Junk Food Nation, hello!  It’s been a crazy weekend and a crazy Monday morning. I know many of you out there are parents, so today in a lot of areas is BACK TO SCHOOL TIME. I was at the mall on Saturday for the first time in forever, and was mobbed by kids and teenagers buying school supplies at a 400% markup. Why the hell are you buying pens at a stationery store, kid??  And gel pens, are you kidding me? Who cares if it has Hello Kitty on the barrel, PENS ARE LIKE $.02 A BOX ONLINE.

Have you ever tried to go shopping for things you ACTUALLY need while kids/parents/maniacs are shopping for back-to-school items?  I was in Target looking for today’s treat, and there were LINES AND LINES of people with carts all over the places. Not just at the cash registers.  Just lines of people waiting, say, to get into the lightbulb aisle.  THERE’S PLENTY OF ENERGY SAVERS FOR EVERYONE, PEOPLE. NO NEED TO SHOVE.

I forgot that Back-to-School also means Move-In Day for a lot of college students. HOLY HELL. Seeing parents with college students arguing over which pre-packaged patterned bed sheet set to get was mind boggling. “No, Dad, it HAS to be maroon!  IT HAS TO BE.” Don’t worry, kids, it doesn’t matter which sheet set you get, because they all feel like sandpaper anyways.

It was so bad this weekend at Walmart that I grabbed an item I wanted, walked to the overflowing checkout lines, calculate my time I’d standing in line, through the junk food item back onto the shelf and got the hell out of there.  I refuse to be trampled by parents carrying cases of mac & cheese for their daughter’s dorm room. NO.

Do you have any good back-to-school shopping stories? Tell me in the comments below.

Sidenote:While DC gets back into the school-swing-of-things, and also looks to brave a final last heat wave over the Labor Day Weekend, I’ll be headed West Coast for the next week. No, I’m not going to tell you why. Just know that I’ll be eating LOTS of In-N-Out while I’m there, and follow me on Instagram to see what else I find out in the Bay Area.

Today’s junk food: Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos!

Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos: The Money Shot

We discussed these Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos back on the Nosh Show Episode 33, and I started seeing them popping up around the internet a couple of weeks ago. After seeing these and Candy Apple M&Ms at Target and Walmart, not to mention the Apple Pie Candy Corn, the message is clear – apple is the flavor for the Fall. Apple everything. Not sure how I feel about this, but I guess there’s only so many ways to cram pumpkin spice into everything.

Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos: 70 cal per cookie

Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos: No apple, no surprise

Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos…love those “natural flavors!”

Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos: GREEN

As soon as I opened up this package of Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos, the immediate smell that wafted out was caramel. STRONG caramel smell. Like, stronger than I wanted.  But at least it was recognizable.

Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos: Green and brown

Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos have green and brown creme – presumably, the green was the apple, and the brown was the caramel?  I certainly hope so.

Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos: Half moon

Tasting the creme of these Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos by themselves first, the flavors were…well, sort of mild.  The brown creme was definitely the “caramel” creme. Still very vanilla-y, like a typical Oreo creme, it did have notes of burnt sugar that I recognized as “caramel.”

The geen “apple” side? Well, this was more interesting…the apple flavor wasn’t a “sour” apple flavor, per se. My Doctor Sis nailed it with that description – the green creme tasted like apple the way that Red Delicious apples taste like apple.  I don’t like Red Delicious apples.  They’re not super crispy and dissolve into mush in your mouth. They have a general sweet apple flavor without much tang.  That’s what these tasted like.  I wanted the green to be SOUR apple, but it was not to be.

Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos

And the cremes eaten together with the cookie?  To me, a big disappointment!  The Golden Oreo sufficintly killed the mild flavors of the creme that I described earlier. Yes, I got a TINY bit of the caramel apple flavor as I chewed, but honestly my brain registered regular Golden Oreo Flavor for the most part.

Unlike the Fruit Punch and the Watermelon Oreos, which I knew people didn’t love, these Limited Edition Caramel Apple Oreos were not bold enough for me.  If you’re gonna DO a fruit flavor, GO FOR GUSTO.  Make me believe these Caramel Apple Oreos taste like, I dunno, APPLE PIE or something!  These did not taste like apple pie – no cinnamon.  These just tasted weak. Plus the creme in these was SUPER squishy – one bite sent all the brown and green creme squirting out the edges.

Verdict?  They didn’t taste BAD, because they didn’t taste bold enough.  I probably wouldn’t get these again. I truly believe if you eat them, you won’t be offended…but that’s sort of the reason why I give these not the highest marks.  I give these a definite “meh.”

PURCHASED AT: Target

COST: Amazingly, these were 2 for $3.00. Which also means I have two of these packages. Yikes.

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy