SusieCakes

Update Reviews, April 2021

I used to eat a fair number of SusieCakes cupcakes (and, to a lesser extent, cakes).  Not because I ever particularly loved them, but, because they often wound up at my office up for grabs.  I always found them to be "ok" but not great, although their carrot cake is pretty marvelous, as you've read about before.

I'll spare you a general overview of SusieCakes since I've reviewed it so many times before and just leave you with the latest round of cupcakes, this time all enjoyed at a birthday party, during socially distanced COVID days, where cutting cakes and passing around cake slices was not the thing to do.

Red Velvet.

"Deep red, moist cake lightly flavored with cocoa, topped with traditional cream cheese frosting."

I've had this before, and never found it remarkable, but, I wanted something other than chocolate and vanilla, and it was the only other option at the party.

The frosting didn't taste very strongly of cream cheese, but it did have a bit of a tang, and was more interesting than the standard vanilla frosting from SusieCakes.

The cake itself was good -  moist, dense, some slight flavor to it, light cocoa?

Overall, "fine", but not remarkable.  More interesting than vanilla.  ***.

Red Velvet: Inside.

I had forgotten that SusieCakes always sorta stuffs their cupcakes, this one seemed even legit stuffed, down to the core.  They use a great amount of frosting on top to begin with, so this generous amount of additional frosting inside is just a lovely bonus.

Vanilla Blue.

"Vanilla cupcake with SusieBlue vanilla buttercream frosting."

Vanilla-vanilla? Now that is, too "vanilla".  Bo-ring.  SusieCakes jazzes up the basic vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream to use a "signature retro-blue vanilla frosting", just like their signature celebration cake.

Spoiler: no, it doesn't taste "blue".  It is just sweet buttercream, I don't really taste vanilla, just, very very sweet buttercream.   It is a bit cloying.  The color is fun though, and I loved the confetti sprinkles.

The cake itself was good, standard vanilla, but moist, good crumb.  Nothing spectacular, but good.

Overall,  also "fine", cake better than frosting, and not one I'd ever seek out.

***.

Update: I found I prefer this warmed up, with the frosting kinda melted into a glaze, and a scoop of sweet ice cream ... then it was ***+.

Chocolate Vanilla.

"Chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting."

Next up, chocolate cupcake, classic white vanilla buttercream.

The frosting tasted the same as the blue version, just, very sweet.  Eh.

The cake was ok, moist, decent chocolate flavor.

Again, overall, "fine", better cake than frosting, but not particularly interesting.

***.

Chocolate Chocolate.

"Chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting."

And last but not least, the double chocolate: chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

This frosting was actually fairly distinct, although also quite sweet.  It did have a fudge-like chocolate nature to it.

Cake was the same as the previous cupcake, moist enough, ok chocolate flavor.

Slightly more interesting than the chocolate vanilla version due to the more intensely flavored buttercream, but still just ***.

Update: Of course, once I warmed it, and paired it with salted caramel cocoa nib ice cream (!), it was magical.  Even ****.  Something about warm chocolate cake and ice cream just does it for me ...

Update Reviews, 2019-2020

People in my office order a lot of desserts for celebrations, and luckily for me, they share leftovers.  With a location nearby, SusieCakes makes a fairly regular appearance, usually just cupcakes, but, over the years, I've now had the chance to try a very large number of items.

You can start with my earlier reviews (below), that were good but not great, and then come back here for more context.

Well, I'm sold on SusieCakes now. Some of the items aren't that great, but, their hits are *serious* hits. This is likely my favorite carrot cake in the bay area, the seasonal pumpkin items (bread pudding, pumpkin cheesecake) were top notch, and I've even found new favorites in the cupcake lineup that I truly enjoy.

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Seasonal Layer Cake: Red, White & Blueberry Vanilla Cake. July 2019.

"Four layers of vanilla cake layered with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and a light vanilla pudding, frosted with fresh whipped cream."

I had a previous version of this cake, and didn't care for it much at all.  But this?  This was delicious.

The cake was super moist, with a slight buttermilk tang, and the pudding component made it all that much more moist.  The berries were juicy and sweet.  The whipped cream made it almost come together like a strawberry shortcake.

I really enjoyed it, and went back for seconds literally immediately.  Would gladly get again.

Seasonal: Strawberry Rosé. (August 2019).

"Our vanilla cupcake infused with pink champagne and baked with fresh strawberries, frosted with a pink champagne buttercream."

I was drawn in to this one, which turned out to be a seasonal speciality, mostly because it looked different from all other SusieCakes cupcakes.  The frosting was piped differently, there were no contrasting colorful sprinkles.

I tasted the frosting first, thinking it would likely taste like strawberries, as it was pink, but I didn't taste the berry flavor I was expecting.  Instead, it was sweet, but had a slightly more subtle flavor that I couldn't pinpoint.  It didn't seem like the standard SusieCakes pink vanilla buttercream either.

Of course, once I looked it up, I found that indeed, it wasn't the plain vanilla buttercream, it was pink champagne buttercream.  I certainly wouldn't have identified it that way, but, it was still good, although very, very, very sweet.  More on that soon.

Although the cake is named "rosé", after the sparkling wine I imagine, I'm fairly certain the distinct piping job was done to look like a rose flower, and it really was pretty.  It glistened with white pearl sugars on top.

Seasonal: Strawberry Rosé: Inside.

The rest of this cupcake is what made it more interesting however.

The cake was ... well, quite different from all others I've had from SusieCakes.  Their cupcakes tend to be very perfectly baked, never dry, never crispy on the exterior, and certainly never underbaked.  So I was fairly surprised when I cut into this one, to find that it seemed gooey.

The cake was loaded with fresh strawberries, which clearly just added a ton of moisture to it.  It also seemed like it hadn't risen all the way.  I actually really liked this, and didn't mind that the cake wasn't really cake-like, and was more like a strawberry mush with some cake around it, but if you want a normal cake base, this isn't it.  It was sweet and fruity, and I enjoyed it.

The one negative thing I'll say though is that the ratio of frosting to cake was just too off on this one.  I do love how SusieCakes is insanely generous with the frosting (ok, really, a bit too generous, but I still love it), but this one, I think due to the deflated nature of the cake base, was literally 70% frosting to 30% cake, which, given the very sweet frosting, was just too much.  Even I couldn't quite handle too many bites of just frosting.

Still a fun seasonal one, and I was glad to try it.

Strawberry. August 2019.

 "Vanilla cupcake with strawberry buttercream frosting."

Simple vanilla cake, well baked, consistent texture, good crumb.  Sweet, quite strawberry forward frosting.  Complimentary colored sprinkles.  I was impressed with just how fruity that got the frosting.

