Junk Food Nation, just felt like ranting about something random today.  What is the deal with the price of haircuts?  When I was a kid, in my tiny rural town in upstate New York, haircuts cost $9. I’d give $1 for a tip – a nice fat Alexander Hamilton total. Then I moved to New Jersey for college. Haircuts were $21 dollars all of a sudden!  I gave $4 as a tip – gulp. When I moved to NYC post-college, I got my hair snipped in one of those shady places down inside the subway – for $15.

Since then in DC, I’ve paid anywhere between $15 and $20 for a haircut. My female friends, however, spend anywhere between between $175 and $250 for a haircut!  WHAT? Look I know that when I get a haircut, I don’t get all the massages, hair treatment, facial peels, water with orange slices in it, coffee, wine, foot rubs, stock advice, oil changes, clothes hemming, three-course buffets, but STILL – that seems like a LOT of money, no?

But then a female friend told me: “Well, you get your hair cut every 2-3 weeks at $20 a pop, and I just get my haircut twice a year.” I thought about this – if true, I spend anywhere from $345 to $520 a year. If true for her, she’d be spending anywhere from $350 to $500 a year… damn, I guess it is about the same. Maybe *I* should get my haircut only twice a year…but then I’d look like a Japanese anime character! Lose-lose.

Today’s junk food: Xtra Chocolatey Goldfish Flavor Blasted Grahams!

The Money Shot

The last time I reviewed Flavor Blasted Grahams, the conclusion I reached was that these Grahams tasted good but didn’t live up to the promised flavor.  But how could Pepperidge Farm screw up chocolate, right? Chocolate plus anything should be good, and chocolate grahams sound tasty.

Spoonful of chocolate

I like how, in order to convey “Xtra Chocolate,” the thinkers at Pepperidge Farm went with a cartoon spoon dripping with brown. Way to go, marketing department. Did your interns do this?  I also applaud intentional wacky spellings on my snacks. Going from Extra to Xtra doesn’t really take that much effort though..

Chocolatey fish swimming away!

What the goldfish look like: a dark chocolate colored graham cracker fish sprinkled with some light brown powder.  I’m going to presume this is cocoa, or something.

Doesn't make any sense the second time around

You know, they had this on the other package, and I have no idea what to make of it then, either. WHAT IS SOCKBOARDING, PEPPERIDGE FARMS?? And what does it have to do with goldfish????

Wonderful chocolatey sheen

The grahams themselves, to their credit, looked even better than the photos on the front of the bag. Dark, rich in color, the grahams looked inviting and tasty.  Even the bag smelled slightly of chocolate.  But the proof would be in the taste…

Smile if you like chocolate

…crunch crunch…. not bad.  Much like the other review I wrote about these goldfish grahams, they actually do taste pretty good.  The initial chewing of each goldfish gave off a slightly bitter rich chocolate flavor that as it mixed with the sweetness of the graham produced a balanced chocolately flavor. I am unsure what the extra sprinkle was, as I didn’t feel it gave it any real additional chocolate flavor.

I give these chocolate grahams a solid B rating – I didn’t think it was XTRA chocolatey, but I thought they tasted decent.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy