Rankings &#8211; Sporked

If you’re like me, you remember Andre as the super cheap sparkling wine that you bought by the caseload in college for “fancy” parties. It was usually chugged, not sipped, directly from the bottle. So I was a bit skeptical of our friend Andre. But, honestly, it’s pretty decent—especially when it comes to mixing it with juice. It’s fizzy, fruity (lemony and apple-y), and just a touch sweet. And it’s less than $6 a bottle. And that all makes it the best grocery store Champagne for Mimosas.

Credit: Merc / Total Wine

Rating:

6/10

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Best Prosecco

Kirkland Signature Asolo Prosecco

Costco is one of the best places to go for the best cheap sparkling wine. We’ll get to the real winner in a few entries, but Costco’s Kirkland Prosecco is a worthwhile buy, as well. It smells like nectarines and apricots. And those flavors follow through on the palate, too. It’s super bright and fruity and very, very gulpable. I wish there was a little more fizz, but if you don’t love the toastiness of a traditional Champagne, then Kirkland Prosecco is some of the best grocery store sparkling wine around.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

7/10

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Best Host Gift

Chandon Brut Rose

If you love dry rosé, then give Chandon a go. It’s toasty and extremely dry (we’re talking not sweet at all). And the teeny, tiny bubbles really tickle your nose. It’s one of the best cheap Champagnes to pair with food (yes, I know, it’s from Napa, it’s not Champagne, I told you to chill out). Break it out with a lemony salad or a cheeseboard. Or give it as a gift. It looks expensive even though it costs less than $20.

Credit: Merc / Total Wine

Rating:

7.5/10

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Best Cava

Freixenet Cava

Freixenet is a supermarket staple for a reason. It’s tart. It’s lemony. Every glass effervesces with lots of little pin prick bubbles. It doesn’t have the toastiness of Champagne because it’s not Champagne. It’s Cava. And it’s some of the best cheap sparkling wine you can find pretty darn much anywhere. If you want something a little bit shmancier than Andre, this crisp bottle is the other best cheap sparkling wine for Mimosas or Bellinis.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

8/10

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Best Sparkling Rosé

Josh Prosecco Rose

This sparkling rosé from winery-turned-meme-turned-celebrated-grocery-store-wine Josh is packed with lots of red fruit flavors. It tastes like a classic sparkling rosé—great for sipping on its own or pairing with food. I am picturing a bottle with sushi or a picnic or a sushi picnic.

Credit: Merc / Total Wine

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best French Champagne

Kirkland Champagne Brut

Yep, the second best cheap Champagne is actually from France—and it’s available at Costco. It’s just over $25 (I know, cheating) but it’s worth the splurge. It tastes like a classic, real Champagne. It has that toasty, lemony quality. It’s creamy. It’s effervescent. Serve this with some cheap caviar on New Year’s Eve (or a Wednesday). But don’t try to use it in a cocktail like a French 75—it’s too delicate to handle such bold flavors. Appreciate it on its own as some of the best supermarket Champagne.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

9.5/10

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Best of the Best

Gruet Brut

Who would have thought that the best cheap Champagne actually comes from New Mexico. Made in the style of Champagne (aka methode Champagnoise), it has a complex aroma of sage and grape must. It tastes super fruity—lots of nectarines and apples—and then finishes crisp and rich. It tastes aged. And it’s just over $15 a bottle. That’s wild. This isn’t just good grocery store champagne, it’s some of the best tasting cheap Champagne around, so stock up.

Credit: Merc / Total Wine

Rating:

10/10

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Other cheap Champagne we tried: Mumm Sparkling, Trader Joe’s Brut North Coast Sparkling Wine, Trader Joe’s Brut Rose North Coast Sparkling Wine, Ruffino Lumina Prosecco, Lamarca Prosecco, Chandon Brut, Winemakers Selection, Martini & Rossi, Kirkland Prosecco Rose, Korbel Brut, Cupcake Sparkling Rose, Cook’s Brut

The post Best Cheap Champagne from the Grocery Store appeared first on Sporked.

Best Premade Cookie Dough for Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gwynedd Stuart — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:10:32 +0000

If you Google “America’s favorite cookie,” the first result is the chocolate chip cookie, and everybody knows you can’t put something on the internet if it isn’t true. While, of course, there might be something irreplaceably special about grandma’s secret recipe, and it doesn’t necessarily take a degree in French pastry to bang together a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough at home, there is absolutely nothing wrong with baking up a batch of store-bought cookie dough. Premade cookie dough saves you the mess and hassle of mixing, but still lets you perfume your kitchens with the smell of vanilla extract, brown sugar, and chocolate chips. And, in the end, the cookies you make with premade cookie dough are still freshly baked cookies!

But which premade cookie dough reigns supreme? We tried a bunch of store bought cookie dough to let you know which is the best chocolate chip cookie dough to buy. We baked the cookies according to package instructions, and tried them at room temp, sans milk. It was really tough for us.

Here’s the best store bought chocolate chip cookie dough we found in our incredibly taxing job of taste testing premade chocolate chip cookie dough (gluten free chocolate cookie dough and vegan chocolate chip cookie dough, too).

The following article contains affiliate links that may generate a small commission to us when you make a purchase through the link. Learn more about how we work with affiliates here.

Best Allergy Friendly

Sweet Loren’s Less Sugar Dough

If you told the child version of me that I would actually actively prefer the version of a cookie dough that advertised “less sugar,” I’d have laughed at you. Now, I look back on that version and say “tsk tsk tsk,” because this less sugar premade cookie dough is divine. I wasn’t super excited by the dough itself, which tasted muted. But while it baked it somehow transformed into a Chips Ahoy doppelganger. It certainly makes a crunchy cookie instead of a chewy one, but it’s incredibly tasty—especially when you consider the fact that it’s gluten-free, vegan, and free of major allergens. If you are going into a potluck and you suspect the crowd might be a veritable minefield of allergies, this is definitely the best cookie dough to buy. — Hebba Gouda

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best Gluten Free

Immaculate Gluten Free Chocolate Chunk

Immaculate

Gluten free cookies made with the best gluten free chocolate chip cookie dough don’t have to get all weird and grainy in your mouth as you eat them—this Immaculate Gluten Free Chocolate Chunk cookie dough is proof. This stuff is so good! This dough puffs up quite a bit in the oven, resulting in sort of tall cookies, but don’t let that turn you off. They’re moist and chewy and absolutely packed with chocolate chips. It’s not only the best GF cookie dough we tried, it’s also some of the best chocolate chip cookie dough, period. — Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Liv Averett / Immaculate

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best Vegan

Simple Truth Plant Based Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Ralphs

If the test of good vegan chocolate chip cookie dough is that it could easily pass for non-vegan chocolate chip cookie dough, this is the stuff. Kroger’s Simple Truth Plant Based Cookie Dough comes in pre-measured little squares that you just plop on a baking sheet. They come out of the oven chewy, but crisp up around the edges a bit as they cool, which makes them seem buttery even though they obviously aren’t made with dairy butter. The vegan dark chocolate chips are flavorful but not overpowering—you can still taste the dough itself. This is the best place and bake cookie dough if you don’t eat eggs or butter, but I think everyone will like it. An absolutely stellar vegan product. — Gwynedd Stuart

Credit:Liv Averett / Ralphs

Rating:

9/10

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Best with Caramel

Private Selection Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough

Ralphs

This premade cookie dough from Private Selection (another proprietary brand sold at Kroger-owned grocery stores) isn’t the very best chocolate chip cookie dough simply because it’s not straight-up chocolate chip cookie dough, but I gotta say, this was my personal favorite. If you want chocolate chip cookies with a little extra decadence, you have to try this stuff. You can see caramel start to create gooey pools atop and beneath the cookies as they cook in the oven. It’s downright pornographic. Once they’re done baking, the cookies have excellent chew, as does the caramel—and there’s a lot of caramel. That said, these are definitely still chocolate chip cookies. There’s plenty of chocolate chunks—not chips, CHUNKS, i.e. rectangular morsels rather than little kisses. This is the best cookie dough to buy for the cookie swap. Truly, no one will care that you used premade cookie dough. — Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Liv Averett / Ralphs