Nothing particular novel, nor negative with this cupcake.  If you like vanilla cake, and strawberry frosting, go for this, a well made cupcake.

Chocolate Chocolate / Coconut / Mocha. August 2019).

Mocha.
"Chocolate cupcake with coffee buttercream frosting."

From this box I tried what turned out to be the mocha cupcake.  When I grabbed it, I was hoping for salted caramel or something in that vein, so I was fairly surprised when I tasted it to find bitter coffee flavored frosting.

Once I re-set my expectations however, I did enjoy it - mocha is a good flavor, when you are prepared for it.  Not a flavor I go for often, but, if you like fairly intense coffee flavor, this delivers.

Chocolate Peanut Butter. (August 2019).

"Chocolate cupcake with peanut butter buttercream frosting."

Yes, someone got to this one before me, cutting it in half, but that didn't stop me from snatching up the other half as soon as I realized it was the peanut butter frosted one.  Mmm, peanut butter.

The cake base was good, standard chocolate cake, moist enough.  The frosting was certainly on the sweet side, ok, it was very sweet, but I could still taste enough peanut butter to make me happy.  The chocolate and peanut butter combo is a classic, and it worked as expected here.

This was probably my favorite of the SusieCakes cupcakes, because I'm such a sucker for peanut butter.

October 2019

"Dessert Up for Grabs!!!", read the email sent out to my office, at 4:30pm, on a looong Wednesday the day before Halloween.

Of course I went running, when I found out they were from SusieCakes!

Cakes, cookies, bars ...

This group clearly had a wonderful lineup, as this was what was left over AFTER their event.  Still so many great things to dig into.

And of course I did.

I found some new favorites, and highly, highly recommend the pumpkin items!

Seasonal Fall/Halloween Specials

SusieCakes always has seasonal specials, and the Halloween and fall season was no exception.  Spooky sugar cookies, trick-or-treat bars, apple crumble pie, and of course, pumpkin galore (pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin maple cupcakes, pumpkin spice latte layer cake, pumpkin pie), joined a Halloween Celebration cake in the standard seasonal lineup.

I got a chance to try many of these.

Halloween Celebration Cake. ($38.00 for 6", $52.00 for 9")

"Celebration cake baked with black jimmies and orange jimmies with orange buttercream in and out, celebration strokes with spookins border."

I've had mixed success with SusieCakes cakes before, but this one was basically in the success category.  It was the classic funfetti celebration cake, just, turned into a Halloween theme.

The cake base was moist, sweet, and had good buttermilk tang to it.  That tang makes such a difference.  It was studded with seasonal sprinkles rather than the standard funfetti ones, but they didn't really change the taste.

The frosting was orange in color, but didn't taste any different from the other colored buttercreams they use.  Extremely sweet.

Overall, this was a fine, sweet, classic, celebration cake.  My third favorite item though, as the others were actually just amazing.

8" Pumpkin Cheesecake. $39.99.

"Seasonal cheesecake with just the right amount of spice baked on our graham cracker crust, topped with sweetened sour cream and cinnamon."

I generally shutter at pumpkin spice items.  I like pumpkin pie, really do, but pumpkin spice can be so often over used.  A touch too much nutmeg, and ... it just tastes like soap to me.

So when this said "just the right amount of spice", right in the description, I rolled my eyes.  "Yeah, right, that means, too aggressively spiced .... ", I thought.  

I also often dislike cheesecake that is pumpkin, or chocolate, or anything rather than traditional (although I'm all about mix-ins and toppings).  Usually, for me, you get none of the goodness of cheesecake, and just wind up with an unnecessarily heavy item.  

So I took this small chunk, and wished I had taken more.  Because it was actually quite good.  

The crust, far better than average, as it had spice baked into it too, and almost was like a gingersnap, just, a soft one.  The ginger in here went great with the pumpkin spices in the cheesecake itself.  The crust was soft, and broke apart easily, but didn't crumble.  Well, huh.

The cheesecake was rich, thick, creamy, and ... yeah, not too aggressively spiced.  It had plenty of pumpkin pie spices, don't get me wrong, there was no doubt that this was spiced with all the traditional spices, but, they were balanced, and none dominated.  It was one of the best pumpkin cheesecakes I've ever had.

And the topping?  It sealed the deal for me.  Sweetened sour cream, with a touch of tang, and just really complex flavor.  

This delivered on every front, each layer was excellent, and together they created a far above average pumpkin cheesecake.  I really enjoyed this, and would gladly have it again.

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Pumpkin Bread Pudding. Large bowl, $34.

"Moist pumpkin cake in a spiced custard topped with cinnamon whipped cream."

Next I moved on the to pumpkin bread pudding, which, actually just looked like a pumpkin pie baked into a strange container.  I didn't realize it was a bread pudding until much later, which I think is a good thing, as I have certain preferences and expectations with bread pudding, and generally prefer a specific style (distinct chunks of bread, crispy top, moist inside, etc, etc).  This wasn't that at all.

I'll cut to the chase on this one.  It was quite tasty.

Definitely not what I think of as bread pudding, as there were no visible chunks, but rather, it was an extremely dense mass, that, once you dug into it, had pieces that were clearly denser (the soaked bread) and a touch lighter (the custard base).  It was clearly not just a pumpkin pie, and was a bread pudding, but, just this kind.  It was extremely moist, and, as I said, so very dense.  A little went a long way, which I realized a bit too late, as it did kinda sit like a log in my gut when I had far too much.

Much like the pumpkin cheesecake, it was spiced, but not too aggressively.  The pumpkin flavor was even strong in this, perhaps because not cut by the cheesecake.  

This one came with cinnamon whipped cream, fluffy whipped cream, that ... yeah, was NOT too spiced!  The cinnamon just accented it, and didn't overwhelm.  

This was another hit, quite different from the pumpkin cheesecake, and I think it falls in second place to the cheesecake, but just barely.  I'd gladly have it again too.

Bars

SusieCakes makes a large variety of bars, including classics like brownies and lemon squares, that I skipped with no hesitation, as bars are a category I rarely explore, as I'm not generally a big fan, and they fall lower on the list for me than cookies even.  But, when there were plenty of the more interesting ones left, what choice did I have but to try a few?

7-Layer Bar. $3.75.

"Baked with chocolate chips, coconut, & pecans on a graham cracker crust."

7 layer bars, (or 7 layer dips for that matter ...), can be fairly awesome.  Or they can be *nearly* awesome, but have that one layer you hate.  At least, that is how they seem to go for me.

So I approached this with hesitation, only cutting off a small chunk, because I didn't know what all 7 would be, and I didn't want to waste.

