Favorite Day Holiday White Chocolate Mini Pretzels

Well, I've reverted back to this blog's original blogspot domain in case you hadn't noticed, partly due to a lack of traffic and partly due to the fact that GoDaddy sucks. I probably won't be posting on this blog quite as often, but if I come across something interesting from Target, I'll be sure to throw up a quick line or two to let you all know. In the mean time, What's Good at Trader Joe's? will be entering its 15th year of reviews soon and is still going strong.

My wife apparently bought these off of target.com recently and they just appeared in our office. Not sure why she chose these. She's not the biggest white chocolate gal. Maybe it's because I like white chocolate. Aww, how selfless of her. I like chocolate/candy coated pretzels, too, in general.

However, I've never been a big fan of Christmas snacks that are only "Christmas" because the packaging tells me so or they just added green and red food coloring. Know what I mean? At least throw in some cranberries or figs or peppermint or something tangibly Christmassy.

Sorry, I meant holiday-ish. I don't mean to exclude non-Christians here. But whatevs. These coated pretzels are exactly what you'd expect. They're small, salty, sweet, and crunchy.

When there are sweets and salty snacks and cookies and candies every-freaking-where for over a month from late November into the early new year, I feel like you really have to choose which treats to indulge in. These pretzels barely make the cut, but at the same time, it's hard to punish a product for simply being exactly what you knew it would be. Sometimes I feel the same way about people.

But now we're waxing a bit too philosophical for a food blog, aren't we? Let's keep it simple, folks. It is what it is.

Three bucks for the 6 oz resealable bag. Probably wouldn't go out of my way to buy this product again, but I never know when I'll get a white chocolate covered pretzel craving, so I can't rule it out completely.

I give this holiday snack 7 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day 25 Days of Chocolate Joy

I don't think I've ever mentioned it on this blog before, but I built my very own time machine out of an old recliner and some spare refrigerator parts. It's called the magical DeLorean TARDIS time sled hot tub—you know, as an homage to some of the greatest time machines throughout classic literature and cinema. I use it whenever I need to travel back in time to check out products that are no longer available in stores OR whenever I need to jump forward a few days in time to see what treats I'll be getting in my advent calendar. I'll be traveling to December 5, 2023 this time—a full five days beyond the date of this blog post's original publishing. In the future, I'll sample each flavor of candy present in this Favorite Day 25 Days of Chocolate Joy advent calendar and report back. Here we go...

Whoosh! I'm back. Holy cow. I'm still shaking. Here are the findings from my research.

Friday, December 1 — It was a chocolate star wrapped in gold foil. It was just your basic solid chocolate with some peppermint flavoring. Actually, I don't see anything about peppermint flavoring on the ingredients. Come to think of it, all of these chocolates tasted a little like peppermint. I think since they all sat in the same package for so long, a bit of the mint flavor rubbed off on everything.

Saturday, December 2 — I got a dark chocolate raspberry truffle. Initially, the flavor of this one tasted great. The raspberry flavor could have been stronger, but it was a nice combo of rich dark chocolate and fruitiness. There was a bit of an aftertaste, though—not unlike purple cough syrup.

Sunday, December 3 — Chocolate with sea salt on top and caramel in the middle. The whole sea salt caramel thing isn't really my favorite flavor, but it was done well in this instance. It tasted fairly high quality to me.

Monday, December 4 — I had a case of the Mondays this coming Monday. White chocolate is usually my favorite, but the nice subtle sweetness of it was completely overpowered by the intense peppermint flavor. Way too much peppermint oil! I wish they would have left it out completely.

Tuesday, December 5 — It was like a mini Oreo covered in chocolate and sprinkles...with some mint flavor. Again, I don't even think they added mint to this one, it just absorbed it via osmosis or whatever that weird process is called. It's like when you have something pungent like onions in the fridge and it makes everything else smell and taste a little bit like onions. That happened here except with peppermint. Meh. I'm over cookies already and there are still weeks and weeks before Christmas.

