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.

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.

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.

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.

Good & Gather Mexican Street Corn Inspired Trail Mix

So I've had real Mexican street corn—eloté—a few times and know what it's all about. My wife grew up with the authentic stuff in Los Angeles and even makes her own from time to time. It's basically corn on the cob with mayo, tangy cheese, lime juice, and chili powder.

Trying to recreate the taste of Mexican street corn with a trail mix is a tall order, even for those snack mix masters at Target. How did they do? So-so, in my humble opinion.

What works: the chili lime-seasoned corn kernels, AKA corn nuts. They taste like corn, lime, and chili. They're spicy and flavorful and very crunchy. 

Cheddar-seasoned corn sticks are fine. Cheddar isn't the cheese you'll find on Mexican street corn. They would have done better with cotija-seasoned corn sticks, but then again, they might not exist or might be very hard to find. 

The seasoned peanuts don't belong in an eloté-flavored trail mix, but the wife and I both agree they work in this mix just the same.

I'm fine with the corn chips with flaxseeds, but the beautiful wifey says they don't work. She thinks they could have added generic Doritos for a bit of nacho type flavor. They're the only ingredient we don't agree on.

And finally, the seasoned almonds are the weakest part of the mix. I can't put my finger on why I'm fine with peanuts here and not almonds, but they just don't add anything and kind of clash with the overall vibe somehow.

Not a terrible purchase, but not the best either. $4.49 for the 8 oz bag. Another middle-of-the-road score for GAG.

I give Good & Gather Mexican Street Corn Trail Mix 6 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Santa's Sweet Tooth Indulgent Snack Mix

We've got the first snow of the season here in the upper midwest today. It's a nice start to the Christmas season, but the sky is very gloomy and overcast and it's difficult to get a decent picture of the jar since I rely on natural lighting for most of these product pics.

It also doesn't help that the sticker putter onner guy was slacking and left a bunch of creases and bubbles when he slapped on the label. Oh well. Quiet quitting is a thing now.

Note: this is a snack mix rather than a trail mix. It is not expressly intended for consumption while hiking or biking on trails or doing anything active. This product is for shoveling down your gullet while your fat butt is glued to the couch as you watch Christmas movies and guzzle egg nog.

At first glance, there appear to be four or five elements in this trail mix, er...excuse me, snack mix. However, there are only three. The "white chocolatey-covered cookie balls" are colored both red and green...you know, for Christmas. The green ones look very similar to wasabi peas. And they're okay. They taste cookies n' cream-ish enough. They're smooth on the outside and crunchy on the inside. They're good for a handful or two every so often.

The "chocolate cookies" are my least favorite part of the mix. They're like generic mini Oreos without the filling. Who wants Oreos without the filling? Nobody, that's who. They're super dry. They make me want to cough. These cookies would be like "gifts" you stick in a bad kid's stocking.

And finally, there are "cookies and cream flavored white chocolaty covered almonds." Holy crap. Favorite Day finally brought out the big guns. These things are delicious. And as far as I can tell, they constitute about 2% of the whole jar. Seriously? You give us just enough of these things to know what we're missing out on? Sad. Target, you're stingy.

Make a pack of the cookies and cream almonds ONLY, Target, and we'll talk.

Eleven bucks for this slightly disappointing jar of Favorite Day Santa's Sweet Tooth Indulgent Snack Mix.

I give this mix 6 out of 10 stars. It would have been 7 or 8 if there had been more of the almonds.

Favorite Day White Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Popcorn

It's still fall, so it's still pumpkin spice season. It's ubiquitous. It's inescapable. I do get sick of it each and every year, but I have to eat my fill of pumpkin spice first in order to get a big enough fix so that I don't crave it at all until next September. It's like intermittent fasting...except with pumpkin spice, and it plays out over months instead of hours. Okay, that's probably a bad analogy.

Anyway, I'm pretty close to my 2022 PS tipping point right now. Will the score of this product suffer as a result? Quite possibly.

The popcorn is pretty typical caramel corn in terms of texture, although it's a little on the stiff side. I think it's a result of the coating, but the product winds up feeling a little stale unfortunately.

The white chocolate is totally unevenly distributed. There are many pieces with no white chocolate at all. But other parts of the bag are nothing but enormous globs of white chocolate with a few popcorn pieces stuck to them. You can even see one of those globs in the photo, right in the middle of the see-through window on the bag.

