Ben Shaw's Cloudy Lemonade

Ben Shaw's Cloudy Lemonade

What Is It: Fizzy lemonade flavoured soft drink produced in England. I found this at Jungle Jim's. 

Packaging: This is a really cool can maybe one of the coolest I've ever seen. The yellow and white colours combined with the artwork on here really attract the eye. I love it. 

10 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: This was unlike anything I've ever drank in my life. If you're thinking lemon like Sprite or Sierra Mist then you'll be very surprised. It really is literal lemonade flavour with fizziness. Definitely a novelty item that's worth checking out. 

8 out of 10

Hostess Chocolate Cupcakes

Hostess Chocolate Cupcakes

What Is It: Chocolate cream filled cupcakes.

Packaging: They had mostly clear packaging which normally would think was a bit lazy but they make make tbe cupcakes themselves look so good that I'd want to show them off too. Seriously those white swirls on top make those thing taste a 1000 better than they probably really do. High marks not necessarily for the packaging but for how good the cupcakes look. 

8 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: These are some rich cupcakes to be sure. Assuming the store serves them fresh (which is about 50/50) they have great moist texture with great rich, chocolatey taste. Then to finish it off you have the delicious cream in the center. A great snack that's best with some milk.

9.5 out of 10 (when fresh)

Lil Dutch Maid Lemon Bar Cookies

Lil Dutch Maid Lemon Bar Cookies

What Is It: Lemon flavoured shortbread cookies bought at the Dollar Tree. 

Packaging: Very vibrant and attractive colours really draws the eye in. They also represent the lemon that these cookies taste like. Very nice.

8 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: This was a good take on a classic cookie. Very good lemony flavour to go with tremendous shortbread. And on top of that look at how many cookies they give you in the package. And even further the package costs only a buck. Great flavour and great value make these a recommendation for anyone that loves lemon flavour. 

8 out of 10

Chex Mix Bold

Chex Mix Bold

What Is It: A ramped up version of theit original plan with some bold spices on it. They have pretzels, little breadstick pieces, some rye biscuits, and some of the the traditional Chex Mix pieces. All of which are covered with the bold spices. 

Packaging: You know for a "bold" product why would you use black and grey colours? I would be using like bright fluorescent "bold" colours. It's not like it looks bad but it could be so much more.

3 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: This is a really good effort by Chex Mix here. The bold is a really good flavour with it not being really "spicy" per say but it really adds a good zing. It works with all of the different pieces especially the original Chex Mix one. This is definitely among if not my favourite Chex Mix product to date.

8.5 out of 10

Candy Sticks

Candy Sticks

What Is It: This is the modern day version of what used to be candy cigarettes. This particular bag has 3 different sorts of boxes including Tom And Jerry, Flintstones, and Scooby Doo.

Packaging: Pretty fun bag and boxes. They could have made the sticks themselves made look different according to what cartoon they were representing but that's a minor quibble. 

8 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: Whether they're called candy cigarettes or sticks they're the same now as when I was a kid. Honestly they're not that exciting of a candy as they're a bit chalky in both flavour and texture. Basically it's just a stick of sugar but somehow all of the fun packaging makes it seem better than it really is.

5.5 out of 10

Sweettarts Chewy Sours

Sweettarts Chewy Sours

What Is It: A roll of chewy, sour Sweettarts. Well that was pretty obvious. They used to be called Shocktarts but that was too clever I guess. They come in pink (cherry), purple (grape), yellow  (lemon), green  (lime), and blue (blue raspberry).

Packaging: It looks pretty much like an ordinary roll of Sweettarts package wise. It does say "sours" on it. Honestly they should have made it look unique in some way. 

4 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: Well despite their unoriginal packaging and name these things are delicious. All of the colours have great sour flavour with the blue being the sourest and my favourite too although the pink cherry ones are a very close second. The other flavours are very good too but those two stand out to me ( hey I used too, to, and two all in the same sentence!) Seriously this is a darn good candy.

8 out of 10

Mike And Ike's Root Beer Float Candies

Mike And Ike's Root Beer Float Candies

What Is It: Root beer flavoured chewy candies. 

Packaging: Lots of cool artwork with the root beer barrel and float. Really cool box. 

9 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: This definitely nailed the root beer flavour on this. Unlike other Mike And Ike's products there's only the one flavour here. Despite it being root beer "float" flavour there is no ice cream flavour here to speak of. I prefer the old school root beer barrel hard candies for my root beer candy needs but this isn't a bad effort. Mild recommendation unless you're really really into root beer. 

