Today's challenge is sort of a Snackdown, I guess, for the "dragonfruit" flavor. I chilled both drinks for a few hours in the fridge, and then took them out and did my tests. Drink A is very pink in color, much brighter of a color than drink B, and has a very tart flavor, with a slightly bitter edge to it. It's sweet, but not too sweet, and falls somewhere in between the Hint waters, where you can barely taste the fruit, and juice. It's right in the middle, and provides a nice moderation.
Drink B is a tepid pink color, and tastes sweet. I don't really taste dragonfruit unless I taste a big gulp of it, and it's got less complexities than the other one. It's mainly sweet, but I can get the idea of it. There's a different sweetness to this one, where drink A was getting a fresh, sweet flavor, this one is mainly sugary and a little more watery. For some reason, I also got a cane sugar flavor in it, too, but that might just be wishful thinking.
Drink A, as you might have guessed, was Vitamin Water Power C, and drink B was the Kirkland Signature brand. Though I'm generally one to defend the little guy, Vitamin Water has it down quite well. Here's an interesting fact, though. The flavor, though top notch, is no match for the vitamins in KS's water. For all the health and wellness Vitamin Water promotes, there's 150 calories in the bottle and plenty of sugar, but Kirkland Signature has none at all. The winrar is Vitamin Wataaaar.
WINNER: VITAMIN WATER
I had the raspberry limeade to drink, and it was very cool and refreshing. I tasted more generic fruit than raspberry or lime, but there was a sour flavor from the lime. I wish that there was more of a distinct mingling of flavors instead of such a generic "FRUIT" taste to it, but there was something refreshing to it that was very tasty. They used syrups instead of a mix, and after mixing it all up, it was quite tasty. However, be wary of the uneven distribution prior to mixing up the syrup!
I ordered the Santa Fe burger, and decided to customize the shit out of it. Having seen what Red Robin is capable of, I thought that their menu could have been more organized in the way of boasting the customized side. I mean, they practically shove it in your face, and yet, on the menu, there's only a blip about how you can make it any way you want. I'd have liked to see a more comprehensive list of the toppings, sauces, and meats listed, like a pizza chart, so that I could pick and choose. However, it was not to be, so I simply chose a burger that looked good and then added and subtracted various toppings from there.
The burger was extremely tasty. It was also massive! Huge in diameter and height, there was no skimping on any of the toppings. So, piece by piece. The bun was nothing spectacular. There was no real oniony flavor or distinction from a regular bun, which was a disappointment, but I wasn't expecting anything exciting. I didn't want a ciabatta because that would have given a different flavor, but this was average. It might have been nice if there was more firmness, because all the toppings kept spilling out haphazardly, and I had to do some improvisational scooping to get it all back in place.
The burger, essentially, was like a giant appetizer platter on a sandwich. If the peppers had come with cream cheese, we'd be all set. The chicken was perfectly breaded with a nice crispy flour crust, and nothing else to really set it off, and wasn't soggy in any places. It was a large piece, too, and a good part of it hung off the edge of the sandwich. The guacamole, combined with the chipotle mayo, was absolutely sinful as a spread. I loved the coolness of the flavors against the hot chicken, and the extra spice and tang was perfection. Finishing off the sandwich, on the bottom of the bun, were the tortilla strips, in three different colors, and those added a fantastic crunch to the burger and a lovely cornmeal flavor to compliment the chicken's breading. I couldn't detect the pepper jack cheese at all.
I loved the burger. It was perfect. Everything I'd have wanted and more, and I was so pleased to have such a wide array of toppings to play around with. The fries were also good- very crispy and golden brown and fresh from the fryer, but the parmesan and garlic seemed like it was applied with a shovel, it was on so thick, and I didn't taste any parm at all. I got a ton of chopped garlic, to the point where it almost was too intense for me, but I would have liked to see some freshly shaved cheese on it, to melt onto the fries, or even baked onto them to provide an extra crunch. The garlic was just too thick and I had to take some off. Perhaps a garlic aioli might have been better.
Overall, though, a great experience. I couldn't finish anything, but desperately wanted to, and I'll be back again to try more of Red Robin's selections.
The cheese is very soft, and has the texture of a nice cream cheese. It's firm, but melts very quickly and would make a fantastic fondue. The flavor, like most goat cheeses, is slightly chalky, but slowly goes away when the chocolate, a rich Dutch milk, comes through. It's a very milky, very creamy and succulent flavor that really gets down deep into the taste buds. There's a buttery flavor in the cheese that adds a hint of salt, and overall, makes it wonderful.
I feel like this cheese isn't like regular goat cheeses in that it's also really versatile- I could spread it on a bagel. I could make it into a frosting, or whip it into a cheesecake filling. I feel like it lends itself to a whole lot more variations of cooking simply based on its flavor depth, which makes it that much more awesome.
With this little recipe, we made canapes with shortbread and strawberries, and the flavors mingled together well. The strawberries cut out a lot of the chalkiness from just tasting the goat cheese alone, and the crumbliness of the shortbread made it really wonderful. I loved this recipe, and I loooooooooved this goat cheese. It's like the best sex ever, on top of the Moon.
