Breaktime

I recently started working at my local grocery store and decided that every day on my break, I'll buy and review one new product I've never tried before. It's been a fun little adventure hunting around and finding something new and stepping out of my taste-comfort zone.

Product	Price	Comments	Date Tried	Rating
Rivalz Extra Chedda' Mac	$5.09	Very disappointed. I know people say a lot of things taste like cardboard, but these GENUINELY taste like how cardboard smells, sprinkled with a bit of dust, and that dust happens to be cheese flavored (emphasis on the “flavored”. I looked at the ingredients, and there's not even cheese!). If this is what organic nuts are eating, I'd rather be unhealthy. There is 8g of protein and 0g of sugar per 1/6 of the bag though which is good.	Jul. 21, 2026	★★☆☆☆
C2O Coconut Water with Pulp	$2.49	I wasn't sure what to expect from this, and at the same time it's exactly what I expected… it tastes like water with a slight coconut flavor. And it also has chunks of coconut. When it first hits your tongue it tastes kinda weird, but the after taste is actually quite pleasant. I expected the pulp to either all be at the top or bottom, but it was pretty consistent without ever shaking it up. Better than I expected, but nothing mind blowing. It is refreshing after a day of stocking shelves though. Fun Fact: When I was in middle school, some friends and I formed a band - we were “The Wasteland Warriors”, and our first original song was called “Coconut Water”. It was garbage as you can imagine. One of the lyrics was “Coconut water - comes in a can called Goya”.	Jul. 22, 2026	★★★½☆
Grace Plantain Chips, Sweet	$	The initial flavor is quite pleasant, but the aftertaste is similar to a potato chip which is unpleasant.	Jul. 25, 2026	★★½☆☆
Iberia Aloe Vera Drink, Mango	$	I was very caught off guard by the chunks of aloe pulp, although I shouldn't have been granted it's mentioned on the front. I was really hoping to just chug it but that's kind of impossible due to that. The taste is very good though and very refreshing. It mostly just tastes like water with mango juice, so I'm not sure what the aloe really adds but it's good either way. 24g of added sugar though which is lame.	Jul. 25, 2026	★★★★☆
Goldfish Old Bay Seasoned	$3.69	Pretty good. As with anything with Old Bay seasoning, it's pretty much all you taste. It is a good amount though, not too overpowering. I'd get them again.	Jul. 29, 2026	★★★½☆
Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey	$1.49	Honestly just tastes like watered down green tea with some sugar added. Checking the ingredients, there's high fructose corn syrup which is lame. Hence the whopping 23 grams of sugar in just 1/3 of the bottle. Yikes. I'm used to green tea from when I was in Japan and yeah, I think it goes without saying that's much better even with no sugar. I'm curious how much caffeine is in this.	Jul. 29, 2026	★★☆☆☆
Stacy's Pita Chips, Sea Salt	$4.49	My first impression was that these look WAY puffier on the bag. They're pretty much just flat in reality. The taste is better than I expected. Nothing special, basically just salty toast, but in a good way. I'd definitely get them again if they weren't so expensive. Freakin organic aisle man.	Aug. 2, 2026	★★★½☆
The Ryl co. Iced Tea, Peach	$2.49	Meh. Not sure what I expected since I don't like iced tea to begin with. I feel like iced tea has a sour taste, and not in the good candy kind of way, more in like the rotten kind of way. It's not bad but it's not really pleasant either. This is going to sound really weird, but it tastes slightly like how weed smells.	Aug. 2, 2026	★★☆☆☆
Taste of Inspirations Turkey Bacon Pretzel Sandwich	$6.49	This was bangin'. First of all, no mayo which makes it automatically better than 90% of other premade sandwiches. The smoky flavor was pretty prevalent which is nice, and the pretzel bun was unique. Highly recommend. Bonus: it's higher calorie than the one on normal bread! (I'm trying to gain weight so that's good)	Aug. 5, 2026	★★★★☆
Deep River Sea Salt Vinegar Chips	$1.59	Honestly pretty good! I get pretty sick of chips quickly but I finished the bag no problem. The salt and vinegar was very well balanced - usually it's a bit over bearing.	Aug. 5, 2026	★★★½☆
Peace Tea Razzleberry	$1.29	Tastes pretty good. Tastes nothing like tea. Also has 28g of sugar, 0% juice, and 16mg of caffeine. What on earth are they serving us nowadays… made by the Coca Cola company so I'm not surprised.	Aug. 5, 2026	★★★☆☆
Goya Fried Pork Rinds, Hot n' Spicy	$2.09	These were honestly really dang good. Spicier than I expected too. My only gripe is that they're like 80% air. If I wasn't planning on letting my family try them, I would have easily finished the bag.	Aug. 11, 2026	★★★★★
Bai WonderWater, Rubi Raspberry Lemon Lime	$2.49	This was good! Not my favorite, but it was sweet but also refreshing, and most importantly only 1g of sugar. Even stevia as a sweetener (which I believe is that best one). I can't express how hard it is to find something under like 20g of sugar, it's insane.	Aug. 11, 2026	★★★☆☆
Zambos Plantain Chips, Chile Limón	$3.39	These were better than I expected, as I wasn't a fan of the previous plantain chips I tried. The seasoning is doing most of the heavy lifting though. Despite what the bag claims, these have just about no spice to them. A very minuscule amount. I did enjoy the flavor though.	Aug. 12, 2026	★★★½☆
Baby Star Crunchy Ramen Snack, Tonkatsu	$2.99	This tastes a lot like those Chinese noodle things you'd put on a salad, but a bit more flavorful. Pretty good but nothing special. The bag was pretty empty for its size too. Edit: This had a very oniony aftertaste, which I was not a fan of that I had to deal with for the next hour until I got off of work.	Aug. 19, 2026	★★★☆☆
A-SHA Boba Milk Tea, Taro	$2.69	This tasted amazing. Probably the 28g of sugar. I honestly expected boba in it but there was non. I guess it's “Boba milk tea - hold the boba”. Edit: Scratch that. There was a bit of boba but it all sticks to the bottom, so you don't get it until the drink is finished. Might help to shake it up first, but I'm not sure.	Aug. 19, 2026	★★★★☆