What were the 7 layers?  Graham cracker crust, coconut, pecans, chocolate chips, those were all mentioned in the description, and were pretty obvious.  But what about the other 3?  I spied butterscotch chips.  That makes 5 things, but I never found any others.  And really, it was only 2 layers: crust and the rest.

Anyway, this was kinda no different from a generic bake sale item.  Sweetened coconut, decent distribution of butterscotch chips and chocolate chips, proper size chunks of nuts.  Nothing particularly novel about them.  They made up the entire topping.

The base was extremely thick more than half the bar really.

Fruit Crumble Bar. $3.75.

"Blueberry filling baked on a shortbread crust topped with crumble. *Made without dairy & eggs.*"

I say I don't really care for bars, but, I do like fruit crumble in other forms, so this was an easy one to give a try.

The top was very generously covered in thick crumble, which, as it is often my favorite part, made me pretty excited.  It was .. fine?  Not really notable, no interesting flavor (e.g. brown sugar), nothing particularly distasteful about it, but not standout in any way.

Inside was the layer of blueberry filling, much like what you find inside a blueberry danish, rather than juicier and more full bodies like a blueberry pie, crisp, or crumble.  I was bored by it.

And at the base, the part I was most skeptical of, since it is where bars usually fail to impress, a shortbread cookie crust, which sounded far more promising than most.  However, I didn't get any shortbread cookie element from it, it just was thick, dry, and even more boring.

Overall, there was nothing wrong with this bar exactly, but it was just ... boring.

February 2020

Another day, another "come eat our leftover cake" email at my office.  This time was extremely dramatic ... more than half left each of 4 huge cakes: chocolate, celebration, red velvet, and carrot.  I skipped the celebration cake as I've never been a big fan, and the red velvet because I've had it before, and went just for the two that were new to me: chocolate and carrot.  One was a *serious* winner!

Carrot Cake.

"Baked with pecans & golden raisins, layered with our unique “praline filling” & topped with traditional cream cheese frosting."

This was a very, very, very good carrot cake.  Wow.  Every element was A+.

The carrot cake itself was moist, loaded with shredded carrot and raisins for moisture, loaded with pecans for crunch, and smothered in plenty of rich, sweet, kinda perfect cream cheese frosting.  There was tons of frosting, and that was NOT a bad thing.

And then ... what at first I was thrown off by because I hadn't read the description to understand, yes, layers of the praline filing, which was sweet, gooey, and delicious too.

This was unexpected in many ways, and, totally delicious.

OLD-FASHIONED 6-LAYER CHOCOLATE CAKE.

"'Towering high, moist chocolate cake filled and covered in rich, dark chocolate buttercream frosting."

This one wasn't a winner for me.  The cake wasn't particularly moist nor rich chocolatey, the frosting was a fine texture but again, not very special.  It was all "fine", but not exciting.

Update Review, January 2019

Sure, I've never been in love with SusieCakes cupcakes before (see my original review, or update review from 2016), but, I was actually *really* craving cupcakes one day, when ...

Cupcake Box!

I walked into a micro kitchen at my office and found an abandoned box of cupcakes, many of which had been cut into halves or quarters, meaning I could try several kinds!

Thank you, random person who brought in extra cupcakes.

Red Velvet.

"Deep red, moist cake lightly flavored with cocoa, topped with traditional cream cheese frosting."

I first went for the red velvet, dressed up a bit for the February holidays (even though it was only January!).

It was better than I remembered, a moist cake, although the flavor of the cake itself was fairly muted.  The cream cheese frosting was rich, creamy, and had good cream cheese flavor.

A very decent, standard red velvet cupcake.

Lemon.

"Vanilla cupcake with lemon buttercream frosting." 

I moved on to the yellow sprinkle topped one, which I worried might be lemon, and, indeed, was.  Boo, hiss.  I dislike lemon desserts.  Luckily, there was one of these cut up and that is what I went for, just a tiny chunk.  If it wasn't lemon, or I loved it, I could take the whole one, otherwise, leave it for someone who will appreciate!

The frosting was sweet lovely buttercream, but alas, very strongly lemon flavored.  If you like lemon desserts, this was probably great?

Seasonal Special: Banana Chocolate Chip.

"Banana cupcake baked with chocolate chips, frosted with cream cheese buttercream."

And finally, I went for one that I had no idea what it was.  It looked like it might have some kind of chocolate component, I could sorta see something darker in the cake, and it did have the chocolate sprinkles on top.   It turned out to be the seasonal special: banana chocolate chip.  Doh.  I can't say the idea of a banana cupcake excited me, except for the brief moment I thought, "hmm, can I save that for breakfast to have like banana bread?  It isn't like it has that much frosting on it, and the frosting is like cream cheese anyway ..."

So, uh, yeah, I saved it for morning, and pulled out alongside a cup of coffee - *after* I had a small bowl of cereal, I'm totally responsible!  The frosting was good, the same thick, rich, cream cheese frosting from the red velvet.  But the cake?  Sure it was moist, sure it was studded with regular size generic chocolate chips, but it was also ... banana.  I do not care for banana flavor.

Not the cupcake for me, but well made, and I liked the frosting.

Strawberry.

"Vanilla cupcake with strawberry buttercream frosting."

Finally, I went for the pink frosted one, not sure if it was the "vanilla pink" or the "strawberry", as both feature vanilla cake and pink buttercream.  I believe this was the vanilla pink, as it matches their photo of the vanilla pink, although the frosting just tasted like fluffy sweet buttercream, tasty in a very sweet way, but not strawberry.

The cake was fine, dense, vanilla cake.

I appreciate the generous amount of frosting SusieCakes uses, in particular, it tends to extend down into the cupcake a bit, as if quasi-stuffed.

Update Review, November 2016

I've encountered SusieCakes several times before.  I wasn't ever impressed with their basic cupcakes, but I did find their sugar cookies to be above average, and their fancy cakes had promise.  So I was happy to try more of their products when we had them for an event.

Election Day Assortment.

For election day, our office got voting themed cookies and cupcakes.  I was a bit disappointed by the assortment, since I don't ever really like cookies and  didn't like their cupcakes before, but I still eagerly dove in.

We had one type of cookie (iced sugar cookie) and 4 types of cupcakes: red velvet, chocolate, vanilla, and flourless chocolate.  The flourless chocolate turned out to be amazing.

Frosted Sugar Cookie.  $3.25.

"Thin, buttery and tender cookies with decorative royal icing."

The cookies were simple sugar cookies coated in icing, the same as I had before, just a different themed shape this time.  Sweet cookie, sweet icing, fairly classic.  Nothing earth shattering, but actually a pretty good sugar cookie.

Red Velvet Cupcake.

