Ripple Plant Milk

I got the chance to try Ripple plant-based milk for free thanks to MyMagazine Sharing Network. In the interest of full disclosure, I have purchased the Unsweetened Original flavor in the past on my own and did not like it at all. I typically use this type of product as a drink or over cereal, and I found the taste to be very strong and unpleasant. I drank about half a cup and then gave the rest of the bottle to a friend.

So for this free product trial, I decided to try the Chocolate variety seen here. My usual morning beverage is chocolate soy milk, but I still have mixed opinions about consuming that much soy, so I was hoping this would be a great alternative.

Upon opening and pouring the product, I found it to be very think. Almost the consistency of cream versus milk. I took a small sip and found it to be far too thick, so I added some water. However, even that first sip was not very promising. This does not taste like any chocolate beverage that I have ever had. The chocolate does nothing to mask the underlying flavor of the pea protein. I've been trying to come up with some way to describe the flavor of the pea protein base, but I really just can't. In addition, there is an almost metallic undertone to it and it is very bitter and leaves a very bitter aftertaste in my mouth for a long time. Finally, I found myself to be very upper-GI system gassy after drinking this. I burped regularly for at least an hour after finishing one glass.

I have since had a second glass that I again watered down and this time added ice before drinking. I still don't like the product, but if I drink it quickly, I can get it down so I will not waste the bottle. However, this brand (and I have tried the yogurt as well) is not one I can recommend. I'll stick to soy milk for now.

Ripple Greek Yogurt Alternative

Thanks to MyMagazine Sharing Network, I got the chance to try Ripple Greek Yogurt Alternative for free. As a coincidence, a friend of mine had also given me one of these as she had purchased them but didn't really like them. So I ended up trying both the maple and blueberry flavors.
I tried the maple first. It wasn't horrible, but it also wasn't very good. There wasn't really much actual maple flavor. If you had given it to me and not told me what flavor it was, I would not have been able to tell you. And it contains real maple syrup according to the label. I could definitely taste the pea-protein base (Ripptein is their trademarked name for this). It's a pretty strong, distinctive flavor. I also found the mouth feel to be a bit astringent. After eating it, my mouth felt really dry. Also, the consistency is much closer to regular yogurt, not Greek yogurt. It is pretty thin. And finally, the aftertaste of the product, which was not good, lasted for a long time. I went ahead and tried the blueberry, hoping that the flavor of blueberries would do more to cover up the Ripptein flavor. No. It was actually worse. I took one bite and threw the rest away. I'll stick to soy yogurt for now when I want a non-dairy product, which probably says a lot about how I felt about the Ripple. If you want to find out more about the line, check it out here: Ripple

Kroger spa line

Let me start by saying that I am not a girly-girl. I don't wear make-up and my typical beauty routine is nothing more than washing my face and using sunscreen. However, as I get older, I realize I should probably do more, so I was definitely intrigued by my free samples from the Kroger Spa line.

I started with trying the exfoliating facial mask. I have to admit, I have never used a sheet mask before, but I've seen videos on the internet, so I figured it would be pretty easy. I have to say, it was a lot messier than I expected it to be. First, when I pulled it out of the packaging, it had already come partially free from the backing, so even just unfolding it was a challenge. The backing basically just fell off as I pulled it out. Once I got it out and unfolded, I found it to be very wet, almost to the point of drippy. It took me a while to get it on my face and it didn't really seem to fit very well. It seemed too narrow at my eyes and was far too big from edge to edge and top to bottom (and I have a fairly big head). I actually had to tear it a little to keep it from being over the outside corners of my eyes. Also, if you wear glasses, plan on not doing anything for 20 minutes since you will no be able to wear them with the mask on. I waited 20 minutes and removed it. The directions tell you to then just pat in the remaining product, but there was so much product left on my face that this was just not possible. I had to rinse. Parts of my face were quite red after use, but this went away within 45 minutes (maybe less). My skin did feel smoother after use, but that's the only difference I saw. By the next day, I couldn't really see anything different about my skin. I'm not sure how I feel about trying the other masks, so I gave the hydrating one to a friend to use.

For the price, I think about $3, these are fine. But they aren't something that I am likely to buy in the future. I am interested in checking out the bath products, so I will look for them in the future.

