Tag: Fast Food

REVIEW: Sonic Orange Cloudsicle Slush Float

Jenna 2 Comments

I reviewed Sonic’s Sour Patch Kids Slush Float in the summer of 2022, so I had an idea of what the latest limited-edition Slush Float, Orange Cloudsicle, would bring to the table. This time, it features a flavor that I hope you’re not sick of yet from its other recent appearances in a Wendy’s Frosty, Arby’s milkshake, etc…

Slush Floats are made up of a majestic swirl of vanilla ice cream on top and slush on bottom, and garnished with a topping that matches the flavor of the slush. In this case, to suit the orange-flavored slush are what Sonic refers to as “orange vanilla flavor bubbles,” though you’re probably more likely to know them as “popping boba” if you’re a bubble tea fan (or “popping pearls,” if Starbucks is more your jam). There’s also “Orange Cloudsicle Syrup,” which is apparently cooler than plain orange because it features hints of vanilla as well (and is different than “Orange Creamsicle” because, well, that was already trademarked).

I used a straw for my last Slush Float and a spoon for this one, and this may sound overly persnickety, but I think the utensil you use really determines your experience. Drinking the Slush Float felt like getting a fun little treat (ice cream) on top of a fun little treat (slushie). Spooning it had the opposite effect: eating ice cream with a weirdly liquid-y, gritty ice mixture at the bottom was honestly kind of a bummer. In hindsight, that’s my bad since Sonic’s soft serve is so dense that I estimate it would take about a year to melt, while the slush had already become watery in the ten or so minutes it took to dig down to that layer. So, honestly, I trashed my layer of slush pretty quickly after I’d finished the ice cream, but I can chalk that disappointment partly up to user error.

Anyway, structural issues aside, how did this thing taste? Not to sound too much like a marketing agency, but: like the epitome of summer, plus a pinch of nostalgia. I don’t feel I need to say much about Sonic’s ice cream since it’s always excellent. The orange flavor of the slush and syrup reminded me more of the actual fruit than the candies inspired by it—think orange juice, not gummy Orange Slices.

But what made me want to eat this in the first place were the flavor bubbles (which, aside from a few stragglers at the bottom of my cup, were pretty much localized entirely on top of the ice cream). They added a sense of fun and uniqueness that was very welcome, plus they were surprisingly strong; I tend to enjoy bursting them against the roof of my mouth, but they were so stretchy that this didn’t always succeed in splitting them, leading to some anticlimactic moments where the juice instead just sort of ended up dribbling out sadly instead of exploding in a grand fashion. Regardless, they were tasty and entertaining, although I didn’t pick up on any of the vanilla that Sonic mentions they contain. Maybe my palette was just too dazed by the obvious vanilla-ness of the ice cream to notice something subtler in comparison?

Ultimately, this is a fun, yummy treat, but one that you should tackle with a strategic order of operations—I suggest learning from my mistake and alternating between spoon and straw for the full effect.

Purchased Price: $3.99
Size: Medium
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 420 calories, 6 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, 250 milligrams of sodium, 92 grams of carbohydrates, 87 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Wendy’s Saucy Nuggs

Karen 6 Comments

When I eat chicken nuggets, either from Wendy’s or another fast food chain, I tend to eat them without any sauce. That delectable fried chicken flavor is enough for me, and I don’t need to muddy it up with many other flavors. Hear that, all you kids with your fancy nugget-dipping sauces? Get off my lawn! (Wait, actually, come back and mow my lawn. Please? I’m begging you.)

Now Wendy’s has laughed in my face by putting out a whole line of nuggets that are absolutely drenched in sauces. And, of course, they come with extra dipping sauces, so you can have some sauce in your sauce. Naturally, I was skeptical but intrigued by this opportunity to see how the other half lives.

There are four main varieties, but technically, there are seven: The Honey BBQ, Buffalo, and Garlic Parm all come in spicy or not-spicy versions, depending on whether they are prepared with Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Nuggets as the base product. To me, the non-spicy version represents the default version, so that’s what I went with. The Spicy Ghost Pepper Nuggs, however, are only made in the spicy variety because a Ghost Pepper-branded food that isn’t spicy makes no sense.

