Foster: Donut King - Vanilla Glazed Donut

Hey guys, It's Monday! not Friday like I stated earlier that I would be posting on.  After 2 birthday parties in a row, I figured that eating more sweets wasn't the best idea, so I waited a few days for the next best day of the week to write my review... Monday!... actually not quite the best day...  or a good day at all.. In fact I have already written THIS ENTIRE REVIEW before it gotten accidentally deleted and autosaved itself as blank before I could do anything... Oh well.  I decided to do something a little different this week so I hope you enjoy!
Now on to the review...

Glazed donuts (or doughnuts).  The pinnacle of donut creation.  Also, not surprisingly, one of the most common, due to it's inherent awesomeness.  Surprisingly, Donut King doesn't actually sell normal glazed donuts, and only has a little section with a few "Vanilla Glazed" donuts as part of their "Sensations" range.  At the same time as being suspicious, you don't really expect too much from a shop that is little more than a stand in the middle of a shopping centre.  It does however, strike me as strange that a place called Donut King sells more 'eclairs' than glazed donuts. Meh...

 I chose the vanilla glazed donut, out of the range they had, simply because I hadn't had one before, and figured that it would be just like a normal glazed donut.  I received my donut in a bright pink bag that has a few circular designs and "Donut King" "Excite your Tastebuds" written on it.  It disappoints me a little, because I was hoping for a super-cheesy donut pun as their slogan, but I suppose the people in charge of Donut King do-nut think it's a good idea (HAHAHAHAHA! did ya see what I did there?!?! Do you get it?!... Why aren't you laughing?... oh...)  But before any of that went through my head, I notice that the donut is not warm at all, and actually feels a little cold.  This, is not a good sign.  In my eyes, all donuts should be eaten right after they have been fried and glazed, and this is FAR from warm.  I'm not saying that it won't be super-awesome-delicious... but that it COULD'VE been much better.  I take my bright pink bag, holding my not-warm donut, home; giving anybody I pass, the I-have-a-donut-in-a-bright-pink-bag-and-it's-fricken-awesome look.  (Which is actually quite easy to pull off if you HAVE a pink bag and donut)

I open up the bag and inspect it, once I have access to a computer, so that I can accurately document my donut eating experience.  I smell it; a classic sweet donut smell, with a strong vanilla scent.  I look at it; a normal looking glazed donut, circular cooked dough with a  hole in the middle that has been lightly browned on either side.  It is covered in a smooth, translucent, hardened glaze, that make it all the more appetizing.  I then proceed to quickly eat the whole thing.

It is DELICIOUS.  Just about what I expected as well.  The texture is amazing, the whole thing melts in your mouth, quite literally, with an extremely soft, aerated feel to it, which consequentially, allows you to eat donut after donut after donut after donut AFTER having previously eaten a dozen, without getting full.  You'll have to decide for yourself whether or not this is a good thing (major factor being your wallet), but donuts are always better when you Go-nuts (pun no. 2) and get a dozen.  After all you only live once!
Anyways, the taste is very good as well, with a very good balance of sweet and "doughy" tastes,  ie. you can actually TASTE THE DONUT; something I would like to see more of these days.  Many donuts, I find, are covered with miniature mountains of chocolate icing, which completely drown out the taste of the donut, WHICH IS WHAT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE BUYING IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! A DONUT!!
 The vanilla flavour is also a very good addition to the donut.  It mixes in very well with the other ingredients, and while not being a 'top' quality vanilla flavouring, it certainly makes it's point and leaves you with a nice aftertaste.  It really works well with the other flavours and enhances the donut as a hole. (pun no. 3)

 Sadly, this is after all, a COLD donut.  Comparing this to a traditionally glazed donut that was freshly made is not possible, because the warm donut has won before you have even begun to compare.  However if you compare the Vanilla Glaze to a Krispy Kreme glazed donut, or one from your locally owned donut shop, the texture and taste of the donut part, only lags a small distance behind them.  In my opinion, the vanilla glaze is actually better than it's traditional-glaze counterparts.  The vanilla doesn't really change basic flavour of the glaze, but rather enhances it.  In short, if my local donut shop stole the recipe for the vanilla glaze and used it on their own donuts, I would be there every morning when they opened, just so I could get the freshest ones.

All in all, although I think this donut makes a great snack, and the vanilla is a wonderful addition to the classic glazed donut, I would buy a traditional glazed donut from a locally owned store first.  However you should DEFINITELY try this donut at least once, because the vanilla glaze definitely makes it worth spending your dough (pun no. 4) on!

 Thank you so much for hanging in there, enduring the puns, and reading the review.  If you enjoy EdiBlog, then tell your friends and family about it.  We would also love to hear your opinions and thoughts on the subjects! So post a comment below or send us an email at edibloggers@gmail.com to tell us what you think, or what you want us to review! Stay tuned for more (possibly easter themed) reviews! ;)
EdiBlogger out!

Foster: M&M's! - Chocolate really is better in colour!

