Summer Snacks 2019, Pt. 1

Cap'n Crunch’s Cotton Candy Crunch

As we make our way to the summer season, companies are wasting absolutely no time pumping out appropriately themed junk food. These showed up at Target stores a couple weeks ago and, since I'm not close to a Target, I waited patiently for them to show up at the local Walmart this past weekend (they're in the regular cereal isle and not in the seasonal isle, tricky bastards). 

Like most wildly themed cereal boxes, this thing is beautiful and was a huge factor in the purchase. It features a pink apron'd Cap wielding two sticks of cotton candy in one hand while simultaneously recklessly plunging a spoon into a huge bowl of pink and blue carnage. In the background is a faint silhouette of a carnival. Then the logo with the carnival style sign lights around it. It's an understatement to say that they nailed this box art!

The initial smell is immediately unmistakable. I expected the taste to be overbearing but it's actually very light and mellow, almost gets a little too lost in the milk (which isn't necessarily a bad thing when it comes to sugar flavored already too sweet cereal). Don't get me wrong, it's still extremely sugary, I can practically feel my teeth becoming angry with the decision to consume these, but the cotton candy flavor isn't too powerful. I was expecting cotton candy ice cream and didn't really get that.... until I reached the milk at the end. Spot on cotton candy ice cream flavor!

All in all, flavor wise, I give Cotton Candy Crunch a 7.5/10. I really enjoyed these but, after having already tried last years Blueberry Pancake Crunch, I'm not easily converted. The box art on the other hand is a full on 10/10! I'll be making room to store this box right next to Blueberry Pancake Crunch where they can hopefully have conversations with each other each time I exit the room like the toys from Toy Story.

Freeze Pop Skittles

When it comes to candy (specifically fruity candy) I have 2 gotos, and one of them is Skittles. And out of all the Skittles I've tried, I haven't had any I disliked. I guess you could say I'm a little bit biased on this one.

These Freeze Pop Skittles were not hard to find. I knew they'd be at Dollar General as they, and also Sour Wild Berry Skittles, are exclusive to Dollar General stores (Side note; I find it strange that even stores like Dollar General have their own exclusive candies).

Freeze Pop Skittles were not an immediate win for me the first time around. I went into this thinking "popsicles" since they had the addition of blue raspberry (you know, the ones in the plastic that you practically break teeth on trying to open) and it felt sort of like a repackaged lemon, orange, and grape with the addition of strawberry and blue raspberry. They tasted good and I could sort of tell something was a little bit different about these flavors but trying these and being in the mindset of regular popsicles, I couldn't really tell what they were going for. They didn't really say popsicles to me in any form, be it on a stick or in a soft plastic vessel. However, the second time around, I completely got it! If you've ever had Flintstones Push-Ups Sherbet Treats from 1990, this is the reincarnation of those in Skittle form! With the exception of the blue raspberry flavor, as I can't remember ever having a Push-Up (or even a sherbet) with that flavor, they're pretty spot on and had me in a full on 180 with my opinion! Not only did they taste good, they tasted nostalgic as well! Especially the orange and grape ones! They had immediately brought me back to those beautiful cardboard encased frozen treats on a stick that would melt through the bottom before you could finish!

The package design is pretty standard for Skittles (a rainbow, skittles logo and an array of corresponding colored Freeze Pop Skittles on the front) but with a light blue packaging and, of course, "limited edition" in the top left corner. Based on flavor alone, I'd have to give Freeze Pop Skittles a solid 8.5/10!

Sour Patch Watermelon Shake

As mentioned in the Freeze Pop Skittles review, when it comes to fruity candy, I have two goto items; one, obviously, being Skittles and the other... Sour Patch Watermelons! Turns out, F'real teamed up with Sour Patch Kids to bring a Watermelon Shake (and also a Redberry shake that I haven't seen). So, when I walked into Getgo to see that the F'real stand had a Sour Patch Watermelon Shake, I knew I had to at least try it.

It was kinda neat seeing Sour Patch Watermelon artwork on a cup, but the real treat was the advertisement on the F'real screen which had Watermelon gummies circling some text and then "Sip into summer!" above the frozen pink goodness (and a happy little Sour Patch Kid waving behind it). If you haven't had a shake from a F'real machine, it's an interesting experience. You take a cup out of the fridge below, pull the top off of said cup then put the cup into the holder. You then pick your desired thickness and like an alien abduction, it slowly pulls the cup inside to scramble the guts!

At first I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought, since it is a "shake" this contains ice cream, right? Turns out that it is actually a sherbet based shake, which works better than what I assume ice cream would have. It's more of a smoothie type texture rather than a shake and this thing is EXTREMELY flavorful and sweet! I mean, it is Sour Patch Watermelons on steroids flavorful. And also, it is indeed sour. So far, I am on day 3 of consuming small spoonfuls of this vibrant pink smoothie which now resides in my freezer.

I give Sour Patch Watermelon Shakes a 9/10. They're delicious and they have everything you could ask for from a sour watermelon flavored frozen desert. Though, because they're as sweet as they are, they're a little hard to finish in one sitting if you're in any way worried about falling into a diabetic coma. I would for sure risk it and buy this again!