The presentation is interesting and there are two magnetic doors on the sides of the calendar. You could save the box and use it next year, putting your own little goodies in the compartments. The candy is definitely not my favorite, but it's not awful, either. Fifteen bucks at Target. Probably would not buy again next year.

I give this advent calendar 6 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Elote-Inspired Mini Empanadas

I've reviewed empanadas before. And I've reviewed elote-inspired dishes, too. And I've tried each dish from street vendors and restaurants. But I've never ever heard of elote empanadas before laying eyes on this product. Mexican street corn stuffed into a little fried bread pocket? Sounds absolutely delish.

After a spell in the air fryer, some of the filling started popping out the sides of the little turnover pastries and flowing onto the bottom of our Ninja's basket. They smelled pretty good, though. And they looked decent, too: the breading turned crispy brown and the filling was full of corn and creamy cheese.

They tasted vaguely like elote, I guess. There was definitely some mayo in there, or "mayonnaise-type dressing" as it says in the ingredients list, as well as citrus flavors, corn—obviously—and some nice herbs and spices like cilantro, oregano, chili and onion powder. They had a tangy, creamy flavor. I wouldn't have minded more cheese in the mix. Although sour cream, cream cheese, and parmesan are all listed in the ingredients, they kind of just stayed in the background.

$5.79 for eight tiny little empanadas. Certainly not the best value at Target or anywhere else for that matter, but worth a purchase if you're looking for a unique appetizer or convenient snack. The packaging says it's two servings, but I could have demolished this whole package in a single sitting easily. I was nice and shared with the wifey for lunch the other day, so we had to supplement with other snacks, sides, and Thanksgiving leftovers. My score would have been higher if there had been more food in the box. As is, I might buy again.

I give this appetizer 7 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Milk Chocolate Bars with Popping Candy

When I was in high school, my friends and I "outgrew" trick or treating for a few years. But we still liked to wear costumes and take part in the festivities in one way or another, so one year, at the suggestion of my neighbor's mom, we decided to dress up with some old clothes and monster masks and hand out candy on his porch.

My neighbor friend was a bit of a prankster, so with a gleam in his eye, he climbed up onto his kitchen counter and reached into a cupboard all the way at the top. He shuffled a few things around, cleared away some cobwebs and produced a mixed bag of miniature chocolate bars. He gleefully announced that the candy he'd produced was at least five or six years old and that he'd been hiding it for such an occasion. We opened one of the bars to inspect it. It was nearly stark white. It tasted funny, too. Apparently, when left to sit long enough, chocolate starts turning back to pure sugar...or something like that.

Anyway, we filled an old plastic jack-o-lantern with the candy bars and wrote a note that said "Take candy at your own risk." We set up a graveyard scene and we pretended to be dead until kids would come along and reach into the candy bowl.

It was raining that Halloween, so we didn't get a ton of trick-or-treaters, but the ones that did come were about our age, and we knew most of them at least in passing from high school. About an hour after the first bunch of kids had grabbed our outdated chocolate, they returned shouting obscenities and began throwing the candy bars at us. "WHAT IS THIS $#!t!?" they screamed, pelting us with the unused portions of their fun-sized treats. My friend and I were too busy laughing our butts off to care that we were being bombarded with candy bars. Eventually we ran inside and they ran out of ammo.

Ah, good times.

But it would seem I have some bad karma to deal with when it comes to old mini chocolate bars. Looks like Target played a similar joke on me. These little pop rocks candy bars are all melted and discolored. They taste sorta okay, I guess.

The pop rocks things are the best part about this product. They do indeed crackle and snap in your mouth. I've had snapping chocolate bars before, and most of them were better than this offering. This product has a witch on the cover, and there's a caption that reads: "popping potion." But apparently the official name of the product is just "milk chocolate bars with popping candy." Lame.

