7-Eleven is getting an exclusive Red Bull Editions flavor. The Red Bull Summer Edition will be available July and August at 7-Eleven stores in the United States and Canada. The beverage will be tropical fruit-flavored and sold in a canary taxi banana sun-yellow 12-ounce can. Red Bull Summer Edition will join Red Bull Red, Silver, and Blue Editions on 7-Eleven shelves for a limited time.
(Image via Red Bull)
Like a phantom Girl Scout here to haunt me, Pepperidge Farm cookies make themselves available year-round in an increasingly baffling number of varieties, rendering me (the consumer) into a primal mental state of chaos and delight I like to call, “The Paint Swatch Effect”: the mental state that unfolds when one is bombarded with an infinite amount of choices, be it paint samples, Oreo cookies, or high capacity power drills.
When under the spell of the Paint Swatch Effect, one tends to undergo a spontaneous craving to try as many new things as possible, conducting an inner dialogue that goes to the tune of, “So many options! Everywhere! Must try them all! ALL!!”
It’s a nutso, frightening, wonderful way to live.
Which was perhaps why I stood, once again, under the shadow of Milano planks and Xtra Cheddar Goldfishies by the Pepperidge Farm display. But I was not after the square Cheesmen Shortbread, nor those dashing Milano Melts. Nay. My eyes were locked on the newest stud, the sole snagger of my heart.
Breakfast will never be the same.
Like a traumatic childhood experience or a very good buddy movie, finding a spectacular packaged cookie is a rare, fleeting moment. To find one that can also gracefully glide across your palate in the wee hours of the morning? Mark it in the History books for that is a moment that should be treated with respect as it brands its gooey, cakey, fudgy-wudginess into the nostalgia of your taste buds. Eating this bag of cookies qualifies as one of those Historical Moments.
At first snag, the cookie feels light and nimble as though it could morph into a back-flip-twisting, baton-twirling Rhythmic Grand Prix gymnast at any moment, yet, once bitten into, the texture holds a dense, doughy crumb that’s delightfully more fudgy than some of the other Soft Baked specimens I’ve experienced. Not too fluffy nor styrofoamy, the end result sits in you like a brick. A tasty, tasty brick made of carbohydrates, sugar, and questionable vegetable oils that, when put in the microwave, it becomes a goopy, melty, warm brick. Where are the architects to build me a house out of such materials?
And that’s just the beginning: the top, with its layer of brown-beige speckles, looks like a pastry-itized reinterpretation of a 1934 Oklahoma landscape after a Dust Bowl storm. If that dust storm was made of cinnamon sugar. Said sugar not only brings sweetness and a sandy texture, but also tows a comfy warmth from the cinnamon without going into the Hot Tamale realm.
Bringing the cinnamon experience even further are little crunchy cinnamon chippies mixed in the dough that are dense with cinnamon and crispity enough to put Snap, Crackle, and Pop to shame. And those white “confection” chips? While I have no clue what they’re made of, they melt like butta. A slight zing of artificial vanilla and sugar is all it takes to knock it home as the chip melts away into goopy sweetness. When all the elements combine, you have sugar, cinnamon, goo. The whole experience is as comfortable as lounging on a couch playing Super Nintendo in bunny pajamas. The ones with the footies.
Across from the U.N. Headquarters in New York rests a tiny shop that states itself as the, “United Nations Plaza Dental Care Facility.” I imagine that, if each of the world leaders were given a bag of these cookies, the number of cavities elicited from the consumption of said cookies would result in enough cavities to pay the shop’s rent for the next 15 years. A steep price to pay for a little cookie…
Or is it?
I dare say, if I were a world leader, it’d be worth it. The offer of dense doughy cookie? Of cinnamon, sugar dust with sugar-frosting fudgy nubbins? All pre-made and wrapped in a little baggie just for me? Put a microwave in the room, set one in there for 5 seconds, and you get a warm, gooey circle of world peace. Who doesn’t want a warm, gooey circle of world peace? Isn’t that what the United Nations is all about? I dare say it is! Maybe, to bring peace, you just need a little sugar. And a toothbrush so you don’t have to visit the Dental Care Facility.
