Quillo Fried egg potato chips: I’ve tried a good range of flavored potato chips, but this fried egg flavored bag from Spanish brand Quillo is new territory. According to the ingredients, it contains “flavor of egg,” followed by an impressive list of chemical ingredients. At the end of the ingredients list is a warning that the product may contain traces of shrimp and eggs. If there is only trace amounts of actual egg, what is it that makes these chips taste like hard boiled eggs? Because, in fact, they bizarrely taste ve... (read more) 3.0/5.0
potatochips quillo fried egg potato chips 3.0
Raaka Oat Milk Dark Chocolate: I've been buying chocolate bars once in a while during my weekly grocery trips to the Park Slope Food Coop. This one from Raaka checks all the boxes in terms of guilt-free snack purchases (organic, single-origin, etc.), with the inside label covered in facts about where the chocolate comes from and how much it costs to produce. The packaging waxes on about using unroasted beans as a way to bring out the "brighter, bolder, and fruitier side of cacao." This particular flavor is described as... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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Rabbit Rabbit Tea Japanese buckwheat milk tea with almond pudding: A caffeine-free option at bubble tea shop Rabbit Rabbit Tea, located at the edge of Union Square. It tasted more of milk than buckwheat, but it did have a familiar Asian breakfast porridge vibe to it, reminiscent of powdered grain packs you mix with hot water. The tea was so so, but the almond pudding was quite good - it had a distinctly non-dairy-milk nutty quality and a soft, slick texture. Overall, though, I probably wouldn't come back to Rabbit Rabbit gven the quality of this drink alone. 3.0/5.0
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Rachel's Ginger Beer: A Seattle-based venture, Rachel's ginger beer is available at restaurants around the city but has a mix of ginger + fruit concoctions available on tap at its Pikes Place shop. I opted for the classic, and it definitely tasted fresh, inducing a sharp tingly feeling in the back of your throat. I've made ginger beers from scratch at home that taste very similar. In other words, there's an important distinction to make: it tasted homemade, but not artisanal. Not as balanced as I hoped it would b... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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Regent Pandan Cake: A half-sphere mini cake, baked-brown on the outside and shamrock-green on the inside. Has a light texture that eats a bit dry. Often paired with coconut, pandan leaves are popular in southeast asian cuisines like Thai and Indonesian; the flavor of this pandan cake fell somewhere in between rich coconut and light lemongrass. Fragrant and not too sweet, but the texture could have been more moist. 3.0/5.0
cake 99ranch asian regent pandan 3.0
Riska Cheese Corn Snack: This flavor of umbaibo has a cheese flavor familiar to Asian snacks. It tastes a bit like the cheese powder from boxed mac and cheese but with a creamy, milky flavor that's mild rather than tangy. Very different than the bolder cheese taste of American cheese snacks like Cheetos. Like other Umaibo, the texture is crispy and light. In this particular package, they're cut into mid-sized rings. 3.0/5.0
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