The story of Torani’s Chicken ‘N Waffles syrup presents internet marketing at either its best or most contrived (quite possibly both). To recap:
Torani announces they’ll be releasing a chicken & waffles flavoring syrup. The Internet collectively says, “That’s disgusting. I MUST HAVE IT.”
April 1, 2012:
Torani reveals the new flavor was an early-April Fools’ prank and simultaneously launches a social media campaign to generate support for the creation of the “potential new cult favorite”.
The Internet expresses outrages over the prank, rolls its eyes at a corporation raising grassroots support for its own non-existent product, and goes back to watching Call Me Maybe parody videos.
November 20, 2012:
“Due to unprecedented demand,” Torani announces actual debut of Chicken ‘n Waffles Syrup.
January 1, 2013:
Due to a need to immediately sabotage his resolutions of losing weight, not wasting money on novelty food items, and writing less often in the third person, Jasper tries the Chicken ‘n Waffles Syrup.
January 14, 2013:
Due to the syrup being awful, Jasper waits two weeks before working up the spirit to actually write down all the awfulness.
The bar for the Chicken ‘n Waffles Syrup was set pretty low – since it started as a marketing gimmick that was likely rushed through development and production, its best-case outcome was always going to be “gag gift that’s actually serviceable.” Alas, the syrup can only serve as another cautionary reminder against buying novelty foods.
I first tried a spoonful of the syrup on its own. It smelled very sweet and a little bit malty, which is about as positive as I’m going to get in this review. As expected, it tasted incredibly sweet, but the malty-ness was really a yeasty-ness, and there was a lingering aftertaste that was yeasty and greasy (presumably to reflect the fried chicken component) and nearly induced my gag reflex.
Of course, syrup isn’t meant to be consumed by its lonesome, so I added it to other meals. I had a brief, almost-ontological debate with my girlfriend on whether you could, in fact, eat Chicken ‘n Waffles syrup with the dish from which its essence is distilled. Since the Torani bottle recommends you eat it with biscuits, we figured waffles were close enough and ordered some waffles and chicken fingers.
To establish a fair baseline of comparison, we first ate the chicken and waffles with regular Aunt Jemima maple syrup. It goes without saying that I loved that combination. It probably also goes without saying that the Torani syrup didn’t measure up in the least. The Chicken ‘n Waffles Syrup was still too sweet and so thin that it seeped into the waffles and made them soggy. The yeasty and greasy aftertaste was only more prominent and artificial in the face of the actual dish.
I then followed a recipe on the Torani website for a bourbon drink, and I tried it in my coffee the next morning. I had similarly negative impressions in those settings, though I suppose I’d find the syrup more tolerable if my palate were compromised by the dulling effects of alcohol or the tongue-burning effects of coffee.
Even the price felt dissatisfying, at $6.95 plus $5.95 shipping and handling. Just don’t buy the Torani Chicken ‘n Waffles Syrup, not even as a gag gift or as a novelty food item for yourself. And hey, Internet: let’s avoid demanding that any more April Fools’2012 jokes be developed into real products.
(Nutrition Facts – 1 fl oz – 90 calories 0 calories from fat, 0 grams of fat, 40 milligrams of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 22 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.)
Item: Torani Chicken ‘N Waffles Syrup
Purchased Price: $6.95 (plus $5.95 S&H)
Size: 375 mL
Purchased at: Torani website
Rating: 1 out of 10
Pros: Smelled mostly OK. Call Me Maybe parody videos. Clever April Fools’ Day gags. Aunt Jemima maple syrup with chicken and waffles. I would use Catblock.
Cons: Tasted yeasty and greasy. Gross, lingering aftertaste. Bad by itself, bad and too thin to have with waffles (and probably biscuits), bad with bourbon and coffee. Pricey. Contrived internet marketing. Immediately breaking my New Year’s resolutions. Ontological debates about syrup.
That’s so gross. I must have it.
I tried the syrup in a milkshake (much like how Jack in the Box use Torani Bacon Syrup in their bacon shake last year) and it turned out surprisingly tasty. So if you need to figure out a way get rid of the syrup, you might want to try that. Also tried it on waffles and I agree your assessment of it.
Exceptional review, Jasper! Wow.
I also bought a bottle out of curiosity and found it to have a nice maple waffle flavor but the chicken flavor was not chicken or even fried chicken at all, it was like a nasty piece of overly greasy fried remnant left over from deep fried vegetables or fish (the leftover overly fried batter crunchies soaked in old rancid oil). If they would have actually added a (fried) chicken flavor to it, that would have been much better.
I actually bought the chicken n waffles and bacon syrup in the smallest size. I haven’t eaten the “real” things in 25 years, so maybe getting the taste (or something like it) appealed to me. I’ve had both bottles for more than a year, and they’re both pretty much still full. I heard about bacon chocolate chip cookies on the “Dining With Doug and Karen” podcast, and immediately went home and made some with fake bacon and some of the bacon syrup. So, I still can’t figure out what to do with the chicken version (but the milkshake idea sounds pretty good) but the bacon flavor can be used in cookies and maybe cake or brownies.
I hope I haven’t been spammy nor douchebaggy.