The bar itself is separated into fifteen squares spelling out "Askinosie Chocolate," and damn, if I don't want to play Scrabble with those! It's a very long, thin bar, and I like the separation into smaller squares as opposed to larger pieces.
The first thing I smelled, all over my hands, when I took this out of the bag was Anaheim chiles. And I said that, to nobody in particular. "Anaheim chiles." I looked insane. And that's also the first thing you taste. A burst of spice, a very distinct pop, and then the bar mellows out. It's a slow melt to this one, but after the pop, the heat lingers a little. It's interesting, because this isn't a bar that particularly features or even contains chiles, but just the way that it was cultivated made it contain those notes fascinates me. It finishes off with that quintessential and wonderful dark chocolate bitter end that "DC" aficionados lust for, the climax that leaves you begging for more. It's bitter, but mingles enough with the sugar to not leave a sour, milky edge on your tongue.
Anyhow, that heat stays with you during the entire bar, but up in the front of your mouth, there is a veritable smooth party. No Parisian cafes were harmed in the making of this bar, but they came pretty damned close. There are creamy, coffee flavors, reminding me of a nice dark roast, and the texture is sublime. There's no grittiness to speak of, and the sweetness and bitter mingle together perfectly.
Foodette
I liked Denny's range of menu items, but I wish their taste in music was better. Honestly, I would have ordered their late night selection if it wasn't for their silly names, like the "Hooburrito" and "Jewel's Acoustic Smoked Chicken Quesadilla". So we decided to get the Grand Slamwich and split it, along with a cherry limeade, because any place with a cherry limeade must be ordered.
The sandwich arrived, and it was impressive.With three meats- sausage, ham, bacon, two spreads- mayo and maple spice on top, and scrambled egg with cheese, it looks pretty appetizing. Like a gourmet McGriddle, with hash browns, too, nonetheless. Half a sandwich was definitely an ample portion for both myself and Erik, as it was very big. With the hash browns, you could down an elephant for a reasonable price. I salted and peppered the hash browns and ate. The hash browns were crispy and golden on top, which always makes me happy, and were tasty. Nothing to write home about, but they were tender and were a lovely compliment to the sandwich.
The sandwich itself was a massive disappointment. It's not that it was bad, or anything, but I was really underwhelmed and unimpressed. For something that touts so many ingredients, I'd never tasted something with so little flavor. I mean, really, you'd think that with all the frying and sweetness and salty balance, there would have been flavor, but my overall impression was boring. It was a boring sandwich with exciting ingredients, and that was just a pity. Even after salting and peppering it, it was boring. There was not enough maple spice spread and sweetness, and I'd have liked some extra maple flavor, overall. The sandwich was quite moist and the eggs were perfectly cooked, though. I didn't find that any of the particular ingredients were very noticeable or extraordinary, though, and for a sandwich connoisseur, what a shame that is.
It's my new child, Oscar.
Aside from that, these are not a bad snack. The box proclaims that there are ten in each package, but, of course, that just means that there are five packs with two crisps in each. I can't stand that. The crisps themselves remind me of the Nature Valley granola bars, and they're rather delicate, to the point of where I wouldn't want to toss this in a lunchbag or backpack without worrying that it would be smooshed and crumbled by the time I opened it.
If I were making improvements to this, I would choose to make this closer to the family of an actual fruit crisp- with a more oat-based crust, no frosting, more molasses oriented flavors, and some whole grains. I loved the crispiness of the crust, and didn't mind the texture of the fruit, but it was the artificial flavors that really took away from the tastes of the fruits and made both the strawberry and blueberry taste the same- very fake. It's a shame these couldn't have been improved upon. How are you eating healthily this year?
I have something very exciting coming down the pike with 3 Musketeers and I'm working with their team for another giveaway, so this is just a small taste (literally, ha ha) of what's coming in the near future!
Here are the rules!
Here's a quiz, readers. What demographic is the Whippers beverage line catering to? Health-conscious and "green" dominatrices with a soul? Whipped boyfriends in need of a pick me up? Whippet aficionados? Victims of whiplash? Either way, they're a little confusing.
I'm here to judge the taste, though, not the mildly retarded advertising campaign and slogans, which I will also be more than glad to thoroughly rip apart. Starting with the Strawberries and Cream flavor- oh, for the love of god, why is it brown? It's like someone took off-brand Pepto-Bismol and vomited it back up. It's tepid. I drank it out of my little shot glass, though, and wasn't too upset. I expected serious chalkiness and a thickness that I couldn't attribute, probably from actual chalk, but what I got was liquid smooth, and a nice flavor, albeit a little watery, but indeed, one that did embody both strawberries and milk. It was artificial. But it was both. And that's all we asked it to do.
Derrida said, "I do everything I think possible or acceptable to escape from this trap." Obviously, the trap in question was the Orange and Cream flavored Whipper. Admiral Ackbar, it's a trap. It's a giant, fucking trap hidden inside this St. Joseph's baby aspirin-flavored thing.
The smoothie looks innocuous. It looks like someone, maybe a sweet child with an adorable speech impediment dropped their creamsicle into my shot glass and left it to melt on a nice, summer day, and now it's here for me to drink.
