Pepperidge Farm Swirl Bread: Caramel Apple

After enjoying the Strawberry Banana flavor so much, when I saw the Caramel Apple flavor on the shelf next to it, apples being another of my favorite fruits, I was compelled to try it. The smell was strong and apple-y. Unfortunately, the taste was not.

I was frankly disappointed. I referenced the strawberry banana as "subtle;" here, the subtlety is enough that it can be hard to taste the apple at all! Plus, I have no idea if there was any caramel in there, period. The texture seemed to have little apple-like chunks in the slices; honestly, the novelty was mostly in the aroma and texture. The flavor didn't scream "caramel apple" to me at all.

To be fair, it could always be that my taste buds were overwhelmed by something (i.e. apple cider), but I'm pretty sure I had a slice without drinking anything that flavorful beforehand and had a similar effect. Maybe my tastebuds just got inured to apple?

It seems that, for fall, Pepperidge Farm introduced this flavor as well as a Pumpkin Spice flavor, which I did not see with this one, interestingly enough (maybe I was distracted by "ooh, Caramel Apple!"). Hopefully I'm wrong about my first impressions on this bread, and hopefully Pumpkin Spice is good too; I really like these creative Swirl breads.

Nonni's Triple Milk Chocolate Biscotti

Chocolate Biscotti + 110cal.

I'll admit it, the chocolate high for relatively few calories (considering some of the decadent things one can get) is what drew me in. What took me so long to try one was a trick of my own eyes: when I took the tray of long biscotti out of the box, I only counted four, magically neglecting to count the second four behind them.

The biscotti are hard, as to be expected. They are not horribly hard, but give some resistance before breaking -- they are not completely brittle, either. The hardness of the biscotti is offset by drizzled chocolate -- a zigzag on top and a coating on the bottom. These help the texture feel softer without the aid of milk or coffee (which are common complements to biscotti).

At 880--I mean, 110 calories, these four-inch biscotti are quite a treat. Those 110 may soon become 880 despite the barrier of individual wrappers.

Wrigley 5 Gum: Vortex

Wrigley's 5 Gum in Vortex is a green-apple flavor. When you open the pack, it hits you in the face with sour green apple scent. It made me think of a Jolly Rancher, to be honest.

The flavor tastes almost as it smells only a bit less intense. You do get the sour/fruity Jolly Rancher feel, but it is a bit underwhelming. Nevertheless, it's not bad. A bit of "juicy green apple" flavor as the box promises and some chewing. The stick was nice and soft, too.

Not my favorite flavor but I've been able to munch on it for a bit, which says something.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

This book was a fairly good thriller, although the character developments seemed a bit strange and disjointed and unexplained. I definitely enjoyed the thriller-mystery hybrid, although I will say, the fact that a cat is tortured and killed, even a fictional one, rubs me very much the wrong way. I almost couldn't finish the book because it bothered me.

The book is kind of camel-like, since you have the initial mystery and then a "mystery solved" resolution of the conflict that started the book. So, I suppose it would be more sandwich-like.

If you don't know Sweden or Stockholm, you'll be lost -- lots of familiar references to countryside places and city districts that make those who have no clue about the area go "...What?" over and over again.

Not a bad book though.

Mentos UP2U Gum: Striped Red Strawberry/Starmint

Just in time for July 4th I'm posting my thoughts on the patriotically themed flavors of UP2U gum. The package is American Flag-y, and even the flavors are patriotic -- STRIPED Red Strawberry and STARmint. Get it? Stars and stripes?

The Starmint flavor is probably one of my favorite minty flavors so far. I am terrible at identifying mints, so I have no idea if it's a blend of mints or what, but I can say that it's a very light and fresh mint flavor -- very nice and refreshing.

Like the other non-mint flavors I've had (aka Berry Watermelon and...Berry Watermelon), the Striped Red Strawberry does have a weird minty undertone to it. But the flavor is also very definitely strawberryesque, and nicely so. What I REALLY liked about this was the smell -- talk about getting a good smack of strawberry right in the nose (I like strawberry smells)!

Mentos UP2U Gum: Berry Watermelon/Fresh Mint

The Fresh mint starts off nice and sweet -- the way fresh would be expected. At times, though, it gets some bitter/sour notes, or it did with the first few pieces I tasted. (This may also be because I was simply trying the gum, rather than having a piece after food, so the neutralizing effect of the mint was overstated.)

