Good & Gather Caramel Apple Granola

Well we sure can't show any favoritism as far as fall foods are concerned, now can we? If we review pumpkin pie granola, we most definitely have to check out caramel apple granola, too. I can't imagine this stuff is too much more or less exciting than its pumpkinny predecessor, but what the heck, let's pour ourselves a bowl anyway.

Unexpected: there are little flake things throughout the mixture. It's not just tiny globs of granola. 

The flakes almost look like mini corn flakes, but they might actually tiny pieces of dried apple. Actually, I think there are both. There are little flakes and there are even smaller pieces of actual dried apple. It's satisfyingly appley.

I don't detect much in the way of "caramel" per se, but I must admit, the cereal is plenty sweet. There are just a few of those oversized asteroid-looking pieces that you get in pretty much any bag of granola. You just need to break those up with a spoon. No biggie.

I'm actually surprised how much I like this granola. It's adequately applicious. I'm not even in a good mood right now, so if anything, I'd be inclined to snub a product during a review right now. But shoot, this is better than that pumpkin stuff for sure.

I give this cereal 8 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Pumpkin Pie Granola

Well, it looks like it's that time of year again. And even if I decided not to partake of pumpkin products personally, the little missus will most definitely be trying them anyway. So since they're already in the house and all, I figure I might as well give them a chance. I'm usually pleasantly surprised once or twice a year, so let's see what our good friends at GAG have offered us.

I think this pumpkin pie granola is somewhat decent, but the wifey absolutely loves it. There's a vague pumpkin spice notion about it. It's mostly cinnamon and ginger I taste.

Hey wait...wait a minute. Since when is turmeric a pumpkin spice? Are we doing Indian pumpkin spice fusion now? 

Ah, well. Fortunately, I like turmeric. I guess it goes with cinnamon and ginger. And it's orange...

I don't know how I feel about pumpkin seeds mixed with pumpkin spice. I feel like all seeds, pumpkin included, should be salty, not mixed with sugar and cinnamon, and certainly not drown in milk. That's an odd combo to me. But yet again, the wife raves about it. She says the pepitas make the product balanced and complete. Meh.

This is our first pumpkin product of the year, so we're still in "hooray for everything fall" mode. I'd probably give this a lower score if not for the beautiful wifey telling me how wonderful it is. 

$4.59 for the 11oz resealable bag. I have a feeling the missus will definitely be purchasing this one again. I just hope she waits until next year to do so.

I give this granola 7 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Peanuts, Almonds & Peanut Butter with Cocoa Drizzle Nut Bars

Target really needs to work on their marketing, packaging, and labeling strategies. Can you imagine if you happened to LOVE these things and wanted your SO to pick some up on their next Target run? "Honey, can you pick up those Good and Gather Peanuts, Almonds, and Peanut Butter with Cocoa Drizzle Nut Bars?" That's a freaking mouthful if I ever heard one. They should give it some clever name like NICE bars. "Honey, grab me some NICE bars please!" It just rolls off the tongue.

For some reason it wasn't apparent until I actually opened the box and looked at the individual bars, but these are quite obviously GAG's take on KIND bars. They're mostly just nuts and grains all fused together with honey and rice syrup and...ew. Soy protein?

There's a thin layer of what appears to be chocolate coating the entire bottom of the bar. But there's no "chocolate" listed in the ingredients. I guess they're approximating it now with cocoa powder, chickory root, milk powder, and various oils. They call it a "cocoa drizzle." Fair enough.

I guess the bottom line is if you like KIND bars, you'll like these. I'm okay with either brand. They're vaguely not-bad-for-you and somewhat tasty.

$4.39 for four bars. Wait. You're telling me each of these little snacky snacks is more than a dollar? Dang. Inflation gonna inflate.

I give these KIND knockoffs 7 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Organic Strawberry Shortcake Whole Grain Bars

GAG is back with another orgasmic—er, sorry—organic snack offering. It's for sporty, active, healthy individuals, and you can tell because there's a blue bicycle bursting through a debris field of giant strawberries, chunks of cheese, and angular white razor blades on the cover. I, personally, would have added an explosion, a bit of blood spatter, and maybe a dinosaur or two. But either way, it's obvious that this snack is not for the faint of heart.

Honestly, it tastes like plastic a little. I mean, the bars are dense, moist, and filling, which is good. There are 12 of them in there, which for $7.29 is a so-so value, IMO.