As I’ve noticed with other fried chicken products, like Pizza Hut’s WingStreet boneless wings, the sauce application is a little bit haphazard. Some pieces were absolutely drenched in sauce, while others only had a little spotting of it. You can rectify this by using your nugget as a little sponge to soak up the sauce on the bottom of the plastic tray, which sometimes works.

The Saucy Nuggs come with Ranch and Blue Cheese dipping sauces, as you would expect. Even though I typically skip this option, I did try the Nuggs with them this time for the sake of being thorough. I know. My commitment to chicken-based journalism knows no bounds.

On the whole, I was impressed with Wendy’s latest offering.

Honey BBQ

This uses a textbook-standard honey barbecue sauce on the sweeter end of the spectrum. They are perfectly fine but not remarkable in any way. It makes for a good blank canvas if you’re really planning on going to town on the ranch and blue cheese.

Buffalo

The perfect level of mild spice that mixes well with the dipping sauces, and the classic pairing of Buffalo sauce with blue cheese is a winner. This is exactly how spicy I like my food, and I would definitely order these again. These made me a little nostalgic for the brief time I actually lived in Buffalo when I didn’t eat the wings nearly as often as I should have.

Garlic Parm

The big surprise of the lot. The garlic and parmesan flavors are clearly discernible, but neither is overpowering; it’s a surprisingly delicate flavor. The texture is also different from the other nuggets, more closely resembling a nice, crunchy piece of real fried chicken, greasy but in the best way. Either the ranch or the blue cheese will obliterate the subtle flavor, so be sure to have these naked. The question with these is not whether I will order them again, but “How long will they be on the menu? Please say it’s the whole summer!”

Spicy Ghost Pepper

The wildcard: Just how spicy were these going to be? I was timid, so I took my GP nugg with a healthy dollop of blue cheese to balance out the heavy spicing. Even with the cooling agent of the dipping sauce, the heat in the back of my throat from just one of these things was nearly more than I could handle. Fortunately, my husband is one of those people who asks for the maximum spice level when we go out for curry, so he was able to field this one for me and eat the rest of them. He said they were great and that these, and the Garlic Parm, were the ones he would definitely order again.

So, all in all, it was a rather good outing for our intrepid redhead, who I would say has been on a roll lately…except for the new Triple Berry Frosty. Hey, even Babe Ruth didn’t hit a home run every time he stepped up to the plate.

Size: 10 piece orders (40 pieces total)
Purchased Price: $5.79 each
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Honey BBQ), 8 out of 10 (Buffalo), 10 out of 10 (Garlic Parm), and Husband Approval out of 10 (Ghost Pepper)
Nutrition Facts: Honey BBQ – 590 calories, 29 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 80 mg of cholesterol, 1450 mg of sodium, 56 grams total carbohydrate, 2 grams dietary fiber, 30 grams total sugars, and 25 grams of protein. Buffalo – 530 calories, 36 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 80 mg of cholesterol, 2800 mg of sodium, 26 grams total carbohydrate, 2 grams dietary fiber, 1 gram total sugar, and 25 grams of protein. Garlic Parm – 940 calories, 80 grams total fat, 17 grams of saturated fat, 1.5 grams of trans fat, 80mg of cholesterol, 1610 mg of sodium, 29 grams total carbohydrate, 2 grams dietary fiber,1 gram total sugars, and 27 grams of protein. Ghost Pepper – 900 calories, 17 grams of total fat, 16 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 95 mg of cholesterol, 2060 mg of sodium, 30 grams of total carbohydrate, 2 grams of dietary fiber, and 27 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Wendy’s Triple Berry Frosty

Vin 5 Comments

It’s been a little over two months, so it’s time for a new Frosty flavor.

It took forever for Wendy’s to expand from chocolate to vanilla, and now the window between new Frosties is about as short as a theatrical movie landing on your favorite overpriced streaming service.

Save the movie theaters!

Anyway, it’s been exactly two years since Wendy’s hit us with a Strawberry Frosty. I reviewed it then, and wasn’t blown away. I believe I said at the time, and don’t look this up, “This isn’t terrible, but I need more berries! They should’ve added blackberry and raspberry! Also, the Boston Celtics are going to win the 2024 NBA title.”

