Apple Pie Bake Off

When you can’t get to Grandma’s house for a fresh baked apple pie don’t worry, there are a variety of options that are… nothing like a real homemade apple pie, but these brands have taken a swing at a portable, single serving of something they like to call pie. Finding people to try these was more of a challenge then I thought it would be. Ethan wasn’t interested, so I brought them to work and figured this guy who always has a Mountain Dew at his desk would be up for the challenge. Somehow he was freaked out by these though. So was our intern when I asked her. Finally, the IT guy and a project assistant came through, and so the tasting began…

Hostess:
The crust on these were pretty thick, so was the filling. We felt it had a consistency of “goo” and it was very sweet, almost too sweet. Dave thought it at least smelled like apples. The sugary glaze was okay but seemed unbalanced with the overwhelming sweetness from the filling inside. There was some apple flavor, it wasn’t as disgusting as we thought it would be and might be good for someone who like things really sweet.

Drake’s:
This was the only pie that came as two separate pieces. Right away we noticed that the crust on this was harder and had no flavor. Becca thought the filling was “tangy” in some way but we all agreed that the apple bits were little pieces of dehydrated apple preserved in the thickened corn syrup.

Entenmann’s:
We liked the color of this – which is not shown properly in this photo – it was a nice golden brown. The filling wasn’t too goopy and was actually flavorful. It clearly had a good amount of apple pie spices and a nice filling-to-crust ratio. The crust itself was good, and glazed with a light coating of sugar. Also worth noting was that this the only pie of the four we tasted that listed “apples” as its first ingredient.

Little Debbie:
This was shaped like the hostess pie and looked okay on the outside, and even on the inside, but we were unimpressed with its taste. The crust was passable, but the filling had no taste at all and we felt like were just eating flavorless corn syrup with fake apple bits.

Wrap up:
Entenmann’s stood out from the rest. Its decent crust and flavorful filling most resembled apple pie, and the cinnamon smell/taste really contributed to the win. We wondered if the others had added more cinnamon or other spices if they would have been better. Little Debbie is O for 2 so far but I have faith in her since her Swiss Rolls are so awesome – maybe devil food cake (and nutty bars) are her specialty.  So the results are: Entenmann’s on top, followed by Hostess, and then kind of a tie between Drake’s and Little Deb for being the worst.

Apple Pies: Hostess, Drakes, Entenmann's or Little Debbie?

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Jack Links vs Mr.Z

I’m not a huge fan of jerky but I saw this Mr.Z product and felt I had to compare it against something.
There are a few different brands but I see Jack Links everywhere so they must be pretty popular.  I don’t really know how else to introduce these products since I don’t eat jerky so…on to the evaluation!

Jack Links:
These were original flavor although the color was kind of red in color.  The smell was really weird to me, something very familiar, yet I couldn’t put my finger on it.  Ethan described it as smelling like deviled ham, but that wouldn’t be familiar to me so I don’t know how I would describe it.
I know jerky is supposed to be dry and chewy but these seemed very tough and plasticy.  One piece I could not tear with my teeth and felt really neanderthal, so I gave up.  Ethan also thought it was tough but liked the flavor and said it was pretty good if you let it sit in your mouth and soften up. 

Mr.Z:
Mr.Z’s product was considerably darker I wonder if it is because this is grass-fed beef.  The pieces were smaller, which were easier to pop in my mouth just the way they were without any caveman pulling and tearing.   There were smokier than Jack Links and a little peppery.  Ethan thought the smoke was too much and the texture was too dry.  I felt the opposite, I thought Z’s was much more enjoyable and not plasticy like Jack’s.  The flavor was better even with amount of pepper in them, and I hate pepper.

Wrap up:
Another tie here.  I really didn’t like Jack Links and at least kind of enjoyed Mr. Z’s with it’s softer texture and smokier flavor.  Ethan didn’t find much appealing about Z and then finished the bag of Jack Links so there’s no clear winner.

Jack Links or Mr. Z Beef Jerky?