They don't taste much like strawberry at all. The "shortcake" is predictably less like real shortcake and more like the bread in a typical cereal bar. But make no mistake, these aren't cereal bars. They are whole grain baked bars—that's baked, never fried, in case you were wondering.

And they're gluten free. How's that possible? Ah. Oats and oat flour rather than wheat. That's unexpected.

I, personally, wouldn't buy these again. I bet the wife will like them a lot more than I do. The "strawberry shortcake" moniker is a stretch. The texture is better than the flavor.

I give these bars 6 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Mini White Fudge Dipped Sandwich Cookies

The wifey ordered this little snack bag from target.com and it arrived with all the cookies fused together from the summer heat. What? Don't FedEx trucks have air conditioning?

They still taste pretty good. They remind us of those old circus animal cookies with frosting and sprinkles. Mother's brand. Remember those? Except these have a creamy filling, too.

They're very vanilla-y. They're crispy, creamy, crunchy, and crumbly. I'd say they're a lot like birthday cake, flavor-wise. Obviously, they aren't soft like cake, but it's still a very birthday-ish vibe IMO.

I'm thinking most folks would find these pretty tasty, especially kids with a sweet tooth. I rarely find myself wanting anything this sweet these days, but if I get the munchies, I'll easily down a couple of these puppies. Hopefully the wife will beat me to it, though. This isn't exactly diet food and I don't need to get any further out of shape than I already am.

I'll score these as if I actually wanted super sugary sandwich cookies and not as a grumpy old man resenting the fact that I only have unhealthy snacks in the house right now.

I give these cookies 8 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Probiotic Fruit & Yogurt Trail Mix

This furthers my suspicions that GAG is now representing what Simply Balanced once did: Target's kinda healthy-ish foodstuffs. And Favorite Day is taking the place of Archer Farms: normal, not-so-healthy treats and indulgent trail mixes. Good & Gather Probiotic Fruit & Yogurt Trail Mix is a healthy-esque trail mix that not only features two kinds of fruit, but probiotic yogurt-covered cranberries. Woohoo. Let's dive in.

First up: dried sweetened cranberries and blueberries. If we're trying to be nutritious here, GAG, we should avoid added sugars. I would have been fine with dried berries without added sweeteners. But whatevs. They taste good and there's plenty of 'em in the bag.

Next: yogurt-flavored cranberries with probiotic. Yogurt flavored cranberries? Wouldn't yogurt covered cranberries be more accurate? And they're "with probiotic"? Probiotic what? Why'd your team of marketing geniuses decide on this diction instead of "Probiotic yogurt-covered cranberries"? Or why not "Cranberries with probiotic yogurt"? Again, whatever. They taste like normal yogurt-covered cranberries. Nice and plump. I like these.

Thirdly: almonds. Self-explanatory. Honestly, there weren't that many almonds in my trail mix. I wouldn't have minded more in this instance.

Last up: Greek-style yogurt confectionery chips. They're not just globs of vanilla-flavored sugar. They're made of Greek yogurt and therefore are good for you. Slick. They're okay.

The overall flavor is quite sweet, fruity, and there's plenty of vanilla creaminess. But now that I'm near the bottom of the bag, the whole thing seems overly salty. Would I purchase again? Probably not. $6.49 for the resealable 9 oz bag.

I give this healthy-ish trail mix 6 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Organic White Cheddar Baked Corn Puffs

"Yeah, I want cheesy poofs!"

Ah, but do you? Do you really? Well, first of all, we have to realize not all cheesy poofs are created equal. Pretty sure the version Eric Cartman was craving wasn't organic. I'm also willing to bet it wasn't Target brand.

But hey, he might like these. They're vaguely cheesy. They're crunchy enough.

But they're also dry. I mean they aren't oily or greasy at all. Just look at that pic—not even a hint of a stain on that napkin. To me, that would usually be a good thing, but in this case...I dunno. It kinda creeps me out how dry these things are.

And Good and Gather Organic White Cheddar Baked Corn Puffs are stiff, almost stale-feeling straight out of the bag. They have the texture of styrofoam packing peanuts. They're more rigid than your run-of-the-mill cheesy poofs.

$6.39 for the 10 oz resealable bag. I know I said I'd only review trail mixes on this blog from here on out...but I lied. The local Target didn't have any new trail mixes that I hadn't reviewed yet, so here you go: another non-trail mix GAG review. 

The wife liked them okay, so I'll go easier on them than I might have for their final score.

I give these organic cheesy poofs 6 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Piña Colada Trail Mix

Things are already sticky enough in the summer. We don't need sticky foods to make things stickier. I can already tell the ingredients of this trail mix have fused together from the summer heat before I even open the bag. It looks like some genius has mixed together five of the stickiest foods known to man in a little plastic bag and released it as a seasonal summertime-only offering at Target...because, you know, in any other season the stickiness wouldn't be an issue.

This stuff better taste great, because I have a feeling I'm going to go through a lot of Wet Ones and be very grumpy after consuming a few handfuls...

First impressions: yes, my suspicions about the sticky-factor were absolutely correct. The ingredients all stick together in giant wads that you have to pry apart with your fingers, which then get covered in all manner of sugary glazes and syrups, which you then have to spend absurd amounts of time licking clean and/or using entire packs of wet wipes and/or running your hands under the faucet and/or showering to cleanse yourself from the tacky substance that now coats your entire body, and if you've eaten a handful or two somehow amidst the chaos, your pores are now secreting a sticky sweet jelly that fuses you to your car seat or office chair and prevents you from moving and making further attempts to clean the viscid goo from your body, face, and clothes and soon you succumb to the mucilaginous substance completely, cease moving, and become prey for whatever insects or wild animals smell the cloying glaze and begin to feed first on the confectionery coating and rum-flavored syrups and continue on to your lifeless body now too weak to resist the ravenous creatures as they feast and frenzy unto your demise.

But if you can make it past the stickiness, yes this is a tasty mix. It's possible I'm exaggerating just a tad, but this product is a little on the sweet side, I'd say. It vaguely tastes like piña colada, and I LOVE piña coladas.

They even have an element that tastes like rum. Those pecans go great with that gooey, syrupy, rummy glaze. The dried fruits are nothing to write home about, but they don't really detract from the mix, either.

I like the coconut pineapple balls. They're the best part. Not as sticky as some of the other ingredients.

TL;DR - The mix is a tad too sweet and way too sticky, but it tastes pretty good overall.

I give this trail mix 7 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Cotton Candy Trail Mix

At the rate we're covering Favorite Day and Good & Gather products on this blog, I don't think we're ever going to make a meaningful dent in Target's product lines just looking at a couple things per month. They're releasing tons of new foods and seasonal items each year, and at this point, it's kind of futile to even try and keep up.

So...maybe we'll just make this a blog about Target brand trail mixes and snack mixes? That's a worthy endeavor, no? I don't even know if I can get around to reviewing all of those. But at least there will be one place out in the interzones dedicated to most of those newfangled and mysterious and sometimes pricey trail mixes there at the local Target.

This one's cotton candy. Interesting. Another summer flavor. Let's see if it's as good as the lemonade one we looked at last week.

In a word, yes, it is. But let's break things down, shall we?

Popping candy clusters. They're light blue and pink like popular cotton candy colors. Don't think they're two different flavors, though. They're just sweet and pop-a-licious, just like Pop Rocks candy.

Vanilla crème flavored almonds. We've seen these a couple times before. They're awesome. This mix could use more of them.

Peanuts. We all know what peanuts are. Why are they with a cotton candy mix? I guess they're both state fair type snacks. Circus snacks? I dunno. They work just fine.

Shortbread chips. Crunchy. Vaguely sweet. Not super memorable. The mix could use fewer of these. Not a deal-breaker, though.

Yogurt-flavored covered raisins. Kind of a weird way to say it. "Yogurt covered raisins" or "yogurt flavored raisins" makes more sense to me. Large, creamy, white chocolate-esque candies with a bit of raisin inside. I'm down.

Strawberry-flavored confection drops, AKA strawberry chips. Creamy and fruity and sweet. They work nicely.

The overall effect is definitely cotton candy-esque, though I don't think this one nailed real cotton candy quite like the last mix did with sparkling strawberry lemonade. Still, it's another really interesting seasonal offering from Target. Nine ounces for $5.49. I'd buy it again. Snackalicious. 

I give this trail mix 8 out of 10 stars. 