Kozy Shack Indulgent puddings

Thanks to BzzAgent, I had the chance to try Kozy Shack's new Indulgent Puddings line. They come in four flavors: Chocolate Truffle, Salted Caramel, Dark Chocolate, and Vanilla Bean. I received coupons for two free products, so I tried the Dark Chocolate and the Salted Caramel (my store only carried 3 of the 4 - they did not have the Chocolate Truffle).

Let me just say, these are really good. I mean, really good. The flavors are incredible (although I did wish that the caramel had a stronger caramel flavor - I thought the salty to caramel ratio was a bit off). They are super smooth and creamy. They don't have that gummy mouth feel that the shelf-stable pudding cups have. Really a delight to eat.

The ingredients are pretty great, too. Not much in the way of chemical additives and things you can't pronounce. For example, the salted caramel contains: Reduced fat milk, cream, brown sugar, modified tapioca starch, and less than 2% of caramel color, sea salt, natural flavors, carrageenan, maltodextrin. The dark chocolate is very similar. That being said, these are definitely not a health food. They are pretty high calorie and high fat. But as an indulgent dessert from time to time, they are pretty wonderful. (Note: I don't have any memory of how much they cost. They weren't cheap, but I don't recall them being horribly expensive.)

I will definitely consider buying these again in the future.

Robitussin 12-Hour Cough Relief

Thanks to CrowdTap, I was able to get a free sample of this product.

Now, CrowdTap has very short turn-around times on their missions, so I can't really talk about the effectiveness of the product. The active ingredient is an extended-release dextromethorphan. But this mission was mainly focused on the flavor. It comes in grape and orange, but the store where I got it only had orange. In short, the flavor is awful. There is very little orange-ness to it. It is thick and gritty and just tastes like nasty medicine. This product is going to have to work significantly better than the short-acting version for me to consider buying it in the future.

Kashi Overnight Muesli

I was so excited to try this as I have enjoyed most Kashi products I have had in the past, but I was very disappointed in it.


I tried the cherry-almond flavor, using 2% milk. After sitting in the refrigerator for almost 10 hours, I found the kashi to still be very runny and the grains to still be far too chewy. So I stuck it in the microwave. And let me just say that the amount of time they say is not nearly enough to warm it. I think I ended up doing it three times longer. At that point, it was warm, and the grains had softened a tiny bit more. And at this point I could at least eat it. The flavor was overwhelmingly cinnamon. Cinnamon, cinnamon, and more cinnamon. You could barely taste the grains, almonds, or cherries over the cinnamon. And there were very few cherries or almonds. (And I just went and looked at the Kashi website. There was cardamon in there? Really? I love cardamon. Did not taste a bit of it. And my finished product looked nothing like their picture.)

Now the cost. Wow. $2.49 for one serving. Even for it being organic, that is outrageous. There was barely 1/3 cup of stuff in the container (yes, I measured it before I added milk), most of that whole oats. You can get organic rolled oats for well under $2/pound. So I'm guessing I could make this mix myself for no more than $.50/serving. And that's with me buying ingredients retail. That's quite a markup. Overall, I see this product as yet another in a long line of "I've got money to burn and I'm too busy to do things myself and I don't care about the extra packaging that I'm just going to throw away" products that are all the rage these days.

It's a shame, Kashi. I've lost respect for you with just this one product. #freesample #houseparty #chatterbox

Drip drop hydration

Through Smiley 360, I got the chance to try Drip Drop hydration for free.

Overall, I thought the product worked really well. It seemed to do more for hydration than leading sports drinks. However, I do have to admit that I don't usually drink a full 8 or 10 ounces of those when I use them, and I was doing that with Drip Drop, so it's possible the difference wasn't that much.

However, when I look at the product as a whole, my opinion goes downhill. I found the flavors to be average at best. I tried both the lemon and the berry. The lemon tasted closer to a natural flavor, but both were tolerable, but underwhelming. Neither of them really tasted like "real lemon" or "real berry." And there was some after-taste. They were also far too sweet. I mean, insanely sweet. I really had to push myself to finish the whole glass. The second time I used it, I diluted it more which made it more palatable.

The ingredients is where it really bombed for me. The product contains sucralose. I see no need for this as it also contains a couple kinds of sugar. I avoid all products that contain sucralose (and other artificial sweeteners). Because of this alone, I am hesitant to recommend it to anyone, and especially hesitant to recommend it being given to children.

It also costs over $1 per serving, so it's fairly expensive. Overall rating - fair.