Bubbies Hawaii - Cookie Dough [Brownie Batter with Peanut Butter Ice Cream Inside]

Hello and welcome to another PMS inspired purchase.

Back in the day when "powerloss" entered my life, my cravings would be on the sweet side. As I got older, it was a coin toss of sweet versus salty. There are even days where I craved spicy (which if you knew me, you'd know spicy and I have had an odd relationship - but I have been known to go through a Del Taco drive-thru and order deep-fried jalapeno slices... and nearly finished them every time save for the fact I'd get full and could eat no more).

Golden Bonbon - Green Tea Nougat

One could say I was introduced to nougat when I was little by way of candy bars. Nougat candy, however, wasn't until about the early 2000's. I was working as an office manager for a small manufacturing company, Our company was growing at the time, and we were hiring a few engineers to help with the expansion. We were moving from the smaller office I had started into the bigger building across the street... where the engineers were working mainly - occasionally coming to the smaller building where I had to buzz them in. I had made friends with one of the engineers (Russ) who at one point when I was working and didn't see him approach the floor to ceiling glass window and door. He knocked. I folded my arms in mock protest asking what was in it for me. He reached into his coat pocket and brought out some candy. I then relented and let him in.

AIZA'S SWEETS Pastillas de Ube

I think I've already spoken about my love of ube. It's just so tasty. And if it's a flavor option - especially for a dessert - I'm most likely going to try it.

A friend at work (another Filipina) and often have conversations about food, and we both excited about Filipino food A LOT. One day when she got into the office, she stopped by my desk and handed me a bag of treats. When I saw the purple, I immediately got excited.

Chewy milk candy with purple yam.

Chocolove - Ruby Cacao Bar

I'm not as big of a chocolate fanatic like when I was a kid. I would see that bag of Hershey miniatures or would be excited to go through my Halloween stash when my brother and I got back from trick-or-treating... but back then, it was your basic chocolate tried and trues.

Snickers. Twix. Milky Way. And a slew of others. (I really liked Mars Bars and Oh Henrys - I think mainly since they weren't as widely available as the other mainstream treats.

But even though I still love the staples from my youth, I have discovered other chocolate goodies.

Saffron Road Crunchy Chickpeas - Honey Roasted

Every Thursday, a number of my friends and I get together just to be social. It started off as a Stephen King marathon of sorts since a lot of his work was coming out as movies and mini-series, but then we started also watching other horror movies from our childhood to now.

And sometimes we just drank.

Siren Protein Bites - Lemon Poppyseed

While out running errands, I started to get a little hungry, but I didn't want to stop and eat a full meal since I had planned on cooking when I got home. So I opted for a snack I could eat while driving around.

Chobani Coffee Creamer - Sweet Cream

In my last post, I mentioned a little bit about my coffee journey. I have a need for creamer in my coffee. I think it stems from starting doing what I'd seen from others in real life as well as TV and movies - some cream and sugar. Nowadays for me is a splash of cream and maybe some sugar-free syrup if I'm feeling fancy (my favorite as of late is Torani Sugar-Free Almond Roca). Most of the time it's just creamer. (I've also been known to add a splash in my tea.)

Creamer takes the place of "milk and sugar" since there's usually some kind of sweetness involved since I like flavored creamers. I usually use Silk Sweet and Creamy Almond Creamer, Since I'm using the creamer for coffee and tea, I don't want something that will alter the flavor profile of the drink. Like if I'm drinking Earl Grey tea, I wouldn't want a hazelnut creamer or something like that - I'd want something with a neutral flavor profile that would go with any choice.

While at an Asian market recently (I was mainly there looking for apricot kernel powder for something), I needed to buy milk but couldn't find a dairy section anywhere in the store. So after getting the things I needed from that store, I went next door-ish to another grocery store to grab a few things, and while getting some milk, I saw that Chobani had new coffee creamers out. (I will admit, the colors, artwork, and packaging caught my eye first.) I was also looking for my usual creamer - but guess what? They were out. So I checked out the Chobani brand, and they had a Sweet Cream which made me happy (since usually, I don't find "sweet cream" in most brands so I end up getting vanilla or something).