Favorite Day Summer Lemonade Trail Mix

Here's the scene: you've just finished mowing the lawn. It's about 90°F in the shade. It's humid. You're drenched in sweat. You plop down in your Adirondack chair on the back porch and begin using your ball cap as a fan to cool off your face. Your loving wife appears in the doorway with a pitcher and a glass full of ice. "I made you some lemonade, sweetie," she says. You gladly accept the beverage. You take a sip. It's refreshing, sweet, and tart. The first words out of your mouth: "Thanks, babe. But this lemonade needs way more cashews."

I mean, right? Who would put peanuts and cashews in summer lemonade? Target would, that's who.

But you know what? It works somehow. Let's examine this unique trail mix ingredient by ingredient.

Roasted salted peanuts. Water, sugar, lemon, and peanuts of course. A must for every glass of summertime lemonade. Just kidding. But if you needed something salty to go with your lemonade, peanuts are a fine choice.

Sour strawberry-flavored golden raisins. Okay. So it's strawberry lemonade now. That works. These are good. Very sour, indeed. There aren't a ton of 'em, though.

Lemon-flavored fizzy clusters. So we've got sparkling strawberry lemonade now? Well, they're not "fizzy" per se. They're crispy, with a touch of that Pop Rocks effect. Lemony enough. Pretty good.

Strawberry flavored confectionary chips. Creamy, sweet, and vaguely fruity. If there were too many of them, they might throw off the delicate balance of tart lemon they're apparently going for. Fortunately, there's just about the right amount in the mix.

Lemonade-flavored seasoned cashews. There's no coating on the cashews. Just lemon seasoning? It's an extremely subtle lemon flavor here. They taste more like cashews than lemons, and that's okay. I don't know why it works, but it just kinda does.

Lemon-flavored dried apples. They're just tiny little cubes of dried apple that taste applicious and lemontastic. The mix could use more of these happy morsels.

I didn't expect this mix to work at all, but it's a pleasant surprise after trying it. There is something weirdly lemonade-esque about it. I'd buy again. $5.49 for 9 oz.

I give this trail mix 8 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Cookies & Crème Trail Mix

There's cookies and cream ice cream, cookies and cream cake, cookies and cream candy bars, cookies and cream cereal, and of course, cookies and cream cookies. But I've never in all my days heard of any version of cookies and cream with nuts. Seems weird. Seems like it should be called Favorite Day Cookies & Crème & Nuts, dontcha think?

At any rate, the almonds and peanuts here aren't unwelcome, exactly. It is a trail mix after all. They add some extra crunch to the already crunchy cookie-based mix. Not exactly traditional cookies and cream, but it works.

Then we have dark chocolate chips. I'd prefer milk chocolate chips. Never had cookies and cream with dark chocolate before. Oh well.

Next up, white chocolate chips. They're good. They add to the "crème" effect.

Cookies & crème-flavored bites. I guess these are like crunchy spherical chocolate cookies covered in a speckled confectionery coating. Cookies and crème-ish enough. No complaints.

Fudge flavored cookie pieces. They're okay i guess. These and the dark chocolate chips are my least favorite elements.

All in all, not very cookies and crème-esque, but not terrible either. Moderately indulgent. I think we paid about four and a half bucks for the 10.5 oz bag. Not something I'd choose for a hike on a warm day.

I give this trail mix 7 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Lemon Flavored Yogurt Dipped Almonds

Don't think I've ever craved lemon and almond at the same time in my whole life. But isn't that what good marketers do? They let you know you need or want something that you never thought you needed or wanted.

Lemon almonds.

I thought I knew what to expect. I thought I'd get tiny little almonds covered in white chocolate with some faint whisper of citrus flavor at the finish.

...I was WAY off!

These things are surprisingly sour. They're more lemony than almondy. They're honestly more sour than a lot of candy that blasts "SOUR" or "TART" in huge letters on the packaging. They are lemon-forward in the most shocking way, almost like a Warheads sour candy. And if you like the tart taste of lemon, that's a good thing. Fortunately for me, I love lemon.

They're sour, sweet, creamy, nutty, and salty all at the same time. And the one element that doesn't belong there in my humble opinion is the salt. There are 80mg of sodium in each serving that kinda get in the way. Sweet and sour works. Sweet and salty works. But salty, sweet, and sour..? No. Not really. Sorry. The salty and sour clash in a way that makes me want to pound a shot of tequila after each bite.

