Category: Travel and Reviews

Oreos, more like BOREos

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No, seriously. What is going on with all of these uninspired flavors that they call new? Can we just rewind and look at some of their latest “new” flavors?
First, there was the Black and White Oreos. They just used the standard Golden Oreo cookie with half chocolate filling and half creme filling. Neither of which are new, but at least it’s halfsies, so I’ll give them that… I guess.

Then, there was the Space Dunk Oreo. Which were nothing but Double Stuf Oreos with colored creme and popping candy. Let’s not forget that the popping candy is also not new. Anybody remember Firework Oreos? Yeah.
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Then the latest one, Dirt Cake Oreos. Come on. They are just Blackout Oreos but with some colored sugar sprinkles in the cookie. By the way, the “gummy worm inspired sprinkles” written on the box is a bit misleading. You might think you are actually getting some gummy worms in it. Nope.
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The point is, Oreo has been recycling flavors like crazy lately. I don’t know about you guys, but I think all of this is very deceptive. I can see their marketing team in a meeting saying “they won’t notice it’s the same cookie”.
Anyways, us agents really hope that Oreo gets their act together and releases something decent soon.
And that’s it for now!
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Delícias de Portugal – Portuguese Bakery Review

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We went on a little trip this week. On our way to St. Augustine we stopped at a store called Delícias de Portugal, located in Palm Coast. Actually, it’s two stores, and they are like a block away from each other. The second one has the exact same name, but followed by a “II”, so we assume it’s from the same owners. On the first one we got the Portuguese rice cake, an almond tart, and “pata de veado” – a dessert that is basically a roll cake with bavarian cream. Oh, we also got some coffee, which was really good.

Here’s proof of our visit:

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And our thoughts:
Rice cake:
Blondie: I’ve never had a rice cake before and I’m happy that I’ve had it.  It’s simpler and closer to home than what I expected. To me, it tasted kinda like a plain muffin. 7/10
Danish: I found this pleasant as well. Not too sweet, not too bland. 7/10

Almond tart:
Blondie: Tiny tart with almond filling. Yummy. 8/10
Danish: I have a special place for almond pastries, in my mouth. 9/10

Pata de veado:
Blondie: I’ve had one before at a grocery store, but boy, this one is a lot better. It’s super moist, and the filling is delicious. 9/10
Danish: This one was my favorite of the day, the texture and flavor was great. 10/10

Then, we went to the second store, which had some different snacks available. From this one, we picked the orange tart, custard tart, and the milk tart.

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Orange tart:
Blondie: Okay, I did not like this one. Honestly, it tasted like there was something wrong with it. 2/10
Danish: I seem to be overly sensitive to things that have a sulphury eggy taste, which is all I could taste in this. 0/10

Custard tart:
Blondie: It was a good tart, but not the best one I’ve ever had. 7/10
Danish: The flavor of the custard was not eggy like the orange one (hooray!). It was good, but as Blondie said not as good as ones we’ve had elsewhere. 7/10

Milk tart:
Blondie: This dessert is new to me, but I really like it. It’s like a little muffin, but only made of baked cream. 9/10
Danish: This one was enjoyable as well, though texture was a bit odd to me. 8/10

Overall, the stores are nice, the service is nice, and most of the desserts are good (with the exception of the orange tart). We haven’t had any savory treats this time, but we definitely will in the future.

That’s it for today! See you guys soon!

The agents went to Crumbl again

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Hey guys!
Agent Blondie here. We went to Crumbl yesterday, and we’d like to share our thoughts about the cookies we got this week.

Cinnamon Frybread:
Blondie: Okay, this one is just amazing. It’s soft on the inside, and if there was a cookie that tasted like comfort, this would be it. 10/10
Danish: This is my favorite cookie from Crumbl so far. Soft buttery cinnamon goodness. 10/10

Molten Lava:
Blondie: It’s a good chocolate cookie, and it is indeed very gooey on the inside. If you like very dark chocolate, go for it. 8/10
Danish: I like this cookie the most of any of the chocolate cookies we’ve had from Crumbl. It’s best when it’s warm and fresh. 9/10

Lemonade:
Bondie: So, I really like the frosting, but the cookie is just okay. I’m always disappointed when the supposed flavor only comes in the frosting with a ‘basic’ vanilla cookie. By the way, this cookie is served cold, but I’d tell you to wait until it reaches room temperature. 5/10
Danish: All the flavor is in they frosting, I’m left wishing there was more flavor to the cookie as well. 5/10

Classic Pink Sugar:
Blondie: Even though this one is always on the menu, this was the first time we ordered it. I’m not a huge fan of sugar cookies, but this one is as good as it can get, I guess? Also, wait until it gets to room temperature. 5/10
Danish: The description of this cookie says that it uses real almond flavor in the frosting, which peaked my interest. Unfortunately the almond flavor is very very subtle, making it a very plain tasting cookie. 4/10

Alright, that’s it for today.
See you guys soon!

