2 New Chewy Chips Ahoy Cookies: Sweet n' Salty Salted Caramel Chunk & Brownie Filled!

For the first time in FATGUYFOODBLOG history, we have decided to have two different members of our crew review two different flavors of something IN THE SAME REVIEW. We like to mix it up. Hope you enjoy! Let's begin!
On the way to an annual camping trip with a group of hard partying pals, I stumbled upon a new kind of Chips Ahoy and just knew that they would do nothing but enhance my trip. So I tossed the package of Chips Ahoy Sweet n' Salty Salted Caramel Chunk cookies in my waterproof dry bag and headed out into the wilderness!

Nothing says camping like a bag of cookies! 

While sitting around the campfire, I broke out the package and tore them open. Immediately, I was surrounded by drunken brutes looking to jam a handful of cookies into their faces. I had to fend them off with a flaming log from the fire and assure them that I would share, just AFTER I TOOK THE PICTURES FOR THE BLOG. They are a semi-reasonable bunch, so they backed off. But I knew I was on borrowed time. First thing I noticed was that there aren't many cookies in this package. Perhaps I'm used to OREO having like 87 cookies per bag. Not only that, but they are pretty small. I'd almost call them bite sized.

18 cookies per package...NOT ENOUGH. 

So how were they? They were actually damn good. I always get worried with Chewy Chips Ahoy that they are just going to be that weird chewy cookie with a sweet flavor that you can't really discern as being anything in particular. But these are great. You can definitely taste the caramel flavor, and then after a few more chews the saltiness bleeds into it and makes for a great Sweet n' Salty medley. 

Then I got an idea. I have cookies in my hand, and a campfire in front of me...Years ago on the fourth of July I cooked an entire bag of Chips Ahoy peanut butter cup cookies over a fire, one by one with my little brother and it was amazing. HOW WOULD THESE MEASURE UP?

The answer? INCREDIBLE. Heated up with the bottom slightly crispy, they were out of this world. I think this is something we need to make a usual thing for camping. Who's with me?

Yes that is a Dos Equis cowboy hat. Be jealous. 

After taking all my pictures and eating a half dozen of these warmed over the fire, I handed them out and the group of angry bearded mountain men around me all agreed that these cookies were indeed a hit. Some of them even warmed theirs by the fire at my recommendation.

In the end I would say that these are excellent. The salted caramel flavor is very strong and combines with the regular chewy cookie and chocolate chips perfectly. The only way to enhance these? A camp fire.
I give the Chips Ahoy Sweet N' Salty Salted Caramel Chunk cookies a B+! Would have been more if the cookies were bigger and there were more in the bag!

Review by RICH

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There are moments in time where a company really steps it up and gives people what they want when it comes to fat food. KFC's Double Down. Oreo's Mega Stuf. These are creations that give hope to us all that food companies are actually listening to the fat guys and stoners who shout out MORE STUF! A SANDWICH WITHOUT BREAD! Someday, we'll get our All Marshmallow breakfast cereal, but until then, we keep our eyes peeled for any snack the history books will remember as true game changers. The new Chips Ahoy Brownie Filled cookies looked to be one of these.

... although they actually looked pretty boring

Like Rich, I was excited about these cookies, but assumed Chips Ahoy would give us what we've come to expect from them- good cookies that are too small and kind of "just whatever" in the grand scheme of things to really freak out about. 

But upon first bite, I was pretty impressed: 

These are exactly what they advertise they are- cookies with brownies in them. 

But in order to do the actual review, I needed to step it up. I decided to bring mine along to the same camping trip, but was met with an empty container on a picnic table when I went to eat the rest of the bag. Thanks, jerks. 

So I took my second bag (always have a second bag) to the beach the next time we went swimming,

and ate some underwater.

Ok, so this probably wasn't the smartest way to eat cookies, but when Rich cooks his over the fire in a cowboy hat, you gotta step up and do what you can to out-ridiculous him in your half of the review.

Bottom line, these cookies are awesome. In someone else's hands (maybe these guys), they'd probably be better, but for a company who has really only made one cookie I've been blown away by, they really stepped it up with these ones. On first bite, they just taste like a standard Chips Ahoy cookie, and I even started to wonder if the inside wasn't actually brownie, but just a chocolate Chips Ahoy cookie inside- it was very similar in chewiness and texture. But by the end of the cookie, it really felt like I was eating a brownie. They didn't really merge as one thing like I thought they would, but rather acted like a shape- shifting cookie, transforming from a cookie to a brownie mid consumption with Michael Bay dubstep sounds. 

While enjoying the bag on a makeshift frisbee table, we suddenly acquired a guest:

"oh heeey..."

I risked the Duck Itch to hook my new buddy up. We probably gave away half the bag to this one duck just because of how awesome it was that she was getting a few feet away just to eat some cookies. 

Hey Duck, I get it. We understand each other.

She made me really question how much I like ducks when she wouldn't eat out of the frisbee (ducks aren't down with the B? yeesh...), but she demolished some crumbs I left on a buoy. 

and she just kept coming back for more.

After we split the cookies between us and the duck, we headed out and started to go home, laughing at how awesome it was that this duck just hung out with us for that long. And sure enough, after a few minutes of packing away everything, look who had walked the several hundred feet to the parking lot:

"hey guys... you got any more of those cookies??"

So unless you really want a pet duck (it might be pretty cool...), I'd recommend eating these somewhere else. And don't eat them underwater- really enjoy them, and think about how awesome it is that we live in a world where cookie companies are jamming brownies inside of cookies. I'll give these an A- and I'll keep making wishes to the Food Gods that Chips Ahoy starts making bigger cookies. 

Oh, one more thing- if you eat these near water, watch out for this guy. He looks nice, but all he wants is to eat your cookies:

-review by Mike

Ben & Jerry's New Exclusive Flavor: Cotton Candy Ice Cream?!

After a few e-mails and a request on our last Ben & Jerry's post, we knew that when we saw it, we had to buy their new offering, Cotton Candy ice cream. But nobody wanted to. We stood in Walmart looking at each other with faces of nervous disgust. "Who's gonna do it?"

I really didn't want to, but someone had to take the bullet, so I grabbed it, threw it in the cart, and hoped that my fellow FGFB brethren would take a 4 dollar bullet for me some time.

I absolutely love that the cow is holding cotton candy

Cotton candy ice cream loaded with candy sprinkles doesn't sound entirely bad, but at the same time- does anyone (other than little kids who haven't learned yet) really like cotton candy? Why would I want crunchy-from-sugar-crystals clumps of disintegrating alien hair in my ice cream? 

Look, Irwin couldn't even bring himself to look at the container!

Although he's clearly still interested. Aren't we all?

When I opened the container, this is the face I made:

This was not what I was expecting. This truly looks alien. 

No hair though!

Taking my first nervous bite, I found that, like with all Ben & Jerry's flavors, this actually wasn't that bad. I hadn't read the ingredients before, so I assumed that the candy pieces were supposed to be little balls of cotton candy. They had that too-much-sugar crispiness to them, and they mostly disintegrated in my mouth in a cotton candy-esque way. I was surprised to find that the ice cream itself is the part that's supposed to be cotton candy flavored, and the candy pieces are just that- candy pieces. 

Ben and Jerry are smart dudes though- they did this on purpose. While on their own, where the ice cream and candy pieces are drastically different, combining the candy and ice cream is what creates the taste illusion of cotton candy. The ice cream is actually rather vanilla tasting, and the candy pieces carry a fruity, almost frosting-like taste to them. This ice cream isn't far from some of those cake batter ice creams that are all of a sudden all the rage, but there's a creamy fruitiness to this that makes it just enough like cotton candy. Since there are actually lots of flavors of cotton candy, it's hard to even say which one this is- it's kind of like a subtle strawberry or cherry mixed with cake. I guess, if I can remember back to the last time I ate cotton candy, this is the standard flavor.

