Brandon

REVIEW: Chobani Coffee Cold Brew

Brandon / February 10, 2021 / Reviews / 9 Comments

Before this assignment, I didn’t actually know that Chobani did more than yogurt. But then I Googled and it turns out that it’s got its hands in a bit of everything. (Okay, well everything dairy-based except ice cream. And cheese. And cottage cheese. Fine, I guess by “everything,” I mean all manner of yogurts, and coffee creamer, and now this. And something called “Chobani Coconut” which is billed as a non-dairy treat. Oh, and oat milk. So… some things that are also non-dairy based.)

Anyway, it’s 2021 and cold brew coffee is still all the rage (I think?) so Chobani figured, why not?

I’m a cold brew novice. It’s not that I’m anti-cold brew, I’ve just always chosen hot coffee. Especially now because it’s winter, and we’ve had multiple days this week where the high was in the single digits; iced anything is a hard sell.

But you know what’s worth the mild discomfort and probably turning the thermostat up a degree? This product.

Chobani introduced four varieties, but I was unable to procure “Pure Black.” So for the sake of this review, we’ll look at the remaining three.

Oat Milk

So, I just got through talking about how I love this product, and now I’m going to tell you that I don’t care for this particular version. But, I’m gonna blame the oat milk. See, I don’t even know that I’ve had oat milk prior to this. But something about this just wasn’t doing it for me. The beginning of the drink is decent, but the back end hits you with a sensation that makes me think of slightly tangy chalk. It’s not repulsive, it’s just… unwelcome.

Vanilla Creamer

Simply put, this is heavenly. The vanilla is strong, muting the medium roast a tad. The rich coffee undertones are still there, but it’s a little like you maybe accidentally spilled a bit of your vanilla shake into a cup of Joe. (And no, I’m not sure how that might happen either, but play along.) From start to finish, it’s creamy and indulgent, which makes this the first time I’ve described something as such and meant it.

Sweet Creamer

Remember everything I said about the Vanilla Creamer? This is that, only without the vanilla. The coffee flavoring is a bit more noticeable, but not aggressively so. Each drink manages to stay rich while remaining light and silky. While the vanilla one brought forth visions of spilled vanilla milkshakes cascading into coffee cups, this is a little like someone dumping chocolate milk into your coffee. It is, in a word, scrumtrulescent.

The two prohibitive things I could say about Chobani’s foray into cold brew coffee is that it’s not nutritionally great, and I could use a little more caffeine (it has 85 milligrams per serving). While I applaud the simplicity of the ingredients, 170 calories and 22 grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving keep this from being a daily indulgence for me. But is it worth it for a weekend treat? Absolutely.

Purchased Price: $2.99 (on sale)
Size: 32 fl oz.
Purchased at: Hy-Vee
Rating: 9 out of 10 (Sweet Creamer), 9 out of 10 (Vanilla Creamer), 6 out of 10 (Oat Milk)
Nutrition Facts: (12 oz.) Sweet Creamer & Vanilla Creamer – 170 calories, 5 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 15 milligrams of cholesterol, 110 milligrams of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 22 grams of sugar (including 15 grams of added sugar), and 5 grams of protein. Oat Milk – 110 calories, 6 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 180 milligrams of sodium, 11 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 7 grams of sugar (including 7 grams of added sugar), and 2 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Pop-Tarts Pretzel Salted Caramel

Brandon / January 29, 2021 / Reviews / 8 Comments

What are Pop-Tarts Pretzel Salted Caramel?

Everyone’s preferred toaster pastry is pillowed in a puffy pretzel… pjacket. Okay, I took some alliterative stretches there, but it felt good and so I just went for it. This new flavor — which joins its previous pretzel brethren Cinnamon Sugar and Chocolate — is meant to capture the hearts of breakfast pastry aficionados who need some salt with their sweet.

How is it?

Well, salty and sweet. And (to my surprise, I’ll admit) really good! The outer shell — the “pretzel” component, if you will — is just a bit crispy and quite salty. There’s an icing drizzle on the outside that you don’t get much from, but the inside filling is sweet (though not overwhelmingly so) and a bit chewy with a decidedly pronounced caramel flavor.

My only complaint at all is that there just isn’t enough caramel filling. It’s a very thin layer that seems to primarily reside solely down the middle of the tart. Evening it out — and providing more — would elevate this a full point.

Anything else you need to know?

I’m a firm believer that Pop-Tarts can be enjoyed both toasted and in their natural, raw state; not so with this variety. I tried it both ways and found the un-toasted one, well, frankly pretty bad. The outer shell was chewy and bland and the filling lost some style points, too. If you don’t own a toaster, you should get married because you’ll get a few of them, but in the interim, you may want to skip the pretzel Pop-Tarts.

