Face Down In Cabo, Kissin' The Ground

Mountain Dew Baja Cabo Citrus
PepsiCo (2025)

This new version of Mountain Dew is blend of orange, lime, and tropical citrus punch, and thankfully they're making it in Zero Sugar as well.  It's pretty good.  In fact, I like this better than regular Mountain Dew or Baja Blast.

They're advertising this soda as "the perfect pairing with Doritos".  I'm going to have to take their word for that.  I love Doritos, but I'm really trying to make more healthy choices with food, and diet soda is about as far as I'm going to go into junk food for the foreseeable future.

Elementary School Lunch On The Go

Reese's PB&J Cups
Hershey (2025)
The most surprising thing about the latest variation of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to hit stores is the fact that it's taken this long for them to think of it.  Nothing goes together quite like peanut butter and jelly, and these PB&J cups do a great job of scratching that itch if you haven't had a PB&J sandwich in a long time.

It looks like these are manufactured as a standard peanut butter cup that has an empty channel surrounded by chocolate built into the bottom.  The little air pocket is then filled with either grape or strawberry jelly.  They're both very tasty, but while I prefer grape jelly in a PB&J sandwich, I think the Strawberry PB&J Cup is my favorite of the two.

Mario And Link Drink Sharkleberry Finn

Kool Aid Koolers advertisement
Kraft Foods (May 1991)
Nintendo and Kool-Aid partnered up for quite a few promotions in the late 80's and early 90's.  One such promotion had Nintendo Power Puzzlers, which were games like the kind that you'd find in an activity book, and tips for popular NES games printed on the back of Kool Aid Koolers box drinks.  This advertisement for these drink boxes was published in the May 1991 issue of Sports Illustrated For Kids.

I haven't been able to find too many images of the Nintendo Power Puzzlers games other than this advertisement and a few images from this commercial.

I'm not sure what was going on to cause these to not be available in Maine, but we had them in Pennsylvania.

Peep This

Peeps Cereal
Kellogg's (2025)
I'm glad they sold these in single serving bags because I don't think I'd want to eat a whole box of these.  Don't get me wrong, they're very tasty, but that's a whole lot of sugary marshmallow flavor in one bowl.

Retro Neapolitan

Farmers Ice Cream Carton

Farmer's Dairy - Hazleton, PA
If you grew up in Hazleton in the 1980's, there's a pretty good chance that you had one of these in your freezer at some point in your life.

This was available for sale at the Slatington Marketplace earlier this year.

The Official Beverage Of The Easton Assassin

Larry Holmes Cream Soda
A-Treat (2025)

It doesn't get much more Pennsylvania than an A-Treat soda named after former World Heavyweight Champion Larry Holmes.

This is a pretty darn good cream soda, but I wish they made it in sugar-free.

Eating The Bungo

Bungo Choco Mochi
Orion (2025)
I was tempted to title this entry "...And Bungo Was His Name-O", but I went with this just to see what else comes up in the search results when you Google this post.

This little box of snack cakes was at the Union gas station that I stopped at on the way home from The Gap on Sunday morning.  They were being sold individually, so I grabbed one along with a cup of coffee that helped to keep me awake for the drive home.  I was originally going to get an energy drink, but the sign on the front door was too enticing.

I mean, how could I say no?

Bungo Choco Mochi are snack cakes that look like giant fluffy Goldfish crackers that are stuffed with a thick chocolate cream that sort of tastes like the center of an E.L. Fudge cookie.  I guess they're supposed to be filled with mochi too, but I didn't see or taste anything other than chocolate.  They're not terrible; maybe a little spongy for my taste, but I'd get one if I saw 'em again.

Spot Takes The Tropics

7Up Tropical
Keurig Dr Pepper (2025)
This company is absolutely killing it, both with the wide variety of flavors of 7Up and Dr. Pepper that they're producing, and for the fact that they make all of them available in Zero Sugar.

