Jack In The Box Kona Coffee Shake

Why do more west coast places not offer coffee shakes?
Even in Georgia I could find coffee shakes easily but out here in good old SoCal the coffee shake pickins' are slim. Jack In The Box has been advertising they're Kona Coffee Shake pretty heavily so when it was time for my fast food dinner I opted for Jack over In-N-Out based purely on the shake (don't get me wrong Jack has some good burgers to- they are just not In-N-Out)

If I had any fantasies that the shake would indeed have the rich, deep goodness that a real cup of Kona coffee does, well that was very quickly shattered. That said it is a very sweet, light coffee flavor that makes for a pleasant shake. Actually the taste reminded me exactly of 'coffee milk' (think chocolate milk but with coffee flavored syrup in place of chocolate) which we made as kids with Coffee Time syrup:


Thinking for the shake in those terms it was pretty good. Expecting actual Kona quality from the coffee was just asking too much. Even if the coffee on the artificial side of the taste spectrum I still liked it enough that I would order it again.

Marvo over at The Impulse Buy tried one not too long ago as well. He was less enthused about it then I but be sure to read his review HERE

PURCHASED FROM:
Jack In The Box

Fresh & Easy Milk Chocolate Bar

Today I made my first visit to a Fresh & Easy store.
Fresh & Easy is a part of the UK based Tesco chain for those of us on this side of the pond from what I could tell from the Tesco website they look to be like Wal*Marts wet dream. Seriously, go to that site and check out everything they do. Maybe Jim From Jim's Chocolate Mission could chime in and tell us what the average Tesco is like.

Anyway, let's talk about the chocolate for now. Before I taste it I have to say that at a mere $.33 for 1.55 oz's it was a pretty great deal. The ingredients are straight forward enough: sugar, cocoa butter, milk, chocolate liquor, soy lecithin, salt and vanilla.

Upon opening the wrapper the thin bar is divided up much like a Hershey bar. The chocolate is a very light looking milk chocolate. The smell is sweet but pleasant. You can really smell the vanilla and the cocoa. On smell alone I thought it was going to be a good bar. The melt is very smooth and creamy.
Unfortunately this is where the praise ends. It's just too sweet. And I know I have said this a lot lately but it is also oil. For $.33 decent. For chocolate in general not so great. Of course if you stocked up on these at Halloween you could make a whole bunch of new friends with the kids in your neighborhood (kids don't care if it's too sweet!)

PURCHASED FROM:
Fresh & Easy

Lindt Creation 70% Cherry & Chili

The shout out for this review goes out to Sugerhog.Net
Last month she reviewed the Lindt Creation Cherry & Chili bar and I had to try one for myself.

The bar is made up of 70% dark chocolate that sandwiches a layer of a mousse type filling and a cherry/chili jelly. The chocolate it's self is bitter and acidic. It is also on the chalky side. I could deal with the bitterness. I am a fan of dark chocolate but all three aspects together and it is just not pleasant.

The bars saving grace however is the cherry chili jelly. That stuff is out of this world! It's sour without being overly bitter and there is the tiniest bit of heat from the chili. Please someone do an ice cream with this jelly as the swirl! I am not out right admitting that I separated the chocolate slabs and licked out the jelly... but it could have happened.

If they had done this bar with say a deep milk chocolate in place of the dark chocolate it could have been an outstanding bar. As is it is worth tasting for the Jelly alone.

Now how do I get me some of that jelly...
PURCHASED FROM:
Albertsons Supermarket

Mountain Dew Super Nova- Limited Edition

And here we have the last of the three new Mountain Dew's Super Nova
Super Nova is supposed to be a strawberry/melon flavor. I am starting to think this has not been my week to try new things. I don't know what it actually really tasted like but it didn't remind me of strawberry or melons. It minded me most of Cherry Rolaids. And somehow I don't think that was the flavor they were going for.

Like the other two flavors there is vaguely lemonade thing going on. And while that was good for the other two it was just vile here.

I think my vote is going to Revolution!
That said Code Red is still the best Dew!

PURCHASED FROM:
Jay's Shell Station, Monrovia. Ca

Dreyer's Slow Churned Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Bar

Cookies & Cream on a stick?!
Sign me up!
Well it sounded good. The outside of the bar is coated in chocolate that has cookie bits enbedded into it. Well, let's be honest it's embedded with things that look like cookie bits. In reality they are little brown nuggets of chocolate flavored oil. The coating which according to the ingredient list is actually made with chocolate tastes like mocklate... bad mocklate.

I would like to tell you that if you make it through the coating you will be rewarded, but much like the ending on a Pauly Shore movie about the best thing you can say is that at least it's over. I like Dreyer's cookies & cream in the Grand line so I was actually surprised when the Churned version turned out to be awful. Again it's oily. In fact that is the only thing you can taste. I don't get how this fell so far short.

PURCHASED FROM:
Albertsons Supermarket

Skinny Cow Vanilla with Caramel Ice Cream Cones

Since I liked the mint and fudge cones so much I decided to give the vanilla a try.
As much as I liked the mint cone I disliked the vanilla. Let's start with the ice cream it's self. As I was expecting it was very airy and lacked any of the rich, fatty mouth feel that say Ben & Jerry's would have- but I was expecting that. It is after all light ice cream and aimed at those watching the weight. The flavor is a weird mix of absolutely nothing- and then there is a chemical aftertaste. I don't really understand how something with no flavor can have an after taste but it did.

Then there is the "caramel". Oh it looks like caramel, it smells like caramel and it all almost tastes like caramel. But the texture was off. Too liquidy, and again it tasted more like a scientific version of caramel then real caramel.

The cone is the best part. Crispy and sweet. It's good but it doesn't make up for the rest of the cone not being.

PURCHASED FROM:
Albertsons Supermarket

Frosted Mini Wheats- Blueberry Muffin

I know I am always saying there is not enough blue food...
I am torn about it if cereal makes me regret that or not.

We all know I love blueberry, I love cereal. The two of them should be pretty good right? Yeah, that's what I thought too.

Like the traditional frosted mini wheat the blueberry muffin variety has one "nekkid" side and one side that is frosted in a combo of sugar and blueberry. It DOES in fact taste like a blueberry muffin- a muffin that was designed by a food scientist that never actually ate a real muffin. For the first few seconds it's in your mouth it is pretty good. But the problem is that 'good' quickly becomes "chemical aftertaste from hell" And if you are the type who likes to drink your extra cereal milk be warned- it will taste kind of like grated Flintstones vitamins (only less good)
- but it is blue!

Great idea, could have been a good flavor but it just doesn't work.


PURCHASED FROM:
Albertsons Supermarket

Lazzaroni Bittersweet Chocolate with Amaretti di Saronno Crumbles Bar

During my last trip to Claro's Market I came across this bar.
To be honest I had never had Lazzaroni chocolates- I have had the Amaretti di Saronno and they are DIE for. If you have never had them go and find yourself a box. They are great on their own, crushed as a crust, dunked in coffee, over ice cream... I like them can you tell?

So before I write myself into an amaretti stupor maybe we should talk about the bar.

The bar is a hefty 3.17 ozs and even through the bright red wrapping you can feel the shape of the molded bar. Unwrapped, the chocolate is dark and glossy and has an almost coffee like-aroma. Reading the companies website I found that there is good reason- there is actually Arabica coffee pieces in the bar.

So how did it taste?
Pretty darn good!
First, I don't know what percent the cocoa content is the bar appears quite dark. However, it has a rather surprisingly creamy melt and a sweetness not normal for a dark chocolate. It reminded me of a high end Toll House morsel. The coffee's bitter edge keeps the sweetness in check and also set's off the Amaretti pieces. I LOVED the crunch the Amaretti gave to the bar. In fact my only complaint with the bar is that I wish the Amaretti pieces were bigger!

I don't care how yo do it just get yourself one of these bars!!

PURCHASED FROM:
Claro's Italian Market

Jones Soda Strawberry Manilow

In honor of Barry Manilow's 65 Birthday I am reviewing Jones Soda Strawberry Manilow drink

I have actually been holding on to this drink because I wanted to tie it to Barry's birthday.

As a life long Manilow fan ANYTHING Barry is pretty much fanFREAKINGtastic but this is the first food related item I have tried.

Strawberry Manilow is a mix of dairy and fruit flavor. Like you would have (or should have) guessed from the name it is primarily strawberry flavored but it also has Blackberry & Raspberry. I tend to not be the biggest fan of strawberry flavoring on the planet but in this case the strawberry is mellowed out by the other berries. I think it is actually the blackberry that comes through the strongest. The first flavors are all the sweetness of the strawberry but then it rounds out to the tartness of the blackberry and the last notes are the syrupy sweetness of the raspberry.

The drink does have both skim milk and cream which gives it both a rather pastel mid-80's color cheesiness to it and a smooth texture the juice would not have on it's own. It made me think of a thinner version of an Orange Julius-type drink. It's not something I would drink every time I cranked up my overwhelmingly large Manilow collection but it was tasty- and it is sweetened with pure cane sugar!

Thanks to the good folk's over at Jones for giving us Fanilow's something to sip while shedding a tear for Lola and Tony. After making it through the rain and even now for making us smile... and if you got all those song references you have a chance of being a bigger geek then me!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARRY!


PURCHASED FROM:
Cost Plus World Market

Kinder bueno

I have to give thanks to Jim over at Jim's Chocolate Mission for inspiring me to want to try these.
Jim has reviewed both the regular Kinder bueno and the Kinder bueno White and he made the hazelnut filling sound like something that sound definitely not be missed. So when I saw the bar at my Italian grocery today I had to pick it up.

The bueno is made up of two fingers that are about the size of a slightly wider Twix bar. Bonus point's to Kinder for having the fingers individually wrapped inside the foil. The fingers are made up of 4 squat segments of lightly chocolate coated goodness. As far as I could tell it was a milk chocolate- the label on my bar being entirely in Polish didn't exactly help me a lot. Hiding inside of the extremely sweet chocolate is crispy wafer shell that surrounds a dollop of hazelnut creme. I don't know if my bar was just really fresh but I have got to say that the wafer was perfect. It was still crispy enough to break with a satisfying crunch on first bite.
Jim was dead on with the hazelnut filling! Seriously that filling is so good that personally I think it rivals the hazelnut used in the companies Nutella.
I wish I could just get a hold of the hazelnut on it's own!!

The bar as a whole has it's merits- I am not normally a fan of wafers, but if they are always as crisp as the ones in this bar (rather then the chewy, limp, stale wafers one tends to find in candy) I could learn to love them. The chocolate coating was too sweet for my taste but, on a occasion I don't mind. The clear star here is the hazelnut creme.



PURCHASED FROM:
Claro's Italian Market

Mountain Dew Revolution- Limited Edition

Round 2 of the Dewmocracy challenge!
Revolution is another of the three Dew Drinker designed flavors.

Revolution is a Wild Berry flavor with added Ginseng. This reminded more of a Raspberry Lemonade then Wild Berry- maybe my taste buds are going in my old age- or maybe it's because at work I drink a potentially hazardous amount of Raspberry lemonade. I don't get the Wild Berry at all... Although raspberry is after all a berry. Maybe this is supposed to be like the Joe Francis version of raspberry? and with no age of consent issues!

Much like Voltage, personally I found it to be super sweet. And while I did suck down the bottle at about double the rate that I went through the Voltage I can't see myself buying this on a regular basis. Yes, once again let us remember I am an old chick who can't handle her caffeine and for my day to day soda consumption I stick to diet. So far this is winning my vote but we still have 1 more flavor to go!