Hey everyone! I'm back like I said I would be, and just to be sure you know, I'll be doing around 1 review a week from now on.  We thank you loyal viewers for our steadily rising view count, which would not be possible without you taking space out of your day to click on the blog and read it.  We really appreciate you! And now to the review...

This week I'll be reviewing m&m's as you can see clearly in the picture.  M&M's, those little colourful, chocolatey pieces that we all know and love.  For me, m&m's bring up memories of bad jokes (the kind about not realising that an m upside down is a w...) and the walking, talking m&m characters that appear on the front of the packet and in m&m advertisements.  I always liked the yellow one best, because he is just so clueless... but that discussion is for another time...

The bite sized pieces come in a plastic packet, that is flexible, and slightly more portable that a box, which avoids excessive rattling (which I can't stand) but is a loud due to crinkliness, if there is such a word.  The packet is brown, and very reflective, almost to the point of being semi-metallic.  "m&m's" is shown in big brown letters, surrounded by a white border.  In the back, there is a circular picture showing the brightly coloured pieces, as well as a cross-section of a blue m&m.  The red m&m character also makes an appearance, showcasing an sly grin and magically levitating eyebrows (yes, thats right, look closely).  On the back, the m&m slogan appears "chocolate is better in colour", which I will soon prove that it is absolutely true.  I open the packet with the aid of the conveniently placed "open here" label.  It really makes me happy to know that people no longer have to suffer the endless pain of wondering which way will be best to open their m&m's and eventually starve to death while trying to decide...

The pieces come in 6 colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and brown.  While they don't make each m&m taste any different, they certainly do make them look visually attractive.  I bite down on a yellow one, the shell making a nice crunch sound, I can practically hear the tiny, high-pitched screams of that poor yellow m&m.  Which really doesn't bother me, because he did after all advertise himself to be eaten in the first place.

The texture is nice and balanced, the shell crunching into tiny tiny pieces and melting at around the same rate as the chocolate, which are both dissolved and gone in an instant.  The taste is also very good, as a classic/basic chocolate, it is really quite simple: Chocolate and Sugar.  Nothing special about it, just good old fashioned chocolate and sugar.  The chocolate is Mars, with an emphasis on the cocoa flavour.  It's by no means top quality stuff, but you don't really need top quality chocolate for this kind of snack, especially if you don't want to pay a fortune all the time for your confectionery.

There are a few ways to eat m&m's as well, all of which are awesome:
1. The standard 1 at a time approach is what I use most of the time, just crunchin them down slowly, enjoying each one.
2. The handful approach.  Only take a few at a time, Eg. 3, 4, 5  and munch down on them all once, for a huge explosion of chocolatey sweet goodness, but make sure not to overdo it, because it's easy to make yourself sick.
3. The melty approach.  Take one (or a few) m&m's and patiently wait for the shells to dissolve in your mouth.  By the time the shell is soft the chocolate will have melted and you can bite through the shell for a smooth chocolatey awesome experience.  This requires EXTREME patience. ;)
 4. Shell removal.  Test your m&m eating skills by trying to remove the shell of an m&m, leaving the chocolate as undisturbed as possible.  This one is mostly just for fun.
 There are plenty of other ways to eat m&m's as well but these are just my favourites.

On the other side of the review, there are a few bad things about m&m's.  The first is that the dyes can separate easily from the shells with just a little bit of heat and moisture, so if you're eating them on a hot day, don't keep them in your hand all day, wondering which colour to pick.  The other thing is that they are very simple and can get boring after a while.  But Mars is already 15 steps ahead of this and took the liberty of making more types of m&m's! That's right! They have peanut, crispy, peanut butter (coughreecespiecesripoffcough), crispy mint (MY FAVOURITE), orange and many others, as well as other seasonal additions to the range.

So you really know what you are getting when you buy m&m's and if you don't like them, then try another type! (or don't have them at all...)(OR if you're bored, you'll offer them to an orphan kid, and then before he can answer, pour them onto the street and crush them into the ground right in front of him, and when he points out to you that he wasn't going to take them anyways, get even more angry and go home and troll people with links to Rebecca Black videos.  Afterwards you will go to the store and realise that they have other types of m&m's and announce that you've found true happiness.  Thankfully this has never happened due to the fact that most sane people in the world WILL like m&m's...)

In conclusion, m&m's are a great chocolate if you're not looking for anything fancy and is very easy to share and eat, due to the adjustable serving sizes.  It is simple, yet effective and if you get bored with the flavour and texture you can just switch to a different kind of m&m! I recommend them  for everyone; even those who only like high quality chocolate.  They are truly addicting!

Thanks again for reading, and I'll be back next week for another review.  Make sure to leave a comment below or email us at edibloggers@gmail.com if you enjoy the blog.  Tell us how you eat your m&m's! or even tell us what you would like us to review!
Ediblogger out!

Foster: Mentos blast - Mint!