Churro Kit Kats

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How are you guys doing? 

Blondie here.

Since the announcement of this new Kit Kat flavor, we’ve been looking for it. I think it’s been about two weeks of looking everywhere and finding absolutely nothing. However, on our last trip to Walmart, we finally found it.
And we almost didn’t.
Agent Danish and I were going through all those last-minute check line shelves and we were possibly on the 10th one when I said “it’s not here yet, let’s give up”. Danish started to wonder if this new Kit Kat was even real. Then I took one step farther, and guess what. There it was. Our churro Kit Kat, right there, waiting for us. Funny thing, though: during this whole thing, these two weeks hunting for this new flavor, we found many Skor bars everywhere. A little bit over a month ago, we went on a hunt for it, and it took a while to find it. Now we find it everywhere. By the way, you should try the Skor candy bar. One of my favorites!

Going back to the topic: the churro Kit Kat.
Our ratings and comments:

Blondie: Not bad at all. The churro flavor is there. Simple, yet, delicious. 9/10
Danish: Sometimes churro flavored snacks don’t really nail the dough flavor of a churro and end up just tasting like a mystery cinnamon sugar confection. This Kit Kat did a good job though and I love churros. 9/10

So, that’s it for today!
See you guys soon!

Gideon’s Bakehouse – an honest review

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The agents finally got to visit Gideon’s Bakehouse in Orlando. Blondie has been wanting to go there for what it seems to be an eternity. She was finally going to get their famous cookies.

Pulling up on the parking lot, the first red flag: hipster place. Let’s proceed with caution. Got into the building, and there it was. A small square, with a wooden counter. The decoration was, in fact, pretty. Old style “shoppe”. Okay. Let’s get to business. Let’s try these cookies, the agents thought.

6 dollars for each cookie. Okay, pricey, but let’s try this. They bought the original chocolate chip and the banana bread. Here they are:

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Our thoughts about each of them:

Chocolate chip cookies:
Blondie: It’s a good chocolate chip cookie if you like cakey/doughy cookies. However, I do not like the coarse salt that they sprinkled on top of it. It does not completely ruin the cookie, but I’ll give it less points for that 6/10
Danish: Very doughy/cakey cookie. The taste and texture reminded me of the cookies they served in the cafeteria in middle school which were very popular with many kids, just not with me. I’m also not a fan of coarse salt on cookies, the saltiness lingers in your mouth much longer than the rest of the flavor of the cookie. 5/10

Banana bread:
Blondie: Again, a tall, cakey cookie. All of them are. I like the taste of it, and this one doesn’t have salt on top to ruin (almost) everything. 8/10 — by the way, I am not considering the outrageous price here.
Danish: I enjoyed the taste of this, but honestly I would rather have a piece of actual banana bread. 7/10

So, the verdict is: are they good? Yes. Are they super good, crazy different for it to be worth 6 bucks each? No. They are tall and loaded with chocolate, but 6 dollars is still way too much for these cookies.
Either way, trying a new cookie is always fun. Looking forward to new adventures!

Pre-summer finds

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The agents were out and about, looking for new stuff to try. They went to a nearby Target store and found nothing but colorful towels, flamingos on everything and milk chocolate for s’mores (by the way, click here for our s’mores cookie recipe). Leaving empty-handed and somewhat disappointed, they realized that summer isn’t the best time to look for new candy. There’s nothing interesting going on.
Maybe because people are dieting to show off in their swimming suits?
Maybe candy isn’t refreshing enough for the terrible summer heat?
Maybe companies don’t like putting new candy out during the summer because they could melt more easily?
There’s no way of knowing.
Heading back home and unexpectedly stopping at a Dollar General, they found interesting things to try: Orange Cream M&Ms and Twinkies!

Here are their reviews:

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Orange Vanilla Cream M&Ms:
Blondie: M&Ms rarely disappoint. I can taste the “orange vanilla crème” very well. Not my favorite, but definitely good. 8/10
Danish: They nailed the flavor pretty well with this one, I’m not the biggest fan of orange cream though. 7/10

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Orange Crème Pop Twinkies:
Blondie: Sorry, I do not like this one. I don’t like the filling. It’s not inedible, but I don’t plan on buying it ever again. 3/10
Danish: It’s pretty forgettable, imagine a regular twinkie with the artificial orange flavor from a creamsicle mixed into the filling. No strange surprises later either, I’m looking at you moonberry Twinkies.  6/10

Alright, that’s it! See you guys soon!