I'm not sure how much I like the Berry Watermelon. It's got a nice sweetness to it, but at the same time, while you're feeling the berry tang and everything, there's a minty undertone that is a little odd considering this is a berry and watermelon flavor. It's kind of like the Fresh Mint is an undertone and it's a bit strange. Besides that, though, the gum is really succulent-feeling and sweet and nice.

Chubster: A Hipster's Guide to Losing Weight While Staying Cool

Recently I was perusing my library system's cache of weight-loss/dieting books (I know that might get people all up in arms, for some reason they always do when I talk about me and dieting -- but hang on for a second before I get all the naknaknakking) and came upon a book by Martin Cizmar called Chubster: A Hipster's Guide to Losing Weight While Staying Cool.

Never mind trimming off fat, did I really just rea that title?! And so, I borrowed the book.

(By the way, apologies to hipsters everywhere. I don't mean to rag on you. I just found the juxtaposition of a dieting book and hipsters kinda funny from the "what how seriously" point of view.)

As much as I thought the book would be a good laugh (as I, for one, do not quite identify with the hipster subculture), it was actually more accessible than I thought it would be. Sure, the narration got snarky and stereotypical hipster-y (something you've probably never heard of--sorry, sorry, I'll stop) at points, since the audience it's aimed it is...well...hipsters, those on the forefront fringe of youth culture, and I couldn't help but giggle when there came a part when a basic caricature of the various stereotypes (the hippie or "granola", a music hipster going to concerts of bands we've never heard of, the trendily nerdy bookworms, the artsy fashionistas, the Twitter prodigies...etc) was given to suggest different ways of going about the "Chubster" plan. But, even the author admitted those stereotypes were...well...stereotypes, extreme cases.

I have to say though, just to get it out there, the Music Snob Hipster was what made me start laughing. The idea of ironic 80's band t-shirts (why they're ironic...I guess 'cause there's no way you'd actually have a shirt firsthand from old bands and they're so old it's ironically being slowpoke.jpg?) and a portable turntable put me in the mind of a character, Dave Strider, from Homestuck, and the ability to concentrate and be mature about things spiraled from there.

If you look past the aim towards being "cool" by the modern standards of being a barista that frequents art galleries and doesn't roll with "The Man," though, the book gives some pretty sound advice. It focuses on calorie counting, and even gives a small sampling of what's calorically better or worse among some fast foods, ethnic foods, and microwaveable meals -- taste taken into consideration as well. Apparently alcohol is a large concern, at least by this book, so there's a whole section discussing the goods/bads of your various recreational drugs (alcohol and marijuana, specifically). There are also some good organizational tips, like creating a database of foods you eat and their nutritional values so that you start to, over time, get a broad picture of what's a better or worse idea in your personal diet.

As exercise, too, is generally considered important for health, the book gives some good alternatives to simply signing up for the nearest gym. Example: walking.

The book tries to drive home that, so long as you're aware of what you're eating and expending energy-wise, you can get a handle on your body. I really liked that it gave a starting point for foods, including defining 'fancier' foods like foi gras and whether it may be a good or bad idea to have (i.e. I would have sworn foi gras was a plant, since gras looks like grass. I was wrong. It's duck fat or something like that. NOT a green like arugula or endive). Not only does it give you a few reference points, it shows in its brief analyses some of the things you should look out for. Another example is the entry on quinoa, where it's pointed out that quinoa IS nutritious, but it's also caloric -- something that has to be taken into consideration with what the meal is.

So, while I sort of took the book out as a shallow joke, it's actually a worthwhile thing to browse through if you're thinking about dieting. It's written by someone who's done the weight loss thing, who has definitely done their research, and who very relatably did not want to glue to a crazy fad diet (never mind if it's too mainstream, those are too ineffective on the whole!).

Juicy Writing

Though Brigid Lowry's Juicy Writing is aimed at younger writers, given its playful personality and categorization in the Young Adult section of the library, it is nonetheless a fun read. The aim of guiding and encouraging people, particularly those who may be just beginning to take an interest in writing, makes it all the more accessible and friendly. It is not aimed for 'established' writers who have honed their craft -- no, this is kind of like Writing 101. It touches on the basic particles of speech (not too deeply, it only really goes into nouns, verbs, and adjectives, if I recall) and explains the importance of story elements like setting, character, and conflict, but it also gives lots of personal anecdotes that show "even for a published writer like myself, it's not exactly an easy road, so don't be discouraged". It's like a big book of writing advice. And, after each element touched on, there are some writing exercises based on what was discussed and/or the examples given in the book to start the reader off on thinking and writing, should they desire. (I skimmed through the exercises, personally more concerned with reading the book).