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Donut Sticks: Mrs. Freshley’s vs Little Debbie

Again we have a Little Deb/Mrs. F showdown.  This time Mrs. F didn’t even change the name of her product, they’re both “Donut Sticks”.  I will admit I went into this a little biased because in the spring and summer of ’88 I had an addiction to Little D’s Donut Sticks.  Even now if I’m walking through the grocery store with my sister and she sees these, she’ll point at them, look at me and just say, “you”.  I forget how I kicked them, it probably had something to do with not fitting into my pants anymore, but the break was made and I went on to live a somewhat normal life.  From my last post of a Mrs. F product, we decided to get the worst over with so we tasted her donut sticks first.

Mrs. Freshley’s:
I had to admit it but I thought these looked pretty good.  They had a nice color and the glaze was proportionally distributed across the textured top.  When we opened these from the wrapper, Ethan thought they smelled like McDonald’s cookies. Biting into these, we noticed a slight lemon flavor in the glaze.  The crust was nice and crunchy although the inside didn’t have a lot substance, almost like a dry cup cake but not as bad as I we were expecting.

Little Debbie’s:
Oh Deb, we both done some changing over the years but, what happened?  This stick was very pale and pasty looking.  When we bit into these, they crumbled and fell apart. There is no donut taste, actually none at all, they only tasted like sugar and flour.  I was really surprised that these were no where near the addictive sticks I remembered from the days of yore. I took two small bites and that was all I could handle.

Wrap up:
I have to give Mrs. F some props here because even though it wasn’t as good as I remember Little Debbie’s being, her Donut Stick was much better.  The crispy crust and the glaze that actually had some flavor is what really gives her the win.  I’d say neither had a great inside or was good for dunking into coffee because they both were very dry and crumbly.  As disappointing as Little Deb’s were, I’m glad I don’t have to worry about becoming re-addicted.

Donut Sticks: Mrs Freshley's or Little Debbie?

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Carefree vs Extra


I used to love Carefree gum, maybe because when I was growing up it was always in my mom’s purse, but every now and then I’d get a pack and chomp through it in a few hours.  It’s been a while since I had it and when I looked for a pack for this comparison against Extra, I was surprised I couldn’t find it anywhere.  I did some research and was shocked to find out Carefree was discontinued about 2 years ago.  I was so bummed.  But all was not lost! I’m lucky enough to have what I call a “living museum” one town over from me.  Need a pack of discontinued gum from at least 2 years ago?  No problem, head over to Village Stationary in Holliston, MA.  Needless to say I didn’t find anyone who wanted to chew this so this evaluation was done solo. 

Carefree:
Unsurprisingly, this was kind of hard but still a little bendable.  I also would like to note that it did smell like bubble gum and I think the initial stiffness was the only result of being so old.  The flavor was what I remembered, I can’t describe it but there is something that makes it uniquely “carefree”.  Unfortunately the flavor seemed to only last a few seconds.  There wasn’t a lot of “bounce” and the end result was a kind of dense nugget with no flavor- all in about 30 seconds.

Extra:
This (also unsurprisingly) was soft and bendable.  The initial bounce was way better and the bubble gum flavor is stronger. It’s almost overwhelming at first, but this lasted a minute before going the way of Carefree and losing most of it’s flavor and bounce. Although with some work, I could blow a bubble with this.

Wrap up:
I admit this may not have been a fair evaluation with Carefree’s age as a factor but I had to do it while I cold still get a pack.  I like the flavor of Carefree better although it won’t last long enough to walk to the mailbox and back.  BUT,  I like the texture of Extra, although I have to keep in mind this was much fresher and the flavor was pretty decent.  I will give it “extra” points for being able to blow a bubble with it. 

I also wanted to share a Carefree product I found at Village that I never knew existed called Stickfree.
I’m probably not going to chew this but just thought I’d share it since I’ve never seen it before and probably never will again.

Carefree or Extra?

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Spaghettios vs Spaghetti Rings

These are a perfect size for a snack, possibly a small “meal”or …side dish?  As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve started to notice that companies are buying each other, taking over familiar brands.  Spaghettios, formerly made by Franco American, are now owned by Campbell’s (who also powns Pepperidge Farm, Prego, Pace and Swanson).  Not that it’s a snack, but I thought it was semi-interesting that the only product Campbell’s still allows the Franco American label on is their jarred gravy.  In this evaluation we had the help of our friends Sara and Mark.  I could only find an equivalent from Chef Boyardee with meatballs so that’s why we tested the meatball variety.

