What if you combined mac & cheese with the flavor of an IPA beer? That’s the kind of drunk-ass thinking that must have resulted in Goodles — “Noodles, Gooder!” — which comes in the familiar, rectangular box filled with dried, corkscrew pasta and a packet of cheesy-IPAesque powder that you mix with milk to create your objectively insane lunch.

I prepared Goodles according to its instructions — though the pasta was definitely done a couple of minutes ahead of its stated 9-11 minute prep time — and found the end result to be… interesting. The hoppiness of an IPA was certainly present, but quite mild. But so was the cheese, which was a huge bummer. A typical box of Kraft is far more loaded than Goodles when it comes to cheesiness, though there’s an inherent saltiness to Kraft that helps to enhance that cheese powder and give it a little more depth. I doctored Goodles and it helped, but I still wanted for more cheese, more hops, more everything, in the end. Ultimately I ate about a quarter of a serving. It was fine, but nothing I’d go out of my way to tell my friends about at the biergarten.

B / $5 per box / goodles.com [BUY IT NOW FROM AMAZON]

Goodles "If You're Hoppy And You Know It" IPA-Inspired Cheesy Mac

$5

8

Rating

8.0/10

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