Quaker

Update Review, 2024

Quaker, along with their obviously popular cereals and granola bars, also makes a fairly large product line of rice snacks.  Large format standard rice cakes, smaller, crunchier Rice Crisps, super thin and even crispier Rice Thins, and triangular Rice Chips.  All come in a variety of flavors.

Rice Crisps

"'With so many crunchy ways to snack, you might not be able to pick just one. They’re a great lunch time sidekick, after school snack or movie night munchie."

The rice crisps look just like rice cakes, but, smaller.  They are however fairly distinct, not just due to the size, but due to the crispy factor.  They are much crunchier/crisper, less airy and fluffy. They come in 10 flavors, some sweet and some savory.  I tried a few.

Caramel.

"These sweet, buttery, caramel flavored rice crisps are a low fat snack the whole family will love."

I love caramel corn.  I appreciate healthier snacks.  These seem like such a perfect snack for me.  And yet ... I always want to like them more than I actually do.

The crispier and thinner than regular rice cakes or caramel corn form factor isn't quite as enjoyable for me.  I prefer a bit more puff to my snacks.  The two-bite size works, but, overall, the rice crisps form lets me down a bit.

The flavor also lets me down.  It is intensely caramel-y.  Very sweet.  Very very sweet.  Again, this seems like I should like it, full of buttery caramel notes just as promised.  But they lack any addicting salty counterpart, and thus are just sweet on sweet.  I like to dunk them into whipped cream, but just eaten on their own as a snack, I want a big more balance.

I want to love these, but generally think they are barely ok, and kinda need to talk myself in to finishing off a bag.  **+.

Apple Cinnamon.

"What do you get when you combine the flavors of tangy apple with tasty cinnamon and crispy crunchiness? Totally delicious rice snacks that will leave you speechless – mostly because your mouth will be full."

I didn't select the apple cinnamon flavor, but my mom had them in her cabinet, so of course I tried them.  They delivered strongly in both the apple and cinnamon flavors.  Very classic fall flavors, warming spices.  Not really what I go for, but, I give them credit for really amping up the flavor.  **+.

Original Review, 2013, with updates from 2020

If you read my blog on Fridays, you know that I've been on an epic quest to find some granola.  I've kinda failed, concluding that the granola from Target is my favorite so far, even when compared to all sorts of expensive, artisan granolas, but its not like I'm running out to get more of the Target stuff.

Chewy Granola Bars

So now, I turn my attention towards granola in a slightly different form: granola bars.  Like with granola, the variance is high.  What percentage is oats? Is it chewy or crispy?  Loaded with fruit and nuts?  Loaded with sugar? Weird protein powders?  They can be 100 calorie light snacks or 500 calorie sugar bombs.  The choice is yours.

I've reviewed a few granola bars in the past, but I'm going to dive in for the next few weeks, doing a different brand every Friday. To start this series, I'll begin with a classic: Quaker.  Yes, the oatmeal people.  I've tried some of their "Chewy" product line over the years. 

The "Chewy" product line is available in several forms: classic granola bars, 25% less sugar, Big Chewy (60% bigger), yogurt (coated), Dipps (dipped in chocolate). 

Classic Chewy Granola Bars

"Quaker®Chewy Granola Bars are a delicious snack that you can feel good about giving to your kids. All classic flavors of Chewy are made with 100% whole grains and other yummy ingredients, like real chocolate chips and raisins, and no artificial flavors or added colors."

The basic chewy bars claim to be decent healthy choices, made with whole grains and no high fructose corn syrup.  About 100 calories each. 

The granola base for all is oats and brown rice crisps in several formats.   They are available in 7 flavors, 4 fairly basic (dark chocolate chunk, oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, peanut butter chocolate chip), plus a handful of slightly more fun ones (peanut butter and marshmallow, s'mores, and chocolate-brownie-licious).

Chewy Granola Bars Assorted Pack.

I got the assorted pack, which contains 4 varieties, all of which I tried.

I haven't really liked any - they taste incredibly sweet, fake, and generic.  My tasting notes are not very extensive, as I just haven't really wanted anything to do with these, and handed them off to my niece (who, does adore them). Meh.

Chocolate Chip.

"Nothing gets chocolate lovers cheering like a Chocolate Chip Quaker® Chewy Bar. Every chewylicious bite is made with real, mouth-watering chocolate chips the kids will love."

Most varieties use the chocolate chip as the base.

The little chocolate chips are ... fine.  The mix of crispy things in the base is fine.  It *is* chewy as advertised, pleasantly so.

But it is just a sweet, generic granola bar, targeted at kids, and, I found nothing interesting with it. *+.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip.

"If you like the delicious flavors of peanut butter and chocolate chips, you’ll love Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Quaker® Chewy Granola Bars."

I moved on to the peanut butter chocolate chip.  Made with the same base of oats and crispy rice, with little tiny chocolate and peanut butter chips.

I had it when I was craving chocolate and peanut butter.  After eating it ... I was still craving chocolate and peanut butter.

This was a pretty standard chewy granola bar, very sweet, and not anything special.  I love peanut butter and chocolate together, but neither was very strong in this product, both sets of chips seemed to be more waxy than flavorful.  There were not actually any peanuts in here, only the "peanut flavored chips". 

It was sweet and kinda gooey, so I guess there is that? *+.

S'mores.

"Our S’mores Quaker® Chewy Granola Bar takes a family favorite from the campfire to your cupboard."