And it was yummy!

The side of the bottle says "Simple Ingredients" and underneath... "We keep our creamer simple and delicious. Starting from fresh cream from our yogurt-making process, we add only milk, cane sugar, and a touch of natural flavoring. Stirred into your coffee, our creamer makes every sip sweeter than the last."

Now of course after reading this, I went in search of the official list of ingredients that can be found with the "nutritional information" - and is listed as follows: milk, cream, cane sugar, natural flavors.

Can someone tell me what "natural flavors" they used? Not really sure what that means. I get the gist of course, but it just seems rather vague to me.

Regardless of the mysterious "natural flavors" - I would buy this again. It's nice to have a backup alternative for coffee and tea needs.

The bottle is 24oz and lists one serving size to be a tablespoon - which is 30 calories per serving, the bottle yielding about 47 servings.

https://www.chobani.com/products/coffee-creamer/creamer/sweet-cream/
https://www.chobani.com/

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae

Chameleon Cold-Brew with Organic Oat Milk [Dark Chocolate]

I make my own cold brew. It's pretty easy - coffee grounds, cold water, leave to steep overnight and voila! Coffee!!!

I didn't use to be a coffee drinker. I grew up a Kool-Aid Queen consuming mass quantities of oversugared Tropical Fruit Punch (thanks Mom), and staining my upper lip with a Kool-Aid mustache (which really only looked like evil vaudevillians since the red usually curled at the corners of my mouth.

Or perhaps maybe a little Joker-like?

Cadbury Creme Egg Cookies (Limited Edition)

When I was little, I was a bit obsessed with the Cadbury Egg.

I blame the commercials.

They usually played around Easter every year. I'd see a big fluffy bunny rabbit twitching its little nose, and clucking like a chicken laying an egg. But this bunny was different - this bunny laid Cadbury eggs.

In the commercial, someone would unwrap an egg, tear it in two, and show off the ooey-gooey insides (which were the color of an actual egg - yellow center with white around it).

I was fascinated. Plus - the bunny was adorable, and the fact it "bok-bok'd" like a chicken made me laugh.

I can't remember how long it was after seeing those commercials that I actually had one of the eggs - but I do remember my reaction though, and it was a little less than favorable. I was super excited to try one, but when I did, the inside wasn't 100% appealing. The flavor and consistency of the creme were not what I expected. But for some reason every time I saw a Cadbury Egg, I had to get one and try it out. (Now, I feel the need to say here that they were a rather popular item so actually acquiring one when I wanted one wasn't always a success so I didn't have TONS of them.)

Fast forward to now! At the store, minding my own business, checking out the candy section (like I do - don't judge!) and what do I see? Cadbury Cookies!

And they're Limited Edition - so I just had to have them.

Visually, they remind me of Thin Mints all covered in chocolate, and when you bite into them, they have crispy crunchy cookies, but in the middle of those cookies is the infamous creme that - as a child - I did not enjoy or remember fondly. But a lot of my tastes and flavors changed since I was little so I bought them and tried them at home.

And I like them!

I don't know. Maybe it's a different creme-filling (I get more caramel notes than I did before), but they are quite yummy. They are also very sweet. I highly suggest only one or two as well as a glass of milk or water as a palate cleanser.

The 4.9 oz package housed 8 cookies.

A serving is 2 cookies which leave 4 servings per package - and each serving is 170 calories.

I hope "Limited Edition" means they were just testing them out to see if people liked them... and they bring them back. It also makes me want to try Cadbury Eggs again.

https://www.cadburyusa.com/en_us/home.html
https://www.mondelezinternational.com/

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae

Garoto Chocolate Bon Bon Assortment

I like to go to Cost Plus World Market. They have lots of neat things. I've gotten some gifts for friends and family there.

For me?

I usually go home with a number of items from the food and drink area. And I usually leave with more than I really should.