"Deep red, moist cake lightly flavored with cocoa, topped with traditional cream cheese frosting. "

The red velvet cupcake was, well, a standard red velvet cupcake.  Moist enough cake, although fairly plain tasting.  It had a slight red velvet tang from what I imagine was buttermilk, but it wasn't particularly strong.

The cream cheese frosting was great though, very cream-cheesy, and there was plenty of it.

Overall, a solid, but standard, cupcake, and since I'm not a big cupcake lover, it was just kinda ok.

Red Velvet (May 2017).

I had another red velvet a few months later, and was even less impressed.  There was no tang or interest to the cake (although, it was moist).  The frosting, while it tasted like cream cheese, also wasn't great.  Everything about this was highly mediocre.

The decorations, for Easter, were cute though.

Flourless Chocolate Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream.

The flourless chocolate cupcake however was glorious.

The cake was a rich, dense, very chocolatey cake, more like a brownie than a moist cake, which makes sense, since it was flowerless.  The top was slightly crispy, just as I like.

The frosting was just sweet vanilla buttercream, but it complimented the rich cake very well.  And there was plenty of it.

Overall, a fantastic cupcake, and I'd gladly eat a dozen myself.

Update: We had plenty of these left over, so I ended up saving and freezing some.  I defrosted one in the fridge overnight, and it came out great.  The cake was still dense, chocolately, and fantastic.  The frosting though, just sweet.  Meh.  I actually removed most of it, and just enjoyed the cake, which is a bit miraculous, given that I only usually eat cake for 1) the frosting or 2) accompanying ice cream.  Which, actually, probably would have gone great.

Original Review, January 2015

SusieCakes is, you guessed it, a cake shop, or more accurately, a chain of cake shops, located throughout both Northern and Southern California.  They are known for their speciality and custom layer cakes, including "Susie's Famous Southern Red Velvet", but they also make cupcakes, cheesecake, puddings, pies, brownies, and cookies.  When you enter the shop, it is hard to look past the cakes though, as most are 4-6 layers, quite impressive looking.

The San Francisco location is located in the Marina, right on Chestnut Street.  Service is always fairly friendly, and they generally have a sample of one of their specialty cakes out on the counter, which I of course love.  The cakes I've tried have all been quite tasty, and I like their cookies, but the cupcakes I didn't like.

I'd love to return though to try their pudding, since I love puddings, and theirs come complete with whipped cream.  I also just saw whoopie pies on the menu, which always bring back nostalgia for me.  And, if I were ever ordering a full cake, I'd definitely consider SusieCakes, since, as I said, I've liked the cakes.

Cookies

Pumpkin Halloween Sugar Cookie.  $3.25.

"Thin buttery and tender cookies with decorative royal icing."

I'm not generally one to gravitate towards cookies, but a co-worker brought in assorted decorated cookies for Halloween, and they were too cute not to try.  Plus, look at at the icing!

It was a very classic sugar cookie.  Nice and soft, not hard and crisp like they sometimes can be.  There was shiny, sweet icing on top, a bit crunchy, but I liked that.  Sprinkles ... for fun and more sugar.

It was a cute shape, nicely decorated, and was quite tasty for such a simple cookie.  I'd eat another (and in fact, went back and had a ghost shaped one later, which was just as tasty).  I've seen adorable turkey cookies for Thanksgiving too, so they clearly have fun with seasonal shapes.

It was a large cookie, but $3.25 for such a basic cookie did seem steep, although I guess the decorating time is really what you pay for.

Cupcakes

Mini Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Frosting.  $20/dozen.

Another day, someone brought in mini cupcakes from SusieCakes.  Again, not my favorite dessert item, but, how do I resist trying a dessert?

I love frosting, but there was just way too much of it on this cupcake.  It was just sweet, I didn't taste any vanilla, and didn't have a great mouthfeel.  It tasted like ... butter.  Just butter.  Ok, sweet butter.  The cake itself was somewhere in-between moist and dry, just kinda there.  It also didn't have any flavor.

I did not like this at all.

Mini Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Frosting.  $20/dozen.

I was so disappointed by the vanilla, that I also tried the chocolate version.

It was better than the vanilla, but only slightly.  Again, the cake was somewhere in-between moist and dry, just kinda there, but at least it had decent chocolate flavor.  The frosting was also better, again it had a decent chocolate level, so there was something to it.

But overall, not a winner, and I wouldn't get again.

Cakes

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Tropical Coconut Cake. $6.25/slice.

“Vanilla cake layered with pineapple accented coconut filling & topped with fluffy coconut buttercream and shredded coconut”.

This was actually pretty good, and I bought a slice after trying the sample.  So enticing!

The cake was moist and fruity from the pineapple and coconut filling.  There was perhaps too much shredded coconut on top, so it somewhat overwhelmed.  The buttercream was also quite good, which makes me think that something may have just gone wrong with the batch I had on the vanilla cupcake?  I'm not sure how it could be so good on the cake, and so very bad on the cupcake.

The price for this was rather high though, $6.25 for a single slice.  Full sized round cakes are also available, $36 for 6", or $49 for 9", or you can go the sheet cake route, $215 for a full sheet, $110 for half, or $75 for a quarter.

Vanilla Celebration Cake. $49 / 9 inch round.

"6-layers of vanilla cake baked with colorful sugar confetti, filled & frosted with our signature retro-blue vanilla frosting."

To celebrate a co-worker's birthday, a co-worker brought in the aptly named "Celebration Cake".  It was a beautiful, 6 layer high creation, fairly stunning, particularly when sliced so you could see the confetti throughout the base cake.

The cake itself was just a vanilla cake, although studded with the pops of color.  It was just basic cake, not too dry, not too moist, not very exciting.  The frosting was a cool minty-blue color, so I thought it was flavored, but alas, it was just flavored sweet.  It was creamy, good enough frosting, but still, just plain sweet frosting.

This cake wasn't bad, but it was far more exciting looking than it tasted.  Festive, but boring.

Update August 2017: Another birthday, another celebration cake.  I felt exactly the same way about it.  The cake was ... fine, but boring.  Not too dry, but not interesting.  And the frosting looked far better than it was, it was just sweet, sweet, sweet.

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SEASONAL SPECIALTY CAKE: Berry Vanilla.

"Four layers of our vanilla cake with a light vanilla pudding, fresh strawberries & blueberries topped with whipped cream."

This was ... fine.  I liked the ideas behind it, but the fruit itself wasn't particularly flavorful, juicy, or ripe, and the whipped cream and pudding were unremarkable ... as was the plain vanilla cake.

Overall, everything was made well, moist cake, etc, but, it didn't add up to anything special.