Conclusion:

While the Pretzel Salted Caramel isn’t going to displace Brown Sugar Cinnamon or Chocolate or Frosted Strawberry or Blueberry as anyone’s primary Tart of choice, it is fine as a new addition to the Kellogg’s breakfast pastry family. Just make sure you actually toast it first, please.

Purchased Price: $2.79
Size: 8 pastries (4 packs)
Purchased at: Sun Fresh
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2 pastries) 380 calories, 12 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 710 milligrams of sodium, 66 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 23 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

Kellogg's Pop-Tarts

REVIEW: KFC Chicken Sandwich (2021)

Brandon / January 19, 2021 / Reviews / 42 Comments

Here in Kansas City, we don’t get many cool new things.

We got a great—like-once-in-a-lifetime-level-great—quarterback a few years ago, but that was after decades of mistakes, cast-offs, and retreads. We have a few of those places where people throw axes, all paint the same picture, or play golf in a giant net, but we only got them after they’d been elsewhere for years.

So imagine my joy when I learned Kansas City was one of the select cities receiving a sneak-peek of KFC’s new chicken sandwich. We are in, after all, the Golden Age of Chicken Sandwiches, and what better place to unveil a new version of a breaded bird on a bun than the grandfather of fast food fried chicken, KFC.

Then imagine my disappointment when I got my sandwich.

KFC describes it as “… (a) quarter-pound, all-white meat, double-breaded, Extra Crispy chicken breast filet… freshly-toasted buttery brioche bun, crispier, thicker pickles, and the perfect amount of the Colonel’s real mayo or spicy sauce.”

What I got was a piece of chicken only a smidge bigger than a deck of playing cards. Further disappointingly, it even seemed absent the Colonel’s traditional 11 herbs and spices. I tasted salt and dry, chewy chicken breast. The “double-breading” made no impact whatsoever, though there was plenty of it (sans chicken, mind you). Nor did the pickles, which were limp and thin, much closer to McDonald’s pickles than anything I was expecting.

The brioche bun seemed like it had the potential to be the best part of the sandwich — which, let’s just let that sink in for a moment — but half of the bottom half was stale. How do you get half of a half of a stale bun, you ask? So do I. Let me know if you have an answer. The mayo was tangy and good — quintessentially KFC mayo — but the best mayo in the world couldn’t save this wreck of a sandwich.

Look, I like KFC. I like its original chicken and the Extra Crispy variety. I love its Nashville Hot Chicken tenders. If I could only choose Popeyes or KFC for the rest of my life, I’d have a hard time deciding; it’d be a tossup, honestly. But not when it comes to their signature sandwiches, oh no.

If Popeyes’ sandwich is a Picasso, KFC’s offering is a 3rd grader writing a swear word in the dirt on the back window of his mom’s minivan. This chicken sandwich isn’t even in the same league as Church’s, frankly. It’s seriously weird that KFC is proud of this.

In 2018, KFC unveiled a new chicken sandwich called “The Crispy Colonel.” For the life of me, I cannot figure out how this sandwich differs. In fact, the couple of Crispy Colonel’s I’ve had have been considerably better than whatever this abomination was. Back to the test kitchen, KFC.

Due to the sandwich’s abysmal initial showing, my esteemed editor kindly asked that I try another, you know, to assure that the first one wasn’t an aberration. And the verdict? It wasn’t. While the chicken breast on this one was meatier than the first, it was no juicer or more flavorful. (In fact, the extra size maybe gave it more of a chance to be drier while also amplifying how bland it is.)

The pickles still weren’t crispy, and the bun on this one — while fresher — certainly wasn’t “buttery” as the copy proclaims. This sandwich is still a huge disappointment, and you’d do better to stick with Popeyes. Or Chick-fil-A. Or Wendy’s. Or Church’s. Or Sonic. (Hey, I think McDonald’s has a new chicken sandwich coming out soon, too!)

Purchased Price: $3.99
Size: N/A
Rating: 3 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 650 calories, 35 grams of fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 90 milligrams of cholesterol, 1260 milligrams of sodium, 49 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 6 grams of total sugars, and 34 grams of protein.

Click here for our previous fast food reviews.

Fast Food KFC

REVIEW: Papa John’s Epic Stuffed Crust Pizza

Brandon / December 28, 2020 / Reviews / 14 Comments

The year is 1995. Coolio is busy living in a gangsta’s paradise. Alicia Silverstone — as Cher Horowitz or Hamilton (they accidentally gave her two last names) — was falling in love with her stepbrother, but no one cared because hey, it was Paul Rudd. And, an innovation that would change the junk food world forever, Pizza Hut was stuffing cheese in its crust. The chain also attempted to convince the American people that “eating your pizza backwards” was a thing everyone would start doing.

