junk food junkie: pumpkin week newbies!!

Nov 7

Nov 7 junk food junkie: pumpkin week newbies!!

A.W.

Sure, October is over, but that doesn't mean the array of so-called "pumpkin" food thingys stops. I mean technically November is like harvest month or something and pumpkins are a type of squash which makes them a fall vegetable which in turn makes any pumpkin themed product fair game. My logic is sound. But, in the interest of all things holiday, I'm not going to overwhelm you with pumpkin junk. I figure I can round up a handful of things that caught my eye and cover them this week only lest my skin start to turn orange from all the food coloring I know I've been ingesting.

What better way to kick pumpkin week off than with an old school fave cookie that has been around for ages and seemingly every season, holiday or whatever, they seem to toss out a new cookie flavor as some kind of limited edition version. Of course, we all know that if it really takes off it may somehow find its way to being available all year. Yes, I'm talking about the might Oreo. I feel like I briefly saw this last year, but I can't be sure. Either way, here it is:

The pumpkin spice Oreo. Now notice the wording here because it is important, it says pumpkin spice flavor creme. Not pumpkin pie or pumpkin, but spice. I've come to learn what that really means is the spice you would find in say a pumpkin pie, yet no actual pumpkin. That is why the picture of a slice of pumpkin pie on this is misleading advertising. While the fillings of the creme list things like cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg--the traditional spices--there is NO actual pumpkin, puree or otherwise in this cookie. To be honest, I thought these were pretty terrible compared to some other pumpkin spice things I've had. I will attribute much of that to the "artificially flavored" tag right on the packaging. The orange color is from coloring and the cookie is one they use on their regular vanilla Oreos. The flavor was off putting and a little on the harsh side. I think if they had even had the barest hint of tasting like cinnamon or even ginger I'd give it a pass, but they had a bitter artificial after taste more akin to burnt cinnamon. The SO didn't think they were all that bad, but they definitely weren't my taste.

Seems only fitting to follow it up with another of those "pumpkin spice" flavored things. This time brought to you by those lovely folks at Safeway!

Pumpkin spice yogurt covered pretzels. Again with the spice but no actual pumpkin anywhere to be found in the ingredients of these. The coating was white plain yogurt flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger then some added orange coloring. In essence these kind of tasted like a cinnamon nutmeg pretzel. Can't say I was fully on board with the flavor as the salt and nutmeg were what you taste the most and I'm not sure they are quite complimentary. I am a big fan of the salty sweet as I've shown over the years, but this was a miss. I almost wish they actually had some real pumpkin in them as they could have been interesting, as is, meh.

Now here is where it gets a little interesting. I covered they hot new lo-cal lo-carb ice cream called Halo Top recently and seems they decided to get on the pumpkin band wagon. Though for them this isn't too much of a stretch considering they do everyday flavors like birthday cake, Oreo cookie, peanut butter cup and more. Thus a pumpkin pie ice cream really isn't too far out of step with what they are already doing.

This says straight up on the container pumpkin pie and they really are not kidding. Inside is their ice cream with real pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and--SURPRISE--little bits of pie crust mixed throughout. You can even sort of see them in the pic above. Now we all know I'm not the biggest ice cream fan, that is the SO, but I have to say, they did a pretty good job here. All the flavors come through strong and definite here and the added bits of the crust is nice little touch. Overall a really stand out job, which is saying a lot from someone whose go to dessert is cake. I'm still not ready to commit to ice cream, but if you are looking for something cold and sort of creamy to add some punch to your harvest desserts, a scoop of this would be a tasty addition.

Okay, that is three down and so far it is pumpkin spice zero and pumpkin pie one. I personally think it is an advertising cheat to say pumpkin spice flavor as those spices could just as easily be holiday. Just change the food coloring from orange to red, green or white and you can continue to make whatever cookie, pretzel, etc you want. I think if you are going to do then pumpkin thing then do it. Check back in a few days to see how the next pumpkin batch stacks up to these.