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

NOMinally Ephemeral: Cadbury Screme Egg & Mike and Ike Mummy's Mix

Let's close out Halloween 2012 with two noms that are only ephemeral in name, no reviews required.

Cadbury has rolled out their Screme Egg, which is simply a Creme Egg with green filling.

Then we have Mike and Ike Mummy's Mix.  While this blend is a unique mix of flavors, the flavors themselves aren't unique.  At least, I think they aren't.  A rudimentary search on my part can not find which other blend contains the grape flavor, but I'm fairly sure it's out there.

Kool-Aid Ghoul-Aid Scary Blackberry

You could call our house a Kool-Aid shop, so to speak.  We drink a lot of Kool-Aid (with sugar free sweetener), and we keep up on a lot of the new flavors that occasionally come out.  Limited time flavors, however, are rare for Kool-Aid.

The company has decided to celebrate Halloween with Ghoul-Aid, a special edition flavor of "blackberry".  This mix's flavor(prepared with real sugar for review) isn't quite of blackberry, but instead a mix of various purple fruits.  To me, it tastes and smells mostly of blueberry, but there's also grape, blackberry, raspberry, and maybe even pomegranate.  The finish of this stuff is surprisingly sour and bitter, reminiscent of a good black cherry soda.

The sourness isn't my cup of tea, and blueberry isn't my favorite flavor either.  Overall, however, I laud Kool-Aid for issuing something new, and especially one that's different than their normal stable of flavors.

Kool-Aid Ghoul-Aid Scary Blackberry: - Good
Original Kool-Aid(Grape, for comparison): - Good

M&M's White Chocolate Candy Corn

M&M's are offering a seasonal variation to add to the sugary onslaught that is Halloween.

These candies come in a variety of warm autumn colors, and their size and shape are a bit more like Peanut M&M's despite that there's only a chocolate mixture inside.

The chocolate mixture is all white chocolate, with no cocoa solids to be found.  These teach me that I like white chocolate in M&Ms... I wonder why they don't make them regularly?  This is no regular white chocolate, however... it's supposedly flavored like candy corn.  It tastes nothing like candy corn, ultimately, which is good, because I despise the stuff.  The flavor instead is of burnt sugar, caramel, and maybe toffee.  There's a sugary note in there that reminds me of cotton candy.

Not bad, overall.  This departure in flavor from the normal M&M's stable is worth a detour.  The "candy corn" flavoring isn't a huge hit (even among candy corn fans I've consulted), but in my opinion, the white chocolate filling is worth your attention, if only for one go-round.

M&M's White Chocolate Candy Corn: - Good
Original M&M's (for comparison):  - Good

Pop-Tarts Wildlicious Frosted Wild! Grape

 Note: This is a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom.

The Pop-Tarts Wildlicious flavors continue.

Why they thought "grape" was wild enough to be marketed in this packaging/sub-brand is beyond me.  It must be sour grape or something, right?

No, it's just normal grape.  I give credit to the brand, because I don't think a grape flavor of these pastries has ever been done before.  It tastes exactly how you think it will: just like a typical Pop-Tarts fruit flavor, such as strawberry, but with the distinct flavor of grape Kool-Aid instead.

It's tasty and different and yet par for the course.  And much like the previous Wildlicious flavor, the taste of the product does not match its marketing.



Pop-Tarts Wildlicious Frosted Wild! Grape: - Good
Original Pop-Tarts(Strawberry, for comparison): - Good

Acquired: supermarket