For four bucks, it's a good amount of chocolate, and it's optimized for handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, assuming that's still a thing. Each bar is individually wrapped so it's harder to slip razor blades, rat poison, and AIDS into the candy without it being super obvious.

Anyway, it's not terrible for a Halloween treat bag, either for you and your family or for the neighborhood kids. I still wouldn't buy again. I'd try to find something a little tastier and more unique for next year.

I give this candy 6 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Monster Drizzle Caramel Corn

At least part of food blogging is aesthetics. To some degree, we have to worry about nice colors, layouts, and pretty pictures. So when target.com ships a chocolate-covered caramel corn mix in 90°F+ heat and it melts all over the see-through window on the packaging, it's kind of a bummer. It looks ugly.

But I just think of it as a healthy dose of veritas baked into the art form. It's not like I'm going to clean the chocolate off the little window and I'm certainly not going to drive to Target to get a refund or anything like that. It is what it is. This product came with grungy packaging and you get to see it in all its glory.

How's the food within the packaging, you ask? Meh. It's edible. The best part of Monster Trail Mix is all the various ingredients. It's supposed to have peanuts, M&M's, raisins, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, pretzel balls, and/or peanut butter cups, depending upon which version you've got. 

We tried the Monster Granola Bars a while back, and they had peanuts, raisins, M&M's, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips, all in a convenient bar format. This stuff is just caramel corn with chocolate and pretzels...and there are barely any pretzels! So it's essentially just run-of-the-mill caramel corn with a bit of chocolate, most of which melted in our bag and stuck to the sides of the packaging.

It's part of Target's "Supernatural Sweets" line which, I guess, is seasonal...and imbued with the same demonic powers that inhabit the souls of Target's executives. Figures.

$4.00 for the resealable 7 oz bag. I wouldn't buy again. Maybe I can pawn this stuff off on the wifey...

I give this snack 5 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Caramel Apple Granola

Well we sure can't show any favoritism as far as fall foods are concerned, now can we? If we review pumpkin pie granola, we most definitely have to check out caramel apple granola, too. I can't imagine this stuff is too much more or less exciting than its pumpkinny predecessor, but what the heck, let's pour ourselves a bowl anyway.

Unexpected: there are little flake things throughout the mixture. It's not just tiny globs of granola. 

The flakes almost look like mini corn flakes, but they might actually tiny pieces of dried apple. Actually, I think there are both. There are little flakes and there are even smaller pieces of actual dried apple. It's satisfyingly appley.

I don't detect much in the way of "caramel" per se, but I must admit, the cereal is plenty sweet. There are just a few of those oversized asteroid-looking pieces that you get in pretty much any bag of granola. You just need to break those up with a spoon. No biggie.

I'm actually surprised how much I like this granola. It's adequately applicious. I'm not even in a good mood right now, so if anything, I'd be inclined to snub a product during a review right now. But shoot, this is better than that pumpkin stuff for sure.

I give this cereal 8 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Pumpkin Pie Granola

Well, it looks like it's that time of year again. And even if I decided not to partake of pumpkin products personally, the little missus will most definitely be trying them anyway. So since they're already in the house and all, I figure I might as well give them a chance. I'm usually pleasantly surprised once or twice a year, so let's see what our good friends at GAG have offered us.

I think this pumpkin pie granola is somewhat decent, but the wifey absolutely loves it. There's a vague pumpkin spice notion about it. It's mostly cinnamon and ginger I taste.

Hey wait...wait a minute. Since when is turmeric a pumpkin spice? Are we doing Indian pumpkin spice fusion now? 

Ah, well. Fortunately, I like turmeric. I guess it goes with cinnamon and ginger. And it's orange...

I don't know how I feel about pumpkin seeds mixed with pumpkin spice. I feel like all seeds, pumpkin included, should be salty, not mixed with sugar and cinnamon, and certainly not drown in milk. That's an odd combo to me. But yet again, the wife raves about it. She says the pepitas make the product balanced and complete. Meh.

