Sorry, I haven’t been updating lately with yummy Cheap Eats posts. I also haven’t had as much time to cook lately which is why you haven’t seen any “recipes” for awhile. And it’s a lot quicker to put together a Cheap Eats product review than a Cheap Eats recipe…

I’ve actually temporarily run out of interesting cheap food products to review, but here is one that I’ve kept on the back burner for awhile. You might remember in the Generic Soda post I had actually given Albertson’s Black Cherry Soda an OK mark of 5/10. Well, here is it’s brother: Albertson’s Vanilla Soda and unfortunately it didn’t do as well.

Carbonation of the generic soda was a problem with the Generic Black Cherry soda… open it and re-cap it for a day, and you lost all the fizz! The same is true with this Vanilla Soda. But whereas the black cherry soda at least had an unusual, albeit artificial flavor, the vanilla soda tasted just plain awful.

Continue reading “Albertson’s Vanilla Soda” …

The 900 pound gorilla that is Coke was a shoe-in for winning the Favorite Soda Poll. I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember the Pepsi Challenge that they used to have outside of supermarkets many years ago. They’d basically blindfold you and ask you to drink from a cup of Pepsi and a cup of Coke. Then they’d ask you to pick which one you liked better.

My cousin and her friends took the challenge and she said it was kind of funny how nearly ALL of them picked Coke, after which the people running the challenge became extremely rude and basically told them to “move along”. Funny, but typical. Anyhow, going by taste alone I’m a Coke guy myself, and I really like their newer additions, Vanilla Coke and Lime Coke. I hope these don’t go “out of print” like their earlier forays into non-classic style colas.

It’s no surprise that Pepsi lost to Coke in the poll, but what I’m a bit more surprised is how WELL that Dr. Pepper did in nearly beating out Pepsi. Dr. Pepper is a bit of a love it or hate it deal, at least with people I know. I actually like Dr. Pepper a lot and will generally choose it over Classic Coke when given a chance. However, many people I know liken the taste to “medicine” or cough syrup.

Mountain Dew, our good old nuclear green-yellow friend, brought up the rear unsurprisingly. Apparently, “doing the Dew” is not the best slogan in the world. I get that confused with “doing doo-doo” which is an altogether different slogan, hehe. I felt their commercials were pretty lame. But then, there aren’t too many good soda commercials as it is… they all seem to want to show lame untalented pop stars. I’m sure someone will write to prove me wrong. Just don’t get me started on American Idol…

The new poll up at the top of the page is for your favorite chips. I was going to have an “other” category, and then I just decided to hell with it. I’m going to make you pick one of the four… Doritos, Cheetos, Lays, or Pringles.

Besides teaching kids how to mispell the word “cool”, Kool-Aid is known for its gigantically rotund pitcher-with-a-face that roams around busting out of brick walls in commercials and yelling “Oh yeah!!” The other day I got a free package of grape Kool-Aid in the mail from a friend and so I decided to mix it up and see if it was just like when I was a kid.

Not much has changed in the way of product; take some artificial coloring, add dry artificial flavoring, put it in a pouch, and sell it as a drink. Although, nowadays they have those Kool-Aid “Jammers” which are pre-mixed drink boxes. You’re mostly paying for the box, the water, and the convenience there. You could just as well pre-mix some and bottle it for your picnic.

So I went ahead and followed the directions on making up a batch of it. Or rather, I ALMOST followed the directions which start off with “Take a cup of sugar and …”. A CUP! If you haven’t made any baked goods in awhile you will be shocked to find out exactly how much a cup of sugar is. Even if it’s meant to go with 2 quarts of water, it’s unbelievable. I measured off a cup of sugar and looked at it for awhile before decided that the cup of sugar is meant for the KIDS version. You know how little kids will bounce up and down for hours on end like jack in the boxes? This is the reason why.

I ended up mixing up the Kool-Aid with 1/3 cup of sugar and about 1 1/2 quarts of water. This actually made it quite tart, which was excellent since I like drinks a lot more sour than most people. I might even be tempted to go with 1/4 cup of sugar or less. The taste was not bad, I mean what can you expect from artificial flavors plus water and sugar. It was a bit metallic tasting which was my only complaint.

