Pop-Tarts Yum-Azing Vanilla

 The fourth of several summer-related posts in a row!

Typical cross-branding with this new flavor of Pop-Tarts which commemorates The Amazing Spider-Man movie released this summer.  It turns out this product also comes in a red box.  (Side note: I've heard that Marvel's licenses are such that they expire if they are not actively used within a certain frequency of years, which is why the movie market is being flooded with Marvel superhero reboots.  But, I can't find any hard source on this.)

This pastry boasts vanilla creme with bright red frosting.  As an adorable bonus, the sprinkles are large and in the shape of small spiders!

Unfortunately, this is a great example of a Pop-Tarts snack gone wrong.  The vanilla filling is nigh flavorless.  Worse, it somehow lends a candy-like flavor to what little vanilla is there, almost like a cheap supermarket bakery's cake frosting.  That, along with the big crunch of the frosting, and the bigger crunch of the spider sprinkles, and the experience of this is more like crunching on hard candy, made little better if you decide to toast it.

This product barely makes it into the 1-NOM zone.  If you want good vanilla Pop-Tarts, then seek out the humorously long named Pop-Tarts Festival Fun Frosted Vanilla I-Scream Cone.

Pop-Tarts Yum-Azing Vanilla: -Passable

Original Pop-Tarts(Strawberry, for comparison): - Good


acquired: Giant

Starburst Summer Fun Fruits

Note: This is a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom.

The third of several summer-related posts in a row!

Starburst says that these Summer Fun Fruits flavor will be available all this year, but I certainly haven't seen them everywhere, and I doubt they'll be available much past December 2012.

Starburst has so many different varieties, it's hard to tell which are ephemeral and which are not.  I give them credit, however, because unlike Mike and Ike, their varieties almost always contain new flavors, not simply different combinations of old ones.  And with Summer Fun Fruits, Starburst is doing it right by offering flavors that are similar enough to older flavors so as one can actually perceive the differences.

Tasting notes of the four new flavors -

Cherry Splash: Typical Starburst cherry, but with additions of banana and fruit punch.  Much better than normal cherry.  Great.

Strawberry Watermelon: Typical fake watermelon flavor, but fairly sweeter.  OK/good.

Lemon-Limeade: Better than the typical lemon flavor, with a bit of added bitter lime zest.  Much better than any average fake lime flavorings.  Great.

Kiwi-Banana: Better than the typical fake banana flavor, being much sweeter, but also with an acidic tang.  Great.

In the end, these are a bit better than the original.


Starburst Summer Fun Fruits: - Great
Original Starburst(for comparison): - Great

Mountain Dew Dark Berry

The second of several summer-related posts in a row!

Mountain Dew is no stranger to exclusive flavors and it is also no stranger to cross-branding.  We have both here in Mountain Dew Dark Berry, which coincided with and celebrated the release of The Dark Knight Rises film back in July.

I was hoping that this Dew was going to be akin to Mountain Dew Pitch Black (Vintage review coming soon), but it was not to be.

Dark Berry proves to be perhaps the sweetest Dew ever produced, and its sugar count on the Nutrition Facts reflect it.  What follows the sip is a muddy combination of both generic berry flavor along with grape.  While not stellar, it's pleasant.  However, I'm reminded that over-sweetening foods is a common practice to hide flavor and fool the taste buds into thinking something is tastier than it is, and I'm puzzled why Pepsico did this.  I can barely drink a whole can at a time.


Mountain Dew Dark Berry: - Good
Mountain Dew(original, for comparison): - Great

Ice Age Continental Drift Cinnamon Cereal

The first of several summer-related posts in a row!

A one-off limited time cereal?  Alrighty then.

This stuff was created to commemorate the film Ice Age: Continental Drift released this summer.

When the box opens, a cinnamon aroma quickly wafts to your nose and you soon realize you'll be comparing this product to Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

When dry, the cereal's ultra-crunchy corn-puff construction could be compared to Cap'n Crunch cereal, except that it's even more crunchy, and indeed it has that notorious ability to shred the roof of one's mouth.  However, once it's sat in milk for a bit, the outer crunchiness gives way to a lovely chewiness which I don't think I've quite experienced in any other cereal.

The flavor is as interesting as the texture.  While one may expect a run-of-the-mill cinnamon cereal, what one gets instead is a formula which is conservative on sugar and heavy on cinnamon.  The lack of overbearing sweetness makes one pay attention to the actual flavor of the cereal, which is so heavy on cinnamon that it's downright earthy.  The palate is left with a dry, woody aftertaste.

This cinnamon cereal is elevated into something more sophisticated than its peers.  It's like comparing a Single Malt Scotch to Jack Daniels.  It's almost into 4-NOM territory.


Ice Age Continental Drift Cinnamon Cereal: - Great