Spaghettios:
Sara noted that the pasta had no flavor and seemed just be there for texture in the sauce.  On that note, we didn’t feel the sauce had that much flavor either although it was pretty sweet, not exactly like ketchup, but similar.  It was also kind of soupy.  We noticed that the meatballs were squishy and tasteless.  Not the worst thing in the world, but it was just ok.

Chef B’s Spaghetti Rings:
The first thing we noticed was that the sauce was much thicker.  The meatballs were firm and had more flavor than the Spaghettios.  Mark pointed out the sauce had a much stronger tomato taste and I thought maybe they put  more tomato paste in it to give it flavor and thickness.  The pasta was a little chewy but held on to the thick sauce nicely. 

Wrap up:
Hats off to the chef.  Both of these were pretty much what we expected, but the “heartiness” of Spaghetti Rings gave it the edge over the soupy and bland Spaghettios.  I thought maybe Chef B made a better product because his menu is more expansive with such notable dishes as “Beefaroni”, “Lasagna” and “ABC’s & 123’s” but I guess they’re all the same thing in different shapes.

Spaghettios or Spaghetti Rings?

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Entenmann’s vs Freihofer’s

I didn’t think of comparing these at first but I was hanging out with my cousins one day and we were talking about cookies and Entenmann’s came up and I said how they don’t seem to taste as awesome as I remember.  My cousins told me that Freihofer’s taste like how Entenmann’s used to taste so I went out looking for a box of  Freihofer’s and these were surprisingly a challenge to find.  I tried supermarkets and Target and then finally a bakery outlet featuring Friehofer’s products but they didn’t have the cookies.  A few weeks later, I tried there again and got the last box, which was a little smushed but still sealed.  The lady at the counter said they always sell out early when they get them in.

First up, Entenmann’s:
Like I mentioned before, these aren’t as good as I remembered from the days of yore.   These are just ok but really bland.  Ethan said they don’t taste “real”.  The only taste was from the chocolate chips which were very sweet, especially with the blandness of the cookie.  The texture was a little dry too.

Freihofer’s:
These were also just ok.  They were very similar, bland cookie but the chips were not as sweet and there was a teeny bit of saltiness detected but it was good.  The cookie is a little more moist too, which gave it an extra points.

Wrap up:
Going by what my cousins told me, I was expecting Freifofer’s to blow Entenmann’s away but that was not the case.  We felt that these were pretty much identical except that the Freihofer’s cookie texture is better.  Neither of these are something we’d get again, but if we were going to a party and the host said “Oh and can you pick up a package of some soft, bite-size cookies?  Thanks!” – we’d get a box of Freihofer’s.

Entenmann's or Freihofer's?

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Twizzlers vs Red Vines

Twizzlers are everywhere but I’m not sure where RedVines are available, I picked these up in Oregon but I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in New England.  Maybe they’re a strictly regional thing like Mello Yello (any readers in the South want to send me a can?) I just haven’t noticed them in my local stores, so I grabbbed a pack when I saw them (and paid for them). Twizzlers state that they’re strawberry flavored while RedVines are I guess…implied strawberry(?)…they’re just labeled as “Red Bars”.

Twizzlers:
These have a nice smell to them, when unwrapped.  We couldn’t really say that they taste like strawberry though. Ethan said they “taste red”.  The Twizzlers had a nice firm chew, yet broke down nicely after two bites.  And we liked that they’re mild and not overly sweet.  We also thought the diagonal ‘tread’ added to the enjoyment of this treat and while they looked plasticy, they were nice and soft and we found ourselves really enjoying them.

RedVines:
Ethan thought these looked looked like they came out of the Playdo Fun Factory.  The RedVines didn’t have a smooth sheen like Twizzlers and were stickier when chewed.  There was also a noticeable difference in flavor: these tasted very artificial. We tried to identify the taste and came up with soap.  Not a fancy berry-vanilla-waterfall-fusion soap, more like a dissolve-puke-on-the-cafeteria-floor-industrial strength cleaner.  These were not enjoyable at all.