Swap out the peanut butter chips for mini marshmallows and you get the s'mores bar.  My review is exactly the same.  It really is the same product, just with tiny tiny marshmallows that get easily lost in it.  Chewy, too sweet, meh. *.

Oatmeal Raisin.

"Oatmeal Raisin Quaker® Chewy Bar is a delicious snack made with raisins, oatmeal cookie pieces, 10 grams of whole grains and other yummy ingredients. "

My favorite of the lineup was strangely the oatmeal raisin.  It at least had some spices in it (cinnamon, etc) and the raisins were not hard pellets.  That said, it was still just sticky sweet, which made no sense with the healthier flavor, and I didn't want a second bite. *.

Prior tasting notes: "Sweet, meh. Not tasty."  Lol.  I had few words back then.

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Maple and Brown Sugar.
(Discontinued)

Standard granola bar, ok maple flavor.

Prior tasting notes:  Pretty good when crumbled up on top of fruit and whipped cream, but very sweet, too sweet to just eat as a bar.  *+.

Chewy Yogurt

"Quaker Chewy Yogurt Granola Bars are made with real fruit pieces, whole grains, a delicious yogurt-flavored coating and other yummy ingredients. These BERRY tasty bars are a snack that the family will love!"

Even though I didn't like the Classic Chewy bars, I still tried a bar from the yogurt lineup, when my little niece rejected her box full.  Available in strawberry or blueberry only.

Strawberry: Top.

"Quaker® Chewy Strawberry Yogurt Granola Bars are made with 14 grams of whole grains, real strawberries pieces, a delicious layer of yogurt flavored coating and other delicious ingredients. With a taste your whole family will love, this yummy snack won't last long in your cupboard!"

The first thing I noticed when I opened the yogurt bar is that it is much bigger, thicker.  Perhaps more like the Big Chew bars? It also was a dryer style, less gooey.

I liked the granola base more than in the classic bars, the mix of oats, brown rice crisps, etc worked better for me here for some reason.  And I even liked the little pops of intense fruitiness from the bits of dried strawberries.  But it was very, very, very sweet, the base has sugar, honey, glucose, invert sugar, and brown sugar after all, and the dried strawberries are sweetened with glucose syrup and fructose too.  

Much better texture for me, but still, wowzer, sweet.  

Strawberry: Side.

The part I really did like though, embarrassingly, is the "yogurt" coating.  Yup, that would be the sugar, vegetable oil, palm oil, why, soy lecithin, etc, etc.  It too was very sweet. But it was creamy, and I kinda liked it.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that I cut off the bottom (it was entirely coated) and just, uh, ate that.  The box was going in the trash otherwise, no other adults wanted to try them, and alas, 2 year old declared "yucky"!

Best Quaker granola bar product I tried, for the yogurt coating only :) **.

Update Review, 2018

Quaker is not exactly an unknown brand to me.  I grew up with their instant oatmeal (maple and brown sugar, with extra maple syrup added, FTW!).  Their granola bars were probably the first granola bars I ever had.

I recently tried some of their breakfast bar products.  They make two varieties, harder style "Breakfast Flats" (like Belvita perhaps?) and softer "Breakfast Squares" (like Nutri-Grain).  I tried the later.

Breakfast Squares

"Your morning just became more satisfying with Quaker® Breakfast Squares. Available in Strawberry, Baked Apple Cinnamon and Peanut Butter flavors, these filled soft baked bars are an easy way to fill up and help start your day. Not to mention, each square is made with whole grain oats and other delicious ingredients to make this one fulfilling square."

Breakfast Squares seem to be their version of something like a Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Bar, just, square shaped.  Your basic soft baked oatmeal based bar in a few flavors, handy grab-n-go breakfast.

I tried two varieties, strawberry and apple cinnamon.  The fruit fillings weren't really winners, but I did like the oatmeal bar itself.

Packaging.

The bars come individually packaged, in a plastic wrapper with a clear section showing through to the bar within.

The packaging is interestingly *not* a square, so I assumed that inside would also actually just be a oblong bar.

Strawberry: Top View.

"The sweet taste of strawberries is always refreshing. That’s why Quaker® Strawberry Breakfast Squares are a great way to help start your day. Whole grain oats, whole wheat, strawberry puree and other tasty ingredients create the satisfying breakfast snack you’ll love to enjoy. "

But, they are actual squares.

From the top, it looks just like a fairly standard oat based soft-ish bar.

I did like the oatmeal based bar.  It wasn't quite as soft as I was hoping, but it had good texture from the oats, and a nice sweetness level from brown sugar.  Basically, yup, oatmeal in bar form. *** from that component.

Strawberry: Side View.

From the side you can see the generous strawberry filling layer that runs through the center.

The strawberry I didn't really like.  It was fruity, but, not in a "yay, fresh strawberries!" sense.  No worse than any other bar of this nature, just, not something I like.  It really was generously stuffed though, so if I had liked it, I would have been pretty thrilled.

I just peeled off the oatmeal bar bits and enjoyed it that way, but kept finding myself wishing I had some of my mom's strawberry jam handy to slather on.  So yes, if that strawberry filling had delivered, this would be a great choice. ** overall though.

Baked Apple Cinnamon.

"Apple & cinnamon, the classically delicious duo that blends sweet and spice. We love this combination in our Baked Apple Cinnamon Quaker® Breakfast Squares, the surprisingly satisfying breakfast snack. Enjoy 23 grams of whole grains, cinnamon, sweet apple puree and other tasty ingredients in a square that may become your new favorite apple cinnamon snack!"

Next I tried the baked apple cinnamon.