With my friend Swagger, we realized the key to all knowledge blueberry. It sounds like it will taste fantastic in a drink, but after you take the first swig, you realize how little it actually does translate. It's the literal embodiment of Lost in Translation. That's exactly what they were talking about in the film. Blueberry flavored drinks. 
This smoothis is pretty average, but then the "acai" flavor hits you after. I have had dried acai berries in Whole Foods as a sample. They were dry and tasted like the sampling man had handed me cut up bits of bitter plastic instead of tasty berries. The flavor of acai is a slightly acidic, nutty, and very sharp at the end, and cut through the blueberry and milk flavor when I swallowed it, and made me question the milk's freshness. But no, it was just the damned miracle berry.
It popped up pretty well. On 2:17, the kernels were big and fluffy, and made about four big cup's (the beer pong kind, but I put popcorn in them and post them on my silly blog) worth of popcorn, with a little bit leftover. I was surprised with the mode of cheese distribution, too. I'd originally expected this to be a shake and bake operation, where I'd put the cheese on after the butter had made it malleable for cheese to be added, but no, this was all one step. So that was nice, for feasibility's sake.
The popcorn itself is a big improvement for NASA astronauts, as it can be seen from the space station Endeavor, so one point for Orville, catering to that hard-to-reach astronaut demographic. Seriously, the color is blinding, and distributes well on the kernels. It looks much more orange than this photo does. The texture is lovely. It's crispy, and has very few of the extra kernel bits that get in your teeth and require gum surgery to remove. In the entire batch, I had seven unpopped kernels, too. As far as taste goes, the first bite is buttery...and then, a hint of cheese. Very subtle. If they weren't bright fucking orange you wouldn't know that they were trying to taste like cheddar. Later, after eating a few handfuls, you realize, "Oh, this is the Vermont Cheddar Hydrogenated Oil I was telling you about, the aged one," right in the middle of Hiroshima, Mon Amour during the parade scene and your friends will look at you and call you a DOUCHE.
The drink itself is a mixture of pomegranate and lime juice, and I'm a sucker for all juices with lime. Hoping this would turn into another cherry limeade, I drank it. It's definitely better cold than lukewarm, and the pomegranate flavor is deep and filtered. It's a very intense and pure flavor, too. With some pomegranate juices that aren't filtered enough, I've tasted muddiness and an almost salty flavor, like a steak sauce, which is great if one is making a savory sauce or marinade, but for a juice is rather repulsive.
This juice is sweet, though, but not too sweet, and at the end of the pomegranate's succulent and sugary vibe, the lime takes over and provides a tanginess when you swallow. I wished that the lime came out a little more within the flavors of the juice, but overall, it was definitely a clean taste and profile, and lived up to the name "Pomagrand". So, readers, where am I going for my next lime juice fix???
The chicken pieces themselves were huge and plentiful, and very tender, and with a large portion of sticky white rice with a little cilantro on top to mop up the extra sauce, this was a fantastic meal that carried great value and excellent flavor. It's rare to find good Chinese food at a Chinese restaurant, much less one that touts cheesecake as its specialty.
My appetizer/meal was the macaroni and cheese, and it was absolutely decadent. I was a little scared at first, because one of the top things that I'd feared about the fried mac was that it would be dry and bland on the inside. Not this. First of all, these were some BIG balls.
The cheeses were flavorful and salty, and with the crispiness of the crust, it creates a perfect sphere of wonderful tastes. They're also very filling. I loved the combination of cheeses, and was eating the leftovers well into the night. The sauce underneath the plump little ballings was a pink vodka sauce, I think, and that gave a nice sweetness to some of the bites that I'd never thought to consider with my mac and cheese, because I'd never really thought of eating it with sauce. Go figure, but it was very tasty.
When I dream, I dream of this.
After that, we were pretty stuffed, and still packed a ton of leftovers, but we wanted cheesecake, and cheesecake we had. My culinary compatriot ordered the pineapple upside down cheesecake, and I had the banana cream cheesecake.
The pineapple upside down cheesecake really did have a beautiful presentation. Actually, all of the dishes here did. It was two layers of pineapple upside down cake sandwiching a layer of cherry pineapple cheesecake, with whipped cream on top.
As for my cheesecake, it was a massive slice with a layer of bavarian cream on top, whipped cream over that and on the sides, and two flanking rows of bananas. Dinner and a show. The banana flavor was very subtle, but with the graham cracker crust, I really liked the juxtaposition between crumbliness and banana flavor. I definitely think that TCF made the right decision in picking a sweet and milky, natural banana taste over an overpowering and artificial flavor. It balanced with the natural creaminess of the cheesecake and tasted wonderful when I ate it later that night.
With the fresh bananas, it was delicious. However, it was just a little too plain. The bavarian cream was a little too bland as well, and I think that this would benefit from some salted caramel sauce or hot fudge sauce, or a layer of caramel swirl. Definitely something to color it up from all the neutral yellows and take away the lackadaisical flavor palate. I loved the banana, but wasn't wowed in the long run. Ever been to The Cheesecake Factory? What's your favorite flavor?
