The Impulsive Buy

Tag: Fast Food

QUICK REVIEW: Krispy Kreme Coffee Glazed Doughnut

What is the Krispy Kreme Coffee Glazed Doughnut?

The latest glaze-makeover from Krispy Kreme in celebration of National Coffee Day pairs two of the culinary world’s best friends. There’s no longer a need to dunk your doughnut in coffee with KK’s Limited Time Coffee Glaze.

How is it?

I gotta tip my hat to Krispy Kreme for the super obvious but fresh innovation at play here. Because for as many times as I’ve had a cup of black coffee alongside a doughnut (90 percent of all the time) I’ve never had a doughnut flavored like the bitter beverage.

Like most alternative KK glazes this one is subtle and does a good job of tempering the usually hyper sweet wash of sugar that defines the experience of the OG. The coffee flavor is there but doesn’t hit you in the face like a bold coffee ice cream or candy like the recent Crunchy Espresso M&M’s. It’s delicate and soft with just a touch of bitterness. The modified glaze is a bit thicker than the regular one and has a darker tan color.

The coffee flavor is a bit more pronounced on the finish, as it leaves a taste in my mouth like I had coffee three minutes ago. The fluffy texture of the yeast doughnut is amazing as always, and I enjoy eating this even if it is a bit underwhelming.

Is there anything else I need to know?

Popping the Krispy Kreme Coffee Glazed Doughnut into the microwave for the suggested six seconds is never a bad idea, and the result with this one is pretty damn good. The coffee flavor doesn’t intensify, but the bitterness is a bit more subdued. The warm, soft texture is much more like doing an actual doughnut dunk, and the overall experience is incredibly satisfying.

Conclusion:

This is yet another limited Krispy Kreme glaze that’s good but nothing mind-blowing. The OG is so strong on its own that slight variations still yield a delicious doughnut, but nothing so extreme that you should go out of your way for it.

Purchased Price: $1.29
Size: N/A
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 200 calories, 10 grams of fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 gram of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 85 milligrams of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 13 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

September 26, 2018
QUICK REVIEW: Starbucks Cold Foam Dark Cocoa Nitro

What is the Starbucks Cold Foam Dark Cocoa Nitro?

I’m convinced the reason Starbucks keeps coming up with new cold foam beverages is to drive home the idea of the strawless lids. I don’t hate it! The latest is the Cold Foam Dark Cocoa Nitro, which adds cocoa cold foam on top of the tried-and-true Nitro Cold Brew. In the in-app description of the drink, Starbucks says the cold foam is “bringing out the coffee’s natural chocolate notes.”

How is it?

Two words: Slam Dunk.

I usually prefer my cold brews to have a little cream in them, a la the Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew. That’s why I love cold brew on nitro – it adds a creaminess to the drink. This Dark Cocoa Nitro does not disappoint in terms of creaminess and flavor.

There’s a slight cocoa taste when you get your first sip of cold foam and the cold brew, and it is just enough to sweeten it without being overpowering. The subtleness of the cocoa is a delight. I also got a whiff of cinnamon – it smells like fall in a cup. (Don’t tell the Pumpkin Spice Latte I said that!) And the caffeine is strong enough to power you through your afternoon or snoozefest of meetings at work.

Is there anything else I need to know?

If you go searching for this puppy, make sure your friendly Starbucks has the nitro tap. Not all of them do, so I suggest checking your Starbucks mobile app to see which nearby locations carry the drink.

Conclusion:

The Cold Foam Dark Cocoa Nitro is officially my favorite cold foam beverage from Starbucks. I can only hope it sticks around long enough for me to get my fill!

Purchased Price: $4.45
Size: Tall
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: Tall 12 fl oz – 60 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 15 milligrams of sodium, 13 grams of carbohydrates, 13 grams of sugars, 1 gram of protein, and 215 milligrams of caffeine.

September 25, 2018
REVIEW: KFC Hot Honey Chicken

With an adorable new Colonel mascot in the form of a sweet ol’ honeybear, the indubitably fine, mostly Southern kinfolk at Kentucky Fried Chicken (or Kitchen Fresh Chicken, if you do so prefer) continue their sauce-filled fried chicken domination of America with the tasty-enough Honey Hot flavor now on the KFC dinner table.