My review is basically the same.  The oatmeal bar was actually pretty good, nice sweetness and texture.  The filling though?  Mush, that was like low end apple sauce, spiced in ways I didn't like.

I again just peeled off the oatmeal bar, and ate that part (uh, dunked in whipped cream).  **.

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Dairy Queen

Update Review, October 2024

I finally visited a Dairy Queen!

Yes, I, the girl who eats ice cream (or some kind of other frozen ice cream adjacent dessert component) at least once a day, had never actually visited a Dairy Queen before.  I simply have never lived where one is located, and thus, the opportunity has never been there for me.

The astute reader will remember that I did have my first ever Dairy Queen about a year ago when I ordered quasi-failed delivery while on a business trip in Virginia (review below), but that was my first DQ experience, and it wasn't the same as visiting in person, actually getting what I ordered, and not having it be a melty mess.

Behold, Dairy Queen!

The location I visited was in Tucson, Arizona, where I was for a short business trip.  It was located just a 10-15 min walk away from my hotel, and I'm not going to say it was the reason fro choosing my hotel exactly, um, but it certainly did weigh into my decision making process.

Cakes

Dairy Queen carries pre-made full size cakes in the classic chocolate/vanilla/crunchies/fudge form or Oreo Blizzard style, but you can also customize sheet or round cakes (with advance order) at most stores, to include all sorts of designs on top, or your Blizzard of choice made into a cake.  They also make heart shaped ones at Valentine's day, and log cakes, if that is more your style.  And they also make an off-menu "cupcake".  Many people do not know this exists, but despite having only having Dairy Queen once in my life, and never actually visiting one, I of course knew about them.  And thus, I sought one out, particularly as the one I ordered for delivery last year came as just plain vanilla ice cream (sadness!).

As expected, the cupcake is not listed on the menu anywhere.  I tentatively asked about it, and the staff member had to check to see if they had any.  I was in luck.  She plucked the undecorated cup from a freezer (just the ice cream/crunchies/fudge layers were in it), and asked what toppings I'd like.  I was like a deer in headlights.  I didn't know I could add toppings!  I asked her recommendation, and she said Oreo or sprinkles.  Since I don't care for Oreo, that was easy, sprinkles it was (but in the future, I'd do M&Ms ...).  She then went to go add the frosting and my topping of choice.

"Cupcake".

"The personal version of our famous cake, our cupcakes have the same irresistible fudge and crunch center surrounded by vanilla and chocolate soft serve, colorfully decorated."

Behold, the "cupcake", or large sundae size ice cream cake.  I was pretty excited to dig in.

My understanding is that usually these are topped with colorful frosting (all assorted colors), but mine came with white frosting (which was applied to order).  At first I thought that was just very stable whipped cream, but one bite and I realized nope, that was frosting!  A LOT of very sweet, very creamy, very smooth frosting.  I love this kind of ridiculous frosting, and I do think it is essential on an ice cream cake, but served in this form, and this quantity, it actually was a bit too much sweet, and it was hard to get any bites of chocolate layer with it.  **** frosting, but I need to dock them a little for the form factor, while looking great, wasn't really practical, and the balance was off.

Once I scooped off some frosting (don't worry, I saved it!), I got to the ice cream.  It was more firm than fresh soft serve, since it had been pre-made and was in the freezer.  But otherwise, it was standard Dairy Queen ice cream.  The vanilla I enjoyed, the chocolate was a bit too chocolate for me (in general, I'm not one for chocolate ice cream).  I was also a bit sad that mine was about 70% chocolate and only 30% vanilla (recall that whole white top part is frosting).  It made me realize that if I was getting a fresh treat in person, the cupcake didn't really make sense. The glory of fresh soft serve was lost this way.  *** ice cream, great flavor and creaminess, but, not actually soft serve at this point really.

Fudge Layer.

But wait, what about the layers in-between the ice cream?  Those are an essential part of ice cream cake after all.  

Here you can see what was under the top layer of vanilla ice cream.  Thick, rich, chocolate fudge.  It was excellent fudge, but fully frozen.  There was almost too much of it, given the sweet frosting and sweet style of ice cream, it all ended up being kinda a lot.  It was very hard to get a plastic spoon through, another element that just wasn't successful in terms of practicality of eating. I am not sure if this is different from the hot fudge you can order on a sundae/mixed in?  **** flavor, *** overall though due to difficulty of eating. 

Under the fudge, the crunchies.  Great chocolate crunchies.  **** for the crunchies.

So overall, I had mixed feelings about this creation.  As a fresh item to get when visiting a DQ store in person, I wouldn't recommend it.  You lose the experience of actual soft serve and it isn't actually a very practical item to eat as served.  In the future, I'd go in person for a sundae, cone, or Blizzard instead, and get a cupcake to go to stash in the freezer, as it is far more stable, and I'd likely then serve it up as a half portion, and even out the distribution of the frosting to make the bites more balanced.  I do like the concept though, and as an ice cream cake, compared to other grocery store options like Carvel or Friendly's, it is dramatically better, as it is fresher than those, and the inclusion of fudge is pretty awesome, and it is great to have the ability to buy a 1-2 serving portion, and not just the full size cake.  

Treats

The next day, I returned, and went for a freshly made treat.  I was definitely tempted to get my first ever in-person Blizzard, to witness the whole turn it upside down thing, but it was crazy hot out, and I really just wanted a cone to eat in the sun.

Kid's Cone, Vanilla, Cherry Dip.