Rating:

9.5/10

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Best Two Bite

Great Value Ready to Bake Cookie Dough

If you’re like me and you’d rather eat five little cookies than one big cookie, you’re going to love this chocolate chip cookie dough from Walmart. Great Value doesn’t advertise these as miniature cookies, but they’re much smaller than most place and bake cookies. I tasted these head to head with the Toll House cookie dough that is intended to make mini cookies, and I liked these just a touch better (plus, this cookie dough is from Walmart, so it’s cheap). You can actually taste a little bit of salt in the dough, which I love. If you want to go the small cookie route, this is the best chocolate chip cookie dough to buy. — Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

9.5/10

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Best Tube of Dough

Pillsbury Eat or Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

If you’re looking for the best cookie dough to buy by the tube so you can scoop out as much or as little dough as you need, this is the premade cookie dough for you. Bonus: You can eat it raw as well as baked! It has a surprising amount of salt—but all that salt does is elevate all of the other flavors and cut through the sweetness. The balance of salt and sugar is perfect, and perfectly interrupted by lots and lots of chocolate chips. The dough bakes up a little flatter than I was expecting, but it delivers a cookie that’s just right for those who can’t decide between crispy and chewy. The result is a cookie that’s half crunchy, half soft, all delicious. — Hebba Gouda

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

9.5/10

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Best of the Best

Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Lovers

Tollhouse looms large in the chocolate chip cookie game, and it’s easy to see why. We actually did two rounds of taste tests on doughs led by completely different tasters, and this dough came out on top both times. It doesn’t have that unpleasant, unnatural preservative flavor you’ll find in a lot of other premade cookie dough. And the cookies made with this premade cookie dough bake up chewy and gooey and absolutely stacked with chocolate chips. This is the best chocolate chip cookie dough for real chocolate chip cookie fans. — Gwynedd Stuart & Hebba Gouda

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

10/10

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Other cookie dough brands we tried: Miss Jones Grain Free, Sweet Loren’s Chocolate Chunk, Amazon Fresh Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

The post Best Premade Cookie Dough for Chocolate Chip Cookies appeared first on Sporked.

The Best Cheap Frozen Pizza from Our Taste Tests

Sporked Staff — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:10:15 +0000

Close the Domino’s app. That discount pizza you were ordering is about to cost $30. Step away from your phone and head to your grocery store’s frozen section, where cheap frozen pizza will save the day and save you some dough. From cheap pepperoni pizza to cheap French bread pizza to cheap microwave pizza that costs less than $2, we’ve rounded up the best cheap pizza from our taste tests. All of these cost less than six bucks—and if the prices have gone up by the time you read this, blame corporate greed, not us!

The following article contains affiliate links that may generate a small commission to us when you make a purchase through the link. Learn more about how we work with affiliates here.

Best Microwave Pizza

Kroger 3 Minute Microwave Pizza Cheese ($1.59)

Ralphs

Most microwave pizza is bad. There’s a reason you cook it in the oven. If you cook it in the microwave it often turns into a molten soupy disc. Now, I’m not saying Kroger’s microwave pizza is gourmet. It still tastes like microwave pizza—but in a much, much better way than any of the others we tried. I can’t say it gets “crispy” but there are parts of it that crisp up. It tastes like cheap cafeteria pizza. And it’s pretty satisfying in that specific way. Major kudos to the sauce, which is tangy and savory and actually tastes like herbs. Cooking this microwave pizza does require an engineering degree (you have to fold the box in a very specific way), but if you’re only working with a microwave and you want pizza for one, this is the best cheap pizza to buy.

Credit: Merc / Ralphs

Rating:

6.5/10

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Best Cheap Gluten Free

Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Cheese Pizza with a Cauliflower Crust ($5.49)

Trader Joe’s is a mecca for cheap pizza. Pretty much every single frozen pizza they offer is under $6. And most of them are pretty good. But this one is special because it’s a gluten free, cauliflower crust pizza that actually tastes good—and that’s hard to find. No, the crust doesn’t get crazy crisp, but it tastes like traditional pizza crust. The sauce is savory and heavy on the herbs. And the cheese is plentiful. It’s good for gluten-averse and people looking to sneak some extra veggies into their diet. And, of course, it’s cheap.

Credit: Merc / Trader Joe’s

Rating:

7.5/10

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Best Personal Pan Pizza

Red Baron Deep Dish Pepperoni Pizza ($4.29)

This buttery little buddy is not deep dish pizza. But it is a really good personal pan pizza. The crust is flaky and rich. The sauce is savory. The cheese is gooey. If you bake one of these up in the toaster oven and pair it with a bagged salad, you’ll be living the good life.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

7.5/10

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Best Supreme

Trader Joe’s Pizza Parlanno ($5.49)

This isn’t your traditional supreme pizza, but it’s loaded with all sorts of toppings, so it qualifies. We’re talking bell peppers, onions (lots of onions, Italian sausage, pepperoni, and three different cheeses (mozzarella, parmesan, and romano). It’s much more complex than most of the other cheap frozen pizzas on this list. All the toppings stand out with their individual flavors, but also come together to create a super savory melange of yummy.

Credit: Merc / Trader Joe’s

Rating:

8/10

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Best Cheap Cheese Pizza

Costco Cheese ($12 for 4 pizzas)

Costco frozen cheese pizza isn’t as good as the stuff you get from the food court—it’s not as puffy. But it is still good. The cheese is super thick. It creates a real blanket that you have to bite through. And the sauce is sweet and tangy. But most importantly, you can get four large pizzas for $12. That’s $3 for one full pizza that can easily feed two very hungry people or four peckish people. If you have room in your freezer, Costco makes the best cheap frozen pizza you can buy.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best Cheap Thin Crust

Jack’s Original Thin Pepperoni ($3.49)

If you like a thin, crispy, crackery pizza (think Chicago tavern style), then you’re gonna love this cheap frozen pizza from Jack’s. The cheese and pepperoni go all the way to the edge of the crust, so you get more bang for your buck. The crust style really accentuates the savory, spicy flavor of the pepperoni, too. For less than four bucks, you can’t afford not to toss a few of these in the freezer.

Read the full ranking of the best thin crust frozen pizzas

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

9/10

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Best Cheap Veggie

Trader Joe’s Organic Roasted Vegetable Pizza ($4.99)

Veggie pizza can be a real watery mess, but not this roasted veggie pizza from Trader Joe’s, which also happens to be a great cheap pizza at less than five bucks a pop. This thing is loaded with red onions, eggplant, zucchini, and red and yellow peppers, but the real draw is the creamy cheesy condiment that dots the pie. It contributes so much flavor and makes this cheap frozen pizza taste way more expensive than it actually is. Also, we now firmly believe that eggplant should always be on veggie pizzas!

Read the full ranking of the best veggie pizza

Credit: Liv Averett

Rating:

10/10

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Best Cheap French Bread

Red Baron French Bread Singles Supreme Pizzas ($4.29)

If you always thought Stouffer’s made the best French bread pizza, you have always been wrong! That’s right: Red Baron makes the tastiest French bread pizzas. And you get two supremes in a pack for less than $5. Incredible. The bread is perfectly squishy on the inside and crunchy on the outside; plus, the combo of veggies, smoky pepperoni, and fennel-forward sausage bits makes this cheap frozen pizza taste especially deluxe. These are a supremely good deal, if we do say so ourselves.

Read the full ranking of the best French bread pizza

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

The post The Best Cheap Frozen Pizza from Our Taste Tests appeared first on Sporked.

Best Frozen Empanadas: Beef, Chicken, Veggie, and Vegan!

Jon Gutierrez — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 14:41:00 +0000

If you’ve been forced to endure any kind of cocktail party, you’ve probably had an empanada. But if you haven’t, it’s a flaky pocket of pastry wrapped around a savory filling, like if a Hot Pocket was fancier and better in every way. They’re the perfect self-contained finger food for parties or just wolfing down while alone on your couch. Oh, and if you’d like to know more about them, we just happen to have a whole explainer article on empanadas.