Leaf shaped sprinkles? There really aren't many sprinkles to be found here. I guess it's possible most of them were shaken off the popcorn and wound up at the bottom of the bag. Even out of the few sprinkles I do see only one or two actually look like leaves. The others are just nondescript random shapes. Oh well. I mean...the idea was cute.

Flavor-wise, it's just too sweet. I like white chocolate in general, but it has to be in the right context. Neither the white chocolate sweetness nor the pumpkin spice elements shine the way I'd want them to. I'd also want the popcorn to be a little more salty in this instance to balance out the sweetness.

I like the idea of this product in theory, but the execution is just a tad sloppy in my professional opinion. $4.49 for the 7 oz bag. It's too expensive, as well. Although...what isn't these days?

I give this popcorn 6 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Pumpkin Spice White Chocolate Espresso Beans

Not long ago, I looked at Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Espresso Beans. All things considered, the wifey and I liked them quite a bit. We were thinking about picking up another pack or two but before we could get back to TJ's, the wifey spotted these little morsels at the local Target.

It's the same deal pretty much: crunchy espresso beans covered in a candy-esque shell, flavored with typical pumpkin or pumpkin pie spices. But there was definitely something working in the Trader Joe's version that isn't working here for some reason.

I think maybe the candy coating in this case is a tad too sweet and the pumpkin spice elements are out of balance. There's a bit of that scented candle effect. Somehow the natural flavor of the coffee bean isn't as rich in this case. Part of that could be that these beans are significantly smaller than their Joesian counterparts.

I can't eat more than one or two of these beans before my mouth tires of the flavor. Definitely don't think this will be a repeat purchase. I might have been a little more lenient on these if I hadn't tried a superior product from a different store brand so recently. Plus, at $4.49 this product is four and a half times the price of the other version. Granted, it's a bigger bag, but I think small and cheap is the way to go with a product like this. Not like you're going to be eating these by the handful in either case. My wife agrees this product isn't nearly as good as Trader Joe's bag of pumpkin-flavored espresso beans, but she'll probably not have too tough a time finishing our package.

I give these espresso beans 6 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Caramel Apple Bourbon Trail Mix

Apple harvest is right now. I know because there are a couple apple trees across the street and their fruit is falling on the sidewalk and passersby often pluck a ripe specimen from the branches. So...it's definitely apple season. Is it bourbon season? I don't know. Is bourbon ever out of season?

Perhaps. What I can tell you for sure is that this trail mix absolutely bursts with the smell of bourbon from the moment you open the bag. Like...maybe don't even eat this at work because your cubicle buddies will think you're hitting the sauce on the job. Caramel and apple? Yeah, they're there. But bourbon is the dominant scent and flavor here.

The pretzel balls are pretty much just pretzel flavored. Little crunchy, salty round pretzels. Meh.

Honey bourbon cranberries. These little guys are a tad on the leathery side. I've had plenty of dried cranberries aka craisins aka Ocean Spray® Craisins® to know these are not the best in taste or texture. They don't taste like honey at all. They taste like salt and liquid smoke.

The salted caramel cashews are good. And there were about five of them in my bag. Total. Five or six in the whole bag. Not exaggerating. Okay maybe I'm exaggerating. But not that much. You'll easily go through half a dozen handfuls of the mixture without a single cashew. Boo.

Dried sweetened apples. There aren't enough of these, either. You'd think there would be plenty of apple pieces since they're kinda the centerpiece of the mix. There are way more smoky cranberries than apple bits. I do like them, though. They actually taste like apple.

Honey bourbon-seasoned almonds. These actually taste like honey bourbon and there's definitely more of them than the cashews, but they're not nearly as plentiful as the pretzel balls or craisins.

All together, the mix is unique and fun. It doesn't taste bad, but it's nowhere close to the best trail mix at Target. It's not even close to the best fall trail mix. I wouldn't buy it again, but I'm glad I tried it. $4.49 for the bag.

I give this trail mix 6 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Roasted Garlic & Cilantro Salsa

It's been a hot minute since we've looked at any salsas on this blog, and this one here would be the very first of the Good & Gather (GAG) line that we've tried. I'm a big fan of garlic and I like cilantro okay, so this flavor is just screaming "try me! try me!" 

Okay, salsa jar. Just calm down.

