Food Crime #3: Protein Drink Kraft Dinner
A total of five people tried this meal during a tabletop game session.
I was unable to buy any individual bottle of this stuff, so today we experimented using the Boost branded 4 Flavour Multipack. The flavours we sampled with our Kraft Dinner were Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, and Chocolate Latte.
I divided two packages of KD into four sample-sized portions. Since the standard box calls for a 1/3rd Cup of Milk, which is about 5 and 1/2 Tablespoons, each sample had a little over 2 tablespoons of protein drink each.
The Strawberry flavour (bottom left image) had two drops of food colouring added to it to distinguish it from the Vanilla flavour, as they would have been the same colour otherwise. The Chocolate Latte was slightly darker than the Vanilla flavour, but not nearly as dark as the Chocolate.
The Vanilla and Chocolate were definitely the most tolerable for an average person. They had a similar problem to our first Food Crime, Oreos with Soup Stock Powder, due to the flavours literally getting lost in the sauce.
The Strawberry and Chocolate Latte flavours stood out for different reasons.
With the Strawberry, the taste is equally strong to the cheese powder mix. One person jokingly compared it to eating a strawberry cheesecake. Another person commented that they detected the texture of the KD first, and only after having the taste hit them that they felt their brain signalling to them that this was wrong. I was too busy reenacting a specific clip from Ratatouille.
The Chocolate Latte flavour was more... confusing. Yes, the chocolate flavour was there, but the latte flavour didn't fully make it. Something about the process of adding it to the cheese powder made it lose any coffee flavour, but there was still some kind of Taste. We noted that it had a more tart / sour taste, and that it had a strange aftertaste. What personally stood out to me was that the qualities that a latte flavour should normally have were applied to the chocolate half of the flavour instead. It was as if the chocolate became more bitter, more... roasted. And then you smeared the cheese all over it.
The Vanilla Flavour gets a 4/10. This is the one where the flavour of the protein drink affects your flavours the least. Do this one if you want to make your mac and cheese more nourishing without making it entirely from scratch.
The Chocolate gets a 3.5/10. It has a stronger flavour contrast than the Vanilla but is not nearly as strong as the Strawberry, so it gets sandwiched between those rankings.
The Strawberry gets a 3/10. Only try it if you really, desperately want "strawberry cheesecake" to be a macaroni flavour and also don't mind your cheesecake being made with imitation cheddar. I acknowledge that my taste preferences differed from my friends when we ate this one and I will be adding a Bias tag to this.
And finally, the Chocolate Latte gets a 2/10. Strange but edible. The aftertaste lingers in your mouth for too long for it to be ranked any higher.
Hot Cheetos and Milk will be reviewed in a separate post as this one has gotten too long.
