Smooze! Fruit Ice $5/box Review

I "wander" in the grocery store sometimes. And this was one of those times. I was looking for canned maraschino cherries and after I found them, I lingered around the aisle and these caught my eye. How could I not be sucked in by them? The bright colors? The funny little stick drawing and the lure of sweet icy goodness!


They are Smooze! Fruit Ice and they come in a box of 10 and each box comes in 4 different flavors!
1. Mango + Cococnut
2. Pink Guava + Coconut
3. Passion Fruit + Coconut
4. Pineapple + Coconut


I grabbed a box of each flavor(except for the Pineapple one cause it wasn't on the shelves). I love that these are made from 100% real fruit juice and fruit purees. They are completely dairy-free, rich in Vitamin C, fat-free, cholesterol-free, preservative-free, gluten-free and GM-free! They're absolutely a good-for-you snack and at 50 cents a piece - very economical too!


Inside the box, the fruit ice is individually packaged in this funny looking trapezoid carton. You can snip off one of the edges and use the other end to "push-up" the frozen treat. These won't work well, if you tear into it immediately. I wash the outside of the carton under some cold water (for sanitary purposes as you will be putting your mouth directly on the carton) and this seems to do the trick to loosen the treat from the sides. It's kind of like an eco-friendly push-pop (Did I just give away my age? Does anyone still remember those?)!

These are so nice after a workout, when I just want to cool off and the texture is a nice blend of juice and smoothie. The smoothie part is the fruit puree and it melts slowly to ensure you can enjoy every bit of fruity goodness to the end. The juice part is the coconut juice and it melts just a bit more quickly so that it quenches your thirst without being drippy.


My very favorite has turned out to be the Mango! At first I thought "eh, mango - how common" but the flavor is wonderfully tropical! A very very VERY close second is the Pink Guava. I love guava juice and I'm always such a sucker for anything guava. It's such a common fruit in asia, but not here in the U.S. so when I see guava anything - I'm hypnotized and can't say no. I thought Passion Fruit would be my suprise winner, but turns out I've no passion for it. It's a bit sour and the flavor doesn't quite do it for me. I have to admit I've never had passion fruit itself, so I can't say if it's the fruit I'm not a fan of or if it's the Smooze! creators that screwed it up. I will give the latter the benefit of the doubt and say I probably just don't like passion fruit.


Just wanted to show how both the production and expiration dates are printed on the box.

J&M Cheese Straws

These are not my idea of "cheese straws". I think of cheese straws as puffy breads but these were tasty nonetheless! They made from only all natural ingredients and I was hungry when I spotted these so I couldn't resist!


First the Original flavor - these were like a sophisticated grown-up cheese nips. I was never a fan of nips because of the dry cracker texture but these have a crumbly texture that melts in your mouth. They also leave a nice spicy after note too! I ate these plain and did not try it with chocolate (as suggested on the box).


Of the two, I preferred the flavor of the Asiago ones. It's got asaigo cheese and rosemary baked into them and I love rosemary! These were more crumbly than the original (I'm guessing because of the rosemary in the batter) and were non-spicy.


They've got a whole line of these in different flavors and I'd like to try the Bleu Cheese ones next. I wouldn't say these are a go-to snack for me, but I love giving any kind of food a try at least once.

Maamoul Date Filled Cookies

My good friend from Saudi wanted me to taste these cookies. I'm always eager to eat international sweets since they're usually not cloyingly sweet like the ones here in the U.S.


These cookies were great! The texture of the crust is soft and crumbly and the filling is similar to a preserve. There's not chunks of dates but you there's a light crunch from the seeds.



Ingredients


Nutrition Info