BAD Roll the Spice Pumpkin Spice Granola: Standing for Bad and Delicious, BAD aims to rid the world of artificial snacks "masquerading as health" with a combination of grain-less ingredients like sprouted nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, and hazelnuts), shredded coconut, and ginger spice. Despite the lack of grains, I still found myself eating it largely in place of regular granola (in yogurt, milk). But I found the pumpkin spice flavor to be overly dominant, like eating a seasonal candle. I'd personally prefer a more muted, neutr... (read more) 2.0/5.0
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Beans Family garlic green peas: Chinese dried peas snack with a potent garlic flavor. Unfortunately, the peas themselves have an unsatisfying texture that's simultaneously greasy and dry. 2.0/5.0
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Bickford’s Creamy soda: In hindsight, there were a few warning signs: 1) the label has “with artificial flavors” in fine print, 2) the flavor is creamy soda and not cream soda (I thought maybe it was an Australian thing), and 3) when was the last time you saw a red-colored cream soda? Turns out it’s red because of Red 40, which of course impart no actual taste to the drink (also ironically the packaging states “a century of purity”). What I got instead was an overly sweet, mediocre cream soda. It just goes to show... (read more) 2.0/5.0
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Boba Ninja Pudding Milk Tea with Boba: Right around the corner from Sweetheart Cafe on Durant (in Berkeley) is a competitor named Boba Ninja, which has barely enough standing room to accommodate a single-file line. Lining the interior is a shelf of flavor powders in small tupperware containers. The pudding milk tea is a regular black milk tea with large pieces of pudding (I added boba as well). The pudding had an inconsistent texture, as if the mix had not been fully stirred, and the boba was overly soft. Not much to say abou... (read more) 2.0/5.0
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Breadtop matcha red bean bun: Breadtop is an Asian bakery chain in Australia. There is one close to the hotel I'm staying at in Brisbane, and it offers staples like sausage buns and sesame balls but also modern takes, like this matcha red bean bun. Unfortunately, the bun was unsuccessfully; the dough had very little matcha flavor, and the red bean filling was overly sweet and uninspired. The dusting of icing sugar made it messy to eat, without much added flavor. 2.0/5.0
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Brooklyn Soda Works lemon and thyme soda: About five years ago, I had a fantastic bottled apple ginger soda from Brooklyn Soda Works at a restaurant in NYC. Since then, I've been looking forward to my next opportunity to try a different flavor from the brand. I also backed them on Kickstarter a few years ago. When I found myself at Smorgasburg for the Brooklyn Record Flea, I visited their tent and purchased a $4 cup of lemon thyme soda. Unfortunately, it was not very good. The lemon was faint, and the soda could use more sweetness t... (read more) 2.0/5.0
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