Yes, I decided I just wanted a simple cone but of course, I needed to add *something* so I went for dip.  Dairy Queen always has chocolate dip available, and they used to have cherry, but it was discontinued, there was much outrage, they brought it back for a limited time, yadda yadda.  This location also had butterscotch dip.  All 3 dip choices sounded good to me, so I asked the staff member to pick for me.  She went with cherry, her favorite.

The cone was nicely twirled, the dip very evenly and fully applied.  Kid's size was perfect for me, just right after a reasonably large lunch.  The soft serve was perfectly creamy and lightly melty, really quite ideal and perfect consistency.  The flavor was a bit sweet, and a bit plain, it had that "fast food soft serve" taste to it that wasn't quite as wholesome as local dairy soft serve.  But the texture really made up for the mediocre taste.  **** creaminess, *** taste, ***+ overall.

The cone part was fresh and not stale, no issues there.  The cherry dip was good - sweet and white-chocolately, not waxy, strong cherry flavor.  I liked it, but found it got to be a bit much, the ratio of dip to ice cream meant I had a lot of dip (I suspect a bigger size cone doesn't have this issue).  *** dip, but I'd try another flavor next time.

Overall, a quite enjoyable cone.  ***+.

Original Review, November 2023

My first ever Dairy Queen.  Yes, you read that right, me, the girl who eats ice cream at least once a day, never had Dairy Queen until now.  I've certainly known about Dairy Queen, but never actually had their ice cream before.  

Why?  Well that is pretty simple.  It isn't snobbery or anything like that. I've simply never lived anywhere near one.  I grew up in a land of soft serve (New Hampshire), but, we didn't have Dairy Queen, it was all small local businesses (and only open seasonally).  I went to college in a tiny town that didn't really have, uh, anything, save a single pizza place and grocery store.  I think there might have been one where I went to grad school, but, I had absolutely no disposable income then, and thus no restaurants really were on my radar (except IHOP, because they had a great student discount on Thurs nights, and I do adore their pancakes).  San Francisco definitely doesn't have a Dairy Queen.  And thus, I reached XX years old, as an avid ice cream, and in particular soft serve, fan, without having Dairy Queen.

If you aren't aware of DQ, Diary Queen has been around since 1940.  They quickly franchised within the US and Canada, and now have locations in nearly 30 countries.  Some locations carry a variety of savory, hot food, in addition to their signature ice cream treats.  Amazingly, the Blizzard wasn't added to the menu until 1985 (at least in my mind, that is what DQ is supposed to be all about?  And even more confusingly, they used to have an item named the Blizzard in the 1960s, that was just a thick shake). 

Anyway, when I was recently on a business trip in the suburbs of Virginia, I used the opportunity to order up my very first Dairy Queen.  Since I had no car, and Dairy Queen wasn't within walking distance, I ordered via Door Dash, which ... was wrought with issues.  First, my Dasher batched my order along with several other stops, so it took 50 minutes from the time he picked up my ice cream, until he arrived near my hotel.  You can guess how melty it was by then, as he certainly didn't have it in a freezer container.  Second, my Dasher got very lost, and couldn't find the hotel, and called me angrily, took some calming down, and eventually I was able to get him to me.  But that added at least another 15 minutes to the delivery time.  Third, well, one of my items was incorrect.  And fourth, the prices on the DoorDash site were totally incorrect in some places (not just DoorDash premiums).

So, was it a good experience?  Well, no.  I had an agonizingly long wait, had to deal with a very upset Dasher, had very melted ice cream, was missing one item I ordered, AND paid some major premiums.  But was I still glad I tried it?  Absolutely.  I'd like to try again sometime when I can just visit in person.

My First Ever DQ!

I'll admit, I was pretty giddy when my order arrived, even though it took forever, my Dasher got lost, and I suspected it would be quite melted.  It was MY FIRST DAIRY QUEEN!

Even seeing the slogan on the bag, "Happy tastes good", made me smile.  I was ready to dig in.

$12.98.

Well, my first item was a fail.  It was a small cup of vanilla ice cream.  Just vanilla ice cream.  Not particularly full.  No toppings, no mix-ins.  For ... $12.98.  Um, what?

For context, this isn't just crazy Door Dash pricing - a small sundae is supposed to be $3.79, parfaits and loaded creations are upwards of $6.99.  And yet this ... was double that.  It also is not what I ordered.

What I ordered ...

Here you can see what I ordered.  The DQ "cupcake", or basically, their version of a personal size ice cream cake.  They describe it as: "Single serving of our regular ice cream cakes. Layers of Vanilla AND Chocolate Soft Serve, separated by mouth watering layers of DQ Fudge and Cookie Crunch in the center."  As someone who grew up with ice cream cake (Carvel!), I was quite eager to try this.

The image on the Door Dash ordering page showed the layers of multiple types of ice cream, layer of crunch, and topping.  That is what I thought I was ordering.  Not just vanilla ice cream.  So, fail #1: the wrong item.

Fail #2: the price.  The crazy price was somewhat my fault, but also theirs ... the base item was marked at $4.99, which seems reasonably correct, but, then you must select a size (small, medium, large) that adds on an additional $7.99, $1, or $2.  Yes, in that order.  So, a small is $12.98 but a medium is $5.99, a large is $6.99.  Clearly, that pricing was totally broken, and I just failed to notice it when ordering, as I ordered the smallest one.

But, like I said, the crazy price was only part of the problem.

Yup, just vanilla ice cream.

The other problem, is that even when I dug through, yup, it was just vanilla ice cream.  No layer of chocolate ice cream, no cake, no crunchies, no frosting.  So even if the pricing wasn't wonky, it still was not the correct item.  And, due to the extensive delivery time, it was obviously quite melted.