(Spoiler alert: no one actually did this.)

Fast forward 25 years. Coolio is living…man, who knows where Coolio is living these days. Paul Rudd has eclipsed his stepsister’s fame by a wide margin. Pizza Hut is still slinging cheese-stuffed crusts, and has even been known to occasionally put other things in there, too. (Hot dogs, bacon, shrimp and mayo, Marmite.)

Meanwhile, competitor, Papa John’s? In all these years, they’ve never stuffed anything into a crust.

So, if you were in Product Development for Papa John’s, what would you do? Why you’d introduce your own version of the stuffed crust pizza to capitalize on an idea Pizza Hut begat a quarter-century ago.

It’s 2020, so sure, why not?

Here’s the absolutely bizarre thing about this pizza: the pizza body is no different than a normal Papa John’s body, but the hat? Tastes exactly like Pizza Hut’s Stuffed Crust. It’s almost like a Frankensteinian operation that involves surgically grafting the two pizzas together.

From the slice’s point up to the crust, it is distinctly Papa — the sweet sauce, the cheese that doesn’t do much stretching (and sadly, wasn’t even melted uniformly on mine), and whatever toppings you choose to make it your own. (For the sake of the review, I went with pepperoni.) The point being, you’ve had this pizza. And you are either fine with it or don’t like it; this particular incarnation won’t do anything to change that.

Then you get to the crust. And, like I said, you’ve probably had this, too, just not from Papa John’s. The thing I find most unusual is that the dough used to make this crust is probably Papa’s regular hand-tossed, or “original” dough, just, you know, stretched. It’s the same way Pizza Hut does it. But Pizza Hut’s hand-tossed dough is decidedly different than Papa John’s, wouldn’t you agree? They’re distinct until they’re stretched and stuffed with cheese around the perimeter! Something about that act makes the two crusts indiscernible.

Overall the cheese in the crust is warm and appropriately stretchy and a nice way to end a slice. With Pizza Hut’s version, you can add some flavor to the crust, like a garlic buttery blend or toasted parmesan, which elevates things. Papa John’s crust didn’t have butter, but it would’ve added a little something. Not to be a broken record, but if you like Hut’s stuffed crust, you’ll like this, too.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go see if I can find out how Coolio is doing.

Purchased Price: $12
Size: Large
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: Unavailable at time of publication.

Click here for our previous fast food reviews.

Fast Food Papa John's Pizza

REVIEW: DiGiorno Meatless Monday Meatless Sausage Supreme Pizza

Brandon / December 17, 2020 / Reviews / 13 Comments

What is the DiGiorno Meatless Monday Meatless Sausage Supreme Pizza

Well, for starters, it’s a bunch of words. So going forward, I’ll probably refer to this as DMMMSSP, or “dimsup” if I’m saying it aloud. This is the frozen pizza maker monolith’s ode to fake meat, which has been quite the rage for the better part of recent history.

How is it?

It feels as though this review should be split between “how’s the fake sausage” and “how’s the product, overall?”

So, to answer the first one — it’s great! Made with pea protein, you’d be hard-pressed to discern these crumbles from the real deal. (At least in terms of, you know, frozen pizza sausage.) There is a very convincing chew and real sausage-like seasoning. It’s peppery without being spicy.

The pizza, however, is just okay. If you’ve had DiGiorno, you’re familiar with the bland, muted veggies (in this case, red and green bell peppers and onions), the overly sweet sauce that gets applied with a sauce cannon, and the crust which is thick and uncompromisingly bread-y.

Anything else you need to know?

“Meatless Monday” was started in 2003 by Sid Lerner, who advocated that people give up meat one day a week for both their health and the health of the planet. Is it weird that this was the first time I’ve ever heard of it? And I say this as someone who’s been a vegetarian for brief spurts in the past and regularly consumes meat-alternatives.

Conclusion:

While I used to think DiGiorno was tops in terms of the frozen pizza empire, it feels as though they have recently been passed on all fronts by multiple competitors. But while brands such as Urban Pie and Screamin’ Sicilian may best DiGiorno in most ways*, their meat-alternative options are, for now, nonexistent. Kudos to DiGiorno for taking the leap; hopefully, we’ll soon see more brands do the same.

*The best option, if you have it in your area, is Brew Pub Lotzza Motzza frozen pizzas, by the way.

Purchased Price: $6.99
Size: 20.8 oz
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1/4 pizza) 300 calories, 10 grams of fat, 3.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 gram of trans fat, 15 milligrams of cholesterol, 750 milligrams of sodium, 39 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of dietary fiber, 4 grams of sugar, and 14 grams of protein.

DiGiorno Frozen Food Pizza