So...I'm like super pleasantly surprised at the pungent sour punch of these nuts, but I'm almost equally unpleasantly surprised at how much the salt and sour elements clash with each other. I really wanna like them, but in the end, I think these would rarely be a go-to snack to curb sweet cravings or salty cravings or any other kind of cravings. I think most people will like these even less than I do.

But if you enjoy sour candy or think super sour lemon almonds sound interesting, I highly recommend you try them. They're not what I was expecting at all. $3.99 for the 4 oz resealable bag.

I give these sour nuts 7 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Mexican Street Corn Inspired Trail Mix

So I've had real Mexican street corn—eloté—a few times and know what it's all about. My wife grew up with the authentic stuff in Los Angeles and even makes her own from time to time. It's basically corn on the cob with mayo, tangy cheese, lime juice, and chili powder.

Trying to recreate the taste of Mexican street corn with a trail mix is a tall order, even for those snack mix masters at Target. How did they do? So-so, in my humble opinion.

What works: the chili lime-seasoned corn kernels, AKA corn nuts. They taste like corn, lime, and chili. They're spicy and flavorful and very crunchy. 

Cheddar-seasoned corn sticks are fine. Cheddar isn't the cheese you'll find on Mexican street corn. They would have done better with cotija-seasoned corn sticks, but then again, they might not exist or might be very hard to find. 

The seasoned peanuts don't belong in an eloté-flavored trail mix, but the wife and I both agree they work in this mix just the same.

I'm fine with the corn chips with flaxseeds, but the beautiful wifey says they don't work. She thinks they could have added generic Doritos for a bit of nacho type flavor. They're the only ingredient we don't agree on.

And finally, the seasoned almonds are the weakest part of the mix. I can't put my finger on why I'm fine with peanuts here and not almonds, but they just don't add anything and kind of clash with the overall vibe somehow.

Not a terrible purchase, but not the best either. $4.49 for the 8 oz bag. Another middle-of-the-road score for GAG.

I give Good & Gather Mexican Street Corn Trail Mix 6 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Strawberry Shortcake Granola

While male children of the 80's were watching G.I. Joe and Thundercats, our female elementary school classmates were watching Strawberry Shortcake, a popular cartoon about a redhead that wore fruit-themed clothing and tended berry vines. So I always associated the term "strawberry shortcake" with something excessively feminine.

But years later, I realized that the dessert know as strawberry shortcake is completely delicious and certainly not just for girls. So now, from time to time, I'll buy berries, shortcake, and whipped cream, and have that for dessert or a special occasion instead of regular cake or pie or what have you.

Or, as is the case here, I'll try something strawberry shortcake flavored. I mean, it's really just a sweetened strawberry flavor, but if you add milk, I mean...that's creamy, right?

I think the product could have used more strawberry bits. You can always add your own freeze dried strawberries or fresh ones if you have them on hand, but by itself, this cereal is pretty decent, regardless. It's crunchy, berry-esque, and is mostly whole rolled oats sweetened with real cane sugar.

The missus liked it much more than I did and will definitely purchase again. I'll help her finish the bag, for sure, but I don't know if I think it stands head and shoulders above other Target brand granolas. We've looked at quite a few of them throughout the years. Just type "granola" into the Search This Blog bar above, and voila, there are at least seven other Archer Farms and Good and Gather whole oat cereals to read about.

I'd probably give this breakfast food about 7 out of 10 stars, all things being equal, but the beautiful wifey would give it more like a 9, so we'll split the difference.

I give this granola 8 out of 10 stars.

Good & Gather Organic Strawberry Banana Instant Oatmeal

This is some good oatmeal overall, but it needs more of the fruit flavors—especially strawberry. Fortunately, we had some freeze dried strawberries on hand, which improved the taste significantly. It's organic, which is good. No pesticides used on these oats.

There are teeny tiny little bits of dried bananas and dried strawberries in the mix. There's also "strawberry juice" listed, but both of the strawberry elements appear in the "2% or less" part of the ingredients list. In my humble opinion, sweeteners don't get better than "organic cane sugar," which is what we're looking at here. Also, it's the second ingredient rather than the first, falling just after "organic whole grain rolled oats." So...pretty darn healthy by my standards.

I'm starting to wonder if Favorite Day is replacing Archer Farms and if Good & Gather (GAG) is replacing Simply Balanced. The beautiful wifey pointed out the other day that most of GAG's oatmeals are certified organic and have pretty healthy ingredients, while Favorite Day is specializing in things like "indulgent trail mixes" that are loaded with calories and sugar and generally aren't organic.

$2.99 for 8 packs of instant oatmeal. The wife likes it more than I do, and she's made repeat purchases of this product. I'd probably steer the score toward 6 or so, but she'd definitely put it in 8 or 8.5 territory. For her sake, I'll split the difference and throw out 7 stars.

I give this organic oatmeal 7 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Valentine Crunchy Clusters

Dental warning! If you have dental work or any kind of fixtures in your mouth that you want to keep in place, you might want to sit this one out. The caramel in between these pretzels feels like semi-dried super glue. To say it's hard to chew or that it's "sticky" are both understatements. I'd recommend just sucking on them, but that doesn't really work with the pretzels here.

That said, Favorite Day Valentine Crunchy Clusters are quite tasty. The saltiness from the pretzels balances out the sweetness from the white chocolate and caramel, otherwise it might be too far in the direction of SUGAR OVERLOAD​​. But pretzels are the number one ingredient, and there's a fair amount of sodium—maybe even a bit too much sodium if you're watching out for high blood pressure or anything like that.

Some of the pieces are way too big to be bite-sized, and if you try to bite them in half, the pretzel and white drizzle crumble everywhere while the thick, stiff caramel fights against your teeth and tries desperately to hold everything together. It gets messy and uncomfortable.

The clusters are slightly more agreeable texture-wise when warmed. It has been very cold here in the upper midwest and that might account for some of the firmness of the caramel. I don't mean put them in the microwave, although, you never know, that might work. I put my bag of Valentine Crunchy Clusters in front of a space heater for 5 or 10 minutes and that seems to help. The candy is still absurdly hard to chew, but at least I was able to keep my dental crowns intact.

The wifey agrees with my assessment. We definitely won't purchase this product again because of the unyielding caramel mass at the center of each cluster, but if something similar came along that was easier to chew, I'd certainly check it out.

I give these crunchy clusters 5 out of 10 stars.

Favorite Day Strawberries & Crème Indulgent Trail Mix

Isn't it weird how foods qualify as "Valentine's treats" just because they're pink or red? Strawberries are red, therefore they're fair game during Valentine season. Furthermore, anything strawberry-flavored becomes appropriate during this time of year. Throw in some heart-shaped stuff and a spiel about being "made with love" on the packaging and pretty soon you're buying your significant other bags and bags of the trail mix and you don't even know why.

There really aren't even any strawberries in this product at all. The only fruits are cranberries. I guess there's some "strawberry-flavored" elements, but do they even use real strawberry in the flavoring? Try wading through that novel of an ingredients list to find out...

Despite my rant about the lack of strawberry and gimmicky V.D. nonsense, this is a relatively yummy mix. Let's break it down piece by piece:

First up, sweet creme almonds. We've seen these before...or at least something extremely similar. They're downright tasty. Nutty sweet and actually kind of creamy, they're everything I've ever wanted in a candied almond. There's a fair amount of 'em, too, unlike the previous mix we saw them in.

Next, there's heart-shaped coated pretzels. Pretty good. Pretzels covered in a white chocolate glaze with red nonpareils. They're crunchy, salty, and candy-esque. I approve.

Also there are different pastel colors of M&M's candies. Not generic M&M's. Real M&M's. You all know what M&M's are like, so we'll just move on to the next part of the mix.

Confectionary coated sweetened cranberries. These might be my favorite part of the mix. Why oh why is my favorite element always the one they give us the least amount of? These little guys look like wads of white chocolate, but there's sweet, tangy cranberry underneath. I want more of them.

Strawberry-flavored pink shimmer coated pretzel balls. That's a mouthful. Candied pretzel balls are always nice, but there are already white chocolate coated pretzels in this mix, so I found these to be redundant and unnecessary.

Finally, there are cookies with pink and red sprinkles. These are my least favorite element in this bag. Wouldn't you know it, they're also the most overrepresented. They're like bland, stale miniature shortbread cookies. Can I exchange mine for more cranberries?

My wife liked this mix more than I did, mainly because she didn't mind those cookie bits. For her sake, I'll give this product a decent score. $4.49 for the 8 oz resealable bag.

I give this indulgent trail mix 8 out of 10 stars.