PURCHASED FROM:
Jay's Shell Station Monrovia, Ca

Meiji Meltyblend Framboise

I loved the Green Tea Meltyblends. I was trying to restock my supply today and while the Ranch 99 Market sadly did not have the Green Tea in stock they did have the Framboise (Raspberry)
So, I ignored it and just wanted to pout about not getting the Green Tea Meltyblends.

NO, of course I didn't do that! I bought the box.
Just like with the Green Tea Meltyblends, the candy themselves are about the size of sugarcubes. There is a dusty looking cocoa outer layer. The first few second all that you taste is the cocoa while the cube melts in a cool, silky river.

Then the raspberry kicks in. I have ot say I was impressed by how viberant the raspberry flavor was. It reminded me of eating a really high quality jam. The raspberry managed to stay tasting natural and didn't have that biter, artificial taste that some raspberry flavored candies have.

I know there are a few more Meltyblend flavors out there and I have liked the Green Tea and the Raspberry so much I am going ot try and get a hold of the others.

PURCHASED FROM:
Ranch 99 Supermarket

Jell-O Singles Chocolate

Every once and a while a new version of a popular product comes out that leaves me scratching my head and wondering "why?"
Jell-O Singles is a perfect example of that.

The product is made of single serve sleeves of powdered pudding that you add a half cup of cold milk to, mix for roughly 2 minutes and then let it sit for the next few minutes to let it set. And after all that you have a single serve bowl of pudding. Which begs the question, if you only want a single serving of pudding why not just grab a handy ready to go pudding cup? The serving size and calorie is about the same. Heck the cost is about the same but all you have to do is peel back the top and eat!

At first I thought maybe this would be aimed at the lactose intolerant or people who just prefer to use non-dairy milk. But the powder is made with milk and the directions advise against using soy milks because the pudding won't set.
I also thought that maybe it was for campers, hikers etc- but since you still need milk and there are non refrigerated single serve cups already out there (with no prep needed) I feel safe to say that wasn't the aim either.

The flavor is great! same chocolaty, rich flavor you expect from Jell-O pudding. It was a little lumpy but I think that was probably my fault.

All in all while the flavor was just as good as the pre-made cups or even if you made a larger batch from the box. I just don't get the point of this product. Honestly, it is easier and just as good to open one of the single serve cups then to make the the single packet.

PURCHASED FROM:
Albertsons Supermarket

Breyers Oreo Sandwiches

Back on May 16'th we morned the passing of one of my favorite ice cream treats the Klondike With Oreo Ice Cream Cookie

Reader Amanda let us know that she had seen Oreo ice cream sandwiches under a different brand. Today this Breyer's version turned up at my local store.

The Breyer's version (which like Klondike is a Unilever brand, so they have kept things in the family) is a smaller cookie sandwich and features low fat vanilla ice cream rather then the Oreo ice cream that the Klondike version had.

Size wise the Breyer's version is smaller overall then the Klondike version had been. Actually, I preferred the Oreo cookies on this version to the Klondike. They are smaller but thicker and they had more of a true Oreo flavor- this is saying something because I LOVED the cookies on the Klondike as well.
So the cookie is a hit but how is the ice cream?. Well... it's cold. It's not that it tastes bad- it just doesn't taste like anything. The texture is smooth but there is no real mouth feel to it. Other then, well cold.

Even without using Oreo ice cream if this had just had a good quality vanilla (could using real vanilla possibly have been that hard?- I know Breyers make a decent vanilla in the normal line) I would go as far to say that because the cookies themselves are so good this version could have been outstanding. It would have actually have BETTER then the Klondike.

As it is I am tempted to scrap out the bad ice cream and "refill" the cookies with good vanilla or just crumple the cookies into good ice cream.