No matter what your level of skill or interest in writing, if there is any of either, at all, this is a fun way to entertain that.

Marukawa Fusen Bubble Gum

This Japanese gum comes in little cardboard boxes. Inside are four relatively soft gumballs -- there IS a 'shell' but it's more like the gum's been firmed up a bit than covered by a hard shell.

The flavors I've seen are Orange, Strawberry, Melon, and Grape, though the Internet tells me there are others. These flavors come across as their respective fruits at their sweetest -- they aren't overly artificial. For example, the Orange flavor tastes like you're chewing a segment of orange...which is great authenticity-wise (I, personally, am not overly fond of oranges).

If you simply want something to chew on, one ball will suffice. It might feel like a little less gum than you are used to, but it's chewable. Two will be a little over what you're used to.

However, if you want to use it as bubble gum, I suggest using all four balls at once. It may sound like a lot, but with any less the gum is too thin to stretch properly for bubble-blowing.

Three Bedrooms in Chelsea

I recently read Three Bedrooms in Chelsea by Liz Ireland. The book starts off a bit awkwardly, with the main character, Edie, coming off as whiny as her boyfriend of four months is sent off on a journalism assignment to Uzbekistan. Edie, an actress with a severe deficiency in the work department, can't keep the rent up herself; so, when the for-rent stipend given to her by her boyfriend wears off, she makes a decision her friends see as radical, especially in as unpredictable a town as New York City: she decides to get a roommate.

Edie gets more than she bargains for, even after trying to screen through all the potentials. She ends up with not one, but two, roomates: Greta, a German immersed in the hard-partying nightlife, and Danielle, a provincially innocent Texan with a triple-digit allowance from her father.

The book goes through these three women's trials and tribulations in the city -- Edie dealing with her friend's blossoming acting career and her noticeable lack thereof, Danielle getting accustomed to the big city and that thousand-dollar shopping sprees don't agree with someone starting off on their own, and Greta pondering a major lifestyle change.

There's a fair amount of catfights, especially towards the end when Romance Interests are present, but the moment when the three women stop tolerating each other and start getting a little friendlier is surprisingly sudden and quick. I remember distinctly noting how ridiculously quick the turnaround was.

I guess this counts as 'chick lit' because it follows the affairs (love, work, and otherwise) of three women who didn't know each other from a hole in the wall and become, though incredibly different, friends by the end of the book  -- the ending, if you couldn't guess, is one of those everything went to hell during the story but then there's the feel-good ending where a brighter day seems to be coming things.

Overall, it was a fun read.

Morinaga Hi-Chew

The chews start out rather firm, which may contribute to the fact that they are a supple sort of chewy. Kind of like gum that doesn't get too too mushy -- though, of course, less stretchy, since this is intended to be consumed rather than just chewed.

The colors of the chews differ from flavor to flavor. Often, they are pale and dual-colored. For example, the strawberry flavor is white on the edges with a pink middle, and that of the peach is white around...well...a peach color.


The flavor of the chew is light but strong. Quite sweet, but not the overly candy sweet. It's like the natural fruit-sweet noticeably, but not drastically, amplified.

They come in flavors other than strawberry and peach, including mango and melon. (The picture is mango.)

New York Support

'Twas a good day for New York baseball. As it so happens, interleague play has the Yankees at the Braves and the Mets at the Rays. Both of these teams are the mainstay of competition for first place at the moment.

So, to have the Mets give an absolute blowout of a game and bring 11 runs in, despite their outfielders having a few mishaps with tracking the ball under the Tropicana dome, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 11-2, is quite a welcome advantage for the Yankees.

Had they stayed at the score they had going into the eighth, this would have at least kept the Yanks even with Tampa for first. But, in that inning, a strong rally brought six runs in -- enough for the Yankees to win in the end over the Braves, 6-4.

It's safe to say New York baseball fans are happy tonight.

Mets and Nats Errorfest

I think the announcers actually called it "a delightful mess of a game." It was one of those where one team (the away team, the Mets) would get a run -- looked like they'd win. Then, a million errors in the bottom of the inning would bring the home team (the Nationals) up to a tie.

Rinse and repeat for three innings.