The only downside to these delicious treats is that they’re traditionally baked or fried, and who’s got the time for either? Luckily, there are a bunch of frozen pre-cooked empanadas that are both tasty and time-saving. To find the best frozen empanadas, we sampled a bunch, judging each on filling, pastry, and overall satisfaction. So, here are our picks for the five best frozen empanadas (including the best frozen mini empanadas, frozen beef empanadas, and frozen chicken empanadas) you can find at your local grocery store (or Amazon!).

The following article contains affiliate links that may generate a small commission to us when you make a purchase through the link. Learn more about how we work with affiliates here.

Best Baked Empanadas

Goya Baked Beef Empanada

The classic Goya Beef Empanada is the O.G. frozen empanada brand, having survived on store shelves for decades. But what makes these “baked” Goya empanadas so different? You don’t have to fry them yourselves! You can just throw these frozen beef empanadas in the microwave or air fryer without having to heat up all the pesky oil. Each box gives you four individually wrapped empanadas, giving you the option to cook them one at a time or all at once. As for the taste, these have basically the same classic filling of relatively mild spiced beef mixed with plenty of onion, garlic, and paprika. The pasty is good, but a little thin, so you’re not getting a lot of flavor from it. Overall, these frozen beef empanadas are a quick and tasty way to have a “classic” empanada. Plus, everything tastes better without those pesky oil burns.

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

6/10

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Best Vegan Empanadas

Emma Light & Co. Plant Based Mini-Empanadas!

These vegan frozen mini empanadas are stuffed with Beyond Meat along with an organic tomato filling, mixed with Daiya dairy-free vegan cheddar (some of the best vegan cheese, if you ask us). And while that makes it sound kind of pizza-esque, it’s actually more salsa-flavored, with a spicy mix of tomatoes and jalapenos, spiced with onions, garlic, chipotle, and apple cider vinegar. It definitely gives plenty of kick, but without too much heat. The wheat flour wrapper toasts up nicely and even gives a bit of a crunch. And I couldn’t tell it wasn’t meat-based. It definitely deserves that exclamation mark.

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

7/10

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Best Veggie Empanadas

Goya Baked Spinach Empanada

With a creamy filling of spinach and mozzarella, these Argentinean-style baked empanadas may not be vegan, but they are very delicious. One box gives you four individually wrapped pastries per box, with the only downside being that you have to thaw them before cooking, which takes away a little of the spontaneity. But the pastry’s good and you get plenty of spinach and cheese flavor. It’s definitely worth a little wait.

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

8/10

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Best Beef Empanadas

Del Corazon Beef Empanadas

If you’re looking for a big, spicy, beefy taste, these are the ones for you. The beef is mixed with onion, garlic, bell pepper, and hints of cilantro, which give a classic Mexican flavor. But there are also some surprising ingredients, like raisins and capers, that add to its unique flavor and it also reminded me a little of Jamaican beef patties. Each box offers three fairly small sized empanadas (they’re not frozen mini empanadas, but you can take them all down in one sitting). They add up to a good sized portion, and you even get some big chunks of potato to make them more filling. The flour wrapper is flaky and tasty. It’s just really good.

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

8/10

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Best of the Best

Del Corazon Chicken Empanadas

These are similar to the last entry’s empanadas, only with a spiced chicken filling that gives you a good amount of heat through a mixture of red pepper and smoky chipotle. It’s the kind of heat that isn’t overpowering, but the spice lingers after each bite. The chicken is also tasty and juicy. These frozen chicken empanadas are the best frozen empanadas to buy, for sure.

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

9/10

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Other frozen empanadas we tried: Goya Baked Chicken Empanadas, Goya Beef Empanadas, Maspenadas Beef & Vegetables, Maspanadas Chicken & Vegetables, Maspanadas Pizza

The post Best Frozen Empanadas: Beef, Chicken, Veggie, and Vegan! appeared first on Sporked.

Best Frozen Pizza: Cheese, Pepperoni, Veggie, Thin Crust, and More

Justine Sterling — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 04:58:12 +0000

What is the best frozen pizza? If we’re being honest, the best frozen pizza is whatever frozen pizza happens to be in your freezer when you’re desperately hungry and nothing is open for delivery.

But what about the best frozen pizza to buy in preparation for those moments. Over the course of many, many taste tests we’ve found the best frozen pizza brands making the best frozen pizzas, from the best veggie frozen pizza to the best frozen pepperoni pizza.

Frozen pizza is good now. Maybe it used to be cardboard covered in sweet marinara and a stretchy blanket of cheese (and, yes, you can still buy it like that), but the best frozen pizzas are topped with real mozzarella that gets gooey, savory marinara sauce, and actual, yeasty pizza dough that rises in the oven. The toppings aren’t simply limited to sad sausage crumbles. You can get real, thinly sliced pepperoni, or vegetables that actually taste like vegetables, or even pineapple that doesn’t immediately dissolve into a puddle. And you have choices when it comes to crust. You can get Detroit style frozen pizza! Thin crust frozen pizza! Cauliflower crust frozen pizza! The choices are really overwhelming.

Lucky for you, we’ve done a lot of tasting. We looked for gooey cheese, fresh toppings, and crispy-chewy crust you actually enjoy eating. At this point in the frozen pizza timeline, the best frozen pizza should be nearly as good as delivery or something you can make from scratch—but much cheaper and easier. Here’s the best rated frozen pizza you can buy at the grocery store.

The following article contains affiliate links that may generate a small commission to us when you make a purchase through the link. Learn more about how we work with affiliates here.

Best Personal Pan Pizza

Red Baron Deep Dish Supreme

This is not the best frozen deep dish pizza—that honor belongs to Uno Pizzeria’s pepperoni pizza, and we’ll discuss it later. In fact, I don’t think this really qualifies as deep dish pizza at all. But it’s still one of the best individually sized frozen pizzas that we tried. The crust is buttery and chewy. The sauce is flavorful and zesty. The toppings are plentiful and perfectly seasoned. Buy a box of these cheap Red Baron frozen pizzas, they deserve a spot in your freezer.

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

5.5/10

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Best Mini Pizza Bagels (Runner-Up)

Bagel Bites

It’s hard to have an objective opinion about Bagel Bites. I grew up eating trayfuls of microwaved Bagel Bites as afternoon snacks. So, to me, these taste like carefree adolescence. The sauce is sweet (and a touch slimy), the cheese is mild at best (flavorless at worst), and the bagel itself is chewy. But it all comes together to taste like the essence of pizza thanks to a hefty hit of oregano. It’s super satisfying in the same way that the best pizza rolls are satisfying. Nuke up a box the next time you’re feeling snacky at 1 a.m.

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

5.5/10

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Best Mini Pizza Bagels:

Annie’s Mini Pizza Bagels

Bagel Bites super fans, please cover your ears: Annie’s makes better mini pizza bagels than Bagel Bites. Yes, Bagel Bites taste great—they taste like childhood in the ‘90s. But Annie’s Mini Pizza Bagels are better. They are extremely cheesy and you can actually taste the flavor of the cheese. The sauce is zingy and tomatoey and very savory. My only quibble is the lack of oregano, so you don’t get quite the same pizza-ness that you do from Bagel Bites. Even if you’re a Bagel Bites loyalist, I still think you should try these mini pizza bagels.

Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon

Rating:

6/10

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Best French Bread

Red Baron French Bread Singles Supreme Pizzas

If you think the best frozen pizza comes on a loaf of bread, then Red Baron is the best frozen pizza brand for you. It tastes like real French bread—crusty and chewy and a little tangy. It’s topped with fennel-tinged sausage crumbles, crazy good pepperoni, and red and green peppers for good measure. This frozen French bread pizza is so good, it made a convert out of die-hard Stouffer’s fan, managing editor Gwynedd Stuart.