7Up Tropical is a lemon lime soda blended with peach and mango, and it's freakin' outstanding!  I only picked up one case in our last shopping trip.  Next time, I'm going to stock up so that we'll have it for drive-in season.

You Put The Lime In The Cherry Sprite

Sprite Chill Cherry Lime
The Coca-Cola Company (2025)
This had an interesting flavor that reminded me a bit of Luden's Wild Cherry cough drops, but I think it's much too sweet.  I'm hoping to find the Zero Sugar version to try.

The Elephant At The Breakfast Table

Twinkles
General Mills (2025)
A lot of children's breakfast cereals have come and gone over the years.  I've learned about a lot of the ones that were popular before I was born from nostalgia websites and YouTube videos, but this is one that I had never heard of until it was brought back earlier this year.

Twinkles was introduced during the 1960's and was available in the cereal aisle until it was discontinued in 1973.  It was sold in a package that included a storybook on the back of every box featuring the cereal's mascot, Twinkles the Magic elephant.

The Twinkles cereal that's available now doesn't have a storybook, but the back panel of the box is a board game that comes complete with game pieces featuring Twinkles the Elephant, Sanford the Parrot, Wilbur the Monkey, and Leopold, the Lion that you can cut out from the side of the box to play.

When General Mills announced that Twinkles was being brought back, they mentioned that it would have the same vanilla and butter cookie flavor you remember.  I enjoyed it, but to be perfectly honest, I thought it tasted a lot like Cap'n Crunch.  If that's the kind of flavor that appeals to you, give this a shot.

Leave The Gun, Take The Cannoli Bar

Cannoli Bar
Cannoli Bar Corp (2025)
One of the most interesting new candy bars that I've found in a long time were available for sale at The Gumbas Company store at the Hometown Farmers Market.

The Cannoli Bar is white chocolate that has the flavor of cannoli cream with bits of cannoli shell mixed in to give it a little bit of a crunch.  These are incredible!  I could absolutely see these taking off and becoming a big hit across the country.

Cat Soup

Hello Kitty Garden Veggie Noodle Soup
Prince Katsu (2024)
This was one of the things that I picked up on my last visit to Big Lots.  Since that time, it was announced that Gordon Brothers Retail Partners agreed to a deal to take ownership of between 200-400 Big Lots stores.  I'm not sure if the West Hazleton location will be one of these, but there's at least a chance that it might remain in business.

Either way, I'm going to have to head back there soon to pick up some more of this Hello Kitty Garden Veggie Noodle Soup because it was delicious!  The cup includes a little packet of dried vegetables and a liquid flavor pouch, and it ended up being one of the best tasting cups of instant ramen that I've ever had.

From The Dungeon Master's Snack Drawer

Dungeons & Dragons candy
Amurol Confections Company (1983)
I was only three years old when Dungeons & Dragons candy was introduced on store shelves, so I've got only the vaguest recollection of their existence  If they were released just a couple of years later, I would have been all over these.

I'm not sure what the candy tasted like.  Frankly, they could have tasted like chalk and I still would have wanted them if only for the free trading card on the back of each box.  

Canadian Cookies For Christmas

Oreo Maple Cream
Christie (2024)
These were given to me by a friend as a Christmas present, and I think they're my new favorite variant of Oreo Cookies.

Oreo Maple Cream are exclusively available in Canada, but they're worth going out of your way to get.

Where's The Chili?

Chilean Sea Bass
Pepperidge Farm (2024)
These are just regular Cheddar Goldfish crackers.  There's nothing different about them other than the name on the package, but the original Jurassic Park film inspired me to pick up a couple of bags.  I'm specifically referring to this line which I misheard when I first saw the movie when I was a teenager.

When I first saw this movie, I thought that he said that they were going to be having "chili and sea bass".  I didn't even give it a second thought.

The next scene shows the food being served.  You might think that I'd have caught on to the fact that there was no little pot of chili sitting next to the plate of sea bass, but... nope.  It took about 25 years, give or take, before I saw Chilean Sea Bass on the menu at Mirakuya before the light bulb went off in my head.