Wrap up:

RedVines need not apply.  I can’t imagine walking into a store, seeing both of these and not picking Twizzlers.  Red Vines are void of taste and texture, the ONLY saving grace of RedVines might be that they have a bigger hole that could be used as a straw if you really needed a straw.

Twizzlers or RedVines?

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5th Avenue vs Butterfinger

To be honest, I never even knew what a 5th Avenue bar was (besides something I traded after Trick or Treating) until a couple of weeks ago when we were thinking of some second rate items and Ethan recalled that it might be similar to a Butterfinger.  On the wrapper it states “crunchy peanut butter” in milk chocolate, which seemed similar enough to Butterfinger so we gave them a try.

5th Avenue:
I found 5th Ave. to have a great PB to chocolate ratio and very peanut buttery flavor.  The salt and sweet contrast was perfect and the middle was nice and flaky.  Ethan however felt there was too much chocolate and the peanut butter did not have a lot of flavor.

Butterfinger:
I thought Butterfinger had much less peanut butter taste and was more like hard toffee, which stuck in my teeth.  I thought there was not enough chocolate to balance it out either.  Ethan thought this had more PB flavor than 5th Ave. and a more enjoyable amount of chocolate and in general thought this was a much better bar.

Wrap up.  Confusion. We felt completely opposite about these bars.  I’m not a fan of the whole crunchy-flaky peanut butter thing anyway, but if given a choice I would absolutely pick the 5th Ave over the Butterfinger and Ethan felt the same way about Butterfinger over 5th Ave.  We totally could not understand each other’s feeling about these bars but I guess these have enough “personality” that it might be fair to say there was no clear second rate version, just personal preference.

5th Ave. or Butterfinger?

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Glad there’s only one of: Chelada

This is the first of occasional posts about a product that there is no second rate version of and maybe it’s a good thing.   I first saw this product called “Chelada” last month at a drug store and did a double take.  Budweiser and…Clamato??   Why? How?…Why? The curiosity stuck in my mind though, so while I’m visiting my sister and brother-in-law, I had them test this out with me.
I have to admit I did not have high hopes for this but tried to go into it thinking maybe the folks at Am-Busch know what they’re doing and as the can states it’s “The Perfect Combination” of beer, clam, tomato, salt and lime.

Evaluation:
Everyone got their own little tasting cup of the pale, pinkish-redish bubbly liquid.
It was hard to describe the taste of this.  I could first taste the tomato and the beer was almost undetectable except for the bubbles and just a hint of hop flavor and a little brine.  My sister Elaine said it tasted kind of like soup and bad beer.  Zac said while it wasn’t disgusting enough to spit out, that only someone who spent time in a Turkish prison would be glad to drink this.

Wrap up:
As we sat around trying to describe this we all agreed on summing it up as “Wrong in a can”.  A few minutes later Elaine wasn’t feeling so good and got a headache. Coincidence or…Chelada?

Chelada

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Funyuns vs Onyums

I’ve only had Funyuns in the past but there are actually quite a few versions of puffed “onion” rings (actually puffed corn) which I was totally unaware of before I started looking for them.  The most similar in name was Onyums so I picked those.  Tonight’s tasting was with my sister, Elaine and brother-in-law, Zac.  We dug into these and evaluated.

Funyuns:
We felt the Funyuns had a very good, satisfying crunch and a nice oniony flavor.  I felt they were a bit too salty but Elaine liked that and thought they were seasoned just right.  Zac liked these too but felt they were some what “drying” – maybe because of the salt that they left him reaching for a drink.

Onyums:                                     
The first thing we noticed was that these were much lighter in texture and much “airier”.   Because of the airiness it was kind of like biting into styrofoam. These did not taste like onion very much.  Zac felt they tasted a little like ranch.  Elaine said she had to eat another Funyun just to get the taste of the Onyum out of her mouth.

Wrap up:
Funyuns wins this round, we felt they were just more tasty and satisfying in general but Zac did say if he didn’t have Funyuns right there to compare to that he’d probably just eat the Onyums if there was nothing else around.  I did notice though that between the two that Funyuns have partially hydrogenated oil and Onyums don’t so for health reasons (although you’d probably avoid either of these if you’re watching your health) you might want to go for the Onyums.

Funyuns or Onyums?

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