Does this succeed at tasting like cotton candy? Sort of. But I think the fact that it isn't a perfect representation is what makes this actually pretty good. If it had been what I was expecting, it would have had way too much hair.

Is it good? Surprisingly, yes. But if I'm honest, I'm not all that psyched about finishing the carton. For ice cream, I get psyched about vanilla and chocolate mixed with non-fruit candies. This is good, but it's odd, and it may not entirely warrant any servings past this review. 

So I'm gonna give this a C. 

But, none of us are huge cotton candy fans. If you love cotton candy or fruity ice creams, this might just be the miracle you've been waiting for. Snatch some up before this is gone and you have to jam cotton candy you get at a fair into a tub of ice cream just to pretend you tasted it!

-review by Mike

Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme Breakfast Cereal

If you're a man of carriage, the notion of Hershey's for breakfast is no stranger to your brain. Instead of feeling guilty and sad while you have chocolate smeared all of your fingers and face right after you awoke around 11am, now you can click your heels with glee, and stand proud that it wasn't only you who wanted it. So many people did in fact, they created cereal to celebrate it. May I bring to you Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme Cereal:

i'm never sure why they replace the word and with 'n'

Nothing says summer like Hershey's, so I took to the great outdoors (our porch) to do this cereal review.

1% all the way!

Alone the cereal bits are good. Your standard cocoa cereal but mixed with this odd, not so creamy white corn puff, with a HINT of what tastes like creme from the middle of an Oreo! We all know that's ridiculous, but maybe it's Hershey's subtle jab at Oreo, still bitter from the 1992 GM & Nabisco fallout. What you don't know about that? Read a book eh?

Hypno-Cereal

With milk poured atop these, the merger of both of these flavored sweet whole grain corn puffs comes together in a symphony of flavor. The chocolate, still a standby chocolate flavor similar to Cocoa Puffs is emboldened by this sweet creamy after taste, and tastes like cookies and cream ice cream with a crunch.

This cereal is absolutely stellar. Each bite was delicious, and even as the bowl waned on, the flavors didn't lose their punch, and the cereal didn't lose its crunch. Typically with a cereal like that, it cuts your mouth to shreds, thus would have effectively made this Hershey's Cookie's 'n' Creme 'n' Blood. But that was not the case, slight amount of mouth soreness but easily dismissed. The ONE problem with this cereal, if I had to come up with anything, would be the milk after drink, a staple to most cereals, is basically non existent. Who knows how they could fix this, but I'm sure a cereal scientist is sitting here reading this blog, and just slammed his fist on the table and yelled to his colleagues "I KNEW IT WAS GONNA BE A PROBLEM!"

I give this decadent breakfast offering a B. It's great, but didn't blow my hair off my head or shoe's off my feet. It's a solid cereal and I'd definitely recommend picking up a box and sending your kid to school buzzed out of his mind on a bowl of this cookie 'n' creme gold.

-review by Josh

PS Thank you to our reader Jenny who sent in an email asking us to do this review. If you have a suggestion or just want to tell us where a cool place to get some snacks is, hit our email (fatguyfoodblog[at]gmail[dot]com) or facebook

Totino's BOLD: Jalapeno Popper & Buffalo Style Chicken Rolls!!

As the resident FGFB slob who somewhat embarassingly still eats Totino's Pizza Rolls fairly regularly, buying their last new offerings was a no-brainer.  Even though the Cheesy Garlic flavor was the only one really worth getting again, I still was pretty happy that Totino was finally trying out some new flavors. 

Being a spice wimp, their new Jalapeno Popper Rolls and "Buffalo Style Chicken Rolls" worried me a bit. But much like I suck up Totino's Pizza Rolls, I sucked it up and bought both bags. What follows are my thoughts. 

First off, I love the bag. The L is a lightning bolt! What better way to say a snack is bold than by having it ELECTROCUTE YOU?! And there's fire, whacky fonts, great color choices, etc. 

However, inside the bag lived the same old weird creation a Totino's Pizza Roll is. And I cooked them too much.