So, world leaders, bring your toothbrushes and we’ll provide your bag of cookies! Pepperidge Farm has a new offering and it may just be good enough to unite us all.
(Nutrition Facts – 1 cookie – 130 calories, 40 calories from fat, 4.5 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, Less than 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 85 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 12 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.)
Item: Pepperidge Farm Coffee Shop Cinnamon Bun Cookies
Purchased Price: $3.49
Size: 1 bag/8 cookies
Purchased at: Met Foods
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Great reason to have cookies for breakfast. Soft chew. Fudgier than some other Soft Baked specimens. Thick cinnamon sugar crusting. Melty confection chips scattered in good ratio. Crispity cinnamon chippies. May result in world peace. Super Nintendo. Bunny pajamas with the footies.
Cons: Lots of funky oils. Still not as good as homemade. What are white confection chips really made of? And why are they so good? 1934 Oklahoma dust storms. Phantom Girl Scouts.
Jack in the Box is currently testing their own version of the croissant-donut hybrid (otherwise known as the cronut) in limited locations. Jack’s Croissant Donuts are coated with cinnamon sugar, but sadly there’s no filling like the original cronut. It’s available for 89 cents for one piece and $1.99 for three pieces. (Thanks to Garrett in SoCal for the photos!)
Here are some interesting new and limited edition products found on store shelves by us and your fellow readers. If you’ve tried any of the products, share your thoughts about them in the comments.
To promote the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, Crush has special cans and bottles for each Ninja Turtle. Michelangelo is on Orange Crush, Donatello is on Crush Grape, Raphael is on the strawberry one, and Leonardo is on this new flavor. Splinter gets nothing. (Spotted by Breanna at Food Lion.)
Get your fill of cavities Wild Cherry and Vanilla Pepsi Made With Real Sugar! (Spotted by James at Walmart.)
I guess I could sharego this Eggo and not be a greedo weirdo. (Spotted by Dubba at Market Basket.)
It may have “summer” in its name, but this new limited edition flavor has been available since winter. So expect Halloween stuff to be popping on shelves riiiiiiiiiiiiight now. (Spotted by Troy A at Meijer.)
Thank you to all the photo contributors! If you’re out shopping and see an interesting new or limited edition product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, and send us an email (theimpulsivebuy@gmail.com) with where you found it and “Spotted” in the subject line. Or reply to us (@theimpulsivebuy) on Twitter with the photo and the hashtag #spotted. If you do so, you might see your picture in our next Spotted on Shelves post.
Ben & Jerry’s introduced two new Saturday Night Live-inspired flavors: Gilly’s Catastrophic Crunch and Lazy Sunday.
Gilly’s Catastrophic Crunch is made up of chocolate & sweet ice creams with caramel clusters, fudge-covered almonds, and a marshmallow swirl. It’s influenced by the SNL character, Gilly, a violent prank-happy schoolgirl. Lazy Sunday features vanilla cake batter ice cream with chocolate and yellow cupcake pieces and a chocolate frosting swirl. The flavor was influenced by the popular SNL Digital Short, Lazy Sunday, which involves the two characters in the skit going to New York’s Magnolia Bakery and them macking on some cupcakes, because that bakery’s got all the bomb frostings. They love those cupcakes like McAdams loves Gosling.
A 1/2 cup serving of Lazy Sunday has 230 calories 13 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 20 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein. Gilly’s Catastrophic Crunch has 250 calories, 14 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 23 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein per 1/2 cup serving.
The flavors are Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops-exclusives and there will be two more SNL sketch-inspired flavors later this year. Oooh, I hope Dusty Muffin is one of them.
(Images via Ben & Jerry’s Facebook page)