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Heartbrand Ice Creams, Europe

Update Review, 2020 Tasting

Yup, I've reviewed Heartbrand ice cream several times before, in Europe (below), and their equivalent in Australia (Streets).  So I'm quite familiar with their version of Drumsticks, dubbed "Cornettos".

I've always found Cornettos to be slightly better than similar US treats, but not exactly something I'd travel across the world for.  Ok, I still wouldn't travel just to get these, but, when I tried another variety last time I was in Munich, I deemed them the best Cornetto thus far ... 

Cookies & Dream Cornetto.

"Cookie flavoured ice cream with chocolate drops and core of cocoa sauce, in a cocoa wafer cone  with a cocoa coating, topped by a cocoa compound disc and cocoa cookie granules on top."

Um, wow, this was good.  Chocolate in so many forms.

I loved the disk of chocolate on top, thick, chocolately, and with some chocolate cookie bits on top for extra crunch.

The ice cream was decently creamy, melted nicely, and had bits of chocolate cookie all throughout, plus more chocolate sauce in the middle.  Lots of textures and good flavors.

The cone was even more interesting than usual, as it was a chocolate cone.  Not actually remarkable, but, different.   It was lined with even more chocolate, and had a ton of chocolate in the tip too.

Although there was a lot of chocolate in here - the cone, the lining of the cone, the core, the bits, the topping, it wasn't overly chocoaltely, balanced quite nicely by the ice cream.

I really enjoyed this, more than any other Cornetto.

Update Review, 2016

I've reviewed standard Heartbrand ice cream several times before.  But this is different.

When I was in Lisbon, I found a froyo shop that I kinda fell in love with, called Weeel, for their crazy liquid "rafaweeel" and quality fruit toppings (stay tuned!).  So a few days later, when Ojan and I were strolling through Cascais, I couldn't get ice cream, froyo, and other frozen treats out of my head, particularly when people kept walking by with cones in their hand.  I needed some.

Except, all we could find was gelato.  I wanted soft serve, not hard serve.  Frozen yogurt or ice cream, I didn't care which, but, I wanted soft serve.  Shop after shop had images of frozen delights in cones, but all were hard style gelato.  Gelato, gelato, everywhere.  Eventually, the sun started going down, it got much colder, and I stopped wanting ice cream quite so much.

Cornetto Soft Sign.

And then I saw a sign.  It showed soft serve ... Cornettos?  I didn't understand, but, I was interested.  I thought Cornettos were just pre-packaged frozen desserts, that I've reviewed many times (in Australia and elsewhere in Europe).

The flavors shown on the sign were strawberry, chocolate (chip?), hazelnut, vanilla, and caramel (at least, I think that is what they were?)

I had to go investigate further.

 My Cornetto Machine.

"The My Cornetto dispenser is so simple to use and maintain compared with commercial ice cream machines. Just plug in, insert your bottle and you’re ready to go!"

When I approached, I didn't see a normal soft serve machine.  I saw a plastic thing, that didn't even seem to take electricity, with a pile of cones nearby and a freezer.

And then I saw other customers order ice cream.  The store worker pulled out a plastic cartridge, put it into the machine, pulled the handle, and out came soft serve, directly into a cone.  What??!!

I found out later that the magic dispenser is called a "My Cornetto machine".  It is marketed as far easier to maintain than a traditional soft serve machine, and far more economical.  It seems to exist in a handful of countries, including Australia and New Zealand.

The cartridges look like push pops, and are frozen in a regular freezer, and just pulled out when someone orders an ice cream.  So, still just packaged ice cream.

Cornetto Soft, Caramel.

I quickly stepped up and ordered the caramel one.

When it was ready, the cone was handed over, as was the cartridge.  The server demonstrated that I should lick the remaining ice cream out of it.  No problem, I'm totally the girl who is always in the kitchen licking every spoon, bowl, beater!

Sure, what I was given didn't look like the photos, as the top didn't have a nice peak.  And, well, it clearly wasn't "real" soft serve, instead, it was ice cream extruded through a machine.  But it *was* fairly soft.

It seemed to have vanilla ice cream and caramel ice cream swirled together, and maybe some caramel sauce too?  And chocolate coated crispy things and caramel coated crispies?  I'm really not sure.

I liked it, partially out of novelty.  The caramel was very sweet however, so, I did need to take little breaks while eating it to not get a sweet overload.  I loved the crunchy things, whatever they were.  They kept me addicted, just like cookie dough bits in a pint, that you want to just keep digging for another one.

Certainly an interesting experience, better than just getting a pre-packaged ice cream at a convenience store, and I'd do it again, likely trying another flavor.

Update Review, October 2016

Another year, more travels to European offices with ice cream freezers, and thus, more chances to try Heartbrand ice cream.  As always, I suggest you start with my original review, if you want more background.

Nogger

In our Munich office, they had many fantastic ice cream selections so it took me a while to try the strangely named "Nogger" novelties, as they looked like kinda standard ice cream bars on sticks.  It turns out, the Nogger is the best selling ice cream novelty in Germany, and has been around since 1964.

But finally, I did try it, both the regular and the "choc" versions.  What is a Nogger?  My understanding is that the name "Nogger" comes from "nougat" a key component of the bars.  At one time there was also a "Nogger Black", with a black licorice coating (which sounds pretty interesting to me), but it turned into a racial controversy and was removed from the market.  

Nogger Choc.

Ok, so I let this one get a bit too melty.

That aside, this was a very good ice cream!

The center was "Nugatkremfüllung", er, nougat cream.  Basically, it was like nutella, in a slightly thicker form, still quite soft though.  It was crazy delicious.

Surrounding that was decent vanilla ice cream, needed to balance out all the chocolate and nut flavors.

The shell was milk chocolate studded with crunchy "weißen Nugat" (white nougat) and "Zwiebackstückchen" (biscuit pieces).  The shell had a nice snap to it.

Overall, every element of this bar was pretty good on its own, but it really combined together nicely.  Almost-liquid nutella-like center, creamy ice cream, crunchy, snappy shell?  Awesome.  I'd gladly get another.

Nogger.

After the success of the Nogger Choc, I tried the original Nogger.

It wasn't nearly as good.  The milk chocolate shell with bits of nougat was still good, the vanilla ice cream was still good, but, I didn't care for the center.  It was just ... chocolate ice cream, not particularly creamy.  Meh.  Stick with the Nogger Choc.

Magnum

I've had many Magnum bars in various locations, mostly in Sydney where they are sold under the Streets brand, but also a few last time I was in Germany.  None have been remarkable, but they are a solid choice, and I enjoy trying new flavors.

Pink Raspberry.

"Raspberry Ice cream with raspberry sauce, coated in milk chocolate, and an outer pink coating."

Well, meh.  This as pretty, but, that is about it.