I'm not even joking, the amount of errors in the 9 - 12 innings were like...ridiculous.

When you have announcers going "WHAT IS HE DOING?!" and just absolutely bewildered/flabbergasted by the game...

After a lot of botched throws and catcher fails and whatnot, the painfully entertaining game ended with the bases loaded and almost, almost walked the last run in, but there was a base hit instead and so the Nationals won 7-6.

I only started watching because I heard outraged screaming from watchers at the beginning of the errorfest.

And just when the Mets got their first no-hitter in history...second place going against first place, supposedly these are the best teams in the NL East, and we get this. I know it happens, but it feels ridiculous when it does.

Kasugai Gummies

Japanese gummies are typical anime convention fare. They're little, individual wrapped, quarter-sized gummies made with various flavors. Depending on the flavor, I've seen them as both circle and heart-shaped. The gummies are firm, so when you bite down on them it's notably thicker than jello, but they're smooth, too, so if you don't bite down immediately they'll slide around in your mouth. They're surprisingly heavy for their small size; I think I just ate two servings (6 of these things) and it feels like a gummy brick is in my stomach. (You'd think I'd know better by now.)

They come in a lot of flavors; I haven't had the chance to try every flavor out there, but I have had a good number, like melon, grape, muscat grape (yes these are two different flavors), strawberry, and apple. I've even seen a ramune flavored one! I tasted it and thought I tasted a tang like a soda (ramune is a carbonated beverage known for being served in bottles stoppered with marbles), but thinking about it now, the tang was probably a soft hint of the lemon-lime flavor that is the "original" ramune soda flavor.

The intensity of flavor differs depending on which type you're having, and the feeling of the "natural" or "candy" version of said flavors differ as well. For example, the strawberry gummies are light and candylike, while the apple gummies are extremely intense in their flavor and taste like an incredibly potent apple cider.

Superior Cake Products Mini Black and White Cookies

I'm usually not that fond of black and white cookies. The half side of chocolate is usually the best part, and then there's the rest of the cookie to slog through.

Not so with these cookies.

For one, they're small, so while there's less chocolate to enjoy, it's not like you're going through a giant mound of the cookie beneath.

For another, these cookies were amazingly moist for being in a box -- the cookie part was so good, not only did I not mind it, that was a good part of what kept me coming back for another!

It could just be my bad luck in encountering black and whites over the years, but these definitely rank as the best I've had so far.

Philadelphia Dark Chocolate Indulgence

This is basically a chocolate cream cheese. Sometimes it felt like cocoa powder mixed into creamcheese, only, with minimal balancing to the bitterness. Maybe that was the cream cheese giving its part to the flavor and diverting it from pure chocolate taste. It was good, though -- I mean, come on, chocolate and cream cheese, how can this go wrong?!

Also comes in milk and white chocolate; I am sorely tempted to try these out as well.

Devils to the Stanley Cup

I will admit. I am a Rangers fan more than a Devils fan by far. So, to say that the Devils are going to the Stanley Cup stings a little. But, considering the game ended maybe an hour or two before the time of writing, it's a surprisingly tame sting.

Had the game gone as it did in the first period, I don't think I would have felt as peaceful with this outcome. The Devils were positively flogging the Rangers -- 2 goals in one period, the players were nowhere, missing the puck or neglecting to hustle. In a word, the Rangers were sloppy in the first period, and it was embarrassing, especially thinking that we could go down in such a pathetic manner.

The second period made up for this, though. In a matter of minutes, the Rangers came alive and blasted two goals to tie the game back up. The tying goal was astonishing -- a long shot by Callahan that ricocheted off skates and between players, Ranger and Devil alike, to get into the goal. It passed at least five players, including a hit on Girardi's skate.

For the rest of the game, it was a pretty admirable back-and-forth. The Rangers indeed fought hard, but it is as hard to get past Brodeur as it is Lundqvist, and through unlucky placement and missed shots and a thousand other little quirks, none of the scoring chances made in the third period bore any fruit. The same could be said for the Devils, though, which brought the game into overtime.

The winning goal was a tiny putt behind Lundqvist after he defended a barrage of shots. The puck slipped through on one, went behind him, and one calm tap finished the game 3-2 Devils, ending the series.

Juicy Fruit Juicy Secret

It's certainly got a juicy feel to it when you first start chewing, but then the flavor mellows out pretty quickly and the gum loses the softness it originally had. The juiciness is sadly fleeting.

Ben and Jerry's Coconut Seven Layer Bar

I happened upon a scoop shop while I was on a trip to Boston. The combination of coconut ice cream with fudge, walnuts, and butterscotch sounded amazing, and it is currently scoop shop only, so I caved and snapped it up. (Somehow I managed to refrain from also buying every other flavor available, scoop shop specific or not -- I'm a HUGE fan of Ben and Jerry's.) It's been a while, so I don't remember it in detail, but I do remember eating it was an amazing experience. Not sure if I tasted the walnuts all that much, but I distinctly remember the butterscotch being very caramelly to me (in a good way). And the coconuttiness of the ice cream. Oh man. Yum.

Fruit2O and Hint Waters

Recently I've discovered that I can actually stomach flavored water. It used to be that I couldn't take the feeling of water with flavor, but I've found these are enough to my taste that I can handle them. I'm not sure if it's that they're 'gentler' than whatever I'd tried before or if it's my palate changing, but it has happened.

• Hint Premium Essence Water

As you can probably guess from the picture I chose, I tried the watermelon version of this stuff. It was pretty good. It helped that watermelon is a light flavor, because the overwhelming flavor is what stops me when I'm drinking something thirstily and expecting something water (i.e. flavored waters). The hint was light and came across as...well...a hint of watermelon. Just as you'd kinda expect.

• Fruit2O

 
 Like the Hint, this was surprisingly nice and light flavoring, though it was definitely more intense. Again, though, this could relate to the flavor choices -- the Fruit2O I came across didn't have a watermelon flavor, so I can't do a direct comparison; the flavors I had instead were Strawberry, which is nice and light while having a sweet, strawberry punch to it, and Grape, which was slightly reminiscent of the just-too-sweet medicine grape, but not quite. It wasn't bad, though, just a little oddly sweet. (but then, I found the grape medicines among the most tolerable as a kid.)

Blueberry Muffin Poptarts

These Poptarts are, well, Poptarts. You get what you expect -- they're not the next gourmet treat. But, for what they are, they're quite good.

The poptart itself is cute, with white icing and blue and tan specks mimicking the idea of a blueberry muffin.It tasted and felt like a routine Poptart, with either the filling or the icing (likely the filling, for it seemed much less present than the latter) giving a hint of blueberry.

Once you've taken a bite or few, be sure to savor the flavor. It may not seem like that much at first, but I was able to get to a point where the blueberry and the poptart pastry flavors combined and gave a nice, Poptart-ized imitation of a muffin.

Pepperidge Farm Swirl Bread: Strawberry Banana

Considering I like the regular cinnamon version of this bread AND it was strawberry banana, I had to try it. It was quite good. There is still cinnamon in the bread, which is sliced thick and rather moist, mostly due to the swirls and bits of strawberry and banana in the bread. The strawberry banana felt rather subtle to me, sweet but balanced with the cinnamon. It really is like the regular bread only with strawberry and banana, so if you like both...chances are you'll like this.

Body Armor SuperDrink: Strawberry Banana Guava

I've been drooling over this bottle every time I pass. It's all pretty and pink with a nice macro of a ripe red strawberry, yellow bananas, and the adorable green-rimmed pink of what I'm assuming is guava (I should get myself one if they're really like that). Plus, I love anything strawberry banana, I think I mentioned that in a few posts; I remember specifically in my ramblings about Chobani Yogurt and Tropical Starburst.

It was very powerful on the strawberry banana - the combination hit hard. I don't know where the guava went, though, to be honest, I don't know if guava is a flavor I would recognize. The texture was nice. I thought it was going to be watery and odd because the drink is pretty transparent, but it felt more like I was drinking a thinned-out smoothie. Not an exceptionally watered down one, just one that had lost the edge to its thickness. It definitely felt more smoothie-like than I expected.

Dora3 Croissants with Cocoa Creme

Considering I got these for a few bucks because someone decided to shop while hungry, I wasn't expecting them to be AMAZING. They were actually pretty good, though. The cream was scanty, but it was good, and the pastry itself was enjoyable. They flavored it with lemon, though, as seems to be common in pastries and desserts everywhere. If you like lemon flavoring, then it should be fine.

Trident Layers Sweet Cherry and Island Lime

I've probably mentioned it a thousand times, I'm a sucker for the word "new." That, plus the sudden craving for gum I had, led to the purchase of a few packs, one of them being these.

