasant parts, with neither ever tasting too strong. The ice cream was rich and buttery, though maybe a little too buttery, and the cookie bits were tasty and they were fluffy, chewy, and plentiful. But the problem was that they were still just bits, and while each bit made me want an actual macaroon more and more, no piece was large enough to satiate that craving. As they say, the sum of the crumbs doesn’t equal the cookie. (No one actually says that, but doesn’t that sound like an excellent proverb, one that might span from Europe & Asia?) In the end, no, I wouldn’t eat a whole pint, though I’d certainly eat a couple scoops before running to the bakery and buying some actual coconut macaroons.
Vanilla Bean Espresso
Now this one, I understand the international association. It’s the Häagen-Dazs take on Italian affogato, with a swirl of espresso mixed into vanilla bean ice cream. The potent vanilla flavor hit first, with an aroma and spice that put regular vanilla ice cream to shame. Arriving second but with no less power, the rich espresso flavor had an intensity that I wouldn’t be able to find at any number of coffeehouses. In fact, I suspect people who don’t regularly drink espresso may actually find the vanilla bean espresso ice cream to be too strong for their liking. It’s also somewhat less sweet than regular vanilla ice cream, so judge that as you will. As for me, yes, I would eat a whole pint, even at the risk of staying up all night from the caffeine. I’ll just use the extra waking hours to catch up with all the reality shows on my DVR. (Do you think Christina Aguilera has a contractual obligation to wear stupid hats on The Voice?)
Spiced Caramel Biscuit
Our final product is inspired by the classic European biscuit, speculoos. I don’t believe I’ve ever had speculoos, but I won’t bother seeking them out at this point because they can’t possibly be as good as this ice cream. The ice cream is smooth (i.e., there’s no caramel swirl) and has a solid caramel taste and scent without being too sweet, which I occasionally find to be a problem with caramel-added desserts. The cinnamon and ginger of the cookie crumbs contributed a real spiciness, and the crumbs’ crunchiness made for some nice textural variety. The most important feature of this ice cream was the presence of both cookie crumbs AND big cookie pieces. The crumbs in each bite momentarily whetted my appetite for cookies, and the cookie pieces in every other bite would immediately satisfy me. I say without any reservations that, yes, I would eat a whole pint. Even if I were lactose intolerant. And about to go on a first date. To see a silent film. In an otherwise empty movie theater. Yes, that good.
Run to the store now and try these new Häagen-Dazs limited edition flavors. Oh, and for the Vanilla Bean Espresso and Spiced Caramel Biscuit, save yourself a trip and just buy two cartons, you’ll want to eat a whole pint.
(Editor’s Note/Disclaimer: The author of this review received these almost-pints for free from the frozen folks at Häagen-Dazs. The Impulsive Buy was not paid for the review and only Jasper got the free ice cream. Lucky bastard. And, so ends the FTC-required disclosure. Now back to your regularly scheduled review.)
(Nutrition Facts – 1/2 cup – Coconut Macaroon – 290 calories, 170 calories from fat, 19 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 75 milligrams of cholesterol, 60 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 23 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein. Vanilla Bean Espresso – 260 calories, 140 calories from fat, 15 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams trans fat, 75 milligrams of cholesterol, 45 milligrams of sodium, 28 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 25 grams of sugar, 4 grams of protein. Spiced Caramel Biscuit – 290 calories, 170 calories from fat, 19 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 75 milligrams of cholesterol, 105 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 22 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.)
Other Häagen-Dazs 2012 Limited Edition Flavor reviews:
Junk Food Guy – Coconut Macaroon and Vanilla Bean Espresso
Fish and Spaghetti – Vanilla Bean Espresso and Spiced Caramel Biscuit
Food Review LTD
Item: Häagen-Dazs 2012 Limited Edition Flavors (Coconut Macaroon, Vanilla Bean Espresso, and Spiced Caramel Biscuit)
Price:
Size: 14 ounces
Purchased at: Received for free from Häagen-Dazs
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Coconut Macaroon)
Rating: 8 out of 10 (Vanilla Bean Espresso)
Rating: 10 out of 10 (Spiced Caramel Biscuit)
Pros: Coconut Macaroon had just the right amount of coconut flavor, and cookie bits were fluffy and plentiful. Vanilla Bean Espresso was really intense in both its vanilla and espresso. Spiced Caramel Biscuit had great caramel flavor without being too sweet, and the cookie crumbs AND pieces added spiciness and crunch. Making up believable proverbs. Catching up on my reality TV.
Cons: Coconut Macaroon ice cream may have been a little too buttery, and the cookie bits were too small. Vanilla Bean Espresso may be distractingly strong or not sweet enough for some people. Häagen-Dazs now coming in 14 oz cartons. Häagen and Dazs are made up words. Eating whole pints of ice cream. Lactose intolerance.