The shell was a thick milk chocolate, coated in shiny pink.  It was really quite lovely, but, a lot of chocolate for the size of the bar.

The ice cream was raspberry flavored, very raspberry, kinda tart.  It was decently creamy, but I didn't care for the flavor.

I never found any raspberry sauce ...

Original Review, May 2014

As I mentioned last week, I was recently on a business trip in Zurich, where my office had ice cream freezers seemingly everywhere, always fully stocked.  As you can imagine, I ate a lot of ice cream in my few days there.

It was there that I discovered Mövenpick, probably the best commercially prepared ice cream I've had.  But I also got to try a slew of novelty ice creams by Heartbrand.

Unilever is a ridiculously huge company (the 3rd largest consumer goods company in the world actually), comprising 400+ brands, a slew of which are ice cream related.  They are the world's largest ice cream manufacturer.  They tend to make mostly the same treats in every country, just with different names for the products, and even for the product lines themselves. You know them in the US as Good Humor.  They even own Ben & Jerry's.  In Zurich, they sell under the Heartbrand name, which is what I got to enjoy on my trip.

Solero

When I first tried these, they reminded me so much of a treat I discovered when I was living in Sydney: the Pine-Lime Splice.  I adored these things.  Creamy vanilla ice cream inside, fruity lime ice outside.   On a hot day, there was nothing like standing outside in the sun, a pine-lime splice in hand, with the icy outer shell getting just soft enough to almost drip down your arm, the ice cream getting perfectly melty ... oh, I loved them so.

So I was a bit shocked when I had my first Solero, as it reminded me of a splice.  But the splice is made by Streets.  These were made by Heartbrand.  How could it be ...

First, Heartbrand is Unilever's largest ice cream line.  And, turns out, one of the slew of companies that Unilever owns is ... Streets!  And in Australia only, they sell Splices.  In other countries, they sell Solero bars.  Same concept, although in totally different flavors.  Well, no wonder these reminded me of my precious Splices!

(Side note: why do we not have any of these in the US?  Or do we, and they just aren't that popular?)

The most impressive part about Soleros (and Splices), is that they are really not that decadent.  ~100  calories each.  Sure, they aren't huge.  They aren't coated in chocolate or candy.  The ice cream inside is low fat.  But, they sure don't taste like you are skimping on anything, and are some of the most satisfying ice cream treats I've ever enjoyed.  And at ~100 calories each, you can have absolutely no guilt about having an ice cream every day.  Or two.  Or three.  Not that I've ever done that, of course ...

Solero Exotic.

"With delicious mango and pineapple pieces, Solero Exotic really is the perfect treat to cool you down in the summer sun"

Just like a Splice, the inside was creamy vanilla ice cream, with a icy "exotic" slush outside.  The slush had a nice mango-y flavor, and I do like the combination of vanilla ice cream and mango slush, but, this was just too sweet.   It appears that Solero bars also have a swirl of sweet sauce inside the ice cream.  The wrapper bragged that it had 30% more sauce.  More than what?  I guess it used to have less?  Perhaps I would have preferred the old version, as this was just way too sweet for me, and I have a sweet tooth.  Even the creamy vanilla ice cream inside couldn't cut the sweet.  Without the extra sauce inside, I might have liked it.

Solero Berry Berry.

"A fruit-lover’s dream. Indulge in the smooth centre and gorgeous fruit sorbet coating with delicious real fruit pieces".

The ice cream, or sortbet I guess, inside was incredibly creamy.  Nice berry flavor.  I don't understand how they can make it so creamy without adding tons of fat.  The quality of the ice cream/sorbet inside is much higher than most novelty ice creams in the US.

I loved the way both layers melted, the ice cream getting even creamier, the icy coating getting soft.  The outside was refreshing, like a popsicle, but balanced nicely by the creamy inside.  This one really reminded me of a Splice, and, although I still prefer a Pine-lime Splice, I enjoyed this quite a bit.

Cornetto

Cornetto is Heartbrand's line of ice cream cones.  Unlike Drumsticks by Nestlé, the cones actually stay crispy and don't get soggy, but, just like Drumsticks, they are made with ice cream that fails to impress.

Cheesecake Glory Cornetto.

"Cheesecake ice cream and strawberry ice cream with a core of raspberry sauce with muffin and chocolate chips".

This sounded amazing: "cheesecake glory"!  How could you go wrong with that.  Plus, the packaging was much nicer than the packaged ice cream cones we get here, as it had a clear top, so you could see all the goodies on top.

Sadly, it looked, and sounded, much better than it was.  The ice cream inside, both the cheesecake and strawberry flavors, were very low quality.  They weren't remotely creamy.

The raspberry sauce was a fun touch, but, was just too sweet.

And the "muffin" bits on top were soggy and off-putting.  Also, why were there muffin pieces on a cheesecake creation?  Shouldn't they have at least been graham cracker crust bits or something?

The only redeeming part of this item is that the cone somehow did magically stay crisp, and didn't get soggy.

I didn't even bother finish this.

Erdbeer Fraise Cornetto.

"Ice cream with vanilla and strawberry sorbet with strawberry sauce, waffle and chocolate glaze. "

The packaging was all in Swiss, so I had no idea what I was getting.  Reading my notes was rather funny, once I looked it up online and found out what I had instead.

I thought the vanilla ice cream was "supposed to be whipped cream", although I noted that it was more like vanilla ice cream than whipped cream.

The strawberry sorbet I correctly identified as sorbet, not ice cream, but I thought it was raspberry.  It was very icy and not smooth.

Side View.

Like the other cone, the only really good part about this was the cone itself, it somehow stayed crispy. And, the chocolate lining of course.  But, still, I wouldn't get another.

Magnum

Magnum bars were introduced to the US in 2011, although I've never had one here.  But when I was in Sydney, Magnum bars were everywhere, although, sold there under the Streets label (but still called Magnum bars).  In Zurich, they are sold under the Heartbrand line.

Magnums come in a slew of flavors.  In Sydney, I tried all the standard ones, generally chocolate coated.

Magnum White.

"Rich vanilla ice cream, smothered in sweet, decadent white chocolate."

This was a fairly standard offering, although, like most Unilever products, it seemed a step above the confections we get in the US.

The ice cream inside was vanilla, it even seemed to have little bits of vanilla bean.  It wasn't amazing, but it was pretty good.  The coating was thick, and very creamy, sweet white chocolate.  White chocolate has a bad reputation, but sometimes you just want something sweet, and this fit the bill.

I don't really see a reason to get another one of these, but I happily finished it.

Kids

Push Up Haribo.

"Creamy ice cream with vanilla flavor and fruity strawberry sauce with a very special feature: Haribo Gold Bears in the solid stem."