I'm surprised. For all my hesitation about this flavor, being that one of my most common flavor preferences is "NOT citrus," I really like this gum. If the gum flavor actually is layered, that might explain why, because the cherry comes to counteract/balance out/fill out the lime. And, the lime flavor isn't TOO intense. You can definitely taste it, but at the same time, there's the sweetness of cherry so you're not overloaded.

In addition to that, I love the texture of this gum! It comes in a stick that's maybe half the size of your average "stick of gum," with a lot of the equivalence coming from how thick the stick is (because of the layers). Unlike some other gums I've had, this stays remarkably pliable for me for a while.

Starbucks Doubleshot Energy+Coffee Mocha and White Chocolate

Starbucks Doubleshots. Actually, these are Starbucks Doubleshots + Energy, officially -- rather than the smaller cans, which are listed as the pure 'Doubleshots', this is a mixture of coffee and an energy drink mixture, rather than what is touted as purely espresso and cream/flavoring. The flavor that I usually get is mocha, and the taste got some time to get used to -- I think because, in addition to the getting over the coffee in the mocha flavoring, there were the unexpected zings of an energy drink (other than these, I hadn't really partaken of energy drinks).

As for effectiveness, I had one in the morning and I'm jittery as anything. I take energy strangely, where I get foggy/sleepy before it kicks in, so during the hour or so I sipped this I felt a bit groggy. About half an hour later, though (this being about an hour and a half before typing this), I felt my mind start to race and my brain start to be on hyper mode. Typing this, I'm still jittery and hyper. I still feel my eyes wanting to sleep, my body's yawning, but it's not complete lethargy. It's like being tired but overly energetic at the same time. There may or may not be a crash in the near future, but as it is, I'm in a semi-productive state of mind -- that is, if I can get myself to concentrate.

Though, the effects I'm having are probably due to my body, personally. I'm guessing this affects different people differently. It can work as something of a boost for me, if I time drinking it right. If I'm already exhausted it'll keep me on a semi-awake plateau.

If you know what energy drinks do to you, it probably does something along that order. I can't really say much for sure.


Until recently, I'd only really had mocha whenever I had a doubleshot (which depending on my workload/schedule, varies from like once a month to once a week at least...it's been much towards the latter over the past two months). Maybe a month ago, I came across a non-coffee, non-vanilla, non-mocha variant of the drink that I'd not seen before: white chocolate. I was curious, so I tried it.

It could be that I'm used to mocha to the extent that the combination of coffee/energydrink and flavoring tastes odd with nythig else, but I have to say, I didn't really like it quite as much. There is a white chocolate flavor, but it's sort of tame, or light. I had to take a big sip to definitively taste it. The drink is definitely more 'mellow' feeling than the mocha. I don't know how to quite put it into words others will understand, but the adjectives "dark" and "deep" as compared to the mocha came to me. Kind of like it's more subdued, less sweet, less chocolatey. You get used to it as you drink, but at first I was a bit taken aback by the flavor, and not in a good way.

Chobani Yogurt

Being that I am, admittedly, prone to episodes of 'I should stop whining about what I don't like and do something,' I came across something somewhere that touted Greek yogurt as a good 'I need to get through this morning on something not ridiculously caloric' option. What the hell is Greek yogurt, I wondered. Not that didn't know of its existence; I'd seen it on the shelves, I just didn't know why the yogurt being Greek suddenly made it all that different. It had high protein, the article/yogurt cups said.

All they had to tell me was "it's twice as thick as normal yogurt. AND WE MEAN IT." The extra protein's a nice bonus for a carb-based lump like I am, but the real reason I fell for it was, when I finally went 'okay, I'll try it,' it was THICK.

(FYI: The only brand/type of Greek yogurt I can really go by is Chobani, so I'm going to use that as my example for now.)

It's actually to the point that the fruit-on-the-bottom types of the yogurt are thicker than plain, likely because they strain the yogurt just a little more to compensate for the liquid of the fruit that's...y'know...on the bottom. Chobani basically comes in Plain or fruit, with the Honey (and probably the Vanilla, too) being the exceptions. For its part, the Honey was a bit liquidy though -- like it was a fruit-on-the-bottom already mixed up for you, which I guess makes sense against dealing with honey-on-the-bottom.

For the fruit yogurts, I can't say I've tried all of them because (a) I haven't come across all of them and (b) some flavors, such as Lemon, I know on principle I probably will not enjoy, and I'm not paying for a three-dollar (where I get it) yogurt just to see if there's some manner of exception. As such, I can only go by the flavors I've had, which may only amount to three, actually.

