Kroger Pomegranate Greek Yogurt

First off I must admit that while I overall have no issue with store brands and actually prefer Safeways to brand name in some cases, I have often found Kroger to really exemplify the lower quality bad rap store brands tend to get.  That said I have also found some of the Kroger stuff to be decent, although usually it is the stuff that is not actually a better deal than name brand, such as their Private Selection.  When it comes to yogurt, though, I have almost always found store brands are just too thin and watery seeming.  However, seeing that the Kroger Greek yogurt actually has a comparable amount of protein as name brands, I thought it might actually be a decent store brand yogurt.

Sadly, opening the Kroger Pomegranate Greek Yogurt I found it to have more of a thin consistency than the Kroger Carbmaster style I had also bought.  While I still appreciate it actually has the protein I come to expect from a Greek yogurt, at the same time it is not Greek yogurt because it is not anywhere near thick like it should be.  Worse, though, is it is totally bland tasting.  I guess I should expect that, though, because pomegranate really is more of flavor better blended with others than a stand alone, but I have had plain yogurt seem more flavorful than this.  If the only issue was this flavor, I would try out other varieties of the brand, but the thinness of the yogurt makes me rather just pay more for true Greek yogurt or even just buy the regular store brand yogurt that is cheaper and basically just like this fake Greek yogurt other than having somewhat less protein.

Disclosure: I received a free sample from BzzAgent.

Private Selection Montanara Robust Mushroom Sauce

While I am not much into having red sauce on pasta, the mushroom aspect made me interested in trying the Private Selection Montanara Robust Mushroom Sauce.  I ended up being kind of disappointed in it, though, as the mushrooms seemed almost not existent.  To some extent that was a good thing, though, as we used it for a family meal and my brother does not like mushrooms and he still enjoyed the pasta with this sauce.

Disclosure: I received a free sample from BzzAgent.

Unreal77 Peanut Butter Cups

One of my favorite type of candy are peanut butter cups.  I especially like Dark Chocolate Reese's, but milk chocolate peanut butter cups are okay too and pretty much the only milk chocolate I enjoy.  Thus, the Unreal Peanut Butter Cups appealed most to me, as they do not have any dark chocolate varieties (or at least not at my CVS).


Overall, I enjoyed the Unreal77 Peanut Butter Cups.  I liked the more peanut butter seeming (i.e. not the more sugary partly peanut buttery Reese's filling) better than Reese's.  The chocolate seemed a little odd, but I kind of feel that way about all milk chocolate.  The chocolate shell was definitely thicker on the top and bottom than a Reese's cup, which is good to some extent, as sometimes it seems there is barely a chocolate coating on Reese's.  However, since it was not dark chocolate I kind of would still prefer a Reese's cup over this.

Now if Unreal made a dark chocolate version I would totally be buying that as my only brand of peanut butter cups, though, as I really do like their peanut butter filling better.  Best of all their candy is unjunked!

Disclosure: I received a free sample from BzzAgent.

Celestial Seasonings Perfect Iced Tea Southern Sweet Black Tea

As a tea lover and with 100+ degree heat, I was excited to use my Kuerig machine to brew over ice and make iced tea with the Celestial Seasonings Perfect Iced Tea Southern Sweet Black Tea.  It turned out better than I expected in that it quickly was cool ice tea and was nicely brewed tea.  However, I did not really like the overall flavor because it was too sweet for me.  I guess I should of kind of expected that, as that is kind of what Southern Sweet tea usually is like, so if you like that kind of thing that this is worth trying out.  Also, it was better when the ice melted because it diluted it more and was not as sweet, but then you have the tea diluted more, too.

Disclosure: I received a free sample from BzzAgent.

Private Selection Caramel Hazelnut Fudge Ice Cream

This flavor appealed to me because it sounded a lot like Phish Food minus the marshmallow.  I did overall end up enjoy the Private Selection Caramel Hazelnut Fudge Ice Cream, but I would have liked there to have been more truffles.  Part of the problem with the truffles is that half are hazelnut and half are fudge, so it is kind of a mix of what you get and I kind of thought they were all fudge and the hazelnuts were in the ice cream on their own.  However, even combined they kind of seemed few and far between.  Certainly does not meet a Ben & Jerry's Phish Food craving (I do not really care about the marshmallow, but I do care about the fudge), but since it is a store brand I certainly find it worth the cheaper price.

Disclosure: I received a free sample from BzzAgent.

Sobe LifeWater Mango Mandarin with Coconut Water

I have long liked Sobe products.  I used to mainly enjoy the Sobe Energy, but I also have enjoyed the LifeWater products, especially the pomegranate flavors. Thus while I hated the one time I tried coconut water before, I still thought it was worth trying Sobe's version.

I found the Sobe LifeWater Mango Mandarin with Coconut Water at least palatable, which is really saying a lot because I could not stand the tiny sip of the other brand I tried a few months ago.  I did not really love it, though, and probably would not buy it.  However, the reason I did not like it was because it was too sweet, which is not surprising with the first ingredient after water being sugar.  If they came out with a 0 version, I would certainly give it another try, though.

Disclosure: I received a free sample from BzzAgent.

Limited Edition The American Creme Oreo

I very rarely buy Oreos, but the Limited Edition The American Creme ones looked cool.  I did not really expect them to be different other than they obviously are not the typical chocolate Oreo.  However, it has either been just a long time and I do not properly remember having a Golden Oreo or the creme in these ones are way different.

First off, the American Creme Oreo filling kind of resembles play dough.  Maybe, it is just the colors, but it totally does look like play dough.  It does not taste as bad as play dough, but it is rather flavorless.  Thus, I found these Oreos not very good the way I typically twist them apart and eat the creme first.  However, if I eat them as they are they are not bad, but then you do not get to see the colors as much.