The Froze Bros

The Bros trade in their microwaves, air fryers, and toaster ovens for a blender. Well, a Nutribullet in one case. This week: Wyman's Protein Blend Wild Blueberry Crumble , a protein smoothie mix from the company better known for pouches of frozen fruit. The story: Jasper Wyman started the company in 1874 as a seafood cannery in Milbridge, Maine, and didn't pivot to wild blueberries until about 1900. At 152 years old, this makes Wyman's the oldest brand the Bros have reviewed—and it’s still family-owned. Plus: peach ice cream and a walk in the woods, how large an acre may be, a town-line creamery, Pore Jud is Daid, a chill job opening, a listener tip for finding frozen gator, Oh, Mary!, a wall of M&Ms, and more. In the closing segment: Max audits fifty episodes' worth of ratings data—ice cubes in trays, wild scoring discrepancies, and a hard look at just how unbalanced this podcast has actually been. WATCH THIS EPISODE FROST BITES Ox On, Ox Off . Darren’s guess ab...

Darren's fresh off a trip to Paris and London, Max is just back from the Jersey Shore, and the Bros are marking the occasion with a backyard cookout. This week: Philly Gourmet Pure 100% Beef Patties , in a limited-edition box celebrating America's 250th. The story: Philly Gourmet is a Quaker Maid Meats brand, founded in Reading, PA in 1960 by Stanley Szortyka. It’s still family-owned today by his kids, Sergei and Nancy. Plus: Oysters topped with a frozen margarita in London. Extra large escargot in Paris. Famous frozen custard in Cape May, New Jersey. Car phones. The Doomsday Freezer. A hot take on tater tots. And an air fryer apology. In the closing segment: Darren tests Max on America's top-ten burger toppings, and one answer turns out to be shockingly hard to guess. WATCH THIS EPISODE FROST BITES The OG Smash . Hamburgers have at least three competing origin stories , depending on who you ask and how long ago they're lying about. Some food historians trace the conce...

The Bros dig into a new kind of frozen meal this week—one dressed up as diet food, dressed down by a shipping or defrosting mishap, and dressed at least partially in a tortilla. This week: Lean Cuisine Mexican Style Beef & Cheddar Quesadilla . The story: Lean Cuisine launched in 1981 as Stouffer's answer to the aerobics-era diet boom. Stouffer's itself traces back to a 1922 Cleveland dairy stand, didn't hit the freezer aisle until 1954, and has been a Nestlé property since 1973—making this, officially, the fourth Stouffer's-family product the Bros have reviewed. Plus: The microwave susceptor tray. Fisher's Island spirit pops. A Welch's-versus-Smucker's showdown. A blueberry E. coli recall nobody's talking about. Swagelok versus Nestlé as Solon, Ohio's top employer. And a heated debate over whether MTV actually stopped playing music videos. In the closing segment: weeks after winning a piña colada-themed escape room challenge, Max cashes in his pr...

What’s in a name? Part two (see episode 76). If the name is Van de Kamp’s or Mrs. Paul’s and we’re talkin’ shark bites, the name doesn’t really matter. This week, this Shark Week : Van de Kamp’s and Mrs. Paul’s Shark Bites. The story: Van de Kamp's traces its origin back to a 1915 Los Angeles potato chip stand. Mrs. Paul's starts in Philly in 1946 with the infamous leftover crab cakes. Two totally different brands that, decades of corporate acquisitions later, land in the exact same place. Plus: Chow mein and fries. Jameson vs Jameson. Max’s bouncer fantasy. Jumping the shark emotions, and the surprisingly complicated question of how sharks actually reproduce. Candygram! In the closing segment: "Let It Go or Keep It, Bro" (or whatever we call it now) returns with frozen shark gummies, a candy that was never meant to see the inside of a freezer. watch this episode FROST BITES The Denny’s That Saved Van de Kamp’s Last Stand . Long before the freezer aisle, Van de Kam...

What’s in a name? If that name is Häagen-Dazs, then there’s over sixty years of misrepresentation. But will we give them a pass? This week: Häagen-Dazs ice cream . The story: Reuben Mattus, born Nifka Matus in Eastern Europe, immigrated to the Bronx in 1921. In 1960, he and his wife Rose invented an ice cream brand that they wanted to sound fancy. From there, the brand passes to Pillsbury, Nestlé, General Mills, and even Goldman Sachs. Plus: Outback steaks mate, how to do a Danish accent, a garden outhouse and a farm in Africa, Danish horror-puppet film, and a melting experiment that gets less scientific by the minute. In the closing segment: Froze or Fake. Max tries to tell the difference between real old-timey frozen food products and ones that Darren made up.  watch this episode FROST BITES It came from where? That weird puppet movie Max described is 100% real. It’s called ZombieWestern: It Came from the West (2007)—a Danish short film that holds the title of the world’s first...