Read the full ranking of the best frozen French bread pizza

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

6.5/10

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Best Veggie

Trader Joe’s Organic Roasted Vegetable Pizza

Trader Joe’s might not be the best frozen pizza brand if you’re looking for a classic cheese or pepperoni, but the store’s frozen veggie or vegan pizzas are incredible. This is the best frozen veggie pizza, hands-down. It comes topped with red onions, eggplant spears, zucchini, and bell peppers—along with little dabs of cheese sauce. Yum. The veggies stay fresh and aren’t watery at all. It’s quite a feat of frozen pizza science.

Read the full ranking of the best frozen veggie pizza

Credit: Liv Averett

Rating:

6.5/10

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Best Frozen Deep Dish

Uno Pizzeria Primo Pepperoni

Please take note: We are talking about frozen Uno Pizzeria Primo Pepperoni, not sausage. The sausage flavor can go kick rocks. But the pepperoni? It’s perfection. It’s hard to find frozen deep dish pizza if you’re not in the Chicagoland area. But I’ve been assured by former Chicagoan, Gwynedd, that this is a very good representation. The cheese is stretchy and sloppy. The sauce is straight up umami. And the pepperoni is tangy and just a little bit spicy. One piece of this frozen deep dish pizza will send you straight to bed in the best way possible.

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

7/10

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Best Pepperoni

Screamin’ Sicilian Original Holy Pepperoni Frozen Pizza

Safeway

Take a peek into the window of this frozen pepperoni pizza’s packaging and you will see what you are in for: lots and lots and lots of savory, spicy pepperoni. That’s why it took the top spot in our best frozen pepperoni pizza taste test. It is all about those peps. It’s a pep squad. The sauce, crust, and cheese harken back to the pizzas from the arcade birthday parties of your past—but that’s not a bad thing. It all comes together to create one extremely satisfying bite and one of the best frozen pizzas out there.

Read the full ranking of the best frozen pepperoni pizza

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

7/10

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Best Gluten Free Crust

Mama Cozzi’s Cauliflower Pizza Pepperoni

We previously ranked Banza as our number one best frozen gluten free pizza, but during our most recent taste test, this Aldi pizza ran away with that title. (It’s also the best frozen cauliflower crust pizza on this list.) The crispy, chewy crust is really satisfying—whether you’re gluten-free or not—and the cheese is so thick and gooey and there’s just so much of it. The pepperoni is thin and adds a touch of meaty spice. You really won’t miss the gluten with this frozen gluten free pizza.

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

7/10

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Best Thin Crust

DiGiorno Veggie Loaded Ultra Thin

DiGiorno Ultra Thin pizzas are the best thin crust frozen pizzas—but their veggie offering is particularly delicious. The diced veggies, cheese, and sauce go all the way to the edge of the crust, which is crispy and crunchy. If you like Domino’s thin crust pizza, this is definitely the best frozen pizza for you.

Read the full ranking of the best thin crust frozen pizza

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

7.5/10

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Best Pan Pizza

DiGiorno Crispy Pan Pepperoni Pizza

This is not Detroit style pizza—nor does it claim to be. So don’t expect to find cheesy, buttery crust. This frozen pizza is all about a focaccia-style crust. It’s puffy, bready, chewy, and totally perfect for dipping into a side of ranch or marinara. The sauce is rich with tomato flavor and the cheese has a photo-worthy cheese pull. Gwynedd compared it to Pizza Hut pan pizza, which is pretty high praise. If that’s your platonic ideal of pizza, this is the best frozen pizza for you.

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

7.5/10

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Best Hawaiian

Freschetta Canadian Style Bacon & Pineapple

Freschetta frozen pizza is known for its crust—it puffs up in the oven and tastes fresh baked. But Freschetta should also get some credit for making the best frozen Hawaiian pizza on the market. The ham slices are thick with a tasty rind—like some of the best Canadian bacon we’ve tasted. And the pineapple is just bright and fruity enough. It stays in its lane. It adds a tangy pop without bleeding into every bite. This will not make a convert out of you if you don’t like Hawaiian pizza to begin with, but if you’re a fan of the sweet and the savory, this is the best frozen pizza for your balanced tastes.

Credit: Ryan Martin / Walmart

Rating:

8/10

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Best Cheesy Crust

Freschetta Five Cheese

So many frozen pizzas have a sweet sauce. But not Freschetta. Freschetta’s tomato sauce is ultra savory and there is a lot of it. The crust bakes up fluffy and crusty. The cheese melts into a real topping—not just slightly melted shreds. And let’s talk more about that cheese. There are five different cheeses on this frozen pizza (mozzarella, asiago, parmesan, fontina, and provolone) and you can tell. You can taste the complexity. Even the crust is sprinkled with a couple of different cheeses (asiago and parmesan). It’s definitely the best frozen pizza for crust-hounds like myself who can’t wait to scoop up any crusts left behind and eat them like breadsticks.

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best Cheese

DiGiorno Stuffed Crust Five Cheese

Craving stuffed crust pizza? Buy this instead of ordering. The crust is stuffed with mozzarella that really tastes like good, creamy, gooey mozzarella—not just slightly sweaty string cheese. And cheese on the pizza is super savory and satisfying thanks to the cheddar. This is the best frozen pizza for not just cheese lovers but cheese obsessives.

Read the full ranking of the best frozen cheese pizza

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

9/10

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Chicago’s Home Run Inn Cheese Classic Pizza

Best Indulgent

After initially publishing this article, there was an outcry from you, dear readers. Apparently, we screwed up. We didn’t include Home Run Inn pizza. How dare we. Well, we are always open to recommendations from passionate eaters, so we cooked up a cheese pie. And? I am pleased to say that we were, indeed, wrong to miss this pie. It is almost like a savory tart. The tomato-rich sauce and crispy-gooey cheese blanket a flaky pastry-esque crust. You were all correct and I thank you for bringing this pizza into my life. If you’ve never had this before, do yourself a favor and try it. It’s the best frozen pizza to have if you’re looking for true decadence.

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

9.5/10

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Best of the Best

Motor City Detroit Style Supreme Deep Dish Pizza

In my humble opinion, Detroit-style pizza is the best thing to happen to pizza since ranch dressing. With its high, doughy crust and cheesy, crispy edges, it provides a perfect base for a mound of toppings and is just plain satisfying in a way thin crust pizza never is. I was extremely dubious that a frozen pizza would come close to the real thing. But Motor City has cracked it. It was the top rated frozen pizza in our frozen Detroit style pizza taste test and it’s the best tasting frozen pizza overall after three separate tastings. Pillowy and doughy? Check. Cheesy, crispy edges? Check. Generous topping distribution? Check. I’ve thought about this pizza multiple times since we tasted it. I will buy it with my own cash, which I earned by tasting this, the best frozen pizza.

Read the full ranking of the best frozen Detroit style pizza

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

9.5/10

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Rhett & Link’s Pick

DiGiorno Original Rising Crust Four Cheese

In their blindfolded frozen pizza taste test on Good Mythical Morning, Rhett & Link both rated DiGiorno’s classic cheese pizza at the top, with Link giving it a nine out of 10 and Rhett giving it an eight. Both also guessed the brand correctly, citing its “signature dough” and “plumpification.”

Other frozen pizzas we tried: Newman’s Own Thin & Crispy Pepperoni, California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken, Mama Cozzi Thin Crust, Jack’s Original Thin Crust Pepperoni Frozen Pizza, Red Baron, Marketside, One Bite 5 Cheese Stone Baked Pizza, Celeste Pepperoni, Microwave Pizza For One, Palermo’s Rising Crust Supreme Pizza, Quest Thin Crust Pizza Uncured Pepperoni, Tony’s Pizzeria Style Pizza, Mama Cozzi’s Rising Crust Pepperoni Pizza, Great Value Rising Crust Pepperoni Pizza, Tombstone Frozen Pepperoni Pizza, Sam’s Choice Rising Crust 7 Cheese Pizza Stuffed Crust, DiGiorno Original Rising Crust Four Cheese, Talia Di Napoli Gluten-Free Margherita, Surfer Boy, Palermo’s Rising Crust Hawaiian, Digiorno Hawaiian Style, Member’s Mark Mini Pizza Bagels, Rao’s Supreme, Red Barron BBQ Chicken, Surfer Boy, Uno Sausage, Red Barron Deep Dish Cheese, Pizza Cupcake, Trader Joe’s Pizza Bites, Tillamook BBQ Chicken

The post Best Frozen Pizza: Cheese, Pepperoni, Veggie, Thin Crust, and More appeared first on Sporked.

The Best Gingerbread Cookies, Ginger Cookies, and Ginger Snaps

Danny Palumbo — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 18:29:04 +0000

The best gingerbread cookies should be peppery, spiced, slightly sweet, and wonderfully crunchy. Store bought ginger cookies are a holiday treat because they pack bold, aromatic flavor. Nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, and ginger feel all warm and fuzzy when it’s cold outside, so we want our gingerbread cookies to recreate that experience. The best gingerbread cookies and the best ginger snaps are all about comfort, warmth, and spice. Make us feel something, dammit! These ginger cookies did just that.

We don’t think we’ve ever had two ginger cookies that tasted exactly the same. Every brand tends to use a different level of spice. Some go light on the ginger, others use so much it’s like they want to set your chest on fire. Then there’s allspice, clove, cinnamon, brown sugar, and molasses—all of which are ingredients used interchangeably in gingerbread cookies. We found this taste test to be very comforting. Snapping into a crispy, crunchy cookie that’s packed with a delightful concoction of spices is the kind of experience we look forward to. The best gingerbread cookies are simple, but they bring bold flavor, too. Here are ten ginger cookies that really impressed the Sporked team.

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Best Crowd-Pleaser

Biscoff Cookies

You’re probably ahead of me already. You’re probably saying, “Ariana, Biscoff Cookies aren’t ginger cookies!” And listen: I agree. That’s why they’re sitting pretty in tenth place, okay? Biscoff cookies belong to the Speculoos family, which are commonly considered spiced gingerbread cookies—but that doesn’t totally check out, because ginger is a very minor ingredient at play here. Biscoff is a caramelized biscuit cookie that relies on cinnamon and nutmeg for its cozy, spiced flavor. It’s warm, a little zingy, and tastes like cookie butter reconstructed into cookie form. With a distinct, crunchy bite you can’t get anywhere else, no one can deny Biscoff makes good cookies. But do these belong on a list of the best ginger cookies? Well, I think so. They’re not fit for ginger lovers, but if you’re searching for a cozy, gingerbread-esque cookie to match the holiday vibes and serve to a large group, you shouldn’t overlook Biscoff. People love ‘em. —Ariana Losch

Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon

Rating:

8/10

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Best Spice

Sprouts Old Fashioned Ginger Flavored Snaps

After this taste test, I took these Sprouts old fashioned ginger flavored snaps home with me. Why? Because the spice here is aggressive. The clove flavor is off the charts, and its intensely aromatic nature works very well with the peppery notes of ginger. Truly, these cookies are loaded with spices. Sprouts’ ginger snap cookies pack a big, big flavor. They might be too much for your average cookie eater, but for me that boldness made them addictive and some of the best ginger snaps we tasted. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best Ginger Person

Pepperidge Farm Gingerman Cookies

Pepperidge Farm makes great products and that includes their gingerbread cookies. Their Gingerman cookies are light, crispy as heck, and filled with great flavor. The ginger flavor is light, but there’s a deep, well-rounded sweetness here from the brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, and cane sugar listed in the ingredients. They come shaped like little men, too, so if you love dismembering human-shaped cookies you’re pretending are your enemies, go with Pepperidge Farm. They pack a nuanced flavor, and they’re oh-so crispy. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best Spicy Ginger Flavor

McVitie’s Ginger Nuts the Fiery One

What McVitie’s ginger cookies lack in structural integrity (I’ll explain momentarily), they make up for in a striking, fiery ginger flavor like no other. Each cookie is so sharply spiced, it actually burns a little—and when a ginger cookie can clear out my sinuses for me, I’m going to fall in love with it. Texturally, these cookies have some issues: They are on the dry side, so the cookies’ edges literally crumble into bits when you try to pick them up. Still, I somehow managed to dip mine in freshly brewed coffee without making a huge mess, and the flavor transported me: I felt like I was roasting chestnuts by the fire in a cozy living room, not sitting at an office desk crowded with discarded cookie wrappers and leftover Walmart pies. (It was a busy day.) If you thrive on bold winter spices (or simply suffer from daily congestion), these might be the best ginger cookies for you. —Ariana Losch

Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best Ginger Snaps

Tate’s Bake Shop Gingersnap Cookies

Tate’s has two seasonal ginger snap cookies—these and a gluten free option we ranked slightly above it. (It’s really, really good for a gluten free cookie, okay?) In theory, I figured the thin, firm crispness of Tate’s cookies would go hand and hand with a ginger snap, and hey, I love it when I’m right. The ginger flavor is pretty bold, with the right balance of molasses, butter, and spice that you’d expect from the best ginger snaps. These are seasonal, so make sure to try them while you still can! —Ariana Losch

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

9/10

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Best Surprise

Tate’s Bake Shop Gluten Free Ginger Zinger Cookies

I gravitate towards crispy and crunchy gluten-free snacks, so Tate’s Bake Shop is a huge winner for me. These gluten-free Ginger Zinger cookies have a big-time ginger flavor, and a rich, nutty, almost brown butter taste that feels wholly decadent. Crystals of sugar give them crunch and sweetness. I love the way these look, too—they’ve got a rustic, homemade vibe to them. They also contain eggs and are delightfully fatty. Tate’s Ginger Zingers are indulgent, peppery, and fully satisfying, and could easily be the best gingerbread cookies—they just fall slightly short of what we think the ideal gingerbread cookies should be, which is a little more thin and a bit less rich. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

9.5/10

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Best for Ginger Lovers

Walkers Stem Ginger Biscuits

World Market

They might call themselves biscuits, but these are some of the best ginger cookies money can buy. These cookies feel expensive and fancy thanks to the packaging and taste. There’s tons of chewy ginger mixed into these cookies, making them the perfect gingerbread cookies for ginger lovers. This slaps you in the face with ginger flavor. Yum! —Jordan Myrick

Credit: Merc / World Market

Rating:

10/10

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Best Thin

Dewey’s Bakery Triple Ginger Cookies

Dewey’s Bakery makes the thinnest, crispiest ginger cookies on the market. They have a wonderful snap and they aren’t hard at all. These airy cookies are some of the best ginger cookies I’ve ever tasted. If you’re looking for a light dessert with a great sweetness and real ginger flavor, Dewey’s makes the best ginger snaps for you. —Jordan Myrick

Credit: Merc / Amazon

Rating:

10/10

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Best Buttery

Nyakers Ginger Snaps

Nyakers Ginger Snaps are in a virtual first-place tie with Annas, but that doesn’t mean they’re identical. Though Nyakers ginger snaps have the same pronounced ginger flavor and thin, crunchy quality as Annas, Nyakers have a delightfully rich, almost buttery flavor that kept us all coming back here at Sporked. These cookies are so rich and luxurious, which is honestly breathtaking for ginger snaps (and why we consider them some of the best ginger snap cookies). Bite into one, then let it dissolve in your mouth so you can savor all the wonderful flavors. This was a delightful experience and a flat-out surprise. I didn’t know gingerbread cookies could be so…buttery. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Merc / Amazon

Rating:

10/10

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Best of the Best

Annas Ginger Swedish Thins

Pavilions

Annas Ginger Swedish Thins took our breath away with their straightforward yet wonderful flavor. They’re plain, yes, but as a result you just get that pure, spiced ginger and clove flavor that’s emblematic of the Holidays. Annas cookies have less sugar than other cookies, but that’s a strength. With less sugar, you really get to taste the peppery, mellow notes of the ginger. The texture is also quite crispy, and the cookies themselves are indeed thin, so the crunch factor is even higher. Annas Thins are the best gingerbread cookies because they do all the little things so well. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Merc / Pavilions

Rating:

10/10

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Other Products We Tried: Nabisco Ginger Snaps, Kroger Ginger Snaps, Lofthouse Soft & Chewy Ginger Cookies, Signature Select Ginger Snaps, Belvita Gingerbread Breakfast Biscuits, ShaSha Gingersnaps, Stauffer’s Ginger Snaps, Trader Joe’s Triple Ginger Snaps, Great Value, Partake Ginger Snap Crunchy Cookies, Eleni’s Cookies All Natural Ginger Snappy Cookies, Jack’s Allergen Friendly Bakery Ginger Molasses Cookies

The post The Best Gingerbread Cookies, Ginger Cookies, and Ginger Snaps appeared first on Sporked.