Ordering a three-piece Extra Crispy Tenders Meal complete with mashed potatoes, a biscuit, and one lonesome lil’ pickle slice, the Honey Hot variety is the stickiest mess of a sauce yet, soaking everything in its vicinity with a mouth-watering, eye-stinging clarity. The red-staining bit of generic honey was drenched all over the chicken tenders, seeping to a peppery puddle underneath them, creating a delicious dipping sauce as that famous KFC crust stayed undoubtedly firm and harmonically crunchy.

By the second try, I twirled my chicken tender in the settled sauce to get a little more of that Hot Honey taste. Like a Kentucky Fried shock to the system, the sweetness is almost immediate, cooling your taste buds with the much-loved taste of nothin’ but honey. Give it a few seconds though, because that hot comes rushing down the track like a peppery freight train, doing itself a grand service of providing a nice little burn that goes down easy enough.

But, even better, even with more sauce to soak it in, the extra crunchy skin continues to stay remarkably extra crunchy while the sauce manages to get deep into the tasty sinews and musculature of the beast, making almost an edible massage oil that, greasy bite by greasy bite, holds up with a tightly tangy fervor.

With plenty of the Honey Hot drainage left on my plate — even though the delicious Extra Crispy Tenders were a thing of dusty memory now — I used my remaining biscuit to selfishly sop up the sauce, to great effect. The pepper had made a suspended section unto itself in the sweet goop, giving me a nice headrush as I ate a thick, sticky sliver on my breadstuff. You’ve got to sell this stuff as a dipper, KFC!

Feel free to take a sip or two of water, just in case though, but not because of the heat, mind you. Once the sweet has passed and the hot is long gone, you better prepare to get a mildly weird aftertaste that is best described as taking a shot of soy sauce, swishing it around and swallowing it deep. It’s not a bad thing, just generally surprising and a little off-putting. Though great if you love soy sauce shooters.

Aftertaste aside, this might be KFC’s best chicken experiment yet, finally finding the perfect balance of one thing that people routinely screw up so often and so royally: the sweetness of the honey and the heat of the pepper. Cómpralo ya!

(Nutrition Facts – 570 calories, 36 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 0 gram of trans fat, 75 milligrams of cholesterol, 1460 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 8 grams of sugar, and 30 grams of protein.)

Purchased Price: $5.49
Size: 3 Extra Crispy Chicken Tenders
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Perfect balance of sweet and heat. Doesn’t make the chicken crust soggy.
Cons: Alarming “soy sauce” aftertaste.

September 20, 2018
REVIEW: Wendy’s Harvest Chicken Salad

You know that meme that says “name a more iconic duo” and then hits you with a pic of anything from Keenan and Kel to a guy jumping off a bridge with another guy watching the Cleveland Browns?

I tend to think apples and walnuts fall into that category of stuff that belongs together.

Apples, walnuts, feta, bacon, chicken, and cranberries? Now we’re complicating things. Perhaps that’s why I’m ambivalent towards Wendy’s new Harvest Chicken Salad, which not only attempts to Noah’s Ark-it out of pretty much every Wendy’s salad ingredient but also skates a little too close to the regular-menu Apple Pecan Chicken Salad.

I don’t mean to imply Wendy’s homage to autumn-in-salad-form isn’t good. Like most of Wendy’s salads, the ingredients push into fast casual territory. Skin-on red and green apples are crispy and mildly sweet; the chicken juicy and slightly smoky; the vinaigrette tangy and a tad bit tart. Add in crunchy, meaty glazed pecans (which were left off the first full-sized salad I ordered, unfortunately), and you’re looking at a filling meal.

But then there’s the bacon, complicating things. It’s not bad in and of itself since, duh, it’s a scientific impossibility that bacon detracts from anything and because Wendy’s makes really good bacon -— thick cut, substantial, with a great balance of fat and smoke. But I have no idea why it’s on this salad. Not only did it arrive on my full-size salad (I bought another half-sized one later since Wendy’s forgot my walnuts) in strips meant for sandwiches, but it took away the spotlight from the apples and walnuts.

