The official ATOT Fast Food discussion thread

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Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
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Fudge Brownie M&M's: 8/10

Surprisingly good! I would buy a small pack of these again. Soft, chewy inside. This is what the caramel M&M should have been (instead that one was like eating shards of glass). These were fun to munch on, they really got the texture right!

Minus one point for being the verge of being chemical-tasting, and minus one point for tasting more dark than milk, but it was that weird cheap dark mixed with an almost chemical taste. The texture won out & I killed the bag tho haha.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
68,847
26,626
136
Mint and dark chocolate Kit-Kat bars are okay. The mint part is a bit on the paraffin side, like Andre’s. The straight dark chocolate version is better.

Dark chocolate Twix is the first edible Twix.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
136
Mint and dark chocolate Kit-Kat bars are okay. The mint part is a bit on the paraffin side, like Andre’s. The straight dark chocolate version is better.

Dark chocolate Twix is the first edible Twix.

Yeah, I wasn't too impressed with the mint Kit-Kats. Andes are far better imo.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
136
I liked the peanutbutter Twix, but I haven't had them in years. Regular Twix is kinda bland and waxy.

I tried the triple-chocolate Twix the other day. It wasn't even worth writing a review for. Super meh.

I've been extremely disappointed with how cheap low-end chocolate has gotten, taste-wise. I feel like they did a pretty decent job with the updated Nestle Crunch bar, which has "real cocoa" (dunno what they were using before! lol). Back in 2013 they launched an effort called the Cocoa Plan to do a better job sourcing their ingredients:


Official website here:

 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
136
Reese's Fast Break candy bar:


110% meh. Nougat PB is a lot less exciting than you'd imagine.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
136
Powerade Ultra:


* Zero sugar
* Creatine
* BCAAs
* Vitamins
* 50% more ION4 electrolytes (plants love 'em!)

Got the White Cherry flavor. Aftertaste tastes like rotten bread. Will not buy that flavor again lol.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,363
7,514
126
I never liked powerade. I've only had the "classic", but it would burn my throat a little, kind of like those awful little hugs(artificially flavored sugar water in a plastic barrel). Never had that problem from gatorade.
 
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Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
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On a tangent, I've been cooking at home a lot more under the COVID lockdown & have been reading up more on the weird ingredients in my food. I bought some nuts that had "natural honey flavor" & wondered what that meant & found this website:


Here's the page entry for "Natural Honey Flavor":


This is fun:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not require specific flavor ingredient labeling.

A review reports that artificial and natural flavorings are unspecified mixtures of as many as 100 flavoring substances and solvents, emulsifiers, and preservatives.

In light of this, I've decided to tilt my diet more towards whole foods. I don't feel like you need to go nuts with it, because everyone dies someday, but the amount of crap they're putting into packaged & fast foods these days is ridiculous. The problem is that even whole, real foods have been doctored along the way, starting with glyphosate:


Edible wax:


Which is also in cheap chocolate:


Year-old apples:


Store-bought orange juice is flavored with flavor packs:


The list goes on & on. I think the hype over additives & preservatives is a little over-done, but at the same time, I'm not a huge fan of putting crap into my body where they can't even honestly tell me the ingredients & hide it behind artificial flavors, natural flavors, switch up names from MSG to "yeast extract", and have hidden manufacturing additives that they don't have to list on the ingredient label:


&


Added sugars are another fun one. They squirrel away the names under 60+ ingredients:

 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
136
I tried them back when they were new-ish and concur with the meh.

I'd never seen the Fast Break version before, only the Nutrageous version. Didn't like that either. Tried it a couple times over the years & couldn't even finish the last one.

I'll stick eat a Snickers bar here & there, but even in those, the quality of the chocolate & the ingredients has gone downhill to the point where it's cheap candy instead of a good, solid candybar.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
136
I never liked powerade. I've only had the "classic", but it would burn my throat a little, kind of like those awful little hugs(artificially flavored sugar water in a plastic barrel). Never had that problem from gatorade.

Ditto. It's like store-brand Gatorade. I think it's the citric acid, because it also burns my throat a little.

Surprisingly, Gatorade zero-sugar is actually pretty decent!
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
136
Powerade Ultra:


* Zero sugar
* Creatine
* BCAAs
* Vitamins
* 50% more ION4 electrolytes (plants love 'em!)

Got the White Cherry flavor. Aftertaste tastes like rotten bread. Will not buy that flavor again lol.

