Triscuit: Cranberry Sage

     At some point when I wasn't looking Nabisco developed about two dozen flavors of Triscuits. As far as mass produced crackers go, Triscuits are surprisingly legit. Being a total sucker for holiday limited edition foods I picked up the Cranberry & Sage flavor and enlisted the help of Meatball the dog and Sausage the cat to taste test them with me.

Sausage                                                Meatball

Me: They hit you with a sharp citrus-y flavor at first. I'm honestly not sure what sage tastes like by itself, but there is a Christmas Tree quality to the overall flavor. It reminds me of a scratch and sniff Christmas book I had as kid. These taste like a Christmas scratch and sniff sticker... I have to admit I kind of really like it though.

Meatball: It tastes like Cap'n Crunch.

Sausage: Aaahh I didn't like any of that! I tasted cranberry first and then sage.

Candy Corn Pebbles

     Well this is a bit of an odd one.

     I really like seeing all the different holiday themed package designs that show up on cereal and other foods targets at kids. However, I didn't really find any this past season, so it was a bit of a surprise to find these candy corn flavored Pebbles at Target in February...

     Well anyway, they don't really taste like candy corn. I mean, it's kind of BARELY there is you're really trying to notice it, but they mostly just taste like some kind of generalized sweet thing. And they smell a bit like movie theater popcorn. Which isn't even the right kind of corn.

     The packaging totally wins though. I love the costumes on Pebbles and Bam Bamm, and the recipe is a nice touch.

Trader Joes French Style Pizza Thing

This had all the proper saltiness for a satisfying frozen meal, but I'm not sure I would call it a pizza. The crust/flatbread was so thin I decided to fold the hold thing over and eat it like a quesadilla. The taste of the caramelized onions held up really well! It was a bit pricey compared to normal frozen pizza considering how small it is, but I'd get it again.

Umbrella Cookies

I found these at the Trans World Food Market in Hadley, MA (link) 

The ingredients are tapioca starch, sugar, coconut and water. They basically taste like a cross between a fortune cookie and a frosted flake, though not as sweet as a frosted flake. So overall the flavor isn't too impressive but they are just so damn fun to eat that I decided I like them a lot!

Autumn Oreos

     I'm basically a sucker for seasonal snacks.

Pumpkin Spice

Aaron: They taste like that pumpkin/nutmeg flavor you would expect from something that says "pumpkin spice." The filling in these is softer than a typical Oreo; you could squeeze the cookies and it would easily get pushed out. Not bad.

Keith: "This tastes more like a Christmas cookie than a Halloween cookie. They're good."

Caramel Apple

Aaron: There are two different shots of creme here, and the apple flavor is definitely like the "sour green apple" kind of artificial apple flavor. It's interesting but basically gross. I still ate them.

Keith: (He was pretty hesitant on these ones. After managing to take two bites of the thing and still have half a cookie left, he decided the "brown bites" were better.)