Much like the bacon, the feta cheese feels out of place, like me when I show up to a wine and cheese party with a six pack of Shinerbock. Perhaps Wendy’s didn’t want to infringe on the Apple Pecan Chicken Salad, but the salty, mostly flavorless feta lacks the tang and funk of blue cheese that helps complement the apples. Even goat cheese would have been a better option than feta, especially since it’s tangy and has a slight sweetness that would have played well with the oddly-included dried cranberries.

I’m usually a big fan of Wendy’s salads, and while I loved the quality of the ingredients featured in the Harvest Chicken Salad, I can’t deny there’s a genuine lack of cohesion binding the salad together. Is it jump off a bridge because the Browns still haven’t won since 2016 dysfunctional? Goodness no. But when your iconic duo gets lost amidst even well executed extra ingredients, it’s time to get back to your bread and butter — or apples and walnuts.

(Nutrition Facts – Full Size – 570 calories, 23 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 115 milligrams of cholesterol, 1300 milligrams of sodium, 47 grams of carbohydrates, 37 grams of sugar, 5 grams of fiber, and 23 grams of protein.)

Purchased Price: $6.79
Size: Full
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: Apples are surprisingly crisp and flavorful for a prepackaged salad. Great execution on individual ingredients, especially the juicy chargrilled chicken. Meme potential in the apple and walnut combination.
Cons: Too many ingredients crowding up that apple and walnut synergy. Feta cheese is a real disappointment. Why are their cranberries in this salad? Botched salad construction.

September 19, 2018
REVIEW: Taco Bell Chipotle Triple Double Crunchwrap

If you thought that last month’s Double Cheesy Gordita Crunch was one filling S.O.B., the Triple Double Crunchwrap is back to prove you woefully wrong, and this time, it’s got some seriously sassy backup in the form of a seriously spicy chipotle sauce.

I hope you have some of that Baja Blast waiting off to the side, son.

The infamous disc-like shape of the Crunchwrap effortlessly holds the best and brightest of Taco Bell’s menu in an easy-to-transport carrying case, barely containing plenty of cheese, plenty of meat, and plenty of chipotle. It’s a monstrosity, a real two-hander judiciously wrapped in a mostly-bulging tightly-pressed tortilla, ready to carnalistically explode in a flame of intense flavor.

Once again, the patented Taco Bell nacho cheese sauce takes full control here, mixing most hedonistically with the heated chipotle sauce, bringing an unexpected twinge of sweet hurt to the proceedings, a small controlled burn that only a culinary arsonist could ever truly love. Without a doubt, the cheese and the chipotle are the true crossover stars here, mostly thanks to those unsung taco artists back in the kitchen doing an excellent job of laying it on thick and heavy.

The top layer of lettuce and tomatoes are a veritable bed of much-needed greens for vitamins and minerals, but are quickly forgotten when the hidden action that lies in Taco Bell’s always provocative seasoned beef is devoured. Spread across two hard tostada shells and wrapped in the aforementioned pressed tortilla with a good bit of reduced-fat sour cream here and there in the folds, this might be the Bell’s best creation yet.

An exciting improvement to the original Triple Double Crunchwrap — which is back on the menu too — this chipotle variation is not just another random notch on Taco Bell’s belt, but instead, a welcomed, spicier take on some of their best menu items, with only one real minor drawback. This thing is so massive and filling that you’re not going to have room in you for anything else, except for that Baja Blast.

Is it too much of a good thing? Perhaps, but I’ll take it anyway. Sure, they may be going back to the well two (or three) times over, but each new additional ingredient, no matter how small, proves that Taco Bell keeps on knocking it out of the border ballpark with every ingenious turn of the tortilla. Cómpralo ya!

(Nutrition Facts – 770 calories, 38 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 gram of trans fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 1650 milligrams of sodium, 86 grams of carbohydrates, 9 grams of fiber, 8 grams of sugar, and 8 grams of protein.)

Purchased Price: $3.49
Size: N/A
Rating: 10 out of 10
Pros: Ingenious move. Absolutely huge. Great oral burn.
Cons: No need to order other items other than a Baja Blast.

September 18, 2018