Chobani has several  (about 20) flavors. Besides Plain and the aforementioned Vanilla and Honey flavors, they have a large assortment of fruit flavors that are either non-fat or low-fat (a distinction that I, personally, take little notice of, because 160 is only 10-20 calories more than the non-fat flavors, assuming we're not going for the 100 calorie plain. Also, this means MAX 160 calories, come on! For a pretty satisfying/healthyish breakfast, that sells the calorie counter in me.) The flavors range from Pineapple to Pomegranate, Raspberry to Apple Cinnamon (or so the website says, this one I have not seen). Black Cherry, Passionfruit, Pomegranate, Blood Orange, Peach...I just listed a large portion, but my point is, they have a LOT of different fruits.

There is also something listed on the website as Chobani Champions, a kids version of the yogurt. The four flavors are Orange-Vanilla (creamsicle, anyone?), VeryBerry, Vanilla Chocolate Chunk (fighting urge to underline CHOCOLATE) and Honey-Nana (honey + banana). These I've never seen, but the one with chocolate I definitely want to try. Do not joke with me about chocolate every meal of the day, I will take you up as serious.

I've spent long enough talking about the flavors -- if you're still on board, you're probably screaming okay, that's great, but HOW DOES IT TASTE?!

Like I said earlier, Greek yogurt is yogurt that's THICK. Granted, regular yogurt doesn't have to be uber-liquid (though it tends to be that way when heavily flavored, is what I'm guessing), but it usually has some manner of gloop to it - sort of like sour cream or mayonnaise, where it's not liquidy, per se, but it moves pretty easily. So far, besides the Plain yogurt I tried that had a reservoir of liquid on top of and inside the cracks of the yogurt, these have been pretty stable and thick. It's still soft and, well, yogurt, but it's got more resistance. I stress this so much because even the most delicious yogurts, after a while, become virtually inedible to me because I can't get over the liquidity.

Flavor-wise, the fruit on the bottom seems to be a puree of real fruit, almost like a little dollop of preserves was spread out on the bottom. If you mix the fruit, the viscosity goes down, of course (hence my aside about yogurts going uber-liquid), but even if you don't, you still get the fruit flavor. It seeps up from the fruit on the bottom, so it's lighter at the top, but even then if you're having, for instance, Strawberry, you'll get a nice light strawberry flavor that intensifies to the strawberries on the bottom. It's an effect I, personally, find quite nice.

Now, I would be doing a great injustice to this newfound breakfast love of mine if I didn't talk about the light-pink-colored cup. At first I thought it was Strawberry, yum. But then I saw the darker hue of the Strawberry packaging, so I looked closer, and saw this:

Strawberry. Banana. Greek. Yogurt.

Strawnana is hands-down one of my favorite flavors ever. Especially with fruit-flavored things (as opposed to eating actual fruits), seeing anything strawnana makes me really, really happy. This yogurt basically has the strawberry preserve-like-stuff on the bottom, only it's not clear, it's milkier-looking due to the pureed banana mixed in. Like the other fruit yogurts, this one has the gradient of strawberry-banana goodness if left unmixed. It gets a more level, intense flavor if you mix it, which probably also varies with how much yogurt you have left to mix, but the beauty of fruit on the bottom is you get to choose. (This is actually one thing I disliked a bit about the Honey flavor -- the honey was even throughout the yogurt so it overpowered the yogurt flavor in a strange way, or mixed with it in a ratio I wasn't quite sure I found enjoyable.)

I will be honest, one of my biggest motivations for writing this was to do a happy dance about the strawnana yogurt. Overall, though, I really like this stuff, even without that amazing icing to the yogurt cake! (...yogurt cake?)

Three Musketeers Coconut

At first glance, after you open the package, it looks like a normal 3 Musketeers bar. Same chocolatey outside, and, if you break it open, same lighter-chocolatey colored inside. The texture is the same, even -- still that fluffy stuff on the inside.

The only difference is, instead of a light chocolatey flavor, you get blasted with a light but strong sweetness of coconut. Its strong enough that there may be little to no chocolate in the filling, or so it would seem at first taste. This makes sense, though, since it's a chocolate coconut bar so the coconut has to contend not only with the chocolate in the filling (which seems to hint at its presence as you get accustomed to the earthy sweetness of the coconut) but the chocolate shell as well.

