Mt Dew Gingerbread Snap'd

Coming off the holidays, Pepsico released this gem for the season.  You really have to respect how wacky Dew can get sometimes.

If your first thought was "how the hell are they going to make a citrus drink taste like spiced cookies?", join the club.

In practice, they didn't do a bad job.  I think they calmed down the "Dew" flavor for the base, and then they've seemed to have added brown sugar and ginger.  That's mostly it.  It combines with the Dew just fine.  As I've been drinking this, there's a voice in my head saying that they probably added some spice too.  If I strain hard, I can maybe pick out allspice as well.

Anyway, it's tasty enough, and a laudable experiment, but it's not just as good as the original.  But it can't go unsaid that this is one of the most beautiful can designs I've ever seen.

Mt Dew Gingerbread Snap'd:- Good

Original Mt Dew(for comparison):- Great

Jello Seasonal Release Instant Puddings

The 2012 posts are going to continue for a bit... there's a backlog of Ephemeral Noms!

For several years now, Jello has issued several special flavors of instant pudding for the autumn/holiday season.  These are most (if not all) of them.

Candy Cane - My distaste for peppermint notwithstanding, this stuff just isn't that good.  The sweetness of the pudding does poorly in balancing out the onslaught of mint/menthol, which is so strong that you can feel it in your nasal passages, not unlike horseradish or wasabi.  It's like the Jello company ground up a bunch of candy canes straight into this mix... even the chalkiness is present.

Pumpkin Spice - The aroma is of earthy cinnamon as you dig into this stuff.  The flavors here are a valiant try: cinnamon, nutmeg, perhaps allspice, and sweet pumpkin.  What the hell... do they dry pumpkin flesh and grind the stuff into this mix?  The flavors are pleasant, but the sweetness needs to be amped in order for them to really sing.

Gingerbread - This one is a hit.  Rich and deep spices assault the tongue in harmony: ginger, clove, allspice, cinnamon, molasses.  It's quite sweet, and it delivers the rest of the complex flavors perfectly.  I could eat this stuff until I got sick.


Jello Candy Cane Pudding: - Passable
Jello Pumpkin Spice Pudding: - Good
Jello Gingerbread Pudding: - Great
Original Jello Vanilla Pudding(for comparison): - Good

Printed Fun Pop-Tarts Gingerbread

 Another holiday limited edition and in one of my favorite flavors, and you could color me excited.

On top of that, the front of these Pop-Tarts have fun prints on them, which also belies that the fronts are plain instead of covered with frosting, which I often find is a bit overkill with most Pop Tarts. I've always been the kind of guy that enjoys the pie crust or cake more than the pie filling or frosting, so a plain Pop Tart is okay with me.

Unfortunately, these Pop-Tarts still fall into the trap of overbearing sweetness. Whereas most Pop-Tarts fillings are a fruity, syrupy jam (or otherwise a grainy paste in the case of spicy/earthy/chocolatey flavors), this version's filling is straight up marshmallow. With each bite, the filling oozes and stretches into strings, like a good fried mozzarella stick. Marshmallow with gingerbread? Why?

While the filling may not have hit the mark, the pastry dough is a much better creation. It parts ways in style from most, if not all Pop-Tarts doughs I've had. Whether or not it's able to claim the appropriate health accolades, this version's dough takes a wheat/whole grain approach. Its texture is much more tender than you'd expect. Its flavor is lightly of gingerbread, and it has that earthy and wheaty flavor that you'd expect from whole wheat bread or whole wheat pasta. It's also a bit more salty than I expected. The pastry dough for this product is legitimately interesting.

Overall, while the dough is different and good and the filling is basically marshmallow creme, I feel they're very much mismatched. This stuff is only worth a buy if you adore marshmallow, or if you're buying just for the novelty of it.

EDIT: I just realized that while I best enjoy Pop-Tarts at room temperature, the product deserves to also be tried heated/toasted, since that is the recommended serving suggestion.  Wow, these things are surprisingly different and better when heated.  The gingerbread flavor of the dough is more pronounced, and finally the inner marshmallow has reached a soft and not a spongy consistency.  Somehow, when heated, the marshmallow filling actually works with the pastry!  I will be bumping up the final NOM rating by 1, and I will be sure to try every Pop-Tarts product heated and also at room temperature from now on!

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

Acquired: supermarket