It was reasonably creamy, beautifully soft and melty ice cream, sweet but not cloying.  Better than generic fast food soft serve, but it did taste more fake and lower quality than a fancy local soft serve shop that makes their own, or even is known for using more premium dairy.

Probably good with dip, and it does make a great base for Blizzards.  *** for a cup of ice cream, and, gah, the pricing and wrong item made me pretty sad.

Peanut Butter Puppy Chow Blizzard. Small. $10.99. 

"The NEW Peanut Butter Puppy Chow Blizzard® Treat is here to transform your summer. Imagine you’re at a summer gathering, surrounded by friends and family and somebody brought their secret recipe—the crispy, chocolatey, peanut butter-y sensation known as puppy chow. Well the secret’s out now and it’s officially in a DQ® treat.

The NEW Peanut Butter Puppy Chow Blizzard® Treat delivers the irresistible sensation of puppy chow taken to another level. This Blizzard® Treat will satisfy all your flavor cravings and more because it is packed with crispy puppy chow pieces, peanut butter topping, choco chunks, and is blended with our world-famous soft serve to Blizzard perfection. And the best part? Every red spoonful of your NEW Peanut Butter Puppy Chow Blizzard® Treat is all for you. No sharing required. Head down to your favorite DQ® restaurant and chow down today."

As excited as I was for the personal ice cream cake, the real reason I was excited for Dairy Queen was my first ever Blizzard.  I've had many Blizzard-adjacent creations from other places, and wanted to try the original (at least, in my head, they are the ones that really popularized these kinds of blended treats?).  Not only was I excited to try my first Blizzard, of which my choices were plentiful, I was overjoyed to try a particular one, although I was pretty tempted by some of the newer "Royal" Blizzards with a core too.

You see, in May, Dairy Queen introduced a new Blizzard, featuring something I really, really adore: puppy chow.  ZOMG.  Not only would I get to try my first Blizzard, it was going to be based around one of my favorite and most addicting snack foods ever.  For the unfamiliar, "Puppy Chow" (or "Muddy Buddies", depending where you are from), is chocolate and peanut butter coated Chex (or generic brand) cereal rolled in powdered sugar.  It is sweet, it is salty, it is savory, it is chocolatey, it is decadent, and it is addicting.  At least for me.  And here it was, in Blizzard form.

Along with the puppy chow pieces, the Blizzard incorporates additional peanut butter topping and chocolate chunks to amp up the chocolate peanut butter vibes.  Like the cup of plain vanilla, it came in a dish with a special lid that also fit the spoon within.  The price was high, $10.99, but that was the Door Dash premium, it is normally a more reasonable $5.49 in store.

Peanut Butter Puppy Chow Blizzard: Top View.

I dug in, although it was very clear that this was far more melty than it should be for ideal eating conditions.  

It was a mixed bag for me.  I loved the ribbons of peanut butter.  They were swirled in nicely, were thick, strong peanut butter flavor.  Definitely a fantastic component, and one that shows up in many other Blizzards as well.  The chocolate bits were successful too, decent quality chocolate, well distributed throughout.  Chocolate and peanut butter are always a good combination, so, this was all great.

So where this fell down sadly was the bits of puppy chow.  Described as "crispy", these were anything but.  They were soft and soggy.  It reminded me of Ben & Jerry's Americone Dream, where I always want to love the chocolate covered waffle cone pieces, but they turn out too soft for me.  Yes, they were bit of puppy chow, but the texture didn't work in here for me.

The ice cream base was good, nice and creamy, albeit far too melted.  My only other qualm is that overall it was really quite sweet.  I love sweets, but, this trended a bit too sweet to imagine eating more than a small size of (which is probably a good thing, as even the small is 720 calories, the medium puts you over 1000 already).

Overall, I'm still glad I picked it, and I did love the peanut butter ribbons.  I would try another kind next time.  ***+.

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Urban Ritual

Urban Ritual is a tea/coffee shop with locations in San Francisco, San Mateo, and San Jose.  I've been aware of the business for a few years, drawn in by some of their more unique bubble tea adjacent drinks (like the mango sticky rice drink with rice milk and coconut milk, the black sesame rice ball drink with drinkable mochi in it, another with pandan & corn milk (!), and others with brûlée of all sorts).  They do of course make more traditional tea drinks, for the less adventurous.  

I still haven't been to one of their shops, but I recently attended an event that had drinks catered from Urban Ritual, and I was thrilled to get my top pick of drink from the lineup.  I loved my drink, and now do intend to make a proper visit!

Feed Me Ube! (Rice Milk, Add boba). $7 + $0.75. 

"Ube Creme brûlée, taro chunks, coconut milk, and a choice of rice milk or whole milk."

Oh be still my heart!  Ube AND taro AND creme brûlée, all in one creation?  I have dedicated labels on my blog for each of those because I adore them, so this was a trifecta of awesome in my mind.  I opted for the rice milk version.

For mix-ins, Urban Ritual offers standard honey boba or crystal boba, lychee, grass, or osmanthus tea jellies, aloe vera, mochi, and creme brûlée pudding.  I normally would have picked crystal boba or the mochi perhaps, but our drinks were pre-designed by the event hosts to use standard boba, which I was happy enough with.