The 12 Best Frozen Breakfast Foods from Our Taste Tests

Gwynedd Stuart — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 18:26:50 +0000

The best frozen breakfast foods make cooking a morning meal a lot faster and easier, and we love that. Imagine boiling and shredding potatoes instead of buying a bag of frozen hash browns. Or mixing eggs with flour and god only knows what else to make batter for waffles. The indignity. Luckily, there are a lot of frozen breakfast foods. Like, half a grocery store aisle full of them. You can’t possibly try them all, so we’ll help you narrow it down. From frozen waffles to frozen hash browns to toaster pastries, these are the best frozen breakfast foods we’ve taste tested.

The following article contains affiliate links that may generate a small commission to us when you make a purchase through the link. Learn more about how we work with affiliates here.

Best Frozen Waffles

Krusteaz Belgian Waffles

We talk about these waffles all the time here at Sporked HQ. They’re just so much better than so many other frozen waffles we’ve tried. They’re big, they’re flavorful—they really taste homemade. According to Sporked editor-in-chief Justine Sterling, “They have the perfect amount of sweetness with just a slight nod to vanilla. They are crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Incredible.” Grab some good syrup and buy a box of these asap.

Read the full ranking of the best frozen waffles

Credit: Ryan Martin

Rating:

10/10

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Best Gluten Free Waffles

Full Circle Market Blueberry Gluten-Free Waffles

Gluten free waffles are very hit or miss—but most of them miss, to be honest. They come out of the toaster so dry you have to absolutely drench them in butter and syrup to make them remotely edible. But we found one brand of GF waffles that really outdid the rest, simply by virtue of resembling regular toaster waffles. No, Full Circle Market gluten free waffles aren’t quite as fluffy inside as Eggos, but they come close. Buy the blueberry flavor. They’re better than plain.

Read the full ranking of the best gluten free waffles

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

9/10

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Best Frozen Pancakes

Eggo Buttermilk Pancakes

There isn’t a huge amount of diversity among microwave pancakes, but Eggo Buttermilk Pancakes are just a little bit tastier than the rest. They’re fluffy and have just a touch of buttermilk tang that makes them more interesting than a lot of the other brands we tried. Seriously, stop making batter! Put away the griddle! Like most of the best frozen breakfast foods, these suckers are ready in just minutes.

Read the full ranking of the best frozen pancakes

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

9/10

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Best French Toast Sticks

Farm Rich Original French Toast Sticks

When we set out to find the best frozen french toast sticks, we wanted them to taste like french toast sticks from a fast food restaurant. And we got close with these Farm Rich french toast sticks. Better yet, they actually taste like french toast. They’re eggy, but still fluffy. They’re a little oily in a way that satisfies. Even if you don’t have time for the drive-thru, we bet you have time to toss a few of these in the microwave in the morning. Don’t forget the ramekin of maple syrup.

Read the full ranking of the best french toast sticks

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

9/10

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Best Frozen Hash Browns

Great Value Shredded Seasoned Potato Hash Brown Patties

If you like McDonald’s hash browns, you’re going to like these frozen hash browns from Walmart. They’re greasy and satisfying. And they’re going to taste even better soaked in the yolk of some sunny-side-up eggs.

Read the full ranking of the best frozen hash browns

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

10/10

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Best Breakfast Sandwich

Jimmy Dean Biscuit Sausage, Egg & Cheese

Jimmy Dean will always be the king of sausage, but you could argue he’s also the king of frozen breakfast foods, although that doesn’t have much of a ring to it. This breakfast sandwich proves he is a benevolent king. Justine said it tastes like a fresh-from-the-diner breakfast sandwich, with its buttery biscuit and savory sausage. Even the egg is convincing. If you need a hot breakfast on the go, this is your jam.

Read the full ranking of the best frozen breakfast sandwiches

Credit: Merc Target

Rating:

10/10

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Best Chicken Biscuit

Jimmy Dean Honey Chicken Biscuit

If you like a sweet-savory combo, this frozen chicken biscuit rules. The chicken patty is juicy and fried in a nice flaky coating. The honey flavor makes the whole thing sing. If you like chicken and waffles, this frozen breakfast sandwich will scratch that itch.

Read our ranking of the best frozen chicken sandwiches

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Breakfast Burrito

Tina’s Breakfast Burrito, Handcrafted, Egg, Sausage & Cheddar Cheese

Okay, full disclosure, this is not exactly a restaurant-caliber breakfast burrito, but it’s a hell of a dupe for a fast food burrito. In fact, I wrote in my original review that it tasted like “a cheesier version of the McDonald’s breakfast burrito in the best way possible.” It may not be a perfectly crafted breakfast burrito, but it sure tastes good.

Read the full ranking of the best frozen breakfast burritos

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

10/10

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Best Breakfast Bowl

Great Value Sausage & Gravy Breakfast Bowl

Breakfast bowls are delicious bowls of slop as it is, so the best frozen breakfast bowls have gravy—that’s just the way it is. Plus, the white gravy on this Great Value breakfast bowl actually tastes like gravy—creamy and peppery. And the eggs in this bowl are fluffy rather than stiff like the eggs you’ll find in a lot of microwave breakfast foods.

Read the full ranking of the best breakfast bowls

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

10/10

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Best on a Stick

Breakfast Best Pancakes & Sausage On-A-Stick

Aldi

Pancake corn dogs are one of the great frozen breakfast food innovations. This breakfast-on-a-stick from Aldi is super savory and a little sweet and just fatty enough to make you feel alive. It gets nice and toasty when you cook it in the toaster oven and it has a tinge of maple flavor, too.

Read the full ranking of the best corn dogs

Credit: Merc / Aldi

Rating:

9/10

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Best Toaster Strudel

Pillsbury Raspberry Toaster Strudel Pastries

Affiliate

If you’ve resigned yourself to a life of eating Pop-Tarts, you really need to change course now. Toaster Strudel is absolutely the superior toaster pastry. The crust is flaky and the filling is fruity and they come with individual little packets of a frosting that gets all melty when you drizzle it on the freshly toasted strudel. Buy the raspberry flavor if you can find it. It’s the best.

Read the full ranking of the best Toaster Strudel

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

10/10

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Best Oddity

Banquet Sausage and Gravy Deep Dish

This is an insane product. It’s literally just a pie crust filled with sausage gravy—and unfortunately, it’s delicious. As I wrote in my notes, “This is honestly one of the more delicious things I’ve ever tasted.” This is something I would have eaten every day for breakfast in elementary school and not faced any consequences. Life was so sweet. For an adult with a body that’s keeping score, though, this is a good once-in-a-while treat. We know Banquet pie crust rules (we like their turkey pot pie and their individual apple pie) and it’s especially delicious drenched with creamy sausage gravy. And like some of the best frozen breakfast foods, this is cheap. It costs a dollar and it tastes like a little slice of heaven!

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

The post The 12 Best Frozen Breakfast Foods from Our Taste Tests appeared first on Sporked.

11 Powerade Flavors, Ranked from Worst to Best

Griffin Parker — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 13:10:00 +0000

The sports drink aisle is flush with options, from your classic Gatorade flavors to the stealthy BodyArmors to all those shiny new PRIMEs and GHOSTs. And then, right there in the middle, is the oft-forgotten Powerade: Coca-Cola’s attempt at toppling the Gatorade throne.

This isn’t a ranking of all the Powerade flavors known to man, but it’s all the Powerade flavors I could find by my deadline. Missing from this lineup are this past summer’s three Sour Powerade flavors, as well as Melon and Strawberry Smash Zero. We’ll keep an eye out for these Powerade flavors and hopefully add them in alongside the new XTRA Sour Powerade flavors coming in 2025.