First impressions: it's nice and chunky. That's good. I'm honestly surprised how chunky it is. There are large, robust pieces of tomatoes and jalapeno peppers in there. A lot of time salsas claim to be "chunky style" and they simply don't deliver. There might be bits or shreds of veggies, but nothing so big you could call it a "chunk." Despite not bragging about its chunkiness or thickness, this salsa is both thick and chunky in this author's humble opinion.

The taste? Well, now that's a different story entirely. The first thing I taste here is salt. And I must point out I'm eating it with completely unsalted tortilla chips, so you can't blame the saltiness on the chips. 10% sodium per serving in the salsa. That's par for the course for your average salsa or chip dip. Not sure why I feel like I taste it here more than usual.

Next, I taste tomato. Makes sense since tomato puree and tomatoes are the top two ingredients. Again, pretty common for a salsa to have a tomato base and taste somewhat like tomato. But for some reason here, I feel like they needed to up the garlic flavor a little more. After all, this is called "roasted garlic" salsa. Yes, it's there. Yes, I taste it. Maybe I just like garlic a little too much. Maybe I'm used to the taste of freshly-chopped raw garlic, rather than this kind of faint, smoky garlic essence desperately trying to claw its way through layers of tomato and salt. I like that biting, harsh garlic that clears your sinuses and warms your throat. That's definitely not what this is—probably good for most American consumers, but not for this guy.

I didn't expect to taste a lot of cilantro. Cilantro isn't a very pungent flavor, usually. It's just a background taste normally, and that's exactly what it is here. I wouldn't have minded whole cilantro leaves floating throughout the mix. Again, that might be overkill for most people, but if the salsa has "cilantro" in its name, I'd err on the side of "too much" rather than "not enough."

The texture of this salsa is great. The flavors just don't deliver if you ask me. I'll salvage it by adding my own raw garlic pieces.

We've seen much better salsas from Target in the past. See the Summer Fruits Salsa and Fire-Roasted Pepper and Habanero Salsa.

I give this condiment 6 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Organic Peanut Butter Poppers

I'm sure I've mentioned it on this blog before, but I looove peanut butter. Always have. I love the condiment itself, I love peanut butter candies like Reese's Pieces, I love peanut butter and chocolate together, I love peanut butter ice cream, peanut butter cake, and even the recent Peanut Butter Falcon film, unfairly snubbed by the Academy this past year.

And of course, I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I like peanut butter and jelly trail mix. I even like peanut butter and banana sandwiches, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, peanut butter and marshmallow fluff, AKA Fluffernutter. Pretty much anything goes with peanut butter...except peanut butter and pickles or peanut butter and bacon. People who enjoy those combinations should take a cold shower immediately and check themselves into the nearest mental health facility.

So I, like many of you, have my opinions about peanut butter. As much as I love the stuff, peanut butter cereals are a sketchy subject. 

While I wouldn't eat peanut butter solo with cold milk, I feel like peanut butter and chocolate desserts go well with milk. That's why cereals like Reese's Puffs work, at least marginally, in my opinion. Peanut butter dessert cereals are usually a safe bet. It's much harder to pull off a "healthy" peanut butter cereal, by my estimation. 

I like plenty of healthy cereals. Kashi, raisin bran, muesli, oats, and shredded wheat are all pretty decent in my book, so you can't accuse me of only eating junk food for breakfast. But in this particular case, I just feel like there needed to be a stronger sweet peanut butter flavor. The taste of the grains was too prominent against the taste of the peanut butter. I think it would have worked fine if it had been just an organic multigrain cereal...or if they'd pushed it just a tad in the direction of "peanut butter treat" rather than "peanut butter health food."

The texture was grainy and crispy, with just a hint of oily peanut butteriness. It was pretty similar to something like Kix. Not bad.

The leftover milk wasn't particularly peanut buttery. It tasted more like the constituent grains: corn, oats, rice. Drinkable, but not in a fun way. These peanut butter poppers aren't inedible, but I probably won't purchase this one again.

I give this cereal 6 out of 10 stars.

Simply Balanced Cucumber Mint Sparkling Water

Water? Why in the world would I review water when I haven't even looked at those vegan ice creams from Archer Farms?

Oddly, we're never staying close enough to a Target store. I'm always afraid the ice cream will melt completely before we get back to our campground. Water is already melted. It might pick up a little plastic flavor from the bottle in the hot sun, but at least it won't leak out of its container.

Anyway, on to the review. Plenty of carbonation, no calories, no fat, no sodium...all things I love. When it's ice cold, cucumber water can be very refreshing. They serve it in fancy waiting rooms. Just a few slices of cucumber and a sprig or two of mint can turn boring old water into a gourmet affair.

That's what they're going for here. I'd say it's a moderate success IF you like the flavors of cucumber and mint. You can taste both, especially the mint. If anything, I would have erred the product toward less mint, more cucumber, but that's just me. Mint can be refreshing, but it can also be very annoying if you aren't wanting a bunch of it.

Some might think consuming this beverage is a bit like drinking mouthwash. It's definitely more subtle than an actual mouth rinse flavor, but if you're not craving a blast of mint, it could be a little off-putting. I'd be happy to drink this if I were super hot or thirsty, but in general, I'd prefer one of the fruit flavors.

Cucumber by itself might be a little better for general thirst quenching purposes.

I give this sparkling water 6 out of 10 stars.

Archer Farms Bunny Kisses

I wasn't aware that bunnies gave kisses. 

I mean, dogs will lick your face, and we call them "dog kisses." I suppose bunnies might wiggle their noses next to your nose, akin to an "Eskimo kiss," but when done by a rabbit, we could call those "bunny kisses." 

Is "Eskimo kiss" considered culturally insensitive these days? If so, just pretend I said "Inuit kiss." If we're still not there, then let's go with "display of affection by indigenous northern circumpolar people."

Ahem, back to the bunnies. I absolutely love animals, but I must say, bunnies just don't do it for me. I mean, they're super cute, but when compared to a dog, or even a cat, there's a serious dearth of personality there, at least in my experience. Maybe I've just been around particularly vacuous bunnies in my life. Not sure.

Likewise, these bunny kisses are cute—or, well, perhaps "visually appealing" works better here—but the food inside is a little disappointing if you ask me. 

There's an allure to the packaging, for sure. It's Eastery. Laden with pastels, pretty fonts, and a resealable bag, the presentation game is well-played. The colorful candy bits are fun and I'm a big fan of white chocolate.

However, by the time I opened the bag, most of the candy bits had fallen from the corn and were swimming around at the bottom of the bag. I thought the white chocolate and caramel clashed with each other a bit. I got a second opinion from my wife, and she agreed. We both wish they'd been coated in caramel OR white chocolate, but not both. I would have gone with white chocolate myself, but Sonia said she'd happily take either. Together, they just don't work somehow.

It's still a sweet, salty vernal treat, and it doesn't taste terrible. It's fun to eat by virtue of its festive-ness and joviality factor. I would have simply left out the caramel and called it "candy corn." Oh wait. That's already a thing. "Candied corn"? "Popcorn candy"? Yeah, either of those would work.

These Bunny Kisses get 6 out of 10 stars from me.

Wondershop Marshmallow Cocoa Topper

Other than bringing the holiday cuteness, this product isn't impressing me very much.

Presentation-wise, there's nothing to complain about. Two beautiful snowflakes in a see-through wrapper, right? Obviously. They even shimmer in the same manner as real snowflakes. Who knew sugar crystals could look so dazzling? It's the second product we've seen from the "Wondershop." Like the last product we looked at, this one isn't particularly pricey. It, too, would make a good stocking stuffer.

But if you've only got a buck or two to spend, I'd definitely go with the white chocolate bark over these snowflakes, particularly if you're more concerned with the taste of the product rather than exterior aesthetics. Also, this product is 50 cents more than the birthday cake dealie.

Flavor and taste aside, the first thing that jumps out at me about these snowflakes—from a practical standpoint—is that they don't fit in a coffee mug. Pretty sure the radius of all our mugs is exactly the same. I'm sure there's a bit of deviation from mug to mug, but in general, they're all gonna be in the same ballpark as the mugs that we have. And the snowflake doesn't fit!

As you can see in the pic above, there was some awkward stuffing and squeezing involved to get the snowflake to rest on top of the cocoa, with part of the flake submerged below the surface like a virgin crystal falling from the sky only to land in a dirty mud puddle by the side of the road. And I'm well aware that my hot cocoa stirring was messy and erratic. Oh well.