5.5 out of 10

Krave Black Cherry BBQ Pork Jerky

Krave Black Cherry BBQ Pork Jerky

What Is It: The title says it all. 

Packaging: It comes in a purple package with a big black box with the product description in the middle. Seen better, seen worse although I do like the purple. 

5.5 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: This was some darn fine jerky here. The cherry and barbecue flavours work so well together and in a jerky you can chew and chew on that and savour that tremendous flavour. Great snack for any occasion. 

9 out of 10

Clancy's Cheese Balls

Clancy's Cheese Balls

What Is It: The store brand cheese balls of Aldi's.

Packaging: It's a pretty basic orange bag with some basic graphics and a clear spot to see the cheese balls. Basically it was very basic.

Basic out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: Just like the packaging the cheese balls were very basic as well. They had a pretty decent cheddar flavour but nothing too exciting. The texture was okay but would get stale very quickly. The bag was in the neighborhood of one dollar so the inexpensive nature was a positive. At the end of the day a middle of the road (basic) cheap snack.

Basically basic out of 10

Philadelphia Peach Cream Cheese

Philadelphia Peach Cream Cheese

(I give full credit to my daughter; Elizabeth, who I bought this for since I don't like peaches.)

What Is It: Peach cream cheese with real peaches mixed in it.

Packaging: Has the traditional silver container that Philadelphia cream cheese always has bit with some nice peach artwork on the top and side. Looks really good.

8 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: This was very high quality cream cheese like you would expect from this brand. The problem was the lack of peach flavour. It's not like it wasn't there but there just wasn't a lot of it and there just weren't that many little peach pieces mixed in either. It was good cream cheese with a hint of peach flavour more than it was peach cream cheese. Not bad but not quite what was advertised either.

4.5 out of 10

Sriacha Ketchup

Sriacha Ketchup

What Is It: Sriacha flavoured ketchup that I bought at Aldi. I see no other brand names or at least none I can understand so I'm giving Aldi credit for this.     

Packaging:  It looks like most any other ketchup bottle I've ever seen.

5.0 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: You're probably wondering why I'm reviewing ketchup but this is uniquely good. A really good bite and proper ketchup flavour to boot made this a hit with me. It's particularly good with potato products like fries and tater tots. I know Heinz made a similar product but for me you're better off getting this cheaper brand because it's every bit as good.

7 out of 10

Stouffer's Frozen French Bread Pizza

Stouffer's Frozen French Bread Pizza

What Is It: A two pack of frozen French bread pizzas. 

Packaging: It comes in an orange box like all Stouffer's products. It has a huge picture of the product covering most of the front of the box. It gets the job done.

7 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: This is a pretty high quality take on a frozen pizza and certainly the best of the French Bread variety that I know of. The crust is a really nice and crispy one as long as you cook it properly. The sauce is a pretty good one although there's a bit too much on there for me. Plenty of cheese and pepperoni finish it off very nicely. Sometimes if I really want to make it extra delicious I'll add some extra mozzarella to the top of it too. High recommendation. 

9 out of 10

Mike And Ike's Butter Popcorn Candies

Mike And Ike's Butter Popcorn Candies

What Is It: Butter popcorn flavoured chewy candies.

Packaging: A very fun looking box yellow in colour to represent the popcorn. Lots of fun artwork like the bucket of popcorn and little popcorn kernels. Really cool.

9.5 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: Mike And Ike's does some of my favourite flavours of candy out there. They push the envelope and come up with a lot of fun and innovative flavours. This however was not one of them. The combination of what should be a salty snack with the super sugaryness of Mike And Ike's candies just made for a very bizzare taste in my mouth. They did a very buttery take on the popcorn but like I said it should not be sweet. It makes me want to go to the theatre and get a big thing of real popcorn and a big box of some other flavour of Mike And Ike's. 

1 out of 10

Kellogg's Corn Flakes

Kellogg's Corn Flakes

What Is It: The original corn flake breakfast cereal. 

Packaging: It comes in the traditional white box that I always remember it in with a green rooster and a bowl of cereal on it. Very attractive. 

8 out of 10

Taste/Final Analysis: A lot of people say that this is a boring cereal but I totally disagree. I always find this to be one of the most satisfying breakfast's out there. I like to add a spoonful of sugar to sweeten it a scosh and go to town. The natural corn flavour of the flakes, combined with dash of sweet that I add with the sugar, washed down by the milk make for a darn good bowl. Sometimes you can't beat the old classics.

8 out of 10