Before we get into the ranking, I do want to include one honorable mention: Powerade Jungle Juice. It isn’t a real flavor, but I had to know what one tablespoon from all 11 Powerade flavors mixed together would taste like. It is good. Like, “Powerade needs to sell this” good. Powerade scientists, go try this yourself and give me credit for the millions of dollars it’ll make next year.

Okay, now onto ranking the Powerade flavors (Powerade Zero flavors, included).

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Grape

Powerade Grape

I didn’t have high hopes for this Powerade flavor, but good lord—it’s awful. Some people have great nostalgia for Children’s Dimetapp; I’m not one of those people. I’ll stir table salt into tap water before buying another bottle of this.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

1/10

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Grape Zero

Powerade Zero Grape

In what would turn out to be a trend, I actually liked the Powerade Grape Zero variant slightly more than the full sugar version. A spoonful of sugar doesn’t always help the medicine go down any better. That said, this is still hyper-artificial concord grape flavoring at its worst.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

1.5/10

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Orange

Powerade Orange

How is Powerade whiffing what should be the easiest flavors? Orange is as standard as they get, but this is just watered down Sunny D. The aroma right is promising, but the flavor does not deliver in the slightest.

Credit: Merc / Amazon

Rating:

3/10

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Orange Zero

Powerade Zero Orange

Again, this Powerade Zero flavor is better than the full sugar version. It actually tastes what it smells like! Sure, it both smells and tastes like a cup of store-brand orange Jell-O, but at least it’s consistent.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

3.5/10

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Lemon Lime

Powerade Lemon Lime

If you’ve ever smelled Lemon Pledge, you know exactly what my nose went through when I opened this Powerade flavor. That said, the flavor was pleasantly mellow compared to the abrasive aroma. This was also surprisingly heavy on the lime flavor for a lemon lime drink, which is a rarity. (That said, it’s nothing compared to my beloved Pocari Sweat.)

Credit: Merc / Amazon

Rating:

5/10

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Mixed Berry Zero

Powerade Zero Mixed Berry

While the full sugar Mixed Berry Powerade easily places in the top three best Powerade flavors, this zero-sugar zero-calorie version didn’t impress me nearly as much. The flavor-to-sodium ratio is more unbalanced in this than any of the other flavors of Powerade Zero. That said, the berry flavor and sweetness is still strong enough to put this in the upper half of the many, many Powerades I’ve guzzled this month.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

5.5/10

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Fruit Punch

Powerade Fruit Punch

This is the first Powerade flavor I’d actually consider to be “good!” If my beloved Gatorade Glacier Cherry is out of stock, this has just barely made it onto my reserve bench of full-sugar hydration drinks. Sure, it’s just lightly-salted Hawaiian Punch, but sometimes that’s all you can ask for.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

7/10

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Fruit Punch Zero

Powerade Zero Fruit Punch

This Powerade Zero is definitely sweeter tasting than the full-sugar version, but it’s also the most balanced of the Powerade Zero flavors with the extra salt. (Did I mention every single one of these bottles is bragging about having 50% more electrolytes than “the leading sports drink?”) I went back and forth between this and the full-sugar version trying to decide which I liked better; they’re truly equal. Follow your heart (or your diet) when choosing between the two.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

7/10

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Strawberry Lemonade

Powerade Strawberry Lemonade

On the tartness scale of lemonade to pink lemonade, this Powerade flavor is comfortably in the middle. The strawberry flavor is so “real” that it actually tastes unripe somehow. Not in a bad way; it’s just interesting that they went so far away from a more “candy” strawberry flavor. This is one of the two newest Powerade flavors; I hope this marks a trend for the brand moving forward.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

7.5/10

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Mountain Berry Blast

Powerade Mountain Berry Blast

This is the first Powerade flavor that I could honestly confuse with a Gatorade. This is nearly on par with the best of the blue Gatorades, and would fit right in with the lesser blues. It has a great berry flavor with a powerful sweetness that makes you forget this is supposed to be even close to good for you. (This feels like a good time to mention that anything on this list scoring seven and above is easily worth your time; these final placements just came down to personal bias towards certain kinds of flavors.)

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

8/10

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Island Burst

Powerade Island Burst

Here we are at the top of the mountain. Ten Powerade flavors down, we meet our last flavor standing: Island Burst. It’s a little funny that the best Powerade flavor is also the one that sounds most like an obscure Gatorade flavor. And, true to form, the only flavor this bottle claims is “Tropical Punch.” Pineapple, guava, mango, kiwi—whatever flavors are actually in this, the mix is fantastic. This is another new Powerade flavor; I can’t wait to try whatever they think is gonna top it.

Credit: Merc / Intacart

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

The post 11 Powerade Flavors, Ranked from Worst to Best appeared first on Sporked.

Best Brie Cheese You Can Buy at the Grocery Store (Updated with a New #1!)

Justine Sterling — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 20:23:10 +0000

The best brie cheese is soft, creamy, and a little funky. It’s great on its own, layered into a simple sandwich, or baked into one of the world’s greatest holiday appetizers (that would be baked brie if you couldn’t guess). It’s the first cheese gobbled up on the cheeseboard. The best brie is sheer perfection.

And while the best brie cheese brand is probably some fancy French stuff known only to the most elite cheesemongers, your local Kroger or Target carries some pretty good stuff, too. Over the course of three taste tests, we tried the most accessible brie cheeses on the market to find the best brie brands you can buy pretty much anywhere—including wedges, brie bites, mini wheels, and even goat brie and ready-to-bake brie en croute. We looked for bloomy, mild rinds (yes, you can and should eat the rind on brie), creamy, gooey insides (this stuff should practically melt at room temperature—although we do include one exception on this list), and a mostly mild flavor with just a touch of funk at the finish. The best brie shouldn’t be bland, but it shouldn’t be camembert, either.

We recently updated this list with a couple new brie cheeses, so read on to check out our new and improved list of the best brie cheese to buy at the grocery store.

The following article contains affiliate links that may generate a small commission to us when you make a purchase through the link. Learn more about how we work with affiliates here.

Best if You Hate Rinds

Marin French Cheese Co Petite Breakfast Brie

If you want not only the best brie cheese but the most unique brie for your cheeseboard, grab a teeny, tiny wheel of Petite Breakfast Brie from the Marin French Cheese Co. This brie has no rind. I didn’t even know that was possible! It is firm (this is the exception to our rule of goo we were talking about earlier) and mild. It’s almost closer to provolone than a brie. I didn’t know I was missing this in my life, but now that I do I will be buying it regularly. Plus, it’s so cute! And don’t worry, it’s not just for breakfast. — Danny Palumbo

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

7/10

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Best Brie en Croute

Marin French Brie En Croute

There aren’t many refrigerated or frozen brie en croutes on the market, but even if there were a ton I’d be singing the praises of this oven-ready baked brie. The pastry crust is buttery and flaky. The cheese inside is melty and tangy—if a little funkier than some other brie cheeses. My only critique is that it’s small. If you’re entertaining you need more than one of these, for sure. Grab a jar of Sporked-approved fruit preserves and go to town. — Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

7.5/10

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Best Basic Brie

Emporium Selection Soft Ripened Double Creme Brie

Emporium Selection Soft Ripened Double Cream Brie (aka Aldi brie cheese) is the best brie for brie haters. It’s so creamy and so mild. There’s no funk whatsoever. Sometimes you want something that isn’t going to blow out your palate and that is definitely this brie. It would complement so many other flavors without overpowering anything. Spread it on a sandwich or toss it on a cheeseboard and tell me I’m not right. Spoiler alert: You won’t. — Danny Palumbo

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

7.5/10

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Best for Salad

Saint André Triple Crème Brie

Saint André Triple Crème Brie is made from cow’s milk, but, in my opinion, you would never know. Blindfolded, I would’ve sworn it was goat cheese! That’s what is so interesting about this brie. It’s mild and salty. The texture is a little crumbly, which is strange for a triple creme but it works. This would be awesome sprinkled over a salad or some roasted veggies. I wasn’t expecting this cheese and it still managed to surpass my expectations. — Danny Palumbo