I’m not saying I’m clairvoyant, but I think someone at Wendy’s Inc. saw my review, and that’s where the seedling for a Triple Berry Frosty was born. Let me just do some math here – Strawberry. Blackberry. Raspberry. Yup. That’s three, alright. When you combine said berries, you get a nice lavender color, and that’s basically the highlight.

I couldn’t help but notice that it just looked like soft ice cream. It was missing the bits of ice that I expect from a Wendy’s Frosty. That is the small distinction I always make between Frosties and ice cream, smoothies, shakes, etc. I need the tiny flecks of ice crystals for at least a few spoonfuls. They were basically absent here. I was starting to think this was just gonna be Strawberry redux, and I was basically right.

I instantly assumed this had blueberries in it. I tasted a slight medicinal blueberry flavor with a dry “Tums” finish. I’m still kinda shocked that blueberries aren’t one of the three berries.

I didn’t really distinguish any of the other berries because, in the end, this tastes like literally any “mixed berry” yogurt you’ve ever had minus the yogurt “tang.” Essentially, what I’m saying is this Frosty lacks culture!

You might think, “It’s just a berry smoothie,” but it’s not, and I think that hurts it. I wish it was. This flavor profile in an ice cream-like form doesn’t really work that well.

Actually, it doesn’t work as a Wendy’s menu item. To bring it back to the movies, this flavor feels like a giant tonal shift in the Wendy’s script.

On its own, it’s decent, but with food, it just clashed. I’ve never really felt that way about previous Frosties, not even the Orange Dreamsicle. Drinking something “mixed berry yogurt” flavored didn’t compliment my fatty Wendy’s food at all.

Triple Berry just didn’t pop for me. I think it’s time to abandon berries entirely… ya know, except the best berry – banana. We better get a Banana Frosty at some point. If Wendy’s insists on keeping berries on the menu, allow me the obligatory mention of my topping idea – Wendy’s Blendies. I’ll toss some strawberries in my Chocolate Frosty. Why not? What are we waiting for?

Bury Triple Berry. It’s forgettable and ultimately skippable. See you in two months for the next one.

Purchased Price: $2.19
Size: Small
Purchased at: Wendy’s
Rating: 4 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 320 calories, 8 grams of fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 30 mg of cholesterol, 270 milligrams of sodium, 53 grams of total carbohydrates, 46 grams of sugars, 0 grams of fiber, 9 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Taco Bell Vanilla Creme Limonada Freeze

Karen 11 Comments

I am a big fan of citrus flavors. I start my morning with lime-flavored Greek yogurt, have a mandarin orange with lunch, and often cap off the day with a lemon or lime-flavored Outshine popsicle for dessert. Last week, I ate a whole slice of Key Lime Cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory, after a full dinner, and my in-laws looked at me like I was a monster who had just stomped all over Tokyo. “I can’t believe you finished that whole thing,” my mother-in-law said with something akin to awe.

Citrus and cake together? Believe it. Don’t get me wrong, I felt sick for the rest of the night, but it was worth it.

So, I was excited to try one of Taco Bell’s new Limonada Freezes. However, I was a little confused: typically, “limonada” is the Mexican version of lemonade that uses limes instead of lemons. According to Taco Bell’s press release, this limonada uses lemon and not lime, which I find a little disappointing. Taco Bell, inauthentic? You don’t say. Personally, I like lime more than lemon (you’ll notice I pigged out on the Key Lime cake and not the Lemon Meringue at CF), so I wondered if this would hurt my impression of the product.

Honestly? It doesn’t really matter because you can’t taste it either way.

My first sip reminded me strongly of cream soda, and it was quite tasty and addictive; I sucked down half that drink in record time. I kept looking for the citrus, and though I believe it is there, especially in the aftertaste, it’s overpowered by the vanilla cream flavor. What it’s really missing is the lip-puckering shot of sourness that lemonade usually provides. There’s none of that sensation of the sweet fighting with the sour you get from good lemonade.

I have to note that I didn’t allow the icy parts of the drink to melt; I stirred them up with my straw and drank up the icy slurry that way. In other words, I was enjoying the drink so much that I couldn’t even wait for the bottom portion to melt into liquid before I polished it off. It’s extremely sweet, but that’s what you’re looking for when you order a Freeze.