I live alone for frak sakes. Me? In an apartment full of snacks and booze? Gee, what could possibly go wrong?

One of the things that caught my eye was a little box of chocolates, and just like Forrest Gump's Mama always said - you never know what you're gonna get.

To be fair, I've rarely met a chocolate I didn't like or at least was okay enough to chew and not spit out - so this assortment had that going for them at least. I do remember thinking the coloring of the box made me think of Charleston Chew - but when I eventually opened the box up, I then thought this would be candy I'd have grabbed from a cracked open pinata. (And yes, I've been to many a party with many a pinata so I'm speaking from experience.

Without further ado - the chocolates!

In order of how they appear on the back of the box.

Baton Extra Milk (Extra Milk)

The packaging of this chocolate reminds me of a small pack of Smarties or Rolaids, but when I unwrapped it, it was a solid tiny rolling pin of chocolate. When I bit into it, the insides look like there was some white chocolate in there.

It looked and smelled like sweet milk chocolate.

Baton AO Leite (Milk)

Wrapped the same as the previous "baton" but when I bit into this one, it was all chocolate though a darker milk chocolate than the first one.

Opereta Creme (Cashew Nut)

This one was wrapped like a Hershey Nugget. It looked and smelled like white chocolate. It tasted fine, but I didn't really taste any cashew nut... which was disappointing since I love cashews.

Pacoca (Peanut Butter)

This candy was packed like a pull/twist hard candy... or Tootsie Roll. The chocolate itself looked like a mini-Butterfinger. The bite was soft and definitely tasted like peanut butter and also had a strong peanut butter scent. 

Caribe (Banana)

This was the same twist-type packaging and look like the previous candy. The smell was faintly of banana, but the taste was VERY banana. It also had the color of over-ripe bananas and was chewy like molasses.

Talente Duo Caramelo Salgado (50% Cocoa & Salted Caramel)

This one was packaged like a Ghiradelli chocolate square but a little smaller. It smelled sweet like chocolate, and I could taste the cocoa and caramel. It also had a bit of crunch to it.

It Coco (Coconut)

This was another twist candy that unwrapped looked like a mini Butterfinger. Ohhh, I could smell the coconut - which made me happy - but it was denser in texture than an Almond Joy or Mounds bar. Tasty!

AO Leite (28% cocoa)

This was another Hershey nugget size candy. It definitely smelled like chocolate - a little deeper than milk chocolate but softer than a dark chocolate. The initial bite is a bit hard, but after a while, it gets chewy as you chew it. 

Crocante (Peanut Crunch)

Another Tootsie roll wrap-type. Also mini Butterfinger size. This one had the crunch consistency in the ballpark of an actual Butterfinger though it leaned a little toward a peanut brittle consistency - like if a Butterfinger and peanut brittle had a baby

Talento Duo Maracuja (50% Cocoa & Passion Fruit)

This last one is packaged like a smaller Ghiradelli square, but the top layer smelled lovely and quite "passion-fruity." I could smell more chocolate than fruit, and the fruity top half looked more like milk chocolate with black dots in it (most likely the passionfruit seeds). The fruit flavor wasn't bitter but significantly different from the other chocolates.

1 box is 10.5oz, and the infamous "they" say a serving is 2 pieces (which results in 11 servings per box).

Overall, not a bad box of chocolate. My favorites would be (in order they were reviewed): Pacoca (Peanut Butter), Caribe (Banana), Talente Duo Caramelo Salgado (50% Cocoa & Salted Caramel), It Coco (Coconut), and Crocante (Peanut Crunch),

The rest can tie for second place.

I think I'd much prefer a bulk bin I can grab my preferred flavors from as opposed to getting a box and only eating perhaps half the chocolates in said box. But overall - not a disappointing box of chocolates.

https://www.worldmarket.com/product/garoto+chocolate+bon+bon+assortment.do?sortby=ourPicks

https://www.garoto.com.br/#1

https://www.garoto.com.br/produtos/lista/caixas#1

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae