Monday, October 21, 2019

Halloween Treats Review--Pumpkin Delights, Caramel Apple Oatmeal Creme Pies & A Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

Happy Halloween~


Hello ladies and gents
I am bringing you a review on two Halloween/Harvest themed treats...
as well as, the infamous Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte 
everyone has been bragging about since the dawn of the internet life. 
The opinions are coming straight out of the mouth of a goth, for over 10+ years. 
Not that it should matter, but it gives a bit of zest to this post, am I right? lol

It's no laughing joke with some people. When you mutter the words "Pumpkin Spice Latte" in your native tongue, they'll chew you up and spit you out. Some folk have a zero tolerance for the stuff. Understandably so--if they happen to dislike the taste but recently, while I was looking at a display of them bottled up in my grocery store. Thinking "WOW. Starbucks Lattes are here! WHY?" I encountered two ladies. I overheard one of the girls talking in disgust about them to which her friend asked "why?" and the answered made me decide on my own purchase of one to try. She didn't mutter she hated the texture or the taste. It wasn't because of some huge political stance on the stuff. She hated Pumpkin Spice Lattes and she "didn't know why. She just did!!"

No real reason--probably from listening to everyone else hating them in turn made her hate them, too.
She didn't know why she did but she felt she had to since the drink is usually seen as a disgusting thing among non-drinkers. If you drank it and enjoyed it, you'd be seen as the few they joke about thus putting yourself into that category. It made me question why I hated it, as well. I didn't. I never tried it, I can't form a conclusion if I never tried it. I just, like the girl, felt a need to never try a sip because I was accustom to everyone else's opinion. And that is why we are here today--to try and form our OWN opinion on the drink. (as well as try out some little Halloween treats along the way!) 

Sorry for the long introduction, it would be pointless to just post without giving some backstory. 
I'll save the latte review for last, since it will probably be the most detailed. But enough chatting--time to indulge~

PUMPKIN DELIGHTS COOKIES
The actual design of these won me right away. I love the pumpkin face details! 
The box was also very festive--which is nice to see. 
HOW THEY TASTE
I would say that these taste like a bitter pumpkin pie. The filling is where the "bitter" taste comes from, which I would believe would be a sort of pumpkin puree mixed with a blend of selected spices to give it a sort of robust and rather, "bitter" taste. The cookie itself is very soft. Which is what I like in a cookie, a soft bite. Not so much the harsh brittle cookie textures most people tend to gravitate towards. (Unless I can dunk it in milk, but sometimes I just want a damn cookie! lol) One or two would be fine but it's definitely decadent enough to build on you after a while. It's a festive little cookie that's pretty on a plate. <3 

CARAMEL APPLE OATMEAL CREME PIES
These are a twist on the original oatmeal creme pies Little Debbie usually sells. 


























The box is just as festive as the Pumpkin Cookies! 
HOW DO THEY TASTE?
When I say sweet...I mean SWEEEEEEET. These oatmeal cookies are very "hit in your face and knock out your tastebuds" sweet. The oatmeal cookie they sandwich the sweet paste with helps to thin out the sweetness a bit but it was definitely overpowering. I would have gone with a more bitter apple sauce instead of the sugary sweet one they selected, just to help blend the taste together with the already sweet caramel mixed in--but that's just my opinion.
OVERVIEW
 After trying out these treats--I would say I liked the Pumpkin Cookies the best. The bitter cookie was tolerable but the oatmeal creme pies definitely hit you right from the start with their sweetness. I personally like a robust apple sauce, which probably was the reason the overpowering sweetness of this specific blend didn't work well for me. Too much going on with nothing really to help tame it down unless you decided to eat a few with a black coffee. lol 

 Honestly, though--I could just be tainted with the fact I haven't really "indulged" into Little Debbie snacks since High School. I haven't seen anything really with Little Debbie for a while--so, seeing her make these festive treats really brought out the inner kid in me.


But as I said, just like most of the other LD snacks--it's really all about sweetness, isn't it? 
There is also a sort of "taste" with them that pinpoints a cake in her direction. A sort of weird, unfamiliar after-taste. These two had the same after-taste, which doesn't help with judging. Nothing beats home-made treats but out of these two--the pumpkin cookies are my favorite. 
STARBUCKS PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE
Moving onto the last review--something that I have wanted to try for a while but never got around to doing so. Probably the reason you decided to read this whole post in the first place. lol 
(Saving the best for last! haha) My first time trying a Pumpkin Spice Latte. 
It's time to see what all the buzz is about. 
I have never seen these in my grocery store--So, I had to give it a try. For the Halloween season! 
Ice cold, too. Because I put it in the freezer as soon as I got home from work. I know there are many ways to indulge Pumpkin Spice but I wanted the most common approach. The one that people actually go to Starbucks for and order. 




















The back greets us with some seasonal coziness. 

"Best served chilled or over ice!" Thank goodness, I took it to a freezer! 

It was a pretty decent size bottle. I don't remember the exact amount I paid for it, but I don't think it was more than a few dollars. 
Limited Edition--Spicy Sweet. We shall see about that. lol





















HOW DOES IT TASTE 
FOR THIS FIRST TIMER:
I will be honest. It's nothing to scream about for me. I can, however, see how it would be a big deal to someone who only drinks plain o' coffee on a regular basis. I can see how giving them a spiced coffee would wake something up inside of them to down the whole cup and jump the walls but I don't see what the big deal is, personally. It's just coffee with a few fancy spices. I've been making coffee with cinnamon my whole life, so maybe I'm already biased about that. The first initial taste was very strange. It was--for a lack of a better way to put it--flat. It tasted a bit like it was sitting out for a while. Kind of like when you let the coffee machine sit and you decide, later on, to go back for some more but end up putting a whole bunch of luke-warm coffee with grit into your mouth. It taste like that. Even chilled, it has a sort of mellow warmness to it, which almost made me spew it out. 

After drinking it, in small sips, to gather this review--I did happen to find myself emptying the bottle. 
It has that sort of effect on you, you want to hate it but you can't put it down. (could be because I have a love for coffee--all coffee--that I have a zero tolerance for leaving a coffee behind...even if it's pumpkin spiced!)  I spent the entire time trying to grab something worth screaming about (like I've seen with people who LOVED this stuff) but after the last sip, it just made me confused and question the whole thing. 
"Did I drink it right?" "Was I supposed to add something?" "Is this it?" 

This is coming from a girl who drinks coffee with everything in it--i'm heavy-handed in my spices. 
I have tasted chai, I have tasted cinnamon to extremes, I love creamers of all kinds and hazelnut is my downfall. <3 I even put chili powder in my hot chocolate...But this is just bleh to me. Not bad but definitely not something I will run to Starbucks to make SURE I get. Just bleh. I could take it or leave it. No big deal. I guess the only thing that would make me grab another would be to get into the spirits of Halloween. Other than that, it's just...rather...boring. To be honest. 

The makeup I wore for the day~ 
There you have it--my reviews. I'm not ashamed of my end results. 
Now, at least, I can say I don't like Pumpkin Spice Lattes for MY own personal reasons rather than falling into a trend with others hating it because of it's popularity. I just don't see the big deal in the drink when I've drank better. I won't burst anyone's bubble for loving the stuff, of course but my taste-buds are just not too fond of it. 

Thanks for reading all this and Happy Halloween~ 
xoxo

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