There is no need to draw this out further.  This.  Was.  Glorious.  I had high hopes, and it exceeded them.  The rice milk was the perfect backdrop for it, very mild, light horchata vibes.  There was no option to modify the sweetness, but it didn't need modifying.  The base was not very sweet, but just sweet enough to be more enjoyable than plain milk.  The coconut milk was a minimal component, just there to round everything out.  So, the top 50%, actually just pretty enjoyable rice/coconut milk.  But of course, the rest of the creation is where it gets more interesting.

At the base of the cup was the standard boba.  They were the right kind of soft, no hard centers. Some were clumped together, but I blame that on the fact that we had a huge delivery order, so likely less freshly made than if I had gotten it as an individual at the store.  The boba were fine, but not actually needed in this drink.  I'd leave them out in the future (or, try the mochi or lychee jellies most likely).

Above that is where things got really special.  The mashed taro (not very visible here, but it was a less vibrant purple) and the ube creme brûlée.  The taro was exactly what I expected from decent fresh mashed taro.  I quite enjoyed it, and it went really nicely with the rice milk.  I would have been happy enough with this drink at this point, just a taro rice milk/coconut milk boba, and given it a nice ****.  But then there was the ube creme brûlée, and ZOMG, that stuff was magic.  Glory.

The ube creme brûlée managed to have incredible creme brûlée flavor, as in, I swear I could taste the sweetness from the caramelized top, and a lovely custard that wasn't too eggy, AND it had very strong ube flavor, making it sorta like a very sophisticated creme brûlée, AND it had an incredible consistency, soft and actually still in chunks, so you could suck it up with the wide boba straw, or use a spoon to pluck it out and enjoy that way.  It was incredible, and I've really never had anything like it before.  I would love to be able to just order a dish of that!  ***** that stuff, really.

So overall, all very good components, that went well together, and introduced me to the concepts of both ube creme brûlée and creme brûlée hunks in a bubble tea drink (I've had pudding bits before, but they weren't quite like this) ... just a winning creation all around, and I enjoyed every sip/bite.  I'd gladly get it again.  Very high ****+.

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Tucson Marriott University Park Concierge Lounge

A recent short business trip took me to Arizona for the first time ever, to Tucson.  I was there to help with recruiting at the University of Arizona, and wanted to stay somewhere within an easy walk to campus, and thus, the Marriott University Park was my home for 4 nights.

I had a generally enjoyable stay, and was impressed with the friendliness of the staff, and the low key vibe overall.  I had access to the Concierge Lounge, located on the same floor as my room (both the lounge, and that floor, required key access).  It was open 24/7, with bottled water, soda, and a coffee machine always available, along with TVs, a computer with printer, and even a microwave for guest use.  I appreciated being able to drop in anytime, no set hours just for basic access.  

Breakfast

Breakfast was served daily from 6:30am (I think?) until 10am.  It had 4 hot dishes (always scrambled eggs, seasoned potatoes, and breakfast meats, along with a hot carb of the day), and some basic continental offerings.  Quality was not very high.

Starbucks Coffee.

The hotel featured Starbucks coffee both in the lobby (a paid coffee shop) and in the lounge.  The machine had two different regular roasts (one blonde, one dark), as well as decaf.  It was available all day long, self-serve.  

The coffee was actually really quite good.  I enjoyed both the regular and the decaf.  My room had a Keurig with Donut Shop pods that I never ended up trying.

This was definitely the highest quality aspect of the lounge.  ****.

Juice.

There were 3 kinds of juice.  None were labelled.  None was what I think of as the most comon breakfast juice: orange juice.   All were pretty warm.  No ice available.

Fruit Day 1.

Every morning had some fruit.

The first day, it was 3 kinds of melon, pineapple, and strawberries.  I appreciated that they at least had one kind of berry.  However, there was only one set of tongs for all of them, and since I'm allergic to melon, this meant I couldn't partake.  I found the cross contamination interesting ... usually hotel breakfast buffets at least attempt to prevent it.

The second morning, the strawberries were gone, only the melons and pineapple remained.  One set of tongs.

The third morning, strawberries were back (but looked awful!), and a few blackberries were added.  Two sets of tongs for 6 items this time.

Fruit Day 4.

My final morning was the most abundant fruit-wise, with grapes too.  But the strawberries still looked pretty bad, and only one set of tongs for 6 items.

Green Bananas.

The last morning also featured bananas so green I thought they might be plantains.

Pastries, Day 1.

There were of course the requisite hotel breakfast buffet sad looking baked goods.  And yet ... captive audience I am, I dive in.

The selection my first morning was the best of my entire stay: 2 muffins, 2 kinds of square-ish danishes, 1 kind of rolled danish, and one bearclaw-like danish.  I tried several.

Pistachio Muffin.

First up, I went for the vibrant green muffin, which I assume was pistachio.

It was reasonably moist, but not really fresh tasting.  Tasted very processed.  I did like the pearl sugar on top.  Mild kinda fake pistachio flavor.  Seemed more like an unfrosted cupcake than a muffin really.  **.

Cheese? Danish.

This one looked the most ... fun?

It was, um, well, what it looked like.  Definitely not fresh pastry.  Not flaky in any way.  More sweet bread-like than laminated croissant/danish dough.  Strangely thick and firm icing all over the top.  Cream cheese-like filling.  It wasn't hard, but it was certainly firm.

I didn't want it for breakfast, but I actually didn't mind a hunk of it later topped with ice cream as an actual dessert.  But again, it was ok-ish for what it was.  If a bakery sold this, it would be a single star, but for a buffet frozen mass produced one, that tasted highly processed and sweet, but that was ok, it was ok?  **+.

Pastries, Day 2.

