Candy Corn Oreo

Oreo has been issuing these each Halloween season, and I finally got my hands on them after they eluded me last year.

Simply put, they are Golden Oreos with a dual-sided creme filling, both of which combined are supposed to invoke the flavor of candy corn.  Preliminary tests suggest that the two different colors of creme don't actually taste different, but that is not conclusive.

Sadly, I believe Oreo may have been a bit too heavy handed here with their flavoring.  The first flavor I get is cake, just like Oreo's no-longer-ephemeral Birthday Cake Oreo, except that it tastes more buttery.  A moment later, I am slapped with saccharine butterscotch.  The two go well together, but they're just too strong.  I really can't eat more than one at a time.  A lighter hand in the designing the snack, I believe, would have made it stellar.

Candy Corn Oreo:- Good
Original Golden Oreo(for comparison):- Great


acquired: Target

NOMinally Ephemeral: Tootsie Roll Vanilla Midgees

I simply call them "vanilla Tootsie Rolls", and they're my favorite.  I always tend to prefer earthy/herbal flavors over chocolate, and I never was a big fan of the original Tootsie Roll candies.

Unfortunately, Vanilla Midgees are almost never sold by themselves; you can really only find them in bags of mixed Midgees of various flavors.  But Tootsie Roll made the genius decision of offering a limited edition packaging of only Vanilla Midgees for Halloween(look in your local store's Halloween candy aisle).  So fundamentally, this isn't really an ephemeral nom, and instead only NOMinally ephemeral.

Midgees have about the same texture as Tootsie Rolls, with perhaps a bit more softness to the chew.  These are immediately discernible as vanilla at first impression.  The vanilla used in the candy must be of high quality, because its depth of flavor reminds me of the kind imparted by real vanilla beans when used in cooking and baking.  The vanilla evolves into a creamy and buttery experience, thanks to the condensed milk used to make the candy.  Surely a more complex experience than the original Tootsie Roll.

These approach a 4-NOM score.  Nab them while you can.  You can always try to wait for the post-Halloween candy sales, but they might be gone by then.

Tootsie Roll Vanilla Midgees:- Great
Original Tootsie Roll(for comparison):- Good


acquired: CVS Pharmacy

Fruity Pebbles Rockin' Xtreme Colors

Boy, am I glad to be eating Fruity Pebbles in its loose cereal form again.

Post has issued a version of their cereal with neon colors, and trust me: the actual cereal is just as brightly colored as depicted on the box.  As mentioned before, aesthetic variations of noms are not reviewed on this site, even if they claim to be ephemeral.  However, this cereal boasts an "amped-up fruity taste", and so here we are.

Simply put, I can't tell the difference between this and the original cereal.  The differences might show themselves when tasted side by side, but I do not feel that I owe that experiment to this product.  The fruity and ever-so-artificial taste is there like it's always been, and that's not a bad thing.


Fruity Pebbles Rockin' Xtreme Colors:- Great
Original Fruity Pebbles(for comparison):- Great

Heinz Tomato Ketchup Real Jalapeño

It's not often that one sees Heinz ketchup offer a limited time variation.

The moment I heard about it, I dashed to my local store, and I found myself rewarded.

Jalapeño is one of my favorite flavors, though it seems an odd bedfellow for ketchup.  Despite the fact that tomatoes and jalapenos are often paired, my uneasiness regarding their pairing here seems founded.  Why?  Because ketchup tends to trounce whatever flavor to which it's applied.  Its sugary presence leaves no room for nuanced flavors, and I would generally call jalapeño as "nuanced".

As it hits the tongue, the condiment tastes as it usually does, with perhaps the slightest spicy entry along with a more savory debut than the average.  The middle of the experience seems run-of-the-mill, as the sugar of the ketchup mostly cancels out whatever spiciness may have been present on the actual taste buds.  After the swallow, however, the spice returns and burns the throat, and not in an unpleasant way.  Overall, almost no flavor of the actual jalapeño is present.

In the end, it offers and interesting and different way to experience ketchup (and however it is applied to your favorite food), but not quite enough to elevate it.  I welcome more forays such as this from Heinz.


Heinz Tomato Ketcup Real Jalapeño:- Good
Original Heinz Tomato Ketcup(for comparison):- Good

Gatorade Strawberry Lemonade

Gatorade has issued this flavor recently and has been advertising the hell out of it at 7-Eleven locations.

There's really not much to this.  They've taken two flavorings that they use for some of their normal drink varieties and have combined them for a limited edition one.

Admittedly, strawberry and lemonade are a good combination in general, and they're a good combination here.  The sweetness/tartness balance is good, just like in any Gatorade product, and the strawberry does not come across as candy-like and artificial, which is tough to do, in my opinion.


Gatorade Strawberry Lemonade:- Good
Original Gatorade(Orange, for comparison):- Good

acquired: 7-Eleven

Ben & Jerry's Piña Colada

Ben & Jerry's is one of those brands that I really have to commend for keeping things fresh with their product's varieties.  Their stable of flavors is one of the biggest in the ice cream industry, those permanent flavors are always changing every few years, and they often send out "Limited Batches" of flavors to test on America's tongues.

This summery offering caught me off guard.  When I think of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, I think of them as rich and decadent.  Perhaps not as high in fat as something like Häagen-Dazs, but Ben & Jerry's original ice cream has always signified high quality ingredients and flavors that are full and assertive.

The first bite makes it clear that this stuff is not meant to be the rich and hedonistic mix that can soothe sorrows after a tough day or a bad breakup.  No, B&J have gone out of their way to make this Limited Batch light and refreshing.  The first ingredient in the product's Nutrition Facts is indeed cream, but the second is skim milk.  The result is that the mouth feel of this product is more like sherbet than ice cream.  In fact, it's not unlike the fabulous So Delicious coconut milk ice creams, though this product does not use coconut milk.

The "cream" is flavored with both coconut and pineapple that is very well balanced and instantly invokes the Piña Colada.  In addition, folded into the ice cream are small bits of dried coconut and dried pineapple.  Because these bits have sat in a tub of cream since its production in the factory, they end up being slightly rehydrated, and the resulting texture is nicely chewy.

A bowl of this stuff would hit the spot after mowing the lawn, for example.  But in the end, it doesn't quite reach the euphoric experience that defines ice cream as an indulgence.

Ben & Jerry's Piña Colada:- Good
Original Ben & Jerry's(Vanilla, for comparison):- Great

Fudge Covered Ritz

Our final late-summer post about a product from last winter.  Ritz decided to cover their crackers with fudge.  Not a bad idea, right?

Ritz is mostly regarded as a savory product, but because it's really only butter and flour, it can definitely act as a sweet one as well, and that's the tack that Nabisco is trying to take here.  I went in with high hopes, but I ended up disappointed.  The entire draw of Ritz, it's buttery and toasted flavor, are undetectable when paired with the mouthful of chocolate that accompanies it.  In turn, its crunch is more or less dampened by the rubbery snap of the coating as well, which itself is nice, but the two textures don't pair extremely well.  In fact, the texture very much reminds me of LU Petit Écolier cookies, but not quite as good.

For a more interesting take on the potential of sweet Ritz crackers, I would guide you to the Honey Wheat variety, which is sold year round.


Fudge Covered Ritz:- Good
Original Ritz(for comparison):- Great