Ok, I admit it, I got this one just for fun.  I had zero expectations for it.  But, it had GUMMY BEARS in the stem!  Sure, I dislike Haribo gummy bears in the first place, but come on, how could I not try this?

It was the worst of all the products I tried.  The ice cream was super low quality, not at all creamy, very icy.  The "fruity strawberry sauce" was just sweet.  And, you couldn't even access the gummy bears until you ate all the crappy ice cream.  Serious meh!

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Health Warrior

Chia Bars.  Protein Powder.  "Mug Muffins".  All healthy.  All loaded with protein.   Dairy free, soy free, gluten free, non GMO, low sugar.  Those are the products that Health Warrior makes.  Yeah, not exactly things I gravitate towards, with the exception of the suspicious sounding "muffins", as I do love my baked goods.

And yet I tried their entire product line, during a time when I was trying to incorporate more protein into my diet.

I can't say I'll be getting more.

Protein Muffins

"Breakfast muffins ready in a minute."

Sounds too good to be true right?

"Health Warrior’s new Protein Mug Muffins are a warm, spoonable muffin with 12g of plant based protein and only 6g of sugar. They are made from superfoods like sorghum, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, and almonds. Plus, they are dairy free, soy free, gluten free, non GMO and contain no stevia or sugar alcohols."

Healthy muffins, high protein, no crap, variety of flavors, and ready in a minute?

Yup, to say I was skeptical is an understatement. 

"Ready in a Minute"

They come in a variety of classic muffin flavors: blueberry, banana nut, double chocolate, and peanut butter chocolate chip.  I tried them all.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Mix + 1/4 Cup Water.

The instructions are simple, all the same, but do require a 1/4 cup measuring cup.  This is "baking" after all, and I knew from reading reviews that eyeballing the amount is not recommended.

Step 1?  Add 1/4 cup cold water.

Chocolate Peanut Butter: Mixed.

Step 2?  Mix well.  Again, I knew from reviews to do this right: mix *well*.  Put some energy into it.

Step 3?  Microwave for 45 seconds to 1 minute.

Mine seemed a touch wet (instructions warned it might be), so I did the additional time.

Chocolate Peanut Butter: "Baked".

Step 4?  Let stand 2 minutes.

So, "ready in a minute", not exactly, but certainly less than 5 minutes.  Easy, but, requires *some* precision.

One baked, it looked ... um ... interesting.  I expected it to rise up and well, look like a muffin in some way, which it clearly did not.

But I'll admit my creation smelt good.  Lovely aroma of peanut butter. But it certainly didn't look like a muffin, and I was still curious about the whole "spoonable" aspect.

Chocolate Peanut Butter: Melty Chips.

The first one I tried was the chocolate peanut butter, the one I was most excited for.  

I dug in.  Melty chocolate chips were studded throughout.  This was a good thing.

But a muffin this was not.  It was not even really a bread ... it is very hard to describe the texture.  I guess, imagine what a gluten-free, dairy-free, etc, etc microwaved creation would be like, and you probably can figure it out.  Kinda dense, not fluffy, kinda crumbly, but not like a muffin ... it was odd, really.  

The peanut butter flavor was there, although not as intense as I was hoping.  The aroma was stronger than the taste, but I could taste peanut butter, which I liked.  I didn't taste too many odd things from the variety of flours (sorghum, almond, tapioca) and proteins (fava beans, pumpkin seeds, flaxseed).  I liked the little melty chocolate chips.  It was almost ok.  Although "ok", with a very strange texture.

But what I haven't mentioned is the dominant taste.  An odd sweetness.  Sure, they don't use Stevia, and don't use regular white sugar, but primary flavor was just an odd, odd, sweetness.  I think this must be from the monk fruit extract?  They also use brown sugar, but it wasn't what I was detecting.

I could get past the texture, unique as it was, I could even enjoy the peanut butter and the chocolate, but ... I couldn't get past that strange sweetness.

Also, it was just a bit ... boring.  I know it is a healthy breakfast item, so it doesn't need more, but for me, it did.

I added my favorite hot fudge (shhh, don't judge!  I wanted to add more chocolately element and mask the sweet!) and I added whipped cream, and I did actually sorta enjoy it this way.  Warm baked thing, melty bits of chocolate, peanut butter and chocolate combo, a la whipped cream?  Was it healthy now?  Nope.  Was it vegan now?  Nope.  Was it breakfast?  Ha.  But I liked it, and it did have more protein than my normal breakfast ...

I almost added butter (it *is* a muffin after all), and would consider that with the other flavors.

Update Review:
I tried another a few weeks later, again trying for breakfast, and finding it too ... boring.  Again I wanted stronger peanut butter and chocolate, and the texture was so odd, but really, it needed something added.  So I added.  I added a bunch of chocolate ganache, a few disks of white chocolate, and a bit more of my favorite peanut butter.  Warmed it all up.  Now it had lots of chocolate and peanut butter, both really melty, and more sweetness.  And I put whipped cream on top.  I actually quite liked it, but, I had added quite a bit at this point, and, uh, definitely was no longer eating a guilt free breakfast.

I think these might be well suited for dessert.  Warm, with ice cream, more like a chocolate peanut butter cake, could work much better? Or maybe just with fudge and whipped cream as I did for breakfast ...

Banana Nut: Mixed.

I moved on to the next flavor.  Banana nut.

While stirring, I noted that I certainly didn't smell banana, and I didn't really see or feel many chunks of banana ...

I stirred it well, and it really did come together a nice batter consistency.  Into the microwave it went for a minute.

Banana Nut: Cooked.

After a minute it still did seem wet, so I let it go the extra 15 seconds as advised.  Still looked a bit wet, but I decided to give it the 2 minute rest time, and went to make my coffee and see what I returned to.

Banana Nut Muffin: Baked!

This one actually came out the best, texture-wise.

It extracted from the cup in one piece, and, actually kinda did look like a flatter, denser style muffin.  Or mini cake I guess?

The texture really wasn't bad - it wasn't strangely wet, it wasn't dry.  Sure, it wasn't a crumbly muffin, but I knew not to expect that at this point.  A warm, dense but moist cake.  Not bad.

The taste though ... banana haters did not need to fear.  This didn't taste like banana much at all.  Honestly, I didn't detect *any* banana to it.  There were a few tiny chunks of nut, I guess, almonds say the ingredients, but again, so few it wasn't really noticeable.  Almond was an odd choice, normally a banana nut muffin would have walnuts?

It mostly was just very, very boring, lacking any flavor I wanted.  It still had a bit of a funky flavor, I don't mind the strange flavor from the flours, but the sweetener still got to me.