This is our first pumpkin product of the year, so we're still in "hooray for everything fall" mode. I'd probably give this a lower score if not for the beautiful wifey telling me how wonderful it is. 

$4.59 for the 11oz resealable bag. I have a feeling the missus will definitely be purchasing this one again. I just hope she waits until next year to do so.

I give this granola 7 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Peanuts, Almonds & Peanut Butter with Cocoa Drizzle Nut Bars

Target really needs to work on their marketing, packaging, and labeling strategies. Can you imagine if you happened to LOVE these things and wanted your SO to pick some up on their next Target run? "Honey, can you pick up those Good and Gather Peanuts, Almonds, and Peanut Butter with Cocoa Drizzle Nut Bars?" That's a freaking mouthful if I ever heard one. They should give it some clever name like NICE bars. "Honey, grab me some NICE bars please!" It just rolls off the tongue.

For some reason it wasn't apparent until I actually opened the box and looked at the individual bars, but these are quite obviously GAG's take on KIND bars. They're mostly just nuts and grains all fused together with honey and rice syrup and...ew. Soy protein?

There's a thin layer of what appears to be chocolate coating the entire bottom of the bar. But there's no "chocolate" listed in the ingredients. I guess they're approximating it now with cocoa powder, chickory root, milk powder, and various oils. They call it a "cocoa drizzle." Fair enough.

I guess the bottom line is if you like KIND bars, you'll like these. I'm okay with either brand. They're vaguely not-bad-for-you and somewhat tasty.

$4.39 for four bars. Wait. You're telling me each of these little snacky snacks is more than a dollar? Dang. Inflation gonna inflate.

I give these KIND knockoffs 7 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Organic Strawberry Shortcake Whole Grain Bars

GAG is back with another orgasmic—er, sorry—organic snack offering. It's for sporty, active, healthy individuals, and you can tell because there's a blue bicycle bursting through a debris field of giant strawberries, chunks of cheese, and angular white razor blades on the cover. I, personally, would have added an explosion, a bit of blood spatter, and maybe a dinosaur or two. But either way, it's obvious that this snack is not for the faint of heart.

Honestly, it tastes like plastic a little. I mean, the bars are dense, moist, and filling, which is good. There are 12 of them in there, which for $7.29 is a so-so value, IMO.

They don't taste much like strawberry at all. The "shortcake" is predictably less like real shortcake and more like the bread in a typical cereal bar. But make no mistake, these aren't cereal bars. They are whole grain baked bars—that's baked, never fried, in case you were wondering.

And they're gluten free. How's that possible? Ah. Oats and oat flour rather than wheat. That's unexpected.

I, personally, wouldn't buy these again. I bet the wife will like them a lot more than I do. The "strawberry shortcake" moniker is a stretch. The texture is better than the flavor.

I give these bars 6 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Mini White Fudge Dipped Sandwich Cookies

The wifey ordered this little snack bag from target.com and it arrived with all the cookies fused together from the summer heat. What? Don't FedEx trucks have air conditioning?

They still taste pretty good. They remind us of those old circus animal cookies with frosting and sprinkles. Mother's brand. Remember those? Except these have a creamy filling, too.

They're very vanilla-y. They're crispy, creamy, crunchy, and crumbly. I'd say they're a lot like birthday cake, flavor-wise. Obviously, they aren't soft like cake, but it's still a very birthday-ish vibe IMO.

I'm thinking most folks would find these pretty tasty, especially kids with a sweet tooth. I rarely find myself wanting anything this sweet these days, but if I get the munchies, I'll easily down a couple of these puppies. Hopefully the wife will beat me to it, though. This isn't exactly diet food and I don't need to get any further out of shape than I already am.

I'll score these as if I actually wanted super sugary sandwich cookies and not as a grumpy old man resenting the fact that I only have unhealthy snacks in the house right now.

