Beer of 2021

 I enjoyed several different Sam Adams beers in 2021. I don't think there was one I didn't like. Einstock is a delicious white ale that I put on par with Allagash, which is my favorite. 

I also purchased the Beers of Cheer box from Costco. It was kind of like an Advent calendar, but it will take me about a year to get through it!

2022 Snack Round Up

I have to make room on my phone, so I’m going through and finding photos, voice memos and notes about snack tastings that I have left incomplete. Here’s a roundup of stuff from 2022…

March 8 Hariboo Smurfs: Not worth the sugar.

March 15 Smartfood Cinnamon Sugar Cupcake flavored popcorn: These were delicious, but of course, limited editions with a scary amount of ingredients. After I finished the bag, I became a bit obsessed with sweet-salty-cinammony pocorn. So, I tried a couple of different brands of kettle corn with one addition: I sprinkled cinnamon on them. It’s a delicious combination. Boom Chicka Pop Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn worked the best.

July 8 Hippeas Organic Chickpea Puffs Bohemian BBQ flavor: Similar to the texture of a Funion with an easy crunchy and yummy BBQ flavor. I don’t taste chickpea flour base. I wasn't moved enough to consider buying any of these in the future.

July 28 Trader Joe’s Carolina Gold Style BBQ Flavored Ridge Cut Potato Chips – Upon bag opening, they appear very yellow - there must be a lot of turmeric. Upon first bite, you get mustard and then vinegar and then a little spicy kick… maybe Worcestershire sauce. The flavor is good, but the texture is too hard – feels like ridge cut plus kettle cooked. This flavor would be good on a regular smooth cut fried crisp chip and would be the perfect accompaniment to a hot dog.

August 

Lay’s Limited Time Flavor Funyuns Onion Flavored Wavy Potato Chips
Lay’s Limited Time Flavor Frito’s Chili Cheese Flavored Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

December Lay’s Adobadas Flavored Potato Chips, official USA snack of the FIFA World Cup 2022

Nissan Cup Noodles and Lays Cucumber Flavored Potato Chips

Nissan Cup Noodles Potato Chips Black Pepper Crab Flavor. It took me a minute looking at the bag to figure out these were chips. It just looks like they repackaged cup noodles in a bag instead of a Styrofoam cup. That being said, they were spicy, seafoody and delicious, but there was no noodle flavor and it wasn’t distinctly crabby.

 Lays Cucumber Flavored Potato Chips are disturbingly accurate. I bit into the chip, chewed and was immediately hit with the flavor of a cucumber. It’s very clear and strong. Then the flavor relaxes to a smooth, subtle, and savory indistinguishable carb. Then I got a sense of coolness in my mouth. And that was disturbing. Chips are crunchy, savory, spicy, sweet, salty. But I’ve never had a chip that made my mouth feel hot or cold. Something’s wrong with that and I want no part of it. 

Potato Chips: Dirty Brand Buffalo Bleu

I picked these up while in Buffalo, NY and ate them with my parents in the parking lot of The Buffalo History Museum. Yes! I live for puns! They were tangy and slightly spicy in a roasted red pepper kind of way. I didn't exactly taste Buffalo sauce, but thick, sour creaminess of bleu cheese was recognizable. I would eat these, again, when visiting Buffalo! Tasted 06/20/2019 

They get an okay B

Trader Joe's New Pumpkin Flavored Stuff 2021 Part II

My co-worker brought some more snacks to the break room table...

Pumpkin Flavored Joe Joe’s with other natural flavors
Another delicious pumpkin fall offering from TJs. The cookie was flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg and wasn’t sweet, which paired well with the sweet filling. The filling was perfectly pumpkin and tastes like a homemade pumpkin pie and is actually made with pumpkin purée and pumpkin powder. So, in essence, it is a tiny pumpkin pie! These are a must buy if you come across them at TJs, but according to my co-worker, everybody else knows this, so they're out of stock more often than not.

Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread, soft pumpkin bread with warm spices
The crust was smooth and thin like pao de queijo, so I’m assuming it’s the tapioca starch that has something to do with that texture. Inside the loaf was soft, but not moist. The bread has a good pumpkiny, seasonal-spicy flavor, which is the winning point and why I’d consider purchasing gluten free pumpkin bread if I was ever in the mood for pumpkin spice sweets. I would reach for the Joe Joe's or blondies first.

PC&B Summer 2021 Collage

Boom Chicka Pop Salted Maple Flavored Kettle Corn- Delicious! Maple goes perfectly with traditional kettle corn. Definitely a dessert. Tasted this at my parents' place.

Palma Louca- A good, light pilsner from Brazil. Cafe Brasil. 

Tierra Madre- Started taking home beer samplers from Trader Joe's and this was a good, light beer find. Brewed in California. 

Doritos Late Night Oven Roasted Chicken- One of Dorito's flavors from Korea. I liked them enough, but I wouldn't want to eat the whole bag in one sitting. Brought to work by a co-worker. 
 

Trader Joe's New Pumpkin Flavored Stuff 2021

Trader Joe's puts out new fall-themed items each year and my co-worker brought a couple of them to the break room table. 

Pumpkin Blondie Brownies

I’m not a huge fan of cake, but I’m a sucker for spice cake. After tasting this TJ's product that is labeled as a brownie, I will argue that I had some of the best spice cake I've had in a long time and it was cut into brownie-like squares. I’m not clear about the pumpkin flavor, but the combination of warm spices formed a delicious, yummy and moist melt-in-your-mouth spice cake. The cake had the perfect amount of sweetness to balance with the icing and white chocolate chips. Pecans added a crunch. These so-called brownies are delicious and dangerous!

Pumpkin Spiced teeny tiny Pretzel

These tiny pretzels have a yogurt-flavored coating, which is sprinkled with bits of crushed pumpkin seeds that are sweetened. I tasted pumpkin spice, but it wasn’t the nice, warm spices smoothly blended that made the brownie yummy. The pretzels had a more artificial taste and, quite frankly, an unpleasant mouthfeel. Maybe if I were more of a sweetened pretzel person these would work for me, but they don’t.