One note is that the mix concentrate has a habit of staining anything it touches. While I was ripping open the mix pouch I accidentally got some of the powder on my hands. Wow, it looked just like a changed the oil on my car! Gulping down a glass of the mix, I felt the artificial dyes slowly coating my throat. It also does quite a number on your tongue, turning it nice and deep purple. This is what you get when you mix “Red 40″ and “Blue 1″. No worse than any number of candies on the market though.

On the whole, I think the drink mix is pretty good because it makes such a large quantity. The only bummer for me is that as the package states it is caffeine free… I actually would like some added caffeine in there to go along with the pretty purple colors. I didn’t buy the pouch so I don’t know how much it is, but I imagine it should be pretty cheap if you buy it in a bulk cannister. And on the bright side according to the package it is “Not a significant source of Fat Cal, Sat Fat, Trans Fat, Cholesterol, Fiber, Sugars, Vitamin A, Calcium, and Iron.”

Cheap Eats Score: 7/10

So the situation is that Memorial Day is rolling around and you’re inviting a bunch of so-called friends and family over for some BBQ grub. Getting your grocery list ready, you decide to pick up some soda for the masses. Oh sure, it’d be much cheaper to just mix up a big batch of lemonade or fruit punch. But there’s always some naysayer in the bunch who wants a dose of real carbonated, teeth melting sodypop. You don’t want to spend a lot of money, so what should you buy to please that party pooper?

If you know me, I’m always up for a little “generic brand” experimentation. At the supermarket this past week, lured by the cheap prices and the nostalgia factor (I have good memories of drinking Shasta black cherry soda when I was a kid), I picked up this $0.69 two liter bottle of Albertson’s Black Cherry Soda.

I’ve tried generic brand soda before (I think Ralph’s is called “Max”?) but mostly the lemon-lime variety which isn’t so bad, and cola which IS very bad. I usually don’t get the “strange” flavors like this time. Interestingly, I think Albertson’s has a “knockoff” of Mountain Dew called “Mountain Wave” or something that I was also tempted to buy. Just for grins.

So anyway, the major problem that I have with the fakey generic sodas is that the sweetness is inversely proportional to the price. This goes doubly for fruit flavors like strawberry, pineapple-orange and black cherry soda. The kid in me says hooray, but in reality it’s like drinking berry pie filling.

Continue reading “Generic Brand Soda” …

Before going out and buying either bulk canned drinks or two litre bottles of soda to save a little, you might want to consider dry flavor drink mixes like Lemonade. Most markets sell large canisters of drink mixes like Lemonade and Limeade. And of course there is the old standard - Tang.

While I certainly dig Tang (the astronaut’s drink of choice of course) it can tend to be a little more expensive. In any case, if you can get one of the really large canisters at Costco, Target or any other bulk food store you can really rack up some savings. The one I got, weighs in at a whopping 5 pounds and costs about $6. It comes with a convenient plastic scoop inside so you don’t have to measure; just scoop and mix.

Continue reading “Lemonade Mix” …

Two Buck Chuck, which actually goes under the name Charles Shaw, can be found exclusively at Trader Joe’s stores (over 150 stores exist). It got the name Two Buck Chuck from it’s extraordinary price of only $1.99 (in California at least). However, it has become somewhat of a legend among wine consumers because it has repeatedly shot down much more expensive wines, some more than $15!

Needless to say, this is a true Cheap Eats value. Wine in any quantity is way too expensive for a lot of cheap eaters, but this wine is cheaper than some bottled water for chrissakes! There are five varieties to choose from: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz. I’ve tried the Cabernet, Merlot and the Sauvignon and though I’m no wine expert they were all extremely pleasant to drink. I’ve also tried cooking up a beef stew using the Cabernet as a deglazer and it lent a really complex nice flavor to the sauce. The wine is so well known around my area that bringing Charles Shaw to a party (especially during the holidays) is certainly not looked down upon and in fact encouraged! After all, at less than two bucks a bottle, you can buy a whole case and even give it out as gifts.

Continue reading “Two Buck Chuck” …