I tried the other 2 Ultra flavors. Still has the same funkiness to them. The yellow one tastes like Pedialyte (i.e. salty) mixed with a "yuck" flavor. No thanks!
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
136
Reese's Peanut Butter Lovers:


They have a Chocolate Lover's version (more chocolate, haven't tried it yet) & a Peanut Butter Lover's version (this is the one I tried). It was...okay. Reese's makes a jar of peanut butter & it tastes like you're eating a spoonful of that, dipped in chocolate. The OG Reese's cup is where it's at for me...it has just the right balance of PB vs. chocolate. The only exception is the mini cups filled with Reese's Pieces. Those are pretty dope & I would say in my top 10 candies list.

pb.jpg
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,363
7,514
126
I've found the "classic" variety of $item is usually the best. Normal size, normal distribution of ingredients. When they bigify something, or change the proportion of ingredients, things go south.
 
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Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
348
126
I've found the "classic" variety of $item is usually the best. Normal size, normal distribution of ingredients. When they bigify something, or change the proportion of ingredients, things go south.

Perhaps sometimes, but not in this case. There are SOME people who prefer the change in Reese's, and it sells so many, they can offer the variety. That's a good thing. If you like the classic, as presumably most do, then just buy that. I think I tried these and the peanut butter seemed a little worse, and the chocolate one was a nice alternative, but I probably like the original best also.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
I used to love Reese's Peanut Buttercup as a kid. But like so many things, I think they changed the ingredients or something because it doesn't taste as good as I remember. Or maybe my tastebuds changed.
 
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zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,511
29,091
146
I used to love Reese's Peanut Buttercup as a kid. But like so many things, I think they changed the ingredients or something because it doesn't taste as good as I remember. Or maybe my tastebuds changed.

yeah, I find that I really don't like these kind of things like I did as a kid--the overprocessed fake candy crap. Not sure if I'll ever resolve that it's a taste maturity thing, being exposed to real chocolate vs whatever processed syrup crap you get from Hershey's, et al, or if there really has been a cheapening of these things (actually, it's likely the opposite--I think these chocolates and candies were probably way worse, because fake food and the fake ag industry was such a big deal from the 50s on, that it was a source of country pride that the magic of fake food was "the future." I think that, despite costs, there is more interest in today's consumers to have access to better quality overall)
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,135
1,594
126
yeah, I find that I really don't like these kind of things like I did as a kid--the overprocessed fake candy crap. Not sure if I'll ever resolve that it's a taste maturity thing, being exposed to real chocolate vs whatever processed syrup crap you get from Hershey's, et al, or if there really has been a cheapening of these things (actually, it's likely the opposite--I think these chocolates and candies were probably way worse, because fake food and the fake ag industry was such a big deal from the 50s on, that it was a source of country pride that the magic of fake food was "the future." I think that, despite costs, there is more interest in today's consumers to have access to better quality overall)
People are all for it as long as it's convenient. We'd all be driving electric vehicles now if it didn't require giving up seat heaters, air conditioning, mobile hotspots, automatic parking or, a years salary.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
136
I used to love Reese's Peanut Buttercup as a kid. But like so many things, I think they changed the ingredients or something because it doesn't taste as good as I remember. Or maybe my tastebuds changed.

Nope, it definitely changed. Cheaper ingredients. Probably has wax in it like Hershey's. I went to pull up the link for lioplysis:


And got this ad placement for the Hershey's factory LOL

hersheys.jpg
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
136
yeah, I find that I really don't like these kind of things like I did as a kid--the overprocessed fake candy crap. Not sure if I'll ever resolve that it's a taste maturity thing, being exposed to real chocolate vs whatever processed syrup crap you get from Hershey's, et al, or if there really has been a cheapening of these things (actually, it's likely the opposite--I think these chocolates and candies were probably way worse, because fake food and the fake ag industry was such a big deal from the 50s on, that it was a source of country pride that the magic of fake food was "the future." I think that, despite costs, there is more interest in today's consumers to have access to better quality overall)

The processing, manufacturing agents, and ingredients & ingredienty quality have all been changd over the years. They use crap beans & add ingredients they aren't legally required to put on the label. I'm not all hippie about food & eat vending machine candy all the time, but it's definitely not as good as it used to be, and I would prefer that they list what's actually in there so that at least I know what I'm putting into my body, even if it is junk, lol.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
48,387
5,255
136
People are all for it as long as it's convenient. We'd all be driving electric vehicles now if it didn't require giving up seat heaters, air conditioning, mobile hotspots, automatic parking or, a years salary.

That's really all it boils down to. It's not even solely about economics, because even when the economy is tanked & the budget is tight, people will spend a ton of money on movie theaters & fast-food. You can easily hit $35 for dinner for an average family of 4 at Chik-fil-a. That's a thousand bucks a month if you go out to eat every night! Buuuuut it's convenient, and convenience wins the majority the time haha.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
Europeans make good chocolate. I buy Aldi brand chocolate because it's cheap. Moser Roth and Choceur are Aldi house brand and it's leagues better than any Hershey's or other common US brands.