Kicking off this week's Fun Friday is a Cheez-It (Kellanova) and Taco Bell collaboration. 

In a culinary alliance, the two powerhouse brands have joined forces to introduce a food innovation: The Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme and the Big Cheez-It Tostada. With these new menu items, the classic Cheez-It cracker gets an upgrade to a larger size: 16x larger to be exact, with a 1:1 crunch-to-cheez ratio. The latest models of the Big Cheez-It will be available nationwide on June 6, although lucky Taco Bell Rewards members can order them now in the Taco Bell app. Read more at our article here.

Report: New Yorkers and Hawaiians pay more for chocolate than the rest of America

Indulging in a sweet treat was once an affordable pleasure for many Americans, but the recent surge in cocoa prices could be leaving a bitter taste for chocolate lovers nationwide.

With this in mind, consumer resource site CouponBirds decided to dig deeper and uncover the U.S. states and cities paying the most (and least) for popular branded chocolate products. 

CouponBirds gathered the average price of the most popular chocolate products in Target stores across America and compared it to the national average to find the cities and states that pay the biggest price premium when buying their favorite chocolate.

Key findings:

  • Chocolate is most expensive in New York City, costing 20.66% above the national average.
  • Hawaii is the most expensive state for chocolate, with the average cost 12.90% higher than the national figure.
  • Chocolate is cheapest in Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine, where it costs -3.64% less than the national average.
  • The price of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (Snack Sized) in Honolulu is 40.27% over the national average—the biggest price disparity of any chocolate product in any city.

Read the full report here.

Milton's Craft Bakers, The Birthday Party Project celebrate anniversary with pizza cake

Milton’s recently worked together with its charitable partner, The Birthday Party Project, to celebrate the brand’s 28th anniversary by adding a little extra magic to one of The Birthday Party Project’s monthly birthday celebrations for children experiencing homelessness. The Birthday Party Project’s May birthday celebration in the nonprofit’s hometown of Dallas, TX featured a magic theme, where the kids in attendance were treated to a magic show and fun activities before a special addition to help celebrate the Milton’s brand 28th anniversary: a custom cake designed to look just like a Milton’s Uncured Pepperoni Pizza, baked by Elizabeth Rowe aka The London Baker, best known for winning both Netflix’s Is It Cake? and Food Network’s Cake Wars.

In addition to the birthday celebration, Milton’s, The Birthday Party Project, and Rowe will engage their communities to provide an additional financial contribution through a social media initiative. For every comment made on Milton’s Pizza Cake Birthday Reel, Milton’s will donate $1, with the goal of reaching a total contribution of $2,800 in honor of Milton’s 28th brand

With more than 2.5 million children in the U.S. living in a shelter each year, The Birthday Party Project aims to bring a level of normalcy to the day-to-day by not letting milestones like birthdays go unnoticed. To date, the organization has celebrated more than 28,000 birthday kids and hosted more than 2,600 birthday parties, with 73,000 kids attending those parties. To learn more about The Birthday Party Project and how you can support its mission, visit thebirthdaypartyproject.org. To learn more about Milton’s mission and the community impact it achieves with its charitable partners, visit miltonscraftbakers.com.

More "cheesy" news: cheese can impact your sleep

Sweet dreams are made of these, who am I to diss a brie? ... maybe. We’ve all heard the precautionary tale that eating cheese before bed can lead to strange dreams. But, can a dairy-based snack really have an impact on the quality of our sleep?

The online team at 888 Casino has conducted a new experiment, to determine whether certain cheeses can actually lead to a bad night’s sleep, and which types will keep you up at night the most.

The website provided a group of (very willing) participants with sleep trackers and 10 types of cheese to sample before bed across 10 days, monitoring just how well they slept.

The metrics the site used to determine sleep quality included:

  • Sleep quality percentage score
  • Time spent asleep
  • Time spent awake
  • Time spent in deep sleep
  • Time spent in REM sleep
  • Time spent in light sleep

Key findings included:

  • Halloumi is the most likely to cause dreams, as participants experienced nearly two hours of REM sleep, the stage of slumber where dreaming is most likely to occur.
  • Brie and Ricotta follow closely behind, with REM sleep both at one hour and 55 minutes each.  
  • Meanwhile, Mozzarella and Cheddar have a slightly less dramatic effect on REM sleep, leading to an average of one hour and 33 and 37 minutes respectively. 

It looks like eating Mozzarella before bed could lead to a very restless night, as participants were awake for around one hour and eight minutes—the second longest time in the study. They also only managed one hour and three minutes of deep sleep, and a mere one hour and 33 minutes in the REM stage.

Read the full study here.

Even more "cheesy" news: Cheez-It secures sponsorship as official snack of Indiana Fever

Cheez-It and Pacers Sports & Entertainment announced Cheez-It as the first official snack of the Indiana Fever.

Eating snacks and watching sports go hand-in-hand and Cheez-It constantly hears from sports fans that they can't be without their favorite crackers at game time. So it's only fitting that the brand is bringing flavor to women's professional basketball and every Fever game with this multi-year sponsorship, infusing its spirit into crunch time moments. Fans will see the partnership come to life with players rocking the Cheez-It logo on practice jerseys, the arena lighting up with neon orange and red LED signage takeovers, and more.

To celebrate, the brand is introducing the Cheez-It Threez-It Challenge, rewarding fans with a chance to win free Cheez-It crackers if the Indiana Fever score an absurd amount of three-pointers during any home game.

Stay tuned for how Cheez-It is helping satisfy Fever fans' cravings on-and-off the court and in the local community all season long. And to catch a game live, tickets are available at FeverBasketball.com/tickets.