The next day, similar lineup, this time 3 muffins (blueberry, coffee cake, poppy), just the round fruit center danishes, and more of the cheese filled ones.

I tried the coffee cake muffin.  I liked the sweet streusel on top, but the rest was pretty boring.  At least not stale, but it didn't taste fresh, and had no actual flavor (no cinnamon or anything).  Streusel good, rest blah.  **.

Pastries, Day 3.

My third morning, there was no variety: only the bearclaw shaped danishes.  Some were the cheese-ish ones, others had apple filling.

I tried the apple one this time.  It was considerably less good than the cheese one, which makes me think I must have been in a specific kind of mood when I had the other.  It had an extremely minimal amount of apple filling, really, just a tiny dot of the compote in the center, but the apple element was fine, little cubes, nicely spiced.  The pastry though was more artificial tasting and even more dense.  Eh.  **.

Pastries, Day 4.

My final morning was back to having a bit of variety.  2 blueberry muffins, the bearclaw apple and cheese danishes, and some round apple and cheese danishes.

This time I tried a round cheese danish.  It was awful.  Hard.  Highly processed tasting.  I call it a cheese danish, but it didn't really have a sweet cream cheese filling like the claw shaped one, it just had some dense white stuff.  Did not want.  Nothing redeeming. *.

Cereal.

3 kinds of cereal, all sugared.  Corn flakes, Fruit Loops, and Frosted Mini Wheats (I'm assuming, none were labelled).

I enjoyed a bowl of frosted mini wheats one morning for nostalgia sake, but it really is disappointing not to have any lower sugar options.  No granola, no basics like Cheerios or Rice Crispies, etc.  

Only regular milk was available.  

This lineup never changed and was available daily.  These dispensers were more awful than most, as the entire display pulled out when you tried to use them.

Yogurt & Cottage Cheese.

I thought it was strange my first and second day that there was no yogurt option, generally a standard part of a continental breakfast lineup.  On my third morning, yogurt did show up (Dannon Light 'n Fit, strawberry banana or peach), along with Daisy cottage cheese (strawberry, blueberry, pineapple).

They were room temp though, not kept chilled in any way.  The last morning these same items were provided, but this time on a bucket of ice.

I  snagged a cottage cheese to have with lunch later.

Sausage / Bacon.

Everyday, there were two breakfast meats available.  I don't know what kind of sausage it was, as it was not labelled.  I think generic, very thin, pork patties?

The bacon looked comically fake almost.  Soft, and too streaky to be natural.  

I didn't try either.

Bacon / Sausage.

The next day links replaced the patties.  Still no labels.  I still didn't try any.

Bacon only.

The third day, just bacon.  Bacon seemed to be the real constant.

Potatoes.

The potatoes looked soft and soggy.  They were available every day.

Scrambled Eggs.

Requisite buffet scrambled eggs that I stayed far away from.  I don't really like fresh scrambled eggs (besides in Australia, at great places like Pina), let alone buffet eggs.  Available every day.

French Toast Sticks.

The first morning I was happy to see an interesting hot carb.  French toast sticks (or, at least, that is what I called them, they weren't labelled).  They didn't actually seem French toasted, e.g. no egg batter soak or anything, so maybe they were just soggy cinnamon sugar bread logs?  Because that is what they tasted like.  Just soggy bread.  Mounds of cinnamon/sugar in the bottom of the pan.  Not good at all. *.

The second morning, I was looking forward to trying some kind of different hot carb side (waffles, pancakes, etc), but alas, theses were back, and soggier looking.  I didn't try them then.

Mini Waffles.

Day three did bring change to the hot carb station, in the form of mini waffles.

They were soft.  Soggy.  And had a very strange aftertaste. *.

Big Waffles.

The final morning, more waffles, this time bigger square ones.

They were soft.  Soggy.  And also had a bad aftertaste.  Did not like.  *.

Condiments.

Generic breakfast syrup was available in individual packets on the side, along with ketchup and hot sauce.

Cheese / Salsa.

Also cheese and salsa.  I didn't try these toppings.

Bread & Bagels.

The first morning, there were 3 kinds of bagels, white/wheat/marble bread, and english muffins.  Subsequent days had only one kind of bagel, and by day three, no English muffins.  They seem to just run out of things and not care (it wasn't that it just needed replenishing, I generally stopped in around 7:15am when I got up, and again later around 9am, and items that weren't there that day, just weren't there).

A toaster was available.  Jam, peanut butter, and cream cheese in individual packets to spread.

There were no serving tongs at all for this station.  Everyone just grabbed bagels or bread with their hands.  Again, a surprise, like the single set of tongs for the cut fruit ... buffets usually at least try to prevent some of this.

I tried a bagel one morning, it was rock solid and clearly not fresh. *.

Daytime

Throughout the day, you could drop in for bottled chilled water (not pictured), soft drinks, or some kind of packaged snack. The offerings for the snack changed daily, ranging from chips to nuts to cookies.  The snacks were often in need of replenishing, as were the sodas.

Soft Drinks.

Soft drinks were Pepsi brand.  Regular or diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Starry, and Diet Crush.  I appreciated the Crush, but wished they had simple sparkling water / club soda.  They have not followed the industry trend of eliminating single use plastics to install filtered water taps, so the water was individual plastic bottles.

Snacks.

The snacks changed all the time.  There was always some kind of chips (Lay's brand, I saw regular, sour cream & onion, BBQ, and Doritos nacho cheese or ranch), and things like Cheddar Chex Mix, Goldfish Crackers, chocolate graham crackers, and honey roasted peanuts.  Always individually packaged, for grab n go.

