Item 1 – Off Brand Ritz crackers

Mattie

• 10/10
• Notes: They were buttery, savory, and all that a cracker should be. Though Ritz traditionally carries the crown for crackers, these generic ones seem much more deserving of that title to me. It’s rare to find an off brand item that is better than the original, but these crackers do that and more. DELICIOUS, perfect texture, less crummy than a Ritz, high quality cracker

Emmalee

• 10/10
• Notes: Undeniably a 10/10 stars. If these crackers were a drink and I was in one of those videos where they make people guess drinks without seeing them, I don’t think I could tell the difference between these crackers and a Ritz. They were buttery, crunchy and soft in all of the best ways. I might even prefer these to an original Ritz due to the fact that they are less crumbly. Whoever made these crackers must have had a rat living under their hat because they’re perfect. 

Item 2 – Off Brand gummy bears

Emmalee

• 3/10
• Notes: These gummy bears were actually horrendous, and were quite possibly the biggest let down of all of the foods we tried. I’m not exaggerating when I say that they tasted like soap. My first impression of these gummy bears left me with high expectations. They felt like they were going to be softer and easier to chew than the average Haribo, and they smelled fairly standard. When actually eating these, though, it could quickly be realized they were not a name brand gummy bear. The soft feeling quickly faded away, revealing that these gummy bears were actually very chewy, but in the worst way possible. Many times, a Haribo bear will feel like it’s going to be hard at first, but the enjoyer will find it manageable. These gummy bears were the opposite of that. However, this could all be put aside if it weren’t for the absolutely awful flavor of these bears. They’re icky and overall wrong in a TikTok thirst trap kind of way. They should honestly be embarrassed to bear the gummy bear name. I tried a pineapple flavor, and there aren’t honestly many ways to mess up pineapple. Unfortunately, these bears found a way. The initial flavor was faint and vaguely pineapple, but was just there, not too prominent. The after taste, however, was unmistakably soap. The after taste of these bears is exactly what I would imagine eating laundry scent beads would taste like. Overall, I feel that these gummy bears make the real thing look fantastic. If this was a person’s first impression of a gummy bear, trying the real thing would probably feel heavenly. Unfortunately for me, this was not my first time trying gummy bears, and I was greatly let down. I would give these a very generous 3/10 stars.

Item 3 – Crav’n Cookies

Tommy

• 7/10
• The Crav’n Cookies are a really good mimicry of real Oreos, but they aren’t really anything more than that. The flavor is a little bit worse, but it is probably not noticeable if you aren’t paying a lot of attention. The texture is by far the biggest difference. There is much less cream in the middle and the crunch of the outside cookie is nowhere near as satisfying as the original. Crav’n Cookies are a pretty good alternative to Oreos but don’t stand out in any meaningful way.

Brandon

• 7.6/10
• The Crav’n Cookies are a decent backup option to Oreos. They were sweet and had roughly the same taste as an Oreo, but weren’t there all the way. The size was underwhelming compared to an actual Oreo, and the texture was obviously different due to the different ridges on the actual cookie.

Item 4 – Coastal Bay Confections Peach Ring  

Tommy

• 4/10
• The general brand peach ring is a pretty lousy knockoff. It is rare that food makes you fight to find the flavor in every bite, but the generic peach ring does just that. They are chewier than I am used to from peach rings, but that isn’t necessarily a negative. It is a similar size and look to the original, so all of the issues really boil down to the lackluster taste. When your taste buds detect a hint of peach, that’s all it is – a basic peach flavoring. They are fine, but a pretty middling alternative. 

Brandon

• 5/10
• I really like peach rings and was very disappointed when I had one of the off brand peach rings. There wasn’t a significant taste like that of a normal peach ring, and the sugar coat on the outside was purely a textural and apparel trait.

Item 5 – Marshmallow Glitters

Megan

• 6/10
• These were pretty much the same as Lucky Charms. The cereal’s aftertaste was a bit questionable, but overall, I couldn’t tell an actual difference between the two. The marshmallow matched perfectly when it came to texture, consistency and taste, but the cereal itself was lacking. I’m not completely opposed to getting this cereal again, but if I had the choice, I would get regular Lucky Charms. Overall, I’d give it a 6/10. 

Jaidyn

• 6/10
• I personally didn’t mind. The texture was the same as a normal bowl of Lucky Charms. The marshmallows were very good and I was happy with the taste, but the actual cereal was a bit weird. I didn’t completely enjoy the taste, but it wasn’t awful and the crunch was still there. Overall, I would give the Marshmallow Glitters a 6/10.

Lily

• 4/10
• Honestly not bad. It had the same consistency and texture as the Lucky Charms marshmallows but was a little harder than the cereal part. The actual cereal part had a little bit of an odd aftertaste. It could’ve been way better, it just didn’t taste as good as normal Lucky Charms. Overall I would rate this a 4/10 just because the cheerio didn’t quite add up. 

Item 6 – Thin Mints

Megan

• 8/10
• I’ve never had a Thin Mint until now. This generic brand was my first ever impression of a Thin mint, and I have to say, it set my expectations pretty high. Since I’ve never had the original it’s a little hard to compare it to the actual Thin Mints, but I thought the balance between the chocolate coating and minty insides was nothing short of perfect. I can’t go into detail about the difference between generic and Girl Scout brands, but I can say this was an 8/10 in my book. 

Jaidyn

• 7/10
• Having known what a Thin Mint tasted like, I was really hoping it would taste good and it in fact did. I honestly couldn’t tell much of a difference from the off-brand Thin Mints to the Girl Scout ones. It had that crunch when you first bite into it like a normal Thin Mint. The only difference I think about it was that a normal Thin Mint seems to be a little bit thicker than the off-brand one, but it wasn’t too much of a problem. Overall, I would give the Thin Mints a 7/10.

Lily

• 8/10
• Honestly, this tastes almost exactly the same as a thin mint. I loved this cookie and how the inside was chocolate instead of the normal green. The mint wasn’t overbearing and crazy, and the chocolate wasn’t too bad. The chocolate coating wasn’t the worst, but wasn’t the best. It was waxy and didn’t taste much like chocolate but it got the job done. Overall this cookie is an 8/10.

Item 7 – Cheddar Whales 

Makenzie

• 9/10
• A cracker in the shape of a goldfish has made itself into the easiest, most affordable and addicting snack every child and adult should stuff into their lunchboxes before a long day at school and work. However, in every great name-brand product, there’s a wider gray area for other corporations to take the snack we know and love and turn it into something we kinda know and might kinda love. The most popular off-brand “Goldfish” is in the shape of a whale. This snack is something we have tried beforehand, and I have always had no problem with the way that they tasted. The proportions are about the same, the whales only being slightly bigger in scale compared to the original fish shape. After trying them, we came to the conclusion that it tasted almost like a “Goldfish” and “Cheez-It” combined. The cheesy flavoring on the whale was equivalent to the “Extra Cheddar Flavor Blasted Goldfish,” but the cracker itself resembled the taste and the hardness of a “Cheez-It.” Addi described it as: “The first second was a Goldfish and the next second was a Cheez-It. But I didn’t mind it.”

Item 8 – Off-brand butter cookies 

Makenzie

• 7/10
• The next snack we tasted were vanilla cookies, supposedly rip-offs of the Danish butter cookies. Our expectations were low, reasonably, because nothing could compare to the taste of the real deal Danish butter cookies your grandmother would store in a tin sewing can. The cookie itself was underwhelming, mostly because we didn’t expect it to be the greatest. Ryan said that the cookies felt like eating sawdust, and completely lacked any distinct flavor. They were softer and easy to bite into, but they had little taste. There was no overwhelming vanilla or buttery flavor. Addi claims it’s the perfect snack for lent because it was one of the only off-brand snacks she could try, due to fasting. 

Item 9 – Dr. Bob

Lila

• 7.5/10
• Tommy brought in Dr. Bob, and poured it into red solo cups for everyone to sample. Expectations were somewhat high since the name was silly and the fact that most people enjoy a classic Dr. Pepper. The color and smell of the soda was the same as the on-brand version. The Bob was honestly just very sweet and not carbonated, and everything else was the same. I liked it, but it doesn’t beat regular soda or Dr. Pepper. I feel like no matter how cold it was it was still flat. The sweetener tasted like liquid Stevia, which is gross. It wasn’t great, but not terrible enough to openly complain about it. I’d give the drink maybe a 7 or a 7.5. Initially I really liked it, but the whimsy wore off after a couple minutes. 

Cevin

• 6/10
• Dr. Bob tasted almost the same as Dr. Pepper, but with less flavor and not as sweet. Dr. Pepper usually isn’t my favorite anyways, but I think if you’re desperate for carbonation and a little bit of sugar Dr. Bob has you covered. I think in visual terms it looked exactly the same regarding the brown, fizzy soda that is Dr. Pepper. Overall, I would rate it a 6/10. 

Item 10 – Coconut cookies

Lila

• 8/10
• I love girl scout cookies, but Samoas are my absolute favorite. When I learned that we had an off-brand version of them, I obviously took on writing a review. The appearance was the same as the original. I think they’re a good cookie and have potential, but aren’t something worth buying over the actual cookie. Girl scout cookies are a very specific brand that seems difficult to replicate. I know that the Thin Mints we tried were bad, but these are pretty alright. I’m not ecstatic about any of the cookies, but I would give these an 8/10. Not special, but not bad. 

Cevin

• 8/10
• Samoas are my favorite girl scout cookie by far. I think the off-brand version of them lived up to the success but also had its downfall regarding texture. Overall, I don’t think I would be able to tell the difference when given them blindly. I thought the coconut flavor was definitely there and would rate them an 8/10. 

Item 11 – Rainbow Ropes

Izayah

• 4/10
• I didn’t really have any high expectations for the rainbow ropes, but they didn’t look too bad. I think they look better than they taste. I’m not a big fan of candy or specifically sour candy, but they were just mediocre. It wasn’t terrible but wasn’t anything to write home about. I would give this candy a rating of 4/10. 

  Eric

• 5/10
• I believe the ropes had a weird texture and were tough to chew through. It didn’t look too good. The sugar coating was very random and didn’t make it taste good. I would give it a 5/10 and was not what I was expecting at all. I used to eat them when I was younger and I used to like them but now they don’t taste like they used to.