PURCHASED FROM:
Albertsons Supermarket

Skinny Cow Mint With Fudge Ice Cream Cone

If happy cows really do come from California count me in!
I wasn't sure what to expect from these cones. I didn't have the highest of hopes because let's be honest, most low fat ice cream sucks. I was really surprised by how good these cones were!

The mint was crisp and clean with just the right amount of sweetness. There was no medicinal after taste. The fudge ripples were only on the top and reminded me of Hershey's syrup- not a bad thing as I like Hershey's syrup on ice cream.
The cone was crispy and fresh- and lined in chocolate!

The ice cream is on the airy side and while there is a cool mouth feel it is of course not the same creamy, rich feel you would get from a full fat ice cream.
All in all this was a good cone and has made me want to moove (I could not resist) onto more of the Skinny Cow offerings.


PURCHASED FROM:
Albertsons Supermarket

Trader Joes Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

I love green tea!
I love yogurt!
So why didn't I love green tea yogurt?

The color was appealing. The smell was good. The texture was a little thin but I could over look that. No, I think it was because the best way to describe the flavor would be to tell you that it is like eating spinach yogurt. Yes, you read that right- spinach.

And I mean spinach yogurt in the worst possible sense. Imagine you took a brick of frozen spinach, defrosted it, squeezed the "juice" that comes out of said brick of spinach into some thin, lowfat yogurt. THEN you pureed some of the spinach into the yogurty sludge. Well that is what I feel like I have eaten.

Since TJ's has so few misses this one saddens me but certainly won't keep me from continuing to try more of their products.


PURCHASED FROM:
Trader Joe's

5-Hour Energy Shot

Kids, sometimes I do crazy things in order to bring you a good review... and sometimes I do crazy things just for the hell of it.
I want to tell you that I drank the 5-Hour energy shot simply to review it for you. But no. I drank it because I worked a really weird schedule this weekend and my insomnia is back in full force. Out of desperation before a daunting dinner shift that otherwise my butt would have been dragging on I picked up said 5-Hour Energy.

The ad's that seem to be on every 3 minutes promises instant energy with no jitters and no crash. It also promises to taste great.

I want to meet the person who said it tasted great. Great compared to what? Old tuna?, Pre-chewed gum?. Alright, that's a little unfair of me. It's not that it tastes bad. It's just that the best way of describing the flavor is to say that it's like a Red Bull for people who thought Red Bull was too sweet. That probably says it all. If not- it's really bitter!

Did it work?
Why yes it did! And it did work within minutes. All of a sudden I had more energy then I knew what to do with. I wasn't jittery per say, but I COULD NOT stay still- which my coworkers found funny. In fairness to 5-Hour Energy I had drank it with minimal food and in my old age I have less and less tolerance to caffeine. In fact, I drank the shot at 3:15 PM and come 3:00 AM I was still ready to go- but I felt awake and alert not wired or cloudy headed. As promised there was no crash and when I woke up the next day there were no lingering effects.

Because of my weenie-like response to caffeine I personally couldn't make this a regular part of my daily grind- but I would have no problem using it again if I needed a fast shot of energy (and not sleeping over the course of the next 16 hours were not an issue!)

PURCHASED FROM:
Jay's Shell Station Monrovia, Ca

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet!
At the risk of losing any foodie cred that I may have left I would like to stand atop the highest mountain and loudly proclaim that I LOVE KRAFT MAC & CHEESE!!

Yes, yes, REAL homemade mac & cheese IS about a bizillion times better. There is no question. But sometimes in life you just crave "cheese" that is day-glo orange and comes in powered form from a foil packet. No people- I DO NOT want anything to do with the Velveeta version (even Kraft's version) no I WANT that scary pouch of cheese. And never, EVER does non Kraft boxed mac & cheese pass my lips. I don't know what addictive substance lurks in the cheese powder but it works!