You can order your very own Chilean Sea Bass from the Goldfish website.

Yuletide Snacks

It's Christmas Eve, and the only seasonal goodie that I've written about so far has been Gingerbread Toast Crunch and Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes.  This is the last opportunity I'm going to have to squeeze in some of the more interesting holiday themed snacks that we've tried this year, so here goes.

One of the other Little Debbie snacks that we picked up were their Mini Christmas Tree Cake Donuts.  They're pretty much just vanilla donuts with the same coating as the brand's Christmas Tree cakes.  The combination is very tasty, especially with a cup of coffee.

One of my favorite holiday snacks that we had this year was a gift from my dad.  When my grandfather was alive, dad used to give Harry & David Royal Rivera Pears to him as an early Christmas present every year.  This year, he ordered a box of them for us.

I remember enjoying these when my grandfather sharing them with me when I was a kid, but I didn't remember that they were this good!  When they ripen, they become soft and juicy and one of the best tasting pieces of fruit that I've ever eaten.

One of my favorite types of cookies to eat are shortbread, but I usually only get them around the holiday season.  I especially like the tins of Royal Dansk butter cookies, Stauffer's holiday shortbread cookies, and Walker's mini shortbread cookies.

I've always loved the vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry wafer sandwiches that you can find at pretty much every grocery store in the country.  Voortman produced two limited edition Candy Cane and Eggnog flavored wafers this year that I've never seen before this year.  The Candy Cane ones are very good, but the Eggnog Wafers are freaking incredible!  If you own a restaurant that serves eggnog and want to kick up the presentation, serve it in a cup with a saucer with one or two of these wafers.

One of the more interesting seasonal snacks we found were Toasty Holiday Peanut M&M's.  They've got an interesting smoky and sweet flavor that blends chocolate, roasted peanuts, cinnamon, vanilla, spiced sugar, and caramel.  My wife didn't care for them much and said the flavor reminded her of cinnamon and Worcestershite Sauce, but I thought they were really good.

 

Another limited edition seasonal candy that we got to try were Sugar Cookie Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

They're just regular Reese's Peanut Butter Cups that are stuffed with little bits of sugar cookie mixed in with the peanut butter.  They give the cups a crunchy texture, but the only difference I could tell in the flavor is that they're more sweet than a regular cup.  It didn't really remind me of the taste of a sugar cookie.

I can't let a holiday season go by without picking up a bag of Hershey Miniatures.  When I was a kid, my favorite ones were the Hershey Special Dark bars, but these days my favorite is Mr. Goodbar.  I'm not sure if this is true, but I remember reading that this is the only way to purchase a Hershey Krackel Bar in 2024.  It hadn't occurred to me that this was the case, but I think the article may be correct.  I can't remember the last time that I saw a full size Krackel Bar, or even a fun size one in an assortment bag.

This International Delight Peppermint Mocha Iced Coffee grabbed my attention solely on its Home Alone inspired packaging.  The part that really sold me was the Wet Bandits looking in the window.

Crowbars up!

I'm not generally a big fan of sweet coffee, but this was pretty tasty and definitely worth picking up as a holiday treat.

Winter Spiced Cranberry Sprite was something that I was looking forward to trying ever since it was first announced, but I wasn't overly impressed with it.  It's not terrible, but it didn't taste too much like cranberry to me.  It just tasted like Sprite with some weird spice flavor mixed in.

I think that Starry Cranberry Blizz tastes a lot better than Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry, but it's not my favorite Christmas seasonal soda that was available this year.

 

My favorite for the second holiday season in a row is Canada Dry Zero Sugar Cranberry Ginger Ale.  If getting excited about ginger ale is a sign of being middle-aged, I suppose I'm guilty as charged.  I don't really have strong opinions about ginger ale one way or the other, but it makes a good base to bring out the cranberry flavor.

And that's a wrap on Christmas snacks in 2024.