Taking bites from the snowflake after a simple dunk or two in hot chocolate is similarly frustrating. It's just not a very tasty marshmallow. It's slightly better once completely dissolved in the beverage, lending a pleasant bit of sweetness, but it also yields an unpleasant chemical flavor.

There are hydrogenated oils and a few other weird things listed in the ingredients. It's not like you'll be consuming a ton of them just from one or two snowflakes in your cocoa, but I'm sure there are other ways to create a pretty hot beverage topper that doesn't require trans fats or chemical nonsense.

In the end, this product won't kill you. It is packaged and presented well, but don't expect more than sub-par fluffy sugar in the taste and texture department.

I give this cocoa topper 6 out of 10 stars.

Archer Farms Apple Cinnamon Pretzels

It's still fall, and we're still checking out these autumnal "limited edition" goodies that show up on Target's shelves every year. Today's choice: Apple Cinnamon Pretzels.

Very similar to last year's Pumpkin Spice Pretzels, this offering is simply salted mini-pretzels with a "confectionery coating." The coating on these pretzels does taste vaguely of apple cinnamon, although the specific flavoring is less pungent than I'd like it to be. It's undeniably sweet—not unlike traditional white fudge covered pretzels—but as my wife was quick to point out, the apple flavor in particular tastes fake.

I wasn't expecting an authentic apple cider flavor or anything like that. I didn't expect the number one ingredient to be actual apples. In fact, there's absolutely no mention of apples or apple derivatives of any kind in the ingredients list. A bit disappointing. I suppose some kind of apple essence might be included under the "natural flavorings" banner.

"Cinnamon" is listed in the "less than 1%" category.

I think it might have improved these pretzels greatly had they found some way to put dried apple bits in the sweet coating, both to make the texture a little more complex and also to boost the apple flavor. Even if they'd have pureed a single apple in the fudgey part of these pretzels, I think it might have made them vastly more interesting.

My better half expressed her wish that they'd have used a yogurt coating instead of "white fudge." I suppose yogurt might be a tad healthier, but in most cases, there's just as much sugar involved. I'm not sure if there'd be any discernible health advantage in a product like this that's already loaded with sugar and sodium. It's an indulgent, dessert-ish treat for sure, with plenty of fat and carbs.

I know, I know. The product makes no claims that it's a health food, so why analyze it as such? Because this product, in my humble opinion, simply isn't worth the calories it carries. It's odd to have a product that's supposed to be flavored like sweet apples taste this salty. Sweet and salty does often work, but throw cinnamon and fake fruity flavors into the mix, and it's a bit of a gray area if you ask me. 

This flavor simply doesn't work as well as the aforementioned pumpkin spice version. The wifey liked them even less than I did. She refused to go back for a second handful. Nice try, Archer Farms, but I don't think this is a repeat buy for me.

I give these pretzels 6 out of 10 stars.

Archer Farms Cookie Dough Reduced Fat Ice Cream

I've never been huge on diet ice creams. Whether they're fat free, sugar free, or reduced calorie, I find they almost always fall drastically short of their full calorie counterparts—not to mention short of my expectations.

But that's no surprise. If you want to lose weight, eat better, and be fitter, you've got to make sacrifices somewhere. I'm not saying I'm super fit right now, but for me, eating diet ice creams has never been the answer. I'd rather eat half a cup of Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby and enjoy every bite of it than eat a whole pint of ice cream that I'm only marginally happy with.

Enter Halo Top and the myriad of ice cream companies imitating them. In recent years, there's been a diet ice cream revolution of sorts. Even I must admit that Halo Top took diet ice cream to a new level. It's still not even close to a good old-fashioned scoop of the real stuff in my humble opinion, but it's closer than diet ice cream has ever been.

There's been a little buzz about these reduced fat, reduced calorie ice creams from Archer Farms on social media. I guess they're Target's answer to the "healthy" ice cream craze. I'm writing this review having only tried this flavor, so I'll be reviewing only this flavor in this post.

It's a little disappointing, to be honest. Not terrible. But if I were ranking all the diet ice creams I've ever had, I'd put this offering just below any of the three or four Halo Top flavors I've tried.