I think part of the secret to good mac & cheese is the amount of milk and butter used. Believe me when I tell you I have done extensive testing on the the subject and I can say with great authority that the secret to perfect mac & cheese is as simple as 2 tablespoons of milk and 2 tablespoons of butter. Yes, I know the box says otherwise. The box is wrong!. I think the 2x2 ratio works because any less then that and there is not enough liquid to mix the powered cheese properly. Any more then that and it is too liquidy and the flavor gets diluted. I told you , I have put A LOT of time into this.

Yes, this is the perfect cheap, fast, food. It's cheesy, it's kind of salty, it's filling. It's a taste of childhood- you can even get it with Sponge Bob shaped pasta if you are inclined!


PURCHASED FROM:
Albertsons Supermarket

Mountain Dew Voltage

Ask not what Dewmocracy can do for you but what you can do for Dewmocracy!

Dewmocracy is of course the name of the new campaign Mountain Dew has launched to choose it's next flavor. The three flavors that are out; Voltage, Supernova and and Revolution were designed by Dew drinkers- although I couldn't tell you who they were or how the final three were selected. And that one of the flavors- voted on by visitors to the web site will go on to be an official Mountain Dew flavor. Oh, and while you are at the site if you REALLY like any of the three flavors or have entirely too much free time to kill between Star Trek reruns in your Mom's basement, you can even visit message boards dedicated to each of the flavors (flame wars included!)

I have all three in my fridge but I decided to start with Voltage because it's a spiffy purply blue color. And as I have said many times- there is just not enough blue food!.

The label says that this is a Raspberry Citrus flavor with Ginseng (and of course an ass load of caffeine!). It reminded me of a liquid version of a raspberry SweeTart only much, much sweeter. The citrus side of things can only be found in the slightly acidic after taste. Interestingly enough according to Wikipedia one of Ginsengs many uses is as an aphrodisiac. This leads me to wonder if that was really not the smartest thing they could have added. Since Mountain Dew is a Nerd diet staple do we really want to make horny hyper nerds even more horny and hyper? maybe some lavender would have been a better option. Anyway back to the flavor... It was too sweet for me at first but it does grow on you... and then you start to crave it and your heart thumps from the caffeine and then suddenly you find yourself visiting 7-11 in the middle of the night for a fix... what was that only me?

For another opinion check out Marvo's review of all three flavors over at The Impulse Buy

PURCHASED FROM:
Jay's Shell Gas Station Monrovia, Ca

Coffee-Mate Italian Series Italian Sweet Creme Ltm Edition

Non-dairy coffee goodness!
I like my coffee two ways- either strong and black or light and sweet. More often then not my choice for coffee at home is light and sweet because I can stay in and deal with having dairy creamer.

It was a happy discovery to find this Coffee-Mate, not only is it non-dairy but it taste pretty good!. I am not sure to be honest what makes it Italian sweet creme but it is indeed sweet- I didn't feel the need to add any extra Splenda to my cup and it is very creamy (cremey?).



PURCHASED FROM:
Albertsons Supermarket

An excellent product for the lactose intolerant- and for everyone else.

Diet Rite Cherry Cola

I love cherry cola's but I am also an old geezer who can't tolerate caffeine after seven P.M. if I want to sleep that night.
On top of that I try to drink more diet soda then regular soda- because I LOOOOOVE me my soda and let's face it, who needs to waste empty calories on soda when I can use them for ice cream!

Now sadly there just don't seem to be many diet, caffeine free cherry soda's out there. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Diet Rite Cherry Cola. The Diet Rite family of soda's all boast zero calories, carbs, caffeine and sodium.

But how do they taste?
In the case of the Cherry Cola the answer is not good. Think cherry cough syrup in generic "cola" and add to that the strong after taste of artificial sweetener- which I had a hard time figuring out because it uses Splenda and Splenda as a rule doesn't have that funky after taste.

This was really disappointing.
PURCHASED FROM:
Albertsons Supermarket

Trader Joes's Greek Style Yogurt- Honey

I am thinking if the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee got a hold of some of this he would have a new breakfast staple.
I am also thinking "Did I just date myself by mentioning the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee?" do they even still use him in the ad's?

