(upbeat music)
- Hey munchies, welcome to the channel
if you're new or if you're not,
I'm Alyssia and I'm stoked you're here either way.
Today I am going through an Aldi haul with you.
I don't actually have an Aldi very close to me anymore,
when I lived in New York City,
I shopped there all the time,
but since moving to California
the nearest one is about an hour away unfortunately.
So I don't get over there often,
but I did go out there to do
the Aldi versus Trader Joe's price comparison video,
so I though I would get some haul items
because I never get to shop there
and they've grown so much!
I can't believe how much much new stuff they have!
So I thought I'm gonna buy some snacks,
I'm gonna show em to you, and I'm gonna taste test em too
because most of this stuff I have never tried.
I'm gonna show you some general snacks,
some staple items that I would get all the time
if I had an Aldi near me and some specialty items,
that I don't think they carry all the time,
but you know in that specialty aisle
they like get new stuff each week or month
or seasonally or whatever, we're gonna go there too.
First up, lets start with general snacks.
Cauliflower Crackers, I couldn't believe it,
I walked in and the first thing in the first aisle
is this, I'm like, this is what Aldi's doing now,
crackers made out of cauliflower!
I have also been looking for a Cheez-It
that's gluten free for like forever, that tastes decent.
So, we'll see if this does.
But, when I picked it up I was amazed
the ingredients are actually pretty good,
the base is cauliflower flour, rice flour and cassava flour,
so it's not like it's really cauliflower in a cracker,
there's other stuff in there too.
We've got cheddar flavor and salt,
I'm gonna try the cheddar today.
These are also gluten free and vegan.
Okay, okay, so it is the shape of a Cheez-It,
its got like the little ridges, they're not as defined.
Hmm, it doesn't take like a Cheez-It (laughing).
It is pretty good actually,
but it does taste like a cheesy cracker,
it doesn't taste like a gluten free cracker.
I wish I'd bought more boxes, why did I only buy one box.
Next up, Fruit Strips.
I love Fruit Strips, I usually buy these ones
from Trader Joe's, these are like the regular strips
and these are the leather buttons or whatever.
But I like them because the ingredients,
there's not added sugar.
They're not organic, but I was happy with the ingredients.
There's a very short ingredients list
and it's mostly fruit concentrate, not added sugar.
I'm not gonna try it for you
because its gonna taste like a Fruit Strip.
I would buy these if they were closer to me, end of story.
Okay, these are Seapoint Farms Seaweed Crisps, almond sesame
I have never seen this and so I decided to try it.
The ingredients are pretty solid, it's a very short list.
I just love a crunchy snack.
These look like they have some almond crunch in between.
Oh, how interesting.
So yeah, it has like a little sesame seed
almond thing inside.
It smells savory (crunching).
Whoa, whoa!
Way crunchier than I would of thought.
'Cause I thought of the seaweed was gonna be like soft
and it has like, is there wasabi in this?
Yep, no there's not (laughing).
I dunno why it tastes like wasabi.
But it has like the sweetness of wasabi, is wasabi sweet?
Not at all what I expected, but, pretty good.
Okay, next up, Cashew Crisps.
These are Coconut Cashew, oh,
they're both Coconut Cashew Crisps.
One is vanilla flavored
and one is sea salt caramel flavored.
First of all, I saw these and I immediately knew
what they are because my local Erewhon,
which if you don't have an Erewhon near you, be glad,
it is like the most expensive grocery store
I've ever been in.
It's amazing, I go in to buy one thing,
I come out with five things
and it ends up costing me (air horn) a million dollars,
I dunno how they do it.
But these were 2.99, and the ingredients
were the same ingredients, coconut, cashews,
coconut sugar, cassava flour and sea salt.
So I don't know what they're doing
to make these taste like caramel, I guess the coconut sugar.
The vanilla ones have vanilla
and natural almond flavor in it as well.
I don't love almond extract,
so I hope it's not almond extract.
But anyway, I'm so excited about
these sea salt caramel ones, gluten free,
paleo, vegan, non GMO, only five ingredients (gasps).
That's exactly what I thought.
Okay, it's almost like wafer, I mean,
without like the airiness and the layers in between
but like, one end of a wafer, one side of a wafer cookie.
It's super crisp, these are so good, again,
this is another thing I should of bought a million of.
Oh my gosh, highly recommend.
Parmesan Crisps, this was another thing I couldn't believe,
you guys all of these things I've showed you so far
are just like in Aldi's regular snack section,
not the specialty items.
