Starbucks Refreshers

It’s that time of the school year again, finals time. For myself and most college students this ends up entailing lots of sleepless nights or general sleep deprivation.  This also often requires some amount of caffeine intake, and for me personally it does not take much caffeine for me to get crazy jitters since I cut it almost completely out of my diet.  When we saw Starbucks had come out with their new Refreshers line I thought it couldn’t hurt to try them out, especially if it could help with my finals cramming. Also there was a try one free coupon in the paper so I was even more game to try them.

Refreshers use some of Starbucks new patient pending technology that extracts caffeine and other compounds from unroasted green coffee and then they blend that extract with fruit juice, B vitamins, and ginseng and put it in a sparkling water base. The Refreshers do have stevia leaf extract in them so I was somewhat concerned because I think that stevia frequently makes the back of my mouth taste like toothpaste.  However I was presently surprised that I did not have an adverse taste experiences with these drinks.

Starbucks Refreshers come in three flavors Strawberry Lemonade, Raspberry Pomegranate, and Orange Melon and are contain 25 percent juice. They are 12 ounces, 60 calories per can, and have 13 grams of sugar. The Strawberry Lemonade is by far the best flavor in my opinion it taste more like strawberry than lemonade but it is sweet without being too sweet.  Orange Melon has a light orange flavor with just a hint of melon, it is not my favorite however because I personally prefer a much stronger orange flavor.  The Raspberry Pomegranate is my least favorite. In my opinion it tastes very much like a diet drink, I am not sure if it is the way the pomegranate mixes with the sodium in the carbonated water or the way the stevia extract mixes with the pomegranate flavor but whatever it is it does not jive into a great flavor. So the Raspberry Pomegranate is nothing that I would ever have again even if you gave it to me.

I had maybe one and a half cans today and I can totally feel the caffeine though Starbuck website does not say how much caffeine is in each can so if you have caffeine sensitivity you may want to avoid these.  Because even though I have a lower tolerance it is not that low so I am guessing that these do have a fair amount of caffeine in them.

Final thoughts: The Starbucks Refreshers are okay, however if I had not had a coupon for them I would not have gotten them, and on that note I do not think I will repurchase them again.  However if I was to get them again I would pick up the Strawberry Lemonade flavor.  Also I would keep it to one can next time because these jitters totally suck.

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2.5 stars

Starbucks Refreshers

Philadelphia Milk Chocolate Indulgence

After seeing Philadelphia Indulgence advertised on television, I decided to give it a try.  My grocery store only had the milk chocolate variety in stock but Kraft also makes a dark chocolate and white chocolate variety.  The container says it’s a chocolate cream cheese spread, though trying it I didn’t find anything cream cheese about it.  Texturally I found it a little strange, it was almost a little gelatinous as you can see in the video below.

In your mouth, it does have a very creamy cool feeling.  The flavor is…okay. It taste like chocolate but it’s not a strong flavor. I tried it on both pretzels and strawberries.  On the pretzels it wasn’t a strong enough flavor to pair with the pretzel taste.  It was chocolaty for a second, then it just tasted like pretzel, maybe it’s because I was using a pretzel rod but it just wasn’t doing it for me flavor wise.  On the strawberry it was much better. The chocolate flavor paired nicely with the sweet acidity of the strawberry but I would rather just eat a strawberry. I think they are sweet enough on their own.

Strawberry

Final thoughts: Philadelphia Milk Chocolate Indulgence is good but it cost about 3 dollars for an eight ounce container.  I just don’t think that it is worth the cost.  I wish that there was a recipe that I could use it in, I think it would be good for that more so than just using it as a dip.  I do not think I will purchase this again unless I find a good recipe to use it in

2.5 stars

 

 

 

Kraft Website

 

Snapea Crisps

I’d been hearing some buzz about Snapea Crisps as a healthy alternative to chips, so when I saw them at the grocery store I decided to give them a try.  Calbee Snack Salad has two different flavors of Snapea Crisps: Original and Caesar.  We bought one of each for about 2 dollars a bag (they run between one dollar and three dollars depending on where you shop). My husband went on a 2 hour car trip and ate almost all the Original crisps… with two boys in the car I’m not surprised, especially since the bag is only 3.3 oz.

When I tried these, I immediately noticed the lack of flavor. I popped open the Caesar, and I love Caesar Salad, so I had a thought in my mind of what it should taste like. Boy was I surprised when they tasted not like Caesar but like peas!  Not even like snap peas, more like canned peas. Texture wise, they feel like a softer puff Cheeto, but do leave a little bit of a greasy feeling between my fingers.

Now let’s address that healthy alternative claim. They may be better for you but they are not “healthy”. I know what all the ingredients in these are, which is an improvement from other flavored chips which are full of indecipherable ingredients.  The Original flavor has 150 calories, 8g of fat, 125mg of sodium, 2g of fiber and 5g of protein.  The Caesar flavor has 150 calories, 8g of fat, 160mg of sodium, 2g of fiber and 5g of protein.  In comparison Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili chips have 140 calories, 7g of fat, 270mg of sodium, 1g of fiber and 2g of protein.  Calidad brand Tortilla chips have 140 calories, 7g of fat, 150mg of sodium, 1g of fiber and 2g of protein.

Final thoughts: I’m not going to buy these again because I’m not a big fan of peas (really I don’t know why I got them based on that fact alone), but if you do like peas I think they are a good alternative to chips.

Snack Salad Snapea Crisps Webpage

Where to buy Snapea Crisps