As someone who isn't huge on the jalapeno but still loves a good jalapeno popper from time to time, these were sadly pretty disappointing. A jalapeno popper is good not because it's a hot pepper with crunch- it's good because it's a hot pepper mixed (at least in every one I've ever had) with cream cheese, cheddar cheese, or a mix of the two. They end up being a wonderful mix of spice, crunch and creamy, cheesy deliciousness.

These were basically chopped up peppers with a fairly tasteless white cheese that is a lot like the more gooey cheese from the Cheesy Garlic edition, only not very flavorful. So they end up just being gooey squares of heat that have that weird grassy jalapeno flavor that sometimes shows up (like it did in these chips).  

I tried them solo, with ranch, with BBQ sauce, and with blue cheese, and in every version, they tasted just as blah. They just had that weird fake cheese goo, and grassy and then very hot jalapeno flavor. I'm sorry Totino, but you blew it on these ones. 

D-

Let's see how "Buffalo Style Chicken Rolls" are.

Man, that's just a weird title. Why didn't they just call them buffalo chicken rolls? And how weird of a term is "chicken rolls"?? These had a nice Frank's Red Hot tie in though, and I've been realizing more and more how much I like buffalo stuff lately, so I was still pretty excited.

so much so that I actually cooked them right!

After burning my mouth on the first two, then letting them sit even longer (how do these things hold heat like that?!), they tasted about like what I thought they would. And they were hot.

#foodgore

There seemed to be something missing though, as they felt like they were pretty much just pizza rolls with chicken and a ton of buffalo sauce. And nobody likes that. So I did what I should have done before I even tasted these and dipped them in blue cheese. They were instantly better, so I decided to go one step beyond and make buffaque rolls. 

I grabbed one of my favorite BBQ sauces and decorated...

then dipped again. 

Better. 

But something was still off. What was missing? I thought of the other pizza rolls, I thought of the Michelina's buffalo rolls that came first and how I used to eat them... 

...covered in cheese.

CHEESE. There was nowhere near enough cheese in these chicken rolls. And not only that, if you look closely on the bag, it says "cheese substitute." Shame.

So I decided to step it up and make a small plate of these a much better way.

THAAAAAAT'S better. 

But you know what? Look at how hard I tried to like these. I had to cover them in BBQ sauce, cheese and blue cheese, and eat them chopped up with a fork in order for them to be "pretty good." So I guess if I'm being honest, these aren't very good. There's simply too much hot sauce, and it's too hot. There's no cheese and very little chicken. I guess if you love to have your mouth burn with no real redeeming qualities to make the burn worth it, these will be perfect for you. Otherwise, if you're like me, these are just ok. 

C-

The bottom line: Good try Totino's, but you pretty much blew it on these. The jalapeno poppers are just grassy heat with flavorless cheese, and the buffalo ones are ok, but generally fairly blah as well and, once again, too hot. I guess I'm not BOLD (pretend there's a lightning bolt) enough to eat these. 

-review by Mike

Ben & Jerry's Limited Batch: PINA COLADA!

Most times when we visit the freezer section of any grocery store, chances are we are there to see if Ol' Ben & Jerry have anything new for us to try. I'll admit, I saw the Pina Colada flavor once and didn't buy it. I think my thought process was something along the lines of, "Fruit? WITH NO CHOCOLATE, CANDY, OR NOUGAT? NOT INTERESTED." Which is pretty ridiculous because I'm a huge fan of both coconut and pineapple and I love a good pina colada as much as the next guy. But my fat guy brain was locked in candy mode, so I walked away without it. But then over the next week we got so many tweets, emails and facebook messages about trying it, that I had to go back and get one, because the fans demanded it! Ladies and Gents, I give you...BEN AND JERRY'S LIMITED BATCH: PINA COLADA! 

It has quite the simple description. Coconut Ice Cream with Pineapple Chunks. That's it. When I cracked open the pint I was quite underwhelmed. There wasn't a delicious aroma. There wasn't anything cool to see. Honestly it looked pretty boring! Almost like a flat, snow covered landscape.

