I have to admit I carry a borderline unhealthy obsession with pumpkin pie spice.
I don’t just crave the stuff, I literally carry my obsession with me. As in the little bottle of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger that never leaves my side this time of year. It goes in my coffee at work, on top of my bagel and cream cheese in the morning, and even in a bag of burnt popcorn already jazzed up with sugar and salt. What can I say, I just crave the stuff.
I’d probably put it on Pringles if I could.
I don’t have to though, because the Pringles man will do it for me. Yessir, having not even cleared the minty taste of my last Pringles purchase, I’ve hit the stooping trifecta by picking up Walmart’s exclusive and limited-time-only Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice.
Now if you’re asking yourself what universal need a pumpkin spice-flavored Pringles satisfies, you obviously have not had enough pumpkin spice flavored stuff in your life. Unlike pumpkin spice coffee the Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice won’t burn your upper lip, and unlike pumpkin spice oatmeal and all manner of products with actual pumpkin in them, the crisps aren’t filled with fiber. This is good, because when you eat as much pumpkin as I do, you’ll get too much fiber and then end up farting a lot.
Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice also comes in handy as a conversation piece while waiting in line at Walmart. It allowed me to make small talk with the people around me about all the weird flavors of chips and crisps Walmart sells. However, Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice doesn’t help shield me from the crazy woman in the line next to me who, for some reason, found it necessary to buy 33 Shutes and Ladders games. But moving several lanes over did.
I was fully expecting Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice to, at best, cause me to have an out-of-body snack food experience like I did with the Pringles White Chocolate Peppermint. At worst, I was expecting them to be so dreadfully disgusting that I would pass out and die while eating them on the drive home from Walmart. Amazingly, they weren’t bad. Hell, they are actually pretty good. Much better than dying on the way home from Walmart.
Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice have a slightly orangey hue. There’s no mention of “pumpkin” anything on the ingredient list, so they won’t give you enough vitamin A to allow you to go all night vision the next time you’re playing Ghosts in the Graveyard. But that’s okay, because I rock at that game. Although, I would trade having killer night vision for not farting as much while still getting a pumpkin pie spice fix.
The taste of pumpkin flavor is moderate. Not loud or harsh, yet neither quiet nor lost. I like how the flavor is sweet and not too spicy. I also like how the crisps, for one reason or another, retain enough of that flavor to not make for a disjointed finish with the Pringles-tasting base. With just a pinch of salt, the ratio of sweet-salty is actually in favor of the former, making for a lighter taste than one usually associates with popping the top. For those of you keeping score at home, this was a much better crisp than the Pringles Cinnamon & Sugar.
Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice don’t taste like pumpkin pie, but thanks to real, scientific testing done with actual pumpkin pie spice, I can confirm the crisps do taste like a sweeter version of the classic combination of fall spices. Not only that, but the crisps actually make a nice little dipping vehicle should you have some kind of pumpkin-ey cream cheese or dip concoction nearby.
If nothing else, I believe they provide the first case where Pringles manages to do a really weird sounding limited edition flavor right.
(Nutrition Facts – approx. 15 crisps – 150 calories, 80 calories from fat, 9 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 95 milligrams of sodium, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 2 grams of sugars, and 1 gram of protein.)
Other Limited Time Only Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice reviews:
Spoil Your Dinner
Fatguy Food Blog
Item: Limited Time Only Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice
Purchased Price: $1.50
Size: 6.38 ounces
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Pleasantly sweet pumpkin pie spice taste. Not harsh nor bitter in the spice department. Salt of the Pringles is restrained. Flavors don’t clash. Making small talk at Walmart. Won’t cause you to fart while enjoying seasonal tastes.
Cons: Spice could be more assertive. Sweetness lacks true depth of brown sugar found in actual pumpkin pie. Doesn’t contain vitamin A (doesn’t actually have pumpkin, either). Love it or hate it Pringles crispness. Possibly opens the door for ill-fated Pringles flavor development.
As a regular reader with a pumpkin obsession, I looked forward to your review of these.
I’m now on my second can (only the second because I just hate going to Wal-mart). My initial reaction was that they were awful, but I kept trying and about halfway through the first can, my taste buds shifted slightly and they managed to coordinate the taste into something I recognized. They taste like a small, hand held, fried pumpkin pie. The chip is the crust and the flavor mixes well enough that it tastes like a fast food or TastyKake pie.
Now I love them!
These sound really interesting – im really into my pumpkin spice at the moment so would love to try them!
Ooohhh, dipping these in some sweet cream cheese would be awesome!!
At Chip Review we were a bit more mixed on these:
http://chipreview.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/chip-review-of-the-day-167/
I couldn’t tast much pumpkin spice at all. They weren’t awful, but nothing special either.
It’s a joke. False ad; never saw them in MY local Walmart.
I had all three flavors as well. I found these to be more of a kettle corn flavor than pumpkin. Not wonderful but not bad.