I give these cookies 8 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Probiotic Fruit & Yogurt Trail Mix

This furthers my suspicions that GAG is now representing what Simply Balanced once did: Target's kinda healthy-ish foodstuffs. And Favorite Day is taking the place of Archer Farms: normal, not-so-healthy treats and indulgent trail mixes. Good & Gather Probiotic Fruit & Yogurt Trail Mix is a healthy-esque trail mix that not only features two kinds of fruit, but probiotic yogurt-covered cranberries. Woohoo. Let's dive in.

First up: dried sweetened cranberries and blueberries. If we're trying to be nutritious here, GAG, we should avoid added sugars. I would have been fine with dried berries without added sweeteners. But whatevs. They taste good and there's plenty of 'em in the bag.

Next: yogurt-flavored cranberries with probiotic. Yogurt flavored cranberries? Wouldn't yogurt covered cranberries be more accurate? And they're "with probiotic"? Probiotic what? Why'd your team of marketing geniuses decide on this diction instead of "Probiotic yogurt-covered cranberries"? Or why not "Cranberries with probiotic yogurt"? Again, whatever. They taste like normal yogurt-covered cranberries. Nice and plump. I like these.

Thirdly: almonds. Self-explanatory. Honestly, there weren't that many almonds in my trail mix. I wouldn't have minded more in this instance.

Last up: Greek-style yogurt confectionery chips. They're not just globs of vanilla-flavored sugar. They're made of Greek yogurt and therefore are good for you. Slick. They're okay.

The overall flavor is quite sweet, fruity, and there's plenty of vanilla creaminess. But now that I'm near the bottom of the bag, the whole thing seems overly salty. Would I purchase again? Probably not. $6.49 for the resealable 9 oz bag.

I give this healthy-ish trail mix 6 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Organic White Cheddar Baked Corn Puffs

"Yeah, I want cheesy poofs!"

Ah, but do you? Do you really? Well, first of all, we have to realize not all cheesy poofs are created equal. Pretty sure the version Eric Cartman was craving wasn't organic. I'm also willing to bet it wasn't Target brand.

But hey, he might like these. They're vaguely cheesy. They're crunchy enough.

But they're also dry. I mean they aren't oily or greasy at all. Just look at that pic—not even a hint of a stain on that napkin. To me, that would usually be a good thing, but in this case...I dunno. It kinda creeps me out how dry these things are.

And Good and Gather Organic White Cheddar Baked Corn Puffs are stiff, almost stale-feeling straight out of the bag. They have the texture of styrofoam packing peanuts. They're more rigid than your run-of-the-mill cheesy poofs.

$6.39 for the 10 oz resealable bag. I know I said I'd only review trail mixes on this blog from here on out...but I lied. The local Target didn't have any new trail mixes that I hadn't reviewed yet, so here you go: another non-trail mix GAG review. 

The wife liked them okay, so I'll go easier on them than I might have for their final score.

I give these organic cheesy poofs 6 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Piña Colada Trail Mix

Things are already sticky enough in the summer. We don't need sticky foods to make things stickier. I can already tell the ingredients of this trail mix have fused together from the summer heat before I even open the bag. It looks like some genius has mixed together five of the stickiest foods known to man in a little plastic bag and released it as a seasonal summertime-only offering at Target...because, you know, in any other season the stickiness wouldn't be an issue.

This stuff better taste great, because I have a feeling I'm going to go through a lot of Wet Ones and be very grumpy after consuming a few handfuls...

First impressions: yes, my suspicions about the sticky-factor were absolutely correct. The ingredients all stick together in giant wads that you have to pry apart with your fingers, which then get covered in all manner of sugary glazes and syrups, which you then have to spend absurd amounts of time licking clean and/or using entire packs of wet wipes and/or running your hands under the faucet and/or showering to cleanse yourself from the tacky substance that now coats your entire body, and if you've eaten a handful or two somehow amidst the chaos, your pores are now secreting a sticky sweet jelly that fuses you to your car seat or office chair and prevents you from moving and making further attempts to clean the viscid goo from your body, face, and clothes and soon you succumb to the mucilaginous substance completely, cease moving, and become prey for whatever insects or wild animals smell the cloying glaze and begin to feed first on the confectionery coating and rum-flavored syrups and continue on to your lifeless body now too weak to resist the ravenous creatures as they feast and frenzy unto your demise.

But if you can make it past the stickiness, yes this is a tasty mix. It's possible I'm exaggerating just a tad, but this product is a little on the sweet side, I'd say. It vaguely tastes like piña colada, and I LOVE piña coladas.

They even have an element that tastes like rum. Those pecans go great with that gooey, syrupy, rummy glaze. The dried fruits are nothing to write home about, but they don't really detract from the mix, either.

I like the coconut pineapple balls. They're the best part. Not as sticky as some of the other ingredients.

TL;DR - The mix is a tad too sweet and way too sticky, but it tastes pretty good overall.

I give this trail mix 7 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Cotton Candy Trail Mix

At the rate we're covering Favorite Day and Good & Gather products on this blog, I don't think we're ever going to make a meaningful dent in Target's product lines just looking at a couple things per month. They're releasing tons of new foods and seasonal items each year, and at this point, it's kind of futile to even try and keep up.

So...maybe we'll just make this a blog about Target brand trail mixes and snack mixes? That's a worthy endeavor, no? I don't even know if I can get around to reviewing all of those. But at least there will be one place out in the interzones dedicated to most of those newfangled and mysterious and sometimes pricey trail mixes there at the local Target.

This one's cotton candy. Interesting. Another summer flavor. Let's see if it's as good as the lemonade one we looked at last week.

In a word, yes, it is. But let's break things down, shall we?

Popping candy clusters. They're light blue and pink like popular cotton candy colors. Don't think they're two different flavors, though. They're just sweet and pop-a-licious, just like Pop Rocks candy.

Vanilla crème flavored almonds. We've seen these a couple times before. They're awesome. This mix could use more of them.

Peanuts. We all know what peanuts are. Why are they with a cotton candy mix? I guess they're both state fair type snacks. Circus snacks? I dunno. They work just fine.

Shortbread chips. Crunchy. Vaguely sweet. Not super memorable. The mix could use fewer of these. Not a deal-breaker, though.

Yogurt-flavored covered raisins. Kind of a weird way to say it. "Yogurt covered raisins" or "yogurt flavored raisins" makes more sense to me. Large, creamy, white chocolate-esque candies with a bit of raisin inside. I'm down.

Strawberry-flavored confection drops, AKA strawberry chips. Creamy and fruity and sweet. They work nicely.

The overall effect is definitely cotton candy-esque, though I don't think this one nailed real cotton candy quite like the last mix did with sparkling strawberry lemonade. Still, it's another really interesting seasonal offering from Target. Nine ounces for $5.49. I'd buy it again. Snackalicious. 

I give this trail mix 8 out of 10 stars. 

Favorite Day Summer Lemonade Trail Mix

Here's the scene: you've just finished mowing the lawn. It's about 90°F in the shade. It's humid. You're drenched in sweat. You plop down in your Adirondack chair on the back porch and begin using your ball cap as a fan to cool off your face. Your loving wife appears in the doorway with a pitcher and a glass full of ice. "I made you some lemonade, sweetie," she says. You gladly accept the beverage. You take a sip. It's refreshing, sweet, and tart. The first words out of your mouth: "Thanks, babe. But this lemonade needs way more cashews."

I mean, right? Who would put peanuts and cashews in summer lemonade? Target would, that's who.

But you know what? It works somehow. Let's examine this unique trail mix ingredient by ingredient.

Roasted salted peanuts. Water, sugar, lemon, and peanuts of course. A must for every glass of summertime lemonade. Just kidding. But if you needed something salty to go with your lemonade, peanuts are a fine choice.

Sour strawberry-flavored golden raisins. Okay. So it's strawberry lemonade now. That works. These are good. Very sour, indeed. There aren't a ton of 'em, though.

