Hershey’s Kisses Pumpkin Spice

Wow these are awful. They are greasy and mushy with and odd color and weird texture.

I never liked Hershey's Kisses because it is too much chocolate for my taste. That said Hershey’s Kisses Pumpkin Spice flavored candies have no real pumpkin and lots of white chocolate.

At $6.00 per bag there is 60 opportunities to spit out and wonder why anyone would make this combination. Nothing nutritional about these so no big loss if you never try one.

Recommendation: Avoid for goodness sake. 

Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Superior Coffee

It tastes fake. The Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Superior Coffee has the false flavor that is common in nearly all flavored coffee. There is a subtle chocolate flavor but a strong raspberry flavor it goes up your nose and stays there for a while.

This is 100% arabica coffee ground finely, natural and artificial flavors, and cocoa powder. It is not heavy and trying to make espresso with this is a bad idea. I also made iced coffee with this and it was okay. A little thicker or more coffee flavor would make this great for ice cream.

Not wanting to waste food I got this bag of coffee from some food service friends that was left over after an event. At about $1.50 per bag you can get a good week or two worth of coffee since this is not a daily coffee.

Recommendation: Avoid for goodness sake. 

McDonald’s Mighty Wings

There is no reason to buy these wings in NYC. I have been to the cheapest dive bars in the city and they have better and cheaper wings than McDonald’s Mighty Wings. Intrigued by the glowing review at The Impulsive Buy I decided to pick some up.

Packaging is nice but a big for only 5 pieces. The "BONE-IN" description is just silly, I get that is the point but it sounds ignorant. A worse description is Spicy, Bold, Delicious.

Not limited to wings there are also tiny drumsticks, hehe. Each bite is uneven. One bite is almost flavorless while a another bite gets you a mouthful of hot and spicy crumbs. Now my batch may have overcooked since they were very crispy and would crumble at the slightest touch.

Do not be fooled by the grease glistening on the surface the meat was dry. All the pieces were not juicy and the creamy ranch dressing included did help but then all the uneven flavor gets masked. Judging by the black marrow burn at the side I think my patch may have overdone.

I will not be trying a second batch since the $4.99 price for 5 pieces, plus tax is steep. I can get a dozen juicy wings at any dive bar for the same price. I am not one of those anti-fast food people but I have yet to find crispy wings from one of these joints that taste great.

Recommendation: Avoid for goodness sake.

Bloody Eyeball Gum

It is Friday the 13th so here is a piece of Halloween candy I still have from last year.

Individually wrapped they were given out at the end of a Halloween party in 2012 because all the real food was gone.

Not very detailed but looks a eyeball.

Inside is a gooey syrup meant to be blood.

The gum is very hard even when it was fresh. It had about 5 minutes of sweet sugary flavor until it lost all of it. Then 5 minutes after the flavor was gone it becomes ridiculously hard and must be spit out. Half the time the oozing bloody center had soaked into the gum so you were left with a hollow gum.

I do not know what company made it but they should be ashamed. At an average price of $0.05 per gum these are still not worth it.

Recommendation: Avoid it for goodness sake.

PopCorners Kettle Popped Corn Chips

Just awful. I did not want you to wait for a full review to say how awful tasting these were.

PopCorners are pressed popcorn triangles coated in different flavors. While I cannot judge an entire line of products by one flavor this was not a good introduction. Kettle flavor is an awful mixture of super sweet popcorn and some odd salty powder on top.

There is slight hint that this could be a great tasting snack but this has the texture of a bad rice cake. I was expecting a salty snack but this is more of a sweet treat. Claiming to be all natural and gluten free are just buzzwords that I ignore. This is just a bag of sugar and salt.

PopCorners at Amazon are about $2.00 per bag but since these are relatively new they have been giving free samples across the country. I suggest taste-testing before committing.

Recommendation: Avoid it for goodness sake.

Evian Water

Maybe you are not old enough but back in the day when this water first came out it was considered the fanciest thing a person can drink. French bottled water was considered an unnecessary, expensive, luxury for the elite.

Evian came along and changed the perception that fancy water can be for everyone. The problem with this water is that it taste like melted snow which is not a good thing. Yes I know this is supposed to be glacial spring water but has so much natural metals that it has a dirty taste, if that makes sense. I am not a fan of water in general but I can think of dozens of others brands that taste better.

Summer in New York City means a bottle of water is part of your ensemble but this is one that you rarely see. It just does not refresh. I got it for free so I do not know the current store price.

Recommendation: Avoid it for goodness sake .

Starbucks Refreshers: Valencia Orange

Valencia Orange Starbucks VIA Refreshers™ if I want to be accurate is an instant drink that is not coffee. Although it has green coffee extract and some caffeine there is nothing coffee-like about it. I have seen these Starbucks Refreshers around and as the blazing summer heat came upon us I decided to see if this is better than iced coffee...it was not.

There three ways to get these Refreshers I chose the do it at home instant powder method. There are also Sparkling Refreshers in a can and having made at Starbucks by baristas. At five drinks for about $5.00 on sale I figured it has to be the cheapest option.

Kind of reminded me of crushed vitamin C pills or powdered candy. I followed the instructions and used 16 of cold water, added the powder, mixed well, then added ice.

It had an initially medicinal taste. After a bit of drinking that went away but it left an odd after taste. I also tried it in the blender and that just made it very bubbly and more medicine-like. On a cool day this was not going down well then on a 100 degree day it tasted much better, although at that point licking frozen chicken would have been fine.

I would not try these again or explore different flavors. I might try the canned version. They have 110% of you vitamin C and not much else. Old fashion orange juice is still better.

Recommendation: Avoid it for goodness sake.

Olde Brooklyn Flatbush Orange Soda

Soda is like a snack or dessert for me and should be as indulgent. Diet soda is awful in every way but I always give natural sodas a try. Orange soda is among the best flavored soda, when done right. Olde Brooklyn did not do it right.

Flatbush Orange Soda is bland and lacks pop. The fact that these use cane sugar should not make a difference but the glass bottle should. Most glass bottle sodas taste better because it holds the carbonation better and gets colder faster. This does not matter when the Olde Brooklyn guys do not put a lot of bubbles in the bottle, on purpose. As for the orange it is not sharp at all less like an orange more like orange extract.

It is soda so nutrition is not a factor and ingredients are mostly natural. The website lacks any kind of detail aside from a mission statement.

Recommendation: Avoid it for goodness sake.