Here are a few interesting junk food-related stories from the past week or so. Enjoy.
Burned Out (via Eater)
This Norwegian Candy Bar Is Superior to the Kit Kat (via Munchies)
Pumpkin Spice Pizza Exists, Because Nothing Matters Anymore (via Munchies)
Why Wendy’s Is The Only Chain That Serves Baked Potatoes (via Thrillist)
Excited, curious BYU students react to caffeine on campus (via Deseret News)
Here are some new fall products found on store shelves by your fellow readers. If you’ve tried any of them, share your thoughts in the comments.
(Spotted by Meagan T at Safeway)
(Spotted by JoAnna B at Target.)
(Spotted by Amanda Y at Target.)
(Spotted by Rachel C at World Market.)
(Spotted by Amanda Y at Target.)
(Spotted by Amanda Y at Big Lots.)
(Spotted by Carla at Costco.)
(Spotted by JoAnna B at Target.)
(Spotted by Rachel C at Target.)
(Spotted by Rachel C at Whole Foods.)
(Spotted by Rachel C at Sprouts.)
Thank you to all the photo contributors! If you’re out shopping and see an interesting new product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, and send us an email ([email protected]) with where you found it and “Spotted” in the subject line. Or reply to us (@theimpulsivebuy) on Twitter with the photo, where you spotted it, and the hashtag #spotted. If you do so, you might see your picture in our next Spotted on Shelves post.
Also, if you want to send in photos and are wondering if we’ve already covered something, don’t worry about it. Let us worry about it.
I begin this review with an urgent request.
Run, don’t walk, to your nearest grocery store/megamart/convenience store/bodega/Nabisco factory to get your hands on a pack of Cookie Butter Oreo Cookies.
And I’m not joking. After personally eating the first package I bought (and upon realizing that I probably needed at least one cookie to take a picture of for this review), I went to Target the very next day to procure another bag. Upon arriving, I found the Oreo shelf decimated, but managed to grab the last package on the shelf. Apologies in advance to anyone who shops at my local Target.
Nabisco’s newest limited edition Oreo flavor features two graham flavored cookies with cookie butter crème sandwiched between them. I’m going to assume that most TIB readers are well versed in the flavor of cookie butter, but here’s a crash course for those who haven’t: cookie butter is a spreadable concoction popularized by Trader Joe’s featuring the flavor of speculoos, a spiced shortcrust biscuit popular in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. It’s good on waffles, toast, pretzels, and (obviously) cookies.
When I opened my package, I was immediately overwhelmed by beige. While the packaging suggests that the cookies should have some definition against the darker brown cookie butter filling, they instead all blend together into an amorphous tan extravaganza. To be fair, the appearance doesn’t affect the taste, but it wouldn’t have hurt if the cookies got a little bit more time in the tanning bed before packaging.
Similar to the cookie butter’s indiscernibility visually, the graham scent of the cookie masks most of the spicy cookie butter smell. The taste, however, is a different story. Per usual, the filling is the star of the show, with a strong gingerbread and molasses flavor evident throughout the cookie sandwich. The texture of the cookie butter is on-point as well, and when eaten independent of the cookie base you can really feel the familiar grit of the crushed speculoos biscuits mixed within the crème.
If there’s any area these Oreo cookies fall short in, it’s in the durability of the cookies themselves. With one bite, the cookies shatter quite noticeably and coat your cookie-eating-surface with a shower of graham sand. I’d imagine that the non-traditional graham cookie base has something to do with this, and it makes me wonder how these would have tasted with Oreo’s original chocolate cookie (*makes note for next visit to the Target cookie war zone*).
All in all, these cookies are excellent. While some previous limited edition Oreo flavors have fallen flat, these sandwiches reign supreme over the cookie kingdom. They’re speculoos-tacular!
(Nutrition Facts – 2 cookies – 140 calories, 7 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 85 milligrams of sodium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 10 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.).)
Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: 10.7 oz.
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 9 out of 10
Pros: Burning off the Oreo cookies by running to the store. Amazing flavor. Visions of Franken-Oreo creations.
Cons: Needs a few more minutes out in the sun. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Here are some new pumpkin products found on store shelves by your fellow readers. If you’ve tried any of them, share your thoughts in the comments.
(Spotted by Rachel C at Trader Joe’s.)
(Spotted by Bob K at Wegmans.)
(Spotted by Sylvia at Target.)
(Spotted by DJ and Blaire at Giant.)
(Spotted by Robbie at Target.)
(Spotted by Rachel C at Sprouts.)
(Spotted by Stephanie A at Walmart.)
(Spotted by Rachel C at Whole Foods.)
Thank you to all the photo contributors! If you’re out shopping and see an interesting new product on the shelf, snap a picture of it, and send us an email ([email protected]) with where you found it and “Spotted” in the subject line. Or reply to us (@theimpulsivebuy) on Twitter with the photo, where you spotted it, and the hashtag #spotted. If you do so, you might see your picture in our next Spotted on Shelves post.
Also, if you want to send in photos and are wondering if we’ve already covered something, don’t worry about it. Let us worry about it.
“I’m not sure.”
Those three words have popped into my head a few times while eating Limited Edition Pumpkin Pie Rice Krispies Treats.
So far, I’ve eaten 13 of the 40 bars that are in the box, but I’m not sure my mass consumption is a full you-must-buy-these endorsement. First off, 40 treats is A LOT for one or two people. I’m at 14 (yes, I ate another one while typing this paragraph), and I’m getting kind of tired of them.
When I first gazed upon the rectangular treat, I thought it had an orange hue. But as I stared at it, I wondered if my eyes were playing tricks on me and that its wrapper is influencing its color. When I look at one in the light and away from any wrappers, it looks like a usual pale Rice Krispies Treat, but at the same time, I’m not sure about that because it also looks orangey. My eyes and brain are so confused.
Dried pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices are ingredients. There’s cinnamon. Yay! Ginger. Yay! Nutmeg. Yay! Allspice. Yay! Acetylated monoglycerides. I’m not sure what that is!
Those ingredients do give the treats an almost authentic pumpkin pie flavor, albeit a bit mild. I recently tried the Pumpkin Pie Kit Kat and they have a bold flavor. If those SHOUT pumpkin pie, these are more like a normal conversation in a quiet room. At first, I thought it was a bit too light because the flavor of a regular Rice Krispies Treat comes through with each bite. But after eating so many of them, I think snack Stockholm syndrome has kicked in and now it’s just right.
But the thing with the pie flavor is that I’m not sure where it’s coming from. I know the icing has it because when I take a bite with the white drizzle, my taste buds get that mild pumpkin pie flavor. But when I take a bite from its undercarriage, sans icing, I sometimes get spices and other times it tastes like I’m biting into a regular Rice Krispies Treat.
I have 25 left (yes, I ate another). They’re good, but not I’m-going-to-eat-all-40 good. Hopefully, next year they’re available in a less Costco-like size. But if you can pawn them off to your co-workers, friends, or kid’s classmates to gain brownie points, I mean, Rice Krispies Treats points, go ahead and buy a box, and then give the rest to others after you’ve eaten your share.
Thanks to Impulsive Buy reader Carla for sending a box to me!
(Nutrition Facts – 1 bar – 90 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 95 milligrams of sodium, 16 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 8 grams of sugar, less than 1 gram of protein.)
Purchased Price: N/A
Size: 40-pack
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Good, but not eat-all-40 good. Almost authentic pumpkin pie flavor. Made with real pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice.
Cons: Only available in 40-pack. Not sure if it has an orange hue. Not sure if the pumpkin pie flavor also comes from the Rice Krispies.