Possibly retired cereal spokesbee's aside. Trader Joe's Greek Style yogurt is definitely strong on the honey flavor. While there is no visible trace of the honey it is the dominate flavor. The honey is strong (very strong) with floral notes and it makes the yogurt very sweet.
The texture is that great, smooth, cool sour cream-like texture that I love in Greek yogurt. What I miss with this particular flavor is the tanginess that Greek Yogurt has. There is none to be found here. Since this is the first of the TJ's Greek yogurt I have tried I am unsure if they're version is always like this or if the intense sweetness of the honey does away with it.

If you are a fan of honey, you would love this yogurt. For me the honey was over powering but I like the yogurt it's self enough to want to keep trying other flavors.


PURCHASED FROM:
Trader Joe's

Yoplait Light Apple Turnover Yogurt

I am warning you guys now we are going to have A LOT of yogurt this week!
Warm weather gets me on a yogurt kick so I have stocked my fridge. The first one I tried was the Yoplait Light Apple Turnover.
I have noticed that light yogurt tends to be either really bad or really good so I was not sure what to expect. Luckily for me the Apple Turnover was on the really good side.

The flavor is light and sweet. The flavor reminded me of baked cinnamon apples. The yogurt it's self is creamy and smooth and surprisingly light on the tang factor. Because of that it made it more satisfying as a sweet snack. The little bites of apple brought some crunch and a slight bitter edge. My only compliant with this yogurt is that the amount of apple bits is pretty sparse.

Really tasty overall and for a 100 calorie snack that is also fat free and relatively good for you it is hard to do better. This gets a coveted 11!

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzel Bites

I should probably just say now that in the course of writing this review I ate almost the entire container...
Which should tell you I either really loved this snack or really hated it. I LOVED it. The candy is made up of little spheres of pretzel covered in dark chocolate and sprinkles. I just love chocolate and salt together. If you let the chocolate melt on your tongue as you get to the thinnest part of the chocolate it mixes with the salt from the pretzel/

The pretzels are crunchy and counter balance the smooth, cool chocolate perfectly. It was WAAAY to easy to plow through an embarrassingly large portion in a short period of time. The sprinkles are just sort of there. While they looked pretty they didn't really bring much to the table.
Again I have to praise Trader Joe's for they're commitment to high quality for low prices. The chocolate alone is good enough that I would enjoy it all by it's self.

One of the best TJ's offerings- and that says a lot because I am a pretty big fan.

PURCHASED FROM:
Trader Joe's



And here is the rest of it.

Dark Raisinets

Raisinets are another of those candies that evoke childhood memories for me.
It's not that we were exactly deprived of candy as kids, but there was a definite difference between the candy bought for the three of us kids and the candy my father bought for himself. It's not that he got himself high end stuff and got us cheap bulk candy (truth be told "back in the day" when I was just a youth there really wasn't all that much high end candy). No, he just got himself things I deemed more interesting then M&M's.

He almost always had a stash of chocolate covered raisins... and a certain someone took great pleasure in any available opportunity to snag some of said raisins. As an adult (kind of) I still find myself wishing raisins were used in candy more.

To be honest I haven't bought a box of Raisinets in years- personally I think Trader Joe's version is far better and cheaper! But this box of the dark chocolate variety just sort of called out to me.

The Raisinets are plump and juicy and fairly glossy little numbers. The coating is generously thick and Nestle actually uses real chocolate here (although it is real chocolate made with fake vanilla flavor so figure that one out)
The chocolate tasted pretty much exactly like Toll House Morsels (which I happen to love) They also melt pretty well even though they are a little waxy at first.

I still prefer the TJ's version but if I were to buy a box of these- say at the movies the dark version would be my choice. I also think this version would be fantastic baked in cookies.

PURCHASED FROM:
Blockbuster Video