Like they have these all the time now I think.
I am obsessed with Parmesan crisps.
I buy them in every brand, from every store,
no matter who they're by, I like love to test them all.
Somehow they all taste different.
Lets see, this is just the original Parmesan crisps,
this is the jalapeno one.
I'm not usually like huge on super spicy,
so I don't know if I'll love the Jalapeno one.
Oh my gosh, that's such a strong strong cheesy flavor.
They look really good though, they smell really good,
100% Parmesan cheese.
Mmm, I think that Trader Joe's have my favorite ones so far,
but these are like a close second.
I wanna try the Jalapeno ones too.
I mean, I actually like it.
I like get a little bit of heat in the back of my throat,
but I was really worried 'cause I don't like spicy stuff,
so if you don't like spicy, you'll like these.
If you want them to be really Jalapenoey, they're not.
I like both of them.
Okay so that was general snacks.
I wanna go through a couple of staples,
or items that I saw there that I was like,
If I shopped here regularly,
I would get these things as staples.
First, Everything Bagel Seasoning.
I couldn't believe they had this!
I mean, I've started shopping at Trader Joe's
since because I have one within walking distance.
And so I have gone through like,
I don't know, 500 bottles of this stuff,
I put it on everything.
And I was so excited that Aldi had it,
I will say, I was like, oh Aldi is so cheap,
everything must be cheaper there,
it was $1.95, so it was only four cents cheaper
than the Trader Joe's one,
so it wasn't that great of a deal but,
I've started buying every bagel seasoning
I can find mostly because the Trader Joe's one
is a little bit salty for my taste,
I wish that I could just find it without salt.
So there's 80 milligrams of sodium in the Trader Joe's one,
this Aldi version, it's the exact same ingredients
but there's 95 milligrams of sodium,
so, there's a little bit more,
it'll be interesting to see if this is saltier.
I was excited that Aldi finally has this
because it's a great seasoning and I'm obsessed with it.
Almond flour, okay, I know, I was like
in the stone ages five years ago
when I used to shop at Aldi,
they did not used to have almond flour.
I couldn't believe they have it now
and this pound bag was $6, $6.19 I think.
That was pretty inexpensive compared to other brands
that I've seen in other stores
and the only ingredient is almonds, almond flour.
It's clean, gluten free, low carb, keto you know,
all the cleans but I would buy my almond flour there
if I had one nearby, so, thanks Bakers Corner.
Another thing I would 100% buy,
if you live near an Aldi and you buy Avocado Oil,
get it there, this was 6.99.
So the cheapest I find it elsewhere,
maybe on sale you'll find it for nine bucks,
but a lot of the stores are like 12, $13
for the same size bottle, so 6.99 I actually bought three
of these when I was there 'cause I was like,
I gotta stock up.
100% pure, that's the only ingredient
and I cook everything in avocado oil.
I really stopped using extra virgin olive oil,
I use extra virgin oil for like,
you know, salad dressing and stuff
but I don't cook with it anymore
because it has such a low smoke point.
So this has a high smoke point,
and it's great for all levels of cooking.
White Cheddar Puffs, I just can't resist any corn puff,
and any cheese puff, but especially a corn puff.
And so, they didn't used to carry these
when I shopped at Aldi so I couldn't resist,
I just had to get it, I don't know if they're good or not.
Gluten free, baked corn and rice,
no added sugars and they're organic.
Lets give it a try.
My first impression looking at them,
these puffs are like half sized puffs
compared to every other brand.
Mmm smells cheesy.
(gasps) That's a good puff!
Sometimes like you know, Aldi brand are off brand stuff
is like, it's cheaper but it's subpar in taste,
these are really light and fluffy and crisp.
Highly recommend.
Next up, raw cashews, I love raw cashews.
And this bag, it's a 14 ounce bag,
so not quite a pound, is 7.99.
So it's not, I wouldn't say it's a cheap find,
but a less expensive find than if you buy raw cashews at,
you know Trader Joe's or Whole Foods or something like that.
And these are organic, so for sure cheaper for organic,
but I pretty much saw them and I couldn't resist
because I love having raw cashews
and for the price I was like, not gonna turn it down.
Oatmilk, I love Oatmilk this is like my favorite milk,
I've talked about it a million times,
so I'm not gonna tell you over and over again
but, Oatmilk lattes are like my favorite thing.
And so, I've been buying and trying every single Oatmilk
I can find, most of them have added sugar,
this one does not.
I think this is actually the same ingredients
as the Kroger Simple Truth one that I bought,
I showed that in a haul video earlier this year
and I do love that one, that's the one I buy regularly.
But Aldi had an Oatmilk, so I thought I would try it out.
The real test for Oatmilk lattes is will it froth, right.
So the Kroger one, the Simple Truth brand
froths really really well and that's why I love it,
is there's no added sugar and it froths for my latte's,
does this one froth, I dunno, lets try it out.
I also just wanna try it, just to see
how it tastes before we froth it.
Hmm, it's very naturally sweet.
It's good, it tastes like Oatmilk.
Man, okay, so I really hope it froths, lets see.
This is my favorite frother of all time,
I've showed it like three or four times on the channel.
It froths the milk really really well
and it also froths non dairy milk.
So it's frothing up and the cool thing
about this frother that I forgot to even mention,
is that it froths and heats the milk at the same time,
so it's great for lattes.
So when this button, or when this light goes off,
it means it's not only frothed but also heated.
And it's frothing up really well right now,
I'm surprised.
Look at the froth, look at the froth, do you see it Joe?
(upbeat music)
♪ Baby ♪
- What, it froths really well.
I'm very impressed with this Oatmilk, highly recommend.
Specialty items are next, so I love that Aldi has
an aisle that's specifically set aside for specialty items,
usually they're seasonal but sometimes
new things come in each week or whatever.
Christian and I in New York City,
we used to go to Aldi almost like a date night,
we'd go to the Aldi and Target, it was connected,
and we couldn't afford to shop
at the really fancy New York City grocery stores,
so we went to Aldi and we always kind of made
a big thing out of it and going to that specialty aisle
to see what new stuff they had was always fun.
And I was not there with Christian this time,
but I got these with him in mind
because I couldn't resist.
They're mini peanut butter sandwich creme cookies,
they're fudge dipped, and I don't really need
to be tasting one of these right now,
but I'm gonna use this video as an excuse
to taste it because I really want to.
They're little fudge cookie bites!
It tastes like a Nutter Butter dipped in chocolate.
I just love salty crispy foods.
These are baked mango chile lime
flavored black bean snack crisps.
They're gluten free and I'm a sucker for gluten free snacks,
I see gluten free and I'm like
oh that's better for me right.
The ingredients are like okay,
there is sugar added in here, but I just wanted to try em.
Okay so it's 120 calories per serving,
three servings per container,
but it says 360 calories in the whole bag,
which, when I open these kinda bags
usually the whole bag gets eaten, you know what I mean?
(sniffing) Mm.
Smells, like a fiesta in there.
Mm, (crunch) whoa!
That's a real burst of flavor, oh, it's kind of spicy.
I do actually taste the mango though,
it's like kind of fruity.
It's a little chili spicy for me,
but you know what, I bet everybody else would love these
because most people that just like spicy snack foods,
like Christian will love these.
Pesto Gouda, this was another specialty item.
It's green cheese, I couldn't resist green cheese.
I remember I needed to buy green cheese once
for an episode and I couldn't find it
and I remember researching and everyone was like,
Trader Joe's has it, and I went to Trader Joe's
and they didn't have it, and then,
that was the end of the story.
But, (beeps) and it is pretty much, a Gouda cheese,
with basil and garlic added into it.
Mm, it's good, it tastes like pesto and Gouda combined,
that's what it tastes like.
Christian you might even like this.
(audience cheering)
(audience laughing)
Pretty good right?
Yeah.
Last but not least, I did just realize
this was kind of sitting here with no context
or explanation the entire episode until now,
but now you see it.
This is the final specialty item I bought at Aldi this week,
this treat jar, it was 7.99, it was so cute
and I couldn't resist 'cause I can put Kristen's treats
in it, although I will say it's not very easy to open.
(audience laughing)
I already put some little treats in there,
these say naughty and nice 'cause they're from Christmas.
Lets see which Kristen is.
(gasps)
(audience cheering)
and that is it for my Aldi haul this week,
let me know if you want more haul videos,
whether it Aldi or anywhere else,
where would you like to see me go?
What would you like to see me get?
And do you guys like these types of taste test videos
or do you not wanna see me taste the food,
I get it either way.
Just let me know, I would love to do more like this for you.
Until then, I will be back next week with a brand new video
but I hope you have a great rest of your day
and remember, it's all a matter of mind over munch.