Bowlful of Crickets

I’m a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup guy, so the recent trend of "Limited Edition" takes on this candy classic caught my attention. The title implies a two-for-one review- actually, I’ll start with the two new ones I tried this year and will throw in the other four variations I tried.

Fudge Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: I think fudge is best created in tourist town candy shops and grandma’s kitchen. I haven’t found an over-the-counter fudge product that impressed me, and this is no exception. Not bad, but not impressive, either.

Extra Smooth & Creamy Reeses: This one tastes very close to the original, but is, well, smoother and creamier. The peanut butter lingers a bit longer. It’s good, but it does seem like a mutated version of the original- like these were sitting to close to the microwave or something.

Peanut Butter Outside Reese’s, or Reese’s Inside Out: It strikes me as being a bit odd that they had to explain what this product is twice on the wrapper- either one of the explanations and the picture would work fine. I really dug these when they came out- it was indeed more peanut butter tasting than the original, a nice twist. I think I had too many, as now it pales in comparison to the chocolate on the outside original.

White Chocolate Reese’s: If you dig White Chocolate, well, here you go. I can take it or leave it, so that was my thought here. Interesting enough, but not one I would keep returning to.

Reese’s Big Cup: Ever see a Giant Twinkie? How about a bra with one giant cup instead of two? Some things were meant to come in pairs…just ask Noah. The mini Peanut Butter Cups work better than the maxi cup, but the classic two pack knows no rival.

Finally, the best of the variants…that’s not the reason the graphic is larger, though (it’s the best I could find). Dark Chocolate Reese’s is the only one that improves on the original- and I must admit I strongly prefer dark chocalate to milk in any context. So I’m definitely biased here, but this is my favorite, with the original close behind..

So here’s how I rank ‘em:

1. Dark Chocolate Reese’s
2. The Original Reese’s
3. Extra Smooth and Creamy Reese’s
4. Peanut Butter Outside/Inside Out Reese’s
5. Reese’s Big Cup
6. White Chocolate Reese’s
7. Fudge Reese’s

Mind you, the Fudge Reese’s is still better than most candy bars out there. The merging of chocolate and peanut butter must be the greatest culinary accident of all time.

Yeah, I know I just did a 52 Foods posting on Monday- but I’m at only 6 write-ups and we’re on week 11 of the year, so I’m playing catch-up…and, no, I will not be reviewing plain ketchup (gosh, am I clever…)

For oh so long has man tried to bring greasy bar food into a portable format…well, not really. But since TGI Fridays dominates the globe with their family-oriented take on bar food, they might as well expand into the bagged snack market. What better way to do so than to take their famous appetizers and re-invent them as salty snack treats that can be enjoyed on sofas or in motor coaches.

I’ve seen their Potato Skins on store shelves for a few years now- and have enjoyed them upon occassion. Decent flavor, texture a little bit too Pringle-y for me, but not bad at all. My lovely wife surprised me with their Onion Rings recently- having not seen them, I am inclined to think they are relatively new.

Some of you may have looked at the graphic of the bag and thought, "They look a lot like Funyuns." You would be correct. Here are the major differnces:

1) Friday’s rings are more uniform in shape. It should be obvious to everyone that both Funyuns and TGI Friday’s Onion Rings are machine-produced, but there is a bit of randomness to the Funyuns size and shape. These Friday’s Rings are definitely from one mold…

2) Friday’s rings are smaller. They are small, tight calamari-esque hoops, while Funyuns are big, oval, Burger King onion ring sized.

3) They are much saltier than Funyuns- and that’s saying a lot. I don’t have a bag of either in front of me to check the sodium content, and that’s probably just as well.

America, you now have the facts. Choose the Onion Ring shaped snack that best fits your purposes.

Note: I am aware of Wise Onion Rings as well, but have had limited exposure to them. Debbie says they are far superior to both Friday’s and Funyuns, and why would she lie about a topic as serious as that?

If anyone knows where to get a hold of these in Illinois, Wisconsin or Iowa, please advise. Yes, we would drive that far for them.

Update: We have a bag of Wise Onion Rings in the house now, thanks to my father-in-law, who never shys away from packing foodstuffs in his suitcase when he hits the East Coast. A side by side by side taste test may be in the works…

I’m not sure why the folks at Kellogg’s had to get all fancy and pull out créme to be used in this product’s name- Vanilla Mini-Wheats would have worked just fine. Until ALL programs have convenient "insert symbol" functions, I would kindly request that people, when using English, refrain from umlauts and other characters that cannot be banged out on a standard keyboard. Call me an ugly American for the comment if you will, but I’m just trying to review a cereal over my lunch hour and I don’t want to spend half of that time trying to type an é.

With that off my chest, I happily report that a delicious new cereal has entered the world. A little vanilla never hurts, and this product does a great job improving on the original mini-wheat. The vanilla flavor is sweet and smooth, but the best part I’d have to say is when the cereal is gone. The milk the remains in the bowl goes down like a melted milkshake. Other waste products, take note- you don’t have to be the featured food to shine.

Kellogg’s, I forgive you for getting all fancy on me. Keep making variations of your products as good as this one and I’ll spend the extra time to dig up any special characters you can come up with. Hell, call something if it tastes this good…