Lemon-flavored fizzy clusters. So we've got sparkling strawberry lemonade now? Well, they're not "fizzy" per se. They're crispy, with a touch of that Pop Rocks effect. Lemony enough. Pretty good.

Strawberry flavored confectionary chips. Creamy, sweet, and vaguely fruity. If there were too many of them, they might throw off the delicate balance of tart lemon they're apparently going for. Fortunately, there's just about the right amount in the mix.

Lemonade-flavored seasoned cashews. There's no coating on the cashews. Just lemon seasoning? It's an extremely subtle lemon flavor here. They taste more like cashews than lemons, and that's okay. I don't know why it works, but it just kinda does.

Lemon-flavored dried apples. They're just tiny little cubes of dried apple that taste applicious and lemontastic. The mix could use more of these happy morsels.

I didn't expect this mix to work at all, but it's a pleasant surprise after trying it. There is something weirdly lemonade-esque about it. I'd buy again. $5.49 for 9 oz.

I give this trail mix 8 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Cookies & Crème Trail Mix

There's cookies and cream ice cream, cookies and cream cake, cookies and cream candy bars, cookies and cream cereal, and of course, cookies and cream cookies. But I've never in all my days heard of any version of cookies and cream with nuts. Seems weird. Seems like it should be called Favorite Day Cookies & Crème & Nuts, dontcha think?

At any rate, the almonds and peanuts here aren't unwelcome, exactly. It is a trail mix after all. They add some extra crunch to the already crunchy cookie-based mix. Not exactly traditional cookies and cream, but it works.

Then we have dark chocolate chips. I'd prefer milk chocolate chips. Never had cookies and cream with dark chocolate before. Oh well.

Next up, white chocolate chips. They're good. They add to the "crème" effect.

Cookies & crème-flavored bites. I guess these are like crunchy spherical chocolate cookies covered in a speckled confectionery coating. Cookies and crème-ish enough. No complaints.

Fudge flavored cookie pieces. They're okay i guess. These and the dark chocolate chips are my least favorite elements.

All in all, not very cookies and crème-esque, but not terrible either. Moderately indulgent. I think we paid about four and a half bucks for the 10.5 oz bag. Not something I'd choose for a hike on a warm day.

I give this trail mix 7 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Lemon Flavored Yogurt Dipped Almonds

Don't think I've ever craved lemon and almond at the same time in my whole life. But isn't that what good marketers do? They let you know you need or want something that you never thought you needed or wanted.

Lemon almonds.

I thought I knew what to expect. I thought I'd get tiny little almonds covered in white chocolate with some faint whisper of citrus flavor at the finish.

...I was WAY off!

These things are surprisingly sour. They're more lemony than almondy. They're honestly more sour than a lot of candy that blasts "SOUR" or "TART" in huge letters on the packaging. They are lemon-forward in the most shocking way, almost like a Warheads sour candy. And if you like the tart taste of lemon, that's a good thing. Fortunately for me, I love lemon.

They're sour, sweet, creamy, nutty, and salty all at the same time. And the one element that doesn't belong there in my humble opinion is the salt. There are 80mg of sodium in each serving that kinda get in the way. Sweet and sour works. Sweet and salty works. But salty, sweet, and sour..? No. Not really. Sorry. The salty and sour clash in a way that makes me want to pound a shot of tequila after each bite.

So...I'm like super pleasantly surprised at the pungent sour punch of these nuts, but I'm almost equally unpleasantly surprised at how much the salt and sour elements clash with each other. I really wanna like them, but in the end, I think these would rarely be a go-to snack to curb sweet cravings or salty cravings or any other kind of cravings. I think most people will like these even less than I do.

But if you enjoy sour candy or think super sour lemon almonds sound interesting, I highly recommend you try them. They're not what I was expecting at all. $3.99 for the 4 oz resealable bag.

I give these sour nuts 7 out of 10 stars.