Credit: Liv Averett

Rating:

8/10

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Second Best Brie Bites

Ile de France Le Brie Mini

While these brie bites weren’t quite as good as our top best brie bites pick, they deserve a spot on this list. Because they are gooey, extremely creamy, and delightfully funky/cheesy. And people who appreciate those qualities in a cheese don’t often get a snacking cheese. Most snacking cheeses tend to be mild. So, this one’s for you, funk lovers. Each brie bite comes in packaging that resembles an oversized creamer cup, which is pleasing but it does make it somewhat hard to extract the cheese. You have to bang them out of the cups. But it’s worth the effort. —Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best Spicy

Marin French Cheese Co. Petite Jalapeno

Marin Cheese

Jalapeno flavored brie? French cheese traditionalists are throwing their berets on the ground in anger. But you gotta try this stuff. There are lots of little bits of pepper in extra creamy cheese. It’s kind of like if pepper Jack and brie had a baby. And it packs some palpable heat, which is contrasted against that creamy brie-ness. It’s not going to replace a classic wheel of brie on a cheese board, but it’s a great addition. — Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Marin Cheese

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best for Baked Brie

Président Soft-Ripened Brie Wheel

President Soft-Ripened Brie Cheese Wheel is the best brie cheese for baked brie. Is it good to eat by itself? Of course. Would it be even better stuffed into some phyllo dough, topped with walnuts and cranberry marmalade, and baked until oozing? Absolutely! This is definitely the best brie for cooking and I will be stocking up on it for the holiday season because nothing says Christmas like baked brie. — Danny Palumbo

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

9/10

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Best Goat Brie

Laura Chenel Creamy Brie

Brie is traditionally made with cow’s milk. But this goat brie makes a good argument for switching that up. It’s extremely creamy, like the best brie cheese should be, but then you get this grassy, goat cheese flavor that makes you second guess what you thought you were eating. If you like the flavor of fresh chevre and the texture of brie, then you have to try this goat brie. Try it on its own, then spread it on a sandwich with some turkey and sprouts. — Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

9/10

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Best Brie Bites

Supreme Brie Bites

Each bag of Supreme Brie Bites is filled with individually packaged little brie bites, so you can throw one in a lunchbox or straight up in your purse or pocket for on-the-go snacking without fear of creating a melty mess. Each brie bite is about the circumference of a ping-pong ball, which is a good size for snacking cheese. The rind is thin and mild. The inner cheese is the perfect amount of creamy (you can safely eat one without a nearby napkin, unlike the Ile de France brie bites) and the flavor is mild with just a touch of funk on the finish. You feel like a real fancy pants snacking on one of these brie bites. — Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

9.5/10

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Best Wedge

Trader Joe’s Triple Creme Brie

If you’re looking for a flavorful brie that will please both cheese novices and cheese aficionados alike, grab a wedge of Trader Joe’s Triple Cream Brie. It’s so creamy. And it’s a bit funkier than you might expect from a brie. This completely fulfills my desire to eat chunks of butter (anyone else have this?). When I think of brie, this is what comes to mind. Originally, we deemed this Trader Joe’s brie to be the best brie cheese—but another Trader Joe’s brie swooped in after our most recent taste test to claim the title. — Danny Palumbo

Credit: Liv Averett

Rating:

9.5/10

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Best of the Best

Trader Joe’s Brie Log

Trader Joe’s brie log has the perfect cracker circumference. Each slice lays just right on a Ritz or water biscuit. And the cheese itself is creamy, mild, and delightful—a real classic brie. This is definitely not the best brie cheese if you don’t eat the rind, though. You gotta eat these slices whole. Rind eaters, rise up! This is the best brie for you. — Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other brie cheese brands we tried: Alouette Creme de Brie Original Brie Spread, Trader Joe’s Truffle Brie, Trader Joe’s Wild Mushroom Brie, President, Laura Chenel Goat Brie, Isigny Ste Mere, Supreme Brie, Private Selection, Boar’s Head, Trader Joe’s Light Brie, Good & Gather Double Creme Brie Wedge, President Wee Brie, Emporium Selection Double Creme Brie (imported from Canada), Marin French Petit Truffle Triple Creme Brie, Montchevre Triple Creme Goat Brie

The post Best Brie Cheese You Can Buy at the Grocery Store (Updated with a New #1!) appeared first on Sporked.

The Best Swedish Candy, Ranked

Ariana Losch — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 01:00:42 +0000

The best Swedish candy comes in so many forms. It can be soft like a fruit snack, chewy and dense like a gummy, or even a version of hard candy. The flavors can be sweet and sugary, sour and tangy, or even salty. The best Swedish candy brands use real fruit juice and fewer artificial sweeteners, resulting in a bright, fresh flavor. They are thoughtfully crafted, lean into playful aesthetics, with bright pastel colors and whimsical shapes that are almost as charming as the candies themselves.

If I had to guess, I’d say the average American only knows about Swedish candy thanks to Swedish Fish. And I’ll admit it—I used to be one of them. But there’s so much more to Swedish candy than those iconic fish-shaped gummies. In fact, did you know there’s a tradition in Sweden called lördagsgodis (translated as “Saturday candy”), in which families designate Saturdays as their official candy day, turning it into a weekly event for kids to look forward to? Basically, their candy culture is next level. You’ll find niches like salty Swedish licorice, sour candies, and other confections that you’ve probably never seen before, unless you’re being served videos about brands like Sockerbit and BonBon Swedish candy on TikTok. So let’s dive into the best Swedish candy brands you can actually get your hands on stateside—and call our local senators to suggest adopting “lördagsgodis” here, in America.

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Best Bubs

Bubs Greedy Sweet Ovals Banana Toffee

This is my oddball pick, okay? Bubs Swedish candy is a brand you can find pretty easily in places like Walmart and on Amazon. These banana toffee ovals are “bizarre but compelling,” as I wrote in my notes like a pompous post-modern film critic. The texture reminds me of circus peanuts, chewy but soft and marshmallowy. I was most surprised by the flavor: these little ovals are toasty and complex. It starts on a note of mellow banana and seems to melt into warm, sweet toffee. They’re definitely unique. Some freak out there (me) will love them. That said, if you can’t stand artificial banana flavor, this is not the best Swedish candy you can buy. Seriously. Keep moving.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

7/10

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Best BonBon’s Flavor

BonBon’s Sour Elderflower Fish

BonBon’s

BonBon is an American candy company based in New York that makes all of its products in Sweden and imports them here. Their original “fish candy” look and taste pretty artisanal: they’re shiny, come in pretty pastel colors, and even have tiny detailed fish scales that are honestly just fun to admire. I’ll admit that their Sour Elderflower Fish aren’t very sour, but the elderflower is quite vibrant and light, with a muted sweetness to balance the floral notes. We liked BonBon’s other flavors, too, but their line of gummy candies have a pretty intense chew that might not appeal to everyone. If you love extra chewy, dense gummies with a waxier texture, definitely try them. Either way, BonBon has made a name for itself as one of the best Swedish candy brands on the market…even if the company is technically American. Pretty cool!

Credit: Merc / BonBon’s

Rating:

8/10

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Best Jelly Colas

LÖRDAGSGODIS Gummy Cola

IKEA

Cola gummies seem to be popular in Swedish candy, and I love it. Apparently, I’m a big ol’ freak for candy that tastes like soda. (That’s the fun part of this job: You learn something new about yourself every taste test.) These moose-shaped gummies from IKEA’s grocery store have a juicy cola flavor that actually reminds me of their Vintersaga cola, which is a little sweeter and maltier than regular Coca-Cola. These gummies have one unfortunate setback, though: They don’t look like moose. They look like tiny penises. And that’s just an odd thing to realize if you’re the type of weirdo (again, me) who prefers sucking on gummies to chewing them. What can I say? I am who I am.

Credit: Merc / IKEA

Rating:

8.5/10

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Best Nostalgic

Swedish Fish Soft & Chewy Candy