Booooooooring.

But who cares what it looked like, the real question is how did it taste?! Well the answer is, really, really good. The coconut ice cream is fantastic. It's creamy and flavorful with little tiny flecks of coconut in it. I was worried about the flavor being subtle but it was not in the least. That paired with the explosion of sweet pineapple flavor when you found a chunk of it, teamed up to make one hell of a positive ice cream experience. I easily could have taken this pint down in one sitting but I forced myself to make it two. Yes I know there are supposedly more than two servings, I just don't give a damn.

You can kinda see some pineapple if you look real close!

I think this ice cream is a great summer treat. If there's a time where you want to take a break from ice creams loaded with caramel, fudge or candy pieces, you might want to give it a try. It's fruity and sweet, and definitely surprised me by how much flavor it had. Being a limited batch, I plan on taking a trip back to the grocery store this weekend to stock up before they are gone. I suggest you do the same thing.
I give Ben & Jerry's Pina Colada limited batch ice cream a B+!
Now how about you dudes make Coconut 7 Layer Bar available in stores rather than just at the factory in Vermont!

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Wendys Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger!

Recently we began hearing rumors of Wendys launching a burger that strayed from the norm. It was said that it would come on a pretzel bun...and immediately our inbox's starting filling with requests from our readers that we try this thing as soon as humanly possible. Before this I have only ever seen a burger with a pretzel bun and that's at Paddys in Newington, NH. Theirs is tremendous so it had us all wondering how this fast food version would live up.  Then Wendys debuted their Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger, and we knew that it was our destiny to face this beast in the arena. Especially after we got messages like the one from our pal, @freaksoda on twitter who deemed this, "the best fast food burger I have ever had." With praise that high we knew there was only one thing to do, hop in the Fatguyfoodblog mobile and head to our nearest Wendys to try...

The Wendys Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger! 

Since Mike was off adventuring, we needed to call upon our old pal Heath, who from time to time joins the crew to write reviews. You may remember him from his review of the Birthday Cake Oreos. He's always up for a challenge so he jumped at the chance to face this burger head on and live to tell about it.

Sweet and Smoky Honey Mustard, Applewood smoked bacon, melted cheddar cheese and two slabs of beef on a soft pretzel bun. So how did it measure up?

RICH: I have to say, I loved this burger. The pretzel bun was soft and chewy, the bacon was perfectly cooked, the burgers were huge and the sweet and smoky honey mustard was out of this world. It mixed with the melted cheddar cheese and was just a really interesting sweet flavor. I was pretty blown away with every bite.

JOSH: I can't argue with you there Rich. I also thought that the flavors crescendo'd into an elegant ballet of flavors upon the tongue! That Sweet and Smokey Mustard should be available on every burger.

HEATH: As a man who prefers his food with a limited amount of flavor, I enjoyed this beast buck naked! I went with a double patty, with only cheese and bacon and none of the other stuff on there. It's called a Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger goddammit and that's all I wanted! I ordered a double, got a single instead. When I asked them about the missing patty, they gave me another one in a separate tray to take back and assemble the burger myself! 

JOSH: How do you not like taste?! You make me sick and I'm glad they messed up your order.

RICH: You should have demanded a completely new burger. Or money back. With a line like, "If I'm gonna build the damn thing myself, I best be gettin' paid, ya hear?"

JOSH: The one and only problem I had with this burger, which may in fact be the king of fast food restaurant burgers, was how the pretzel bun acted as a giant grease trap. With the new "Hot 'n' Juicy burgers being insanely greasy, and now this pretzel bun addition, I think Wendy's has officially went into Full On F*ck It Mode™ and stopped caring about the amount of grease that pours out of their burgers. Now, the question is, do I care? Do I join Wendy's new attitude and dump em out going 90 on the back of a Harley? YUP. This Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger is outstanding and if this is how it needs to be, then hey, I'm all in.

HEATH: I think it had the perfect balance of grease to meat. Nothing wrong with getting a little dribbled on your chin! If you stripped it down you might have not had that problem!