I, for one, like coconut, so this was really nice. Like eating shredded coconut with the texture of...well..a 3 Musketeers bar.

Starburst Tropical

Today I tried the Tropical Starburst for the first time in a very long time. Since I'm developing the habit of writing everything I think down somewhere, and since I have rambled on about Starburst in this blog before, I thought I may as well keep the tradition going.



Royal Berry Punch - At first, it felt a bit like I was eating a nicely sweet grape that tasted just a bit like not-grape. As I went on, I realized the reason it didn't taste like grape -- besides the fact that it wasn't supposed to -- was because I was tasting the unique character of whatever berry flavors were used, and just associated the juiciness with grapes.

Pina Colada - The coconut is very understated in this. Since Starburst are fruit chews, I suppose this makes sense, and the pineapple is pretty nice in its own right, but the almost earthy, 'dark' feel of the coconut -- maybe it's that I haven't had coconut in a while, but I found my tongue craving more of that than it got.

Mango Melon - I had a strange (but pleasant, don't get me wrong) thought of gari, the pickled ginger commonly found with sushi.  It's almost as though I found a sweet element from there in here -- either that, or it was the color of the chew, a light orange that reminds one of gari (though some of the latter can be more pinkish in hue). The tang of the mango had a tangy, sour twist -- the typical citrus -- that soured my enjoyment a bit. I expected this, though, not being a fan of citrus.

Strawberry Banana - This one was my favorite, by far and as expected. It's got that candy-sweet banana, like the little sugary Runts candies, and it has the sweet strawberry akin to those candies as well. At first it seemed the strawberry was there to completely dominate the banana with its berriness, but then the richness of the banana came through. Since I love strawberries, bananas, and strawberry banana things in general, I was not disappointed.

Starburst Sweet Fiesta

Because I need justification for candy. XD

Cherry Mango - I remember when I had my first of these, I was hard-pressed to figure out what made it different from how I remembered the normal cherry flavor being. Though it'd been a while, it had much the same taste -- the juice/darkness of cherry. Having a second one, though, I tasted a burst of mango-ish flavor in the juicy note, which then panned out to cherry.


Peach Guava - This is a strange one. It starts with a slight peachy burst and a flavor I find unfamiliar (guessing that'd be the guava) but quickly pans to something that tastes like a citrusy sour peach. I'm giving it a bad spin, but the peach was too much on the tangy/sour side, or the guava made it that way, I'm not sure.

Melon Berry - The smell of melon is apparent as soon as you open it. The berry tang is apparent once you bite down, but the melon and the berry don't mix too well. It's almost like eating a chewy watermelon Jolly Rancher -- that's what the melon part tastes like -- with a sour/bitter berry aftertaste. Watermelon Jolly Rancher is tolerable on its own, more or less, but the berry hurts more than helps it.

Strawberry Pineapple - I'm sure the pineapple gave a little boost/complement to the sweetness of the strawberry, but I didn't particularly notice it. This was definitely my favorite of the bunch, though. Unsurprising, since I'm a sucker for strawberry.

Fresh Mixers Creamy Tomato and Basil Penne

As a college student, backup plans for food -- cheap ones -- are always worth looking for. So, when I saw Healthy Choice's Creamy Tomato Basil Penne microwavable pasta, I decided to add it to my cache of Plan B food options.



I don't have to resort to Plan B too often, though, which might be the reason why I didn't really like this product when I finally tried it. I will admit, it was past the 'best by' date. Granted, only by about a month and a half, but still, that does give a plausible explanation for the taste.

The wheat pasta was fine -- I poured on all the sauce, so I didn't really taste it. The sauce, though, was nothing like I expected. By its color it was creamy and suggested tomato, and by texture I suppose it fit the bill as well. But I tasted no tomato. My mouth was overrun with basil (which isn't ENTIRELY a bad thing, I suppose) and the hot sting of pepper (which is not as pleasant as basil for me).

It wasn't inedible, I finished it, but my mouth still tingles from pepper several minutes later. This, for me, is not a particularly desired result.

If I remember it cost somewhere around five to seven dollars in the store I got it at (may have been Target or Wal-Mart). Given that price and how disappointed I was, I probably wouldn't run out and give it a second try using a freshly bought package. Although, for all I know, that makes all the difference.

Obligatory Yay Giants Post

YAY GIANTS!!! :D :D :D

New York team wins Super Bowl.

I am happy.

Yay. :D