The vanilla ice cream isn't particularly vanilla-y, and there aren't nearly enough pieces of cookie dough in the mix. There seemed to be more "chocolaty pieces" than cookie dough chunks, but there weren't even a ton of those. Also, they didn't add much as far as flavor. I wouldn't have minded if they had skipped the chocolaty pieces altogether and simply found a way to put in at least twice as much cookie dough. The cookie dough was my favorite part of this ice cream, but there just wasn't enough of it to rescue the rest of the product.

On a more positive note, the ice cream is indeed surprisingly low in calories and fat, there's a good bit of protein, and it's only $3.69—cheaper than Halo Top by a significant margin, unless you're lucky enough to find it on sale at a grocery store.

The wife wasn't super enthused about eating this ice cream either. We really wanted to love it, but in the end, it's just another diet ice cream. If a pint of ice cream makes it 48 hours in our freezer without being totally consumed, I'd have to say it's probably not that great. This stuff's been here nearly a week.

I give this ice cream 6 out of 10 stars.

Archer Farms Salted Caramel Gelato

I feel like this salted caramel craze has reached its peak and is starting to wane at this point. I'm not sure when it started. Ten or fifteen years ago, caramel wasn't really a big thing. But then people started adding the words "salted" or "sea salt and..." before it, and suddenly, it was all the rage.

Here are the search results for "salted caramel" from another popular food blog you might be familiar with. Tons of results. We've even seen Sea Salt Caramel Cookie Bites from Archer Farms in recent years. In the end, I think this trend is just a phase; a fad, and it will be over soon. I think most of these salted caramel products are overrated and overhyped, with only one or two exceptions in my experience.

So all that being said, my rant is over, and we can objectively look at this new ice cream flavor from Target. The first thing that jumps out at me is the packaging. Fancy. Much more "top-shelf" than your average store brand ice cream. That shiny golden band around the lid looks good enough to eat just by itself. You could cut a hole in the middle of the lid and use it as a halo for an angel costume in this year's Christmas Nativity.

Or not. Yes, I know I'm digressing. Forgive me.

I just don't have much to say about the ice cream, er, excuse me, gelato, itself. And it is proper gelato, not ice cream. That is an important distinction. It's denser than ice cream, made with milk rather than cream, and has less fat than most American ice creams.

It also contains both corn syrup and HFCS. And carrageenan. Not a fan of any of those ingredients.

The flavor is basically what I expected. It's smooth and silky and slightly salty, but not particularly memorable. The caramel ribbon, at least in my pint, was mostly found in a column right down the center of the product, much like the Ben and Jerry "Core" ice creams. You can taste the butter, and it plays all right with the caramel, but in the end, I think I'd prefer a vanilla base. The mouthfeel's a bit goofy as well.

I can't say I hated it, but I can't really see myself ever purchasing this flavor again, either.

I give this gelato 6 out of 10 stars.

Simply Balanced Chicken Tortilla Soup

I always assumed tortilla soup would, you know, have tortillas in it. But what do I know?

Instead, it's a red broth with black beans, corn, and little hunks of chicken. Not bad. The broth is mildly spicy, and the corn and beans are nothing to complain about...although, I wouldn't have minded if there were a lot more of them. 

The soup is pretty soupy...you know, brothy, that is. It's mostly just liquid—not nearly as chunky as the picture on the box would have you believe. That alone wasn't the product's biggest weakness, as the liquid part of the soup was pretty decent and flavorful.

The chicken chunks were all near-perfect cubes, and were abnormally dark, even for dark meat chicken. They were a deep brown—such a gloomy color that I think if I hadn't known any better, I would have assumed they were little pieces of low-grade beef. Fortunately, they didn't taste nearly as bad as they looked. But once again, the soup could have used a good bit more of them.

I definitely think this melange would have benefited from little tortilla bits—either the kind that come in a little plastic bag that you add yourself or the kind that are soft to begin with and don't mind swimming around in salty soup for some indeterminate amount of time on Target's shelves. This soup was crying out for carbs but did not deliver in that department.

So I added some carbs myself in the form of good old-fashioned saltine crackers. They certainly helped, but not quite enough.

It was $2.29 for the box at the Target where we discovered it—I believe somewhere in coastal Georgia, probably near Savannah, as our recent adventures have taken us through The Jewel of the South. It's just a little pricier than your average can of soup, but the box is one ounce bigger, too. But in the end, this product just wasn't enough bang for the buck to be a repeat purchase.

I'll give the soup 6 out of 10 stars.