JOSH:  That makes no sense!

RICH: I really didn't notice any grease problem with mine at all. My problem was that I ordered it a DOUBLE with two patties and by the end of it I had all I could do to finish. Now don't get me wrong, I did finish it, because I wouldn't want some FGFB fan to see us out in the wild and then think I'm some sort of fake for not finishing a burger. But damn. It really was tough! Maybe I'll try it single next time. But there will definitely be a next time.

Josh: you could grease a bikers hair for a week with this!

In the end we all agreed that this burger was really, really good. Perhaps even the greatest fast food burger ever. Despite that, there were a few small complaints, Josh thought it might be a little too greasy, Rich got wimpy and thinks it might be better with a single patty rather than double, and Heath liked it stripped down. They all agreed that the bun was fantastic and that restaurants should do away with all other buns and switch to pretzel buns from now on. Together they give the Wendys Pretzel Cheeseburger a CFR(Combined Fatguyfoodblog Rating) of A-!


As always, feel free to drop us a line at fatguyfoodblog@gmail.com with any questions, comments, or ideas for reviews! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter for mini reviews & junk food news, and LIKE us on Facebook to keep up with all our crazy antics!

The girl working the counter at the local Wendys asked if she could get a picture of us. Then we had to do autographs. But we gladly do it for our adoring fans! 

RUFFLES MAX: FLAME GRILLED STEAK FLAVORED POTATO CHIPS!

Any man likes a good steak. Even if you aren't the kind of guy who orders a steak often, when you do find those times where you are presented with a choice cut of meat, you can appreciate it. Most times you'll even be nodding as you're chewing, with your brow furrowed, and after finally swallowing your bite you'll say, "Man, I should order steak more often." Or perhaps you're the kind of guy who orders or grills up steaks multiple times a week and can't get enough. Bottom line here is that if you're a man, you should have an appreciation for steak. If you don't, I hate to break it to you, but you probably aren't much of a man. Ladies? I can't nail you down on this one. The female sex seems to be all over the place when it comes to steak. 

But for those ladies & gents who enjoy a good steak, Ruffles has rolled out a new limited edition flavor of chips...JUST FOR YOU!

Meat flavored chips?!

I have to admit, when people started spotting these in the wild and suggesting we review them, I was a little weary. We've tried every "Meat" flavored chip out there and it's rare that the flavor wizards can get it right. It usually just ends up tasting like some weird kind of bologna. So how did these measure up?

Lots of good size chips, I approve. 

 Well the first thing we do when we crack open a bag of chips is smell them. These have a very distinct scent. I immediately thought they smelled like some sort of dog food or treat. I still do. I think it must be whatever fake meat flavoring they used in these is similar to something often used to flavor dog treats. This might be enough to make the feint of heart stay away from these. But not the Fatguyfoodblog crew. We are shy away from no snack challenge. So, we dug right in, and you know what? By God these chips taste like FLAME GRILLED STEAK! They somehow capture the smoky flavor of steak right off the grill and have a great meaty tang to them. It's actually quite amazing how spot on it is. It's a great bold flavor, to live up to the MAX name. There's really no other way to put it though. That picture on the bag? That's what these taste like. A juicy, char grilled slab of meat.

Them spices mean flavor! 

In the end I'd say that Ruffles has definitely done a great job nailing this flavor. Is it a flavor of chip that I would buy all the time? Doubtful. Would I buy another bag of these? Yup! Maybe I'm just a guy craving a steak but there isn't one around. Perhaps a handful of these bad boys would hold me over until real steak can be consumed? Either way, if you are lucky enough to score a bag of these limited edition treasures, go for it! You won't be sorry. Unless you are one of those weirdos that don't like steak.

I give Ruffles Max: Flame Grilled Steak Chips a solid B!

As always, feel free to drop us a line at fatguyfoodblog@gmail.com with any questions, comments, or ideas for reviews! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter for mini reviews & junk food news, and LIKE us on Facebook to keep up with all our crazy antics!


Review By Rich