So Taco Bell has created an excellent summertime beverage for fans of cream soda, but calling it a limonada (or a lemonade) is a bit of a stretch. However, Taco Bell is also offering regular and strawberry versions of the Limonada Freeze, so if you’re looking for that sweet/sour punch, the Bell has got you covered.

I’m still kind of annoyed that we didn’t get a true lime-based limonada, but I guess I’ll just drown my sorrows in more cake.

Purchased Price: $3.79
Size: Regular (16 oz)
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 190 calories, 1 gram of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 95 milligrams of sodium, 47 grams of carbohydrate, 0 grams of fiber, 45 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein

REVIEW: Jack in the Box Crispy Chicken Wings

Marvo 2 Comments

My closest Jack in the Box is right next to a Popeyes. If I’m craving burgers, I can go to Jack in the Box. If I want red beans and rice or mashed potatoes, I can go to Popeyes. If I desire a crispy chicken sandwich, I’ll flip a coin, call heads for Popeyes, and then go to Popeyes because I used a two-headed coin. But, if I yearn for chicken wings, I can now go to either. Yup, Jack in the Box is now in the chicken wing game for a limited time. Yes, bone-in chicken.

Jack in the Box’s Crispy Chicken Wings are available in six- or twelve-piece orders and three varieties: Classic, Buffalo, and Garlic Parmesan. They also come with containers of buttermilk ranch sauce, but I don’t think they’re necessary after trying all three.

Before I go into flavors, I want to mention how surprisingly crispy these are. Okay, they’re not teeth rattling crunchy, nor are they as crispy as what you’d get at Popeyes, but they have a pleasant audible crunch that food ASMR listeners would love. Maybe I shouldn’t have had low expectations because these are from a burger joint. I also anticipated that these chicken wings from a burger chain would be dry within their crispy exterior, but I’m happy to report that the meat was surprisingly moist. I’m sorry for doubting you, Jack. I’m also sorry for using the word “moist,” everyone.

The Classic version isn’t tossed with any sauce, but unlike Jack’s nuggets, which NEED some kind of sauce to make them decent, these are actually good sans sauce. There are some mild flavored seasonings that I can’t really distinguish what they are, but they do make the wings tasty.

If you’re hoping the Buffalo ones have a spicy kick that’ll make you reach for the buttermilk ranch sauce to temper the heat in your mouth, I’m about to douse those expectations with a dipping sauce container of reality. While they are somewhat spicy, it’s more like a spark than a flame, but the sauce did have all the pepperiness and slight butteriness that I’d associate with Buffalo sauce. Despite the lack of heat, these were extremely tasty, and I found myself trying to nibble every bit of non-bone I could get my teeth on.

Finally, we have the Garlic Parmesan Crispy Chicken Wings, which, according to Jack’s app, is tossed in a garlic and herb butter sauce and topped with grated Parmesan cheese. As you can see in the photo below, the seasonings were applied liberally to most pieces, but I didn’t get a blast of that gar-parm love (trying to make gar-parm a thing). They were slightly garlicky, but the cheese was most noticeable thanks to the thick parmesan layer. I wish the garlic stood out more since I love garlic and how it keeps the introvert in me happy by keeping others away.

While I found the chicken wings’ flavors good, I wish the sauced ones were tossed better. I’m not sure how they’re made, but even with the Buffalo ones, I noticed that the sauces weren’t coated evenly over all the pieces.

Since I got a molehill of buttermilk ranch sauce containers with my order, I tried them with all three wing varieties. After dipping them into the white creamy sauce, I must say it doesn’t necessarily make them better. It’s a tasty addition to whatever seasonings and sauces that are already on the chicken, but as I mentioned at the beginning of my review, the ranch isn’t necessary to make these tasty.

Should I be surprised by how good Jack in the Box’s Crispy Chicken Wings are? After all, McDonald’s did a great job with its Mighty Wings over a decade ago. So, I guess burger chains can do wings well. If I had to flip a coin between Jack in the Box and Popeyes for chicken wings, I’d be fine with either result.

Purchased Price: $8.99 each
Size: 6-pieces
Rating: 8 out of 10 (all)
Nutrition Facts: (6 pieces) Classic – 440 calories. Buffalo – 470 calories. Garlic Parmesan – 670 calories. No other nutritional information is available on Jack in the Box’s website.