While it was warm, I slathered a chunk in copious amounts of butter, and it was significantly better that way.  I spread chocolate ganache on another, and that was considerably better too.  And the final chunk I spread on warm melty peanut butter.  Also better (although a bit too dry).

I salvaged this one, but didn't want another.

[ No Photo ]

Blueberry

Next up was the blueberry.  Classic muffin flavor.

Well, it had little tiny bits of dried blueberry.

But without something like chocolate or peanut butter to add any real dimension, it was just the odd texture, odd flavor, and ... lacking.  Adding *copious* amounts of butter added a little something, but, this just wasn't a winner.

My gluten-free low sugar friend also didn't like it, and he is used to foods that are like this ...

Chia Bars: "The 100 Calorie Real Food Bar."

"With only 100 calories and 3g of sugar, Chia Bars are the perfect fit for your healthy lifestyle. They're made with real, plant based ingredients that fill you up without weighing you down. Plus, they're dairy free, gluten free, soy free, and non-GMO."

Ok, so, pre-warning: I hate chia seeds.  I just find them bitter, and a odd flavor that I can't ever get over.  And I *loath* them when made into slimy chia pudding.  So I fully admit that this product is not one that would ever normally appeal to me.

The bars come in some very tempting sounding dessert flavors, not just simple Dark Chocolate (or Dark Chocolate Cherry, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter), or Caramel Sea Salt, but also Strawberry Shortcake and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  And in fruity varieties, not just basic fruits like Banana Nut or Apple Cinnamon, but also tropical flavors, Coconut, Acai Berry, Mango.

But I know better.  Good sounding flavors do not change the makeup of the bars, and, I suspected these would go the way of most other nutrition bars, no matter how good of flavors they have.  I was given one to sample though, so, I had to try it, right?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

I had the chance to try the chocolate chip cookie dough, made with the base of white chia seeds, brown rice crisps, and rolled oats, bound together with cashew butter and chicory root fiber, and sweetened with brown rice syrup.  And then, yes, some chocolate chips, vanilla, sea salt, etc.

I actually wanted to like this.  I almost liked it, in fact.

The texture wasn’t that bad, it was clearly a healthy protein bar with a kinda mushy base to it, but I liked the crunch from the chia seeds, and it broke apart nicely.

I liked that I could see, and nearly taste, the little chocolate chips.  It held promise of the “cookie dough” flavor it was.

But … underlying it all was a horrible, horrible bitter taste that I just couldn’t shake.  So close to being good, and far better than I expected actually, but not the right thing for me.

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From The Ground Up Snack Foods

Snacks, snacks, snacks.  One of my favorite food groups.  (Shh, yes, snacks are a food group, and every balanced diet includes copious snacks right? How else do you maintain level blood sugar all day when eating so much chocolate and desserts?)

Um, yeah, I love snacks, I love munching on things, both sweet and savory.  And bonus points, I guess, if they products have some redeeming healthy qualities.

"At Real Food From The Ground Up, we like to keep it real – from our ingredients to our message. Why? Because we’re real people too! We know the daily struggle to make good snack choices, and that’s why we’re raising the snack bar with our plant-based snack family.

Our snacks are packed with REAL Cauliflower and Butternut Squash to give you more of what you love - MORE flavor, MORE crunch, and MORE bites per serving. Everyone should live healthier and snack happier without any ‘snack-rifices’... come along and let’s get our snack on."

I was thrilled to discover Real Food From The Ground Up, a snack food manufacturer, that tries to throw in some veggies to their munchy foods.  Their products also happen to be vegan, gluten-free, non GMO, etc.

Real Food From The Ground Up produced 5 product lines: chips, crackers, "stalks", pretzels, and tortilla chips.  I was able to try both pretzels and stalks, one of each.  I loved one item I tried, and would gladly try more, particularly any of the chips, or the new carrot crackers ...

Stalks

The stalks are veggie and grain based, gluten-free like all their products.  Available with either butternut or cauliflower, each in two flavors.  Butternut squash stalks come in savory sea salt or sweet cinnamon.  Cauliflower stalks are available in savory sea salt or cheddar.

Stalks.

If you are expecting these to scream "BUTTERNUT SQUASH!!!" or "CAULIFLOWER!!!" you will be disappointed, as the first ingredient is actually cassava.  They also have rice (white and brown) in the base, along with the butternut squash or cauliflower, and a host of other veggies (spinach, broccoli, beets, tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms).

That said, I still liked them, and found them to be a fairly unique, fun product.

Cinnamon Butternut Squash Stalks.

"No puffery here in our salty and sweet snack - just downright delicious cinnamon sugar flavor."

My mom picked these up, but I was interested in try them, excited about the idea of butternut squash snacks.  She opted for the sweet ones, cinnamon flavor (not a savory one I'd pair with my lunch as I was hoping, thinking of them like, well, chips).

I still liked them though - the crunch was good, the texture was great, and the form factor quite fun.  I think the savory varieties would make for decent replacements for regular potato chips, or fries.

These however, were not something I'd pair with a meal, much more appropriate for a snack.  The cinnamon variety is dusted with cinnamon, brown sugar, and some other seasonally appropriate spices like nutmeg.  They are slightly savory, but mostly sweet and well spiced, no spice overwhelming the other.  They taste like ... fall.

They certainly are not that sweet though, I'd never consider these a dessert product.

They were satisfying as a snack, one I quickly got addicted to, and I may or may not have stole the whole bag.  I think would pair great with sliced apples spread with peanut butter for a lovely fall snack for any adult, or child.

****.

Pretzels

Pretzels also come with either butternut or cauliflower focus, in twist or stick form.  The pretzels, just like the stalks, have a cassava base, and a slew of other veggies along with the butternut squash.

They do not have the rice component in them like the stalks however.  Only one flavor is available in each form - butternut ones with turmeric and cinnamon mixed in, along with a salt coating.  The cauliflower skip the spices, and are just salt and yeast (?).

Butternut Squash Pretzels: Original.

My store only had the butternut, so, butternut it was.

Butternut Squash Stalks: Original.

"This one sticks to the basics - salted on the outside with a crispy bite."

These are pretty classic pretzel sticks - same size as you'd expect, big salt crystal coating.  

They were ok, and tasted much like other gluten-free pretzels I have had, and liked (e.g. Pretzel Perfection, my normal go-to).  Strangely, I generally do prefer gluten-free pretzels to regular ones, even though I am a gluten eater.

That said, these had a bitterness that I really wasn't a fan of.  And I didn't really taste butternut squash, nor the cinnamon and turmeric, but they were nicely salty.

Basically, a fine gluten-free pretzel stick, if you like those, but, not special, sadly.

***.

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