Unlike many lounges, this one didn't have signs saying food was for consumption in the lounge only, and certainly seemed to encourage just stopping in to grab a drink and snack and taking it with you.  There was rarely any staff member around paying attention.

Evening Offings (5-7pm)

In the evening, 1 cold dish and 2 hot dishes are offered.  The selection seems ... entirely random?  I couldn't really make sense of it, besides that it often sorta seemed like random leftovers.  For the most part, the items weren't appetizers as many lounges have.  But they also weren't items that could make a meal, not what you'd consider main dishes.  It was sorta just either a side dish, some leftover breakfast food, or something totally random.  None of it was particularly good.

There were no additional beverages at night.  No wine nor beer, not even available to purchase.  I asked about buying a glass of wine, and I was told I could go downstairs to the bar.

Night 1: 

The first night was definitely the best of my three nights, by far.  The food was reasonable, and it sorta made sense together.

Cheese / Mystery Meat / Grapes.

Again, like breakfast, nothing was labelled, so I'm not entirely sure what was on this platter.

The grapes were fresh, juicy, and refreshing after a hot day but had very bitter skins.  *.

There were 3 kinds of cheese: an herby one in front, slices of what looked like mozzarella, and cubes of something that looked munster like.  I tried the herby one but it really had no flavor.  Crumbly texture.  **.

The single meat selection was a real mystery.  I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be strangely soft salami, or strangely formed pate.  I suspect the former.  It was not good.  *.

Something ... Mexican.

Nothing was labelled, so hard to say exactly what this was, but it was some soggy corn tortillas, layered with red enchilada-like sauce, and lots of cheese.  I guess maybe it was supposed to be enchiladas?  But I don't think they were rolled up.  Mostly just mushy and pretty generic tasting.  **.

Black Beans & Cheese.

I think this was just black beans with melted cheddar.  It honestly wasn't bad - the beans were tender but not mushy, it had some flavor, yay for melty cheese.  But it felt like it needed chips or tortillas or something to go with it.  Really just a side dish.  ***.

By far the best of the evening dishes, including subsequent nights.

Night 2:

The next night ... was abysmal compared to the previous night.

Fruit Platter.

No cheese and meat the second night, instead the cold option was what looked like the leftover breakfast fruit just plated up differently.  All melons, so I avoided.

Potatoes.

Um, wow.  So yes, one of the two hot dishes the second night was just more of the breakfast potatoes.  This really was the night of leftovers.

Taquitos (mystery filling).

The final offering in the very underwhelming lineup that night seemed to be taquitos.  I had no idea what the filling would be, kinda assuming shredded chicken, or maybe beef, or who knows, just beans?  After eating one, I still have no idea what the answer was.  It might have been mashed beans and cheese.  It might have been beef.  I truly don't know.  It was a brown paste.  A complete mystery, even when I tried to dissect it a bit and just taste the filling.

The shell was generic crispy corn tortilla.  

These were basically very low end grocery store frozen section quality.  But at least somehow still crispy and not soggy? **.

Salsa & Sour Cream.

They did at least have sour cream and salsa out to jazz them up, unlike the night before.  Both were average.

Night #3

My final night was even more random.

Salad.

The cold dish was a welcome surprise.  No cheese or fruit tonight, instead, salad.  Mixed greens, cucumbers, tomatoes.  Generic ranch on the side.  This was a pretty basic average salad, and kinda seemed like perhaps the catered meeting big group downstairs had extra salad from their lunch service that they just sent our way, but it was nice to see vegetables.  **+.

Beef & Stuff.

Next ... I have no idea what this was.

Chunks of potato.  Slimy mushrooms.  Bell peppers.  And very, very, very overcooked ground beef.  It sorta seemed like a breakfast potato/peppers/mushrooms dish, that they threw some extra ground beef in and then cooked to death.  The flavor was not good either. *.

Beans.

And last, beans again, this time pinto beans.  They tasted like from a can, but were fine I guess, and had some herbs in there at least.  The black beans the first night were considerably better.  **+.

No cheese or other condiments provided this night.

Desserts (7-9pm)

Later in the evening, not until 7pm, desserts come out.   Of course, these were what I was most interested in.  Every night had only a single item.

Cheesecake.

I got there my first night around 8:30pm, and found only this half tray of cheesecake. 

It was ... well, clearly mass produced frozen distributed cheesecake, not anything made in house.  About on par with any other product of this variety.  Reasonable texture, reasonable creaminess, not too sweet, a bit of cream cheese flavor, but not actually particularly good.  I didn't care for the overly fruity and fake tasting fruit swirl.  Crust was soft but not too sawdust like.

For buffet cheesecake, it met expectations, **, but if I restaurant served it, I would be very very unhappy..

Tiramisu.

The second night, it was tiramisu.

I snagged a slice to save for lunch the next day, since I avoid caffeine at night.

It was fairly average generic mass produced tiramisu.  Relatively boozy and coffee forward, the ladyfingers were sorta moist, the cream layers didn't taste off.  The ladyfingers though had a strange consistency, like they may have been gluten free or something.  Lots of cocoa powder on top.  Again, for buffet dessert, it was about as expected, better than the cheesecake, **+, but if a restaurant served it, I'd be pretty unhappy.

Lemon? Cake.

The final night looked really promising.  A big cake!  With fresh fruit!

However ... yeah.  This was not good.  The cake was dry, the frosting was fine except that it turned out to be lemon which I don't care for.  Some of the berries were moldy.  **.

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