So the Agents went to Crumbl Again…

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Hello! Blondie and Danish are here to report another investigation that has been done. We’ve been to Crumbl this week.

The rotating flavors of this week are: pink velvet, hazelnut mudslide, mom’s recipe, raspberry butter cake, and lemon cheesecake.
Considering that Agent Blondie does not like peanut flavored things, we decided to take mom’s recipe out of our options, because it has peanut butter chips. That being said, we picked the remaining four.
Here’s what we think about each one of them:
Pink velvet:
A. Blondie: It’s okay. If you like red velvet, you are going to like it.  It’s just a red velvet without cocoa powder. The concept of pink velvet is still strange to me. 6/10
A. Danish: It’s not bad. Most of the taste comes from the cream cheese frosting. 5/10
Hazelnut mudslide:
A. Blondie: This one is pretty good. If you are a Nutella fan, go for it. 8/10
A. Danish: Mmmmm… Nutella 8/10
Raspberry Butter Cake:
A. Blondie: I don’t like the raspberry jam that they put on top of it. It’s too tart for me, and not very sweet. The cookie itself is good, though. 4/10
A. Danish: I like the tartness of the raspberry jam it pairs nicely with the cookie. If you’re fan of tart fruit pies like strawberry rhubarb you will probably enjoy this too. 7/10
Lemon Cheesecake:
A. Blondie: So, when I first got it, straight from the store, I really did not like it. When it’s cold, it’s really doughy. Whenever I don’t like lemon flavored things, it’s really upsetting. I really love lemons. However, I had a bite hours later, when the cookie was at room temperature, and my view on it completely changed. At room temperature, this cookie is great. So, I’m gonna give this one two ratings, one while cold and another one at room temperature. Cold: 3/10 Room Temperature: 9/10
A. Danish: I did not enjoy the doughy texture when this was cold either. I think it’s better when it’s close to room temperature as well but not much better as I could taste more of the bitterness of the lemon. Cold: 3/10 Room Temperature: 6/10
Alright, those are our reports. See you guys soon!

Crumbl Visit

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The agents went to Crumbl this week.

Here’s our report on this week’s flavors:
Of all 6 flavors, we picked 4. Carrot Cake, Iced Oatmeal, Double Fudge Brownie and Lemon Bar.
Agent Blondie’s view on the flavors:
-Carrot Cake: Pretty Good. The Buttercream is a bit too much for me though. 8/10
-Iced Oatmeal: Delicious. Seriously. And no raisins (those misleading fiends…). 10/10
-Double Fudge Brownie: It definitely brings to the table what was promised. It’s extremely loaded with chocolate, to the point I have to eat it in little bites – no complaints about that. 10/10
-Lemon Bar: The cookie itself is a bit too “sandy” for me. I’m a fan of lemon curd (unlike Agent Danish), so that was fantastic. 5/10. And for a lemon aficionado like me, that says a lot.
Agent Danish’s view on the flavors:
-Carrot Cake: Not bad. It reminds me of carrot cake, but I also think the buttercream was a bit too much as well. 7/10
-Iced Oatmeal: Good, agent Blondie stole too much of this one for me to develop a complete opinion though.
-Double Fudge Brownie: Much cookie, very chocolate. This one was also the best texture, Nicely baked while still remaining soft. 10/10
-Lemon Bar: It doesn’t have a ton of the aftertaste I’ve experienced from other lemon curd but it’s still there. Also I’m not a fan of the ultra doughy/sandy texture. 4/10
Alright, time to go! See you guys soon!

Trip to Brunswick

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So, we decided to take a little trip in March. First stop: Brunswick. Why? Because of the stew, of course. Did you know that Brunswick, GA, claims to be the place of origin of the stew? Apparently, Brunswick county in VA also claims that. We’ll have to investigate further someday in the future.

But let’s focus on what we have right now.

We went to Marshside Grill and ordered the famous stew. Boy, it was GOOD. Even Agent Blondie, who is not much of a fan of soupy type of foods liked it. So, we both recommend the experience in case you are passing by this small town.

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Next stop: Pinball Palace. Agent Danish really loves pinball, so this stop was mandatory. Unfortunately, it seems that they don’t have the Big Lebowski table out for play, but the amount of different pinball machines that they offer is still rather impressive.

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Agent Danish’s favorites: South Park, Revenge from Mars, The Hobbit, Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle, and Funhouse
Agent Blondie’s favorites: Roller Coaster Tycoon, The Simpsons, Aerosmith, and South Park

Third and last stop in Brunswick: The Pot
We stopped to see the pot that was used to make the first Brunswick Stew. Here it is.

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Unfortunately, the farmer’s market that was supposed to be held on the day we visited the stew pot was not there, so that’s all we got. The Pot. Still, good memories.