Hey everybody! It's Foster here again, with a gum review this time.(and I say sorry for my monstrously long post in advance!)  There is good news for the gum market today because the react flavours of 5 are finally out in Australia (finally!) but that is for an upcoming review.  In the meantime, I thought it might be a good idea to try some other types of gum to review.  The results are mixed...

As part of my goal to try every type of gum and chocolate in shops, I ended up picking up a thing (take a look at the picture! what do you call that packaging? a plastic cylinder? certainly not a pack?) of mentos blast mint gum.
I thought that I would start off with the coolest looking gum they had in shops that i hadn't had before, and this was it.  I quickly realized why I had never encountered it before...

The packaging is hit and miss.  On one hand its aesthetically pleasing with its friendly curves and cylinder shape, but it is bulky and not very practical.  I can't carry it in my pocket, which you should be able to do with a pack of gum, and even if you have a handbag, you WILL NOT be able to stand the rattling.  Even just walking home from the store I could tell that this gum was to stay at home, chained up in the basement, and be given sedatives on a regular basis, just to make sure it didn't make any noise.  The wrapper and packaging is all blue, with the word 'mentos' in its big, original copyrighted font and says all together "blast mentos chewing gum" which makes me unsure as to call it mentos blast or blast mentos... I should really get someone from mentos on to this.
It then shows a cross section of one of the pieces, with the liquid centre "blasting" out, with the flavour label, "sweet strong mint" and "28 pieces" are displayed below in almost unnoticeable small font.
I proceed to take off the plastic and a little cardboard circle they put on top with "blast mentos gum" on it.  But before I open it, I wipe off the dust on the circle so I can see the writing better...

HOLY S#!*
 There's a layer of DUST on the top! I check the best before date... It's fine, but theres only a few months left! Gum shelf lives are usually up to a year or two, so I suspect its been sitting on the shelves for quite a while...
While this is surprising, It doesn't actually affect my opinion on the gum, It just tells me that it's not very popular... a bad sign for such a 'hip' and 'new' gum.

After opening the lid with a satisfying POP, I smell the inside.  It's a faint sour/sweet mint, quite underwhelming actually.  Each piece is a little white mentos shape, only a little smaller and fatter, and with nothing left to do, I quickly pop it in my mouth.

The gum starts out really nice, a cracking outer layer of strong mint flavour gives way to the soft gum and warm liquid centre inside which is a much sweeter flavour.  I did have some problems with the liquid though.  I thought it had too much tang to it, and was a bit too sticky/syrupy for it to really work with the whole "super cool fresh" vibe the packaging gives you.  On the other hand the sweet and cool flavours mix quite nicely, and while they aren't SUPER STRONG, they aren't weak either.  It is also a nice size piece of gum to chew...
for the first 5 minutes that is!

The thing about this gum that I can't stand is that the flavour doesn't last for more than 5 minutes, which is a major deal killer for me.  The sizing of the gum is also too small after the first 5 minutes because most of the gum mass is the flavourings which dissolve or are swallowed too quickly, for reasons which I will now explain.

After the first piece, I decided to investigate the cause of this lack of lasting flavour.  I started by not chewing, and dissolving the shell of strong mint.  This took only about a minute as I expected; after all these shells are usually there only to produces a quick burst of initial flavour.  Once I get through to the gum, I realise that there is something seriously wrong with this gum... THERE'S NO FLAVOUR!!!!
It's as if they chewed all of the flavour out of normal gum and stuck it in between the flavour to give the gum some mass.  In fact they probably send out shiploads of mentos's other unsuccessful gums to another factory in a third world country, and pay the workers to chew out all of the flavour one piece at a time, continuously chewing for 12 hours straight  JUST SO THEY CAN SHIP IT BACK AND PUT IT INTO MENTOS BLAST!!!!
Of course I'm joking and quite enjoy many of the mentos brand gums, but thats just how surprised I was that it had  no real flavour.  And on a side note, Mentos really needs to up the advertising for their products, I had no idea that they had so many other gums...

I then open up the middle and see that the gel inside ISN'T EVEN BLUE!! It's in fact clear with a few tinges of blue on the inside walls... Not the colour shown on the front.  Of course they don't really need to actually colour it bright blue; no one will notice except for gum freaks like me...

Now I realise that it is only the shell and gel (rhyme!) that give the gum it's flavour, and that truly disappoints me.  I personally think that if they did 3 things:
1. Increasing the size of the gum to the size of a normal mentos
 2. Adding some of the same flavourings they used in the "Pacific" flavour of Mentos Aqua Kiss gum to the gum in mentos blast
3. Creating a more portable package that didn't rattle

this gum would be unstoppable, but until then, It's gonna stay locked up in my basement where it will probably be happy to resume its dusty and untouched lifestyle.

I don't recommend Blast Mentos (or Mentos Blast) "sweet strong mint" gum to anyone UNLESS you dont like chewing for long and keep your gum at home.

And please remember to comment or send us an email at edibloggers@gmail.com  if you like our reviews! Maybe you can tell us what to review next!
And until next review, this is Foster! EdiBlogger out!