REVIEW: Limited Time Only Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice

Adam 6 Comments

Limited Time Only Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice

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.

Limited Time Only Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice Closeup

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. 

Limited Time Only Pringles Pumpkin Pie Spice Spice 2

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.

NEWS: Jack in the Box’s Munchie Meals Make You Wonder What Jack Is Smoking

Marvo 9 Comments

IMG_5014

I avoid eating fast food late at night because for some reason the grease and salt makes me have nightmare. No, really, it does. So I’m not looking forward to trying Jack’s Munchie Meals.

According to Brand Eating, Jack’s Munchie Meals are available after 9 p.m., which sucks for me and 4:20-ers.

For six dollars, a Jack’s Munchie Meal includes two tacos, a drink, an order of Halfsies — half curly, half regular fries — and one of the following entrees:

Brunch Burger – A croissant bun topped with a beef patty, fried egg, hash browns bacon, and cheese.

Exploding Cheesy Chicken Sandwich – A chicken sandwich topped with mozzarella cheese sticks and a white cheese sauce.

Stacked Grilled Cheese Burger – A sourdough grilled cheese sandwich on top of a burger.

Loaded Nuggets – Chicken nuggets topped with two kinds of cheese, ranch dressing, and bacon.

If you don’t feel like eating your recommended daily allowance of sodium, fat, and calories in one meal, you can order one of the entrees without the added sodium, fat, and calories from the tacos and Halfsies.

Jack’s Munchie Meals are currently being tested at limited locations. If you’ve tried any of the entrees, let us know what you think of them in the comments.

Source: Brand Eating

NEWS: Taco Bell’s XXL Steak Nachos Make Me Scared To Think What XXXL Steak Nachos Would Be Like

Marvo 5 Comments

The Land Of Bells And Tacos

Taco Bell’s new XXL Steak Nachos have 16 grams of dietary fiber.

Suck it, Fiber One!

The nachos also have 1160 calories, 61 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, and 2140 milligrams of sodium.

Suck it, health professionals!

The XXL Steak Nachos are made up of a layer of tortilla chips that’s topped with beans, a three-cheese blend, nacho cheese sauce, guacamole, pico de gallo, holy crap there’s more, reduced-fat sour cream, and lots of steak.

If 60 grams of fat is where you draw the line when it comes to fast food, you can get these nachos Fresco-style, which reduces the fat by 25 percent.

Taco Bell’s XXL Steak Nachos are available for a limited time. If you’ve tried them, let us know what you think of them in the comments.

Source: Grub Grade

Image via flickr user JD Hancock / CC BY 2.0

REVIEW: Seaweed Pringles (Thailand)

Steve 5 Comments

Seaweed Pringles

When I told people I’d be reviewing Seaweed Pringles this week, they reacted with that mild level of shock and disgust that I think is common when discussing almost any product associated with seaweed.  

It’s a silly reaction really, when you consider the unpronounceable chemicals most people ingest in the course of an average day’s worth of meals, or the slurry of anus and pig beaks that go into the universally loved hot dog. I don’t see what all the fuss is about. People eat sushi all the time, yet somehow they allow that seaweed a pass.  Divorce it from their beloved California Rolls and people recoil.  

Granted it’s algae and when people drift into it at the beach they tend to swim the other way as quickly as possible. But that’s not fair. Have you had a good look at a radish lately? Not exactly going to be calling out to you from the fridge in the middle of the night.

Sure it’s called seaweed, a moniker that couldn’t be more unpalatable, but that’s just a bad name.  It’s like Homer Simpson reminded Flanders, “There’s nothing wrong with crabgrass. It just has a bad name, that’s all. Everyone would love it if it had a cute name, like, elf grass.”

The whole thing is just a public relations failing. We all know beef is what’s for dinner and that pork is the other white meat, and people everywhere still can’t hear “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” without recalling fondly the all-singing, all-dancing California Raisins.

The only time seaweed gets represented in the popular culture at all is when someone washes up on a deserted beach somewhere. They roll over on their backs, cough up some sea water, and without fail, have a few requisite seaweed strands tangled about them. It’s shorthand for nearly drowning!

How about renaming seaweed “aqua greens” or “hydro leaves”? We could get Sebastian from The Little Mermaid to sing “Under the Sea” or something. And how far away are we from a Snorks reboot? Kids will be clamoring for seaweed. The stuff will sell itself.

Seaweed Pringles 2

These Seaweed Pringles, imported from Thailand, won’t be doing any damage to seaweed’s reputation, but I don’t think these crisps will be winning the algae any new fans either. For those of you imagining popping the top of the can and being swept away to an exotic seashore on a nosegrope of briny goodness, forget it. The nosegrope is not much different than that of a can of regular Pringles. There is a vague earthiness buried somewhere deep in the Pringles aroma, but when I say vague, I mean I could very well be willfully imagining it.

Seaweed Pringles 3

The same goes for the taste. They are not far off from a stack of regular Pringles. There is some sort of nebulous earthiness lurking somewhere on the tongue, but again, it is very, very subtle. If you were blind-tasting, you might not even notice. I don’t think I would.

Seaweed Pringles 4

I found the salt level to be the most surprising. When I think of seaweed, I think salt. Dried seaweed strips can be pretty powerful. But for these chips, they chose to go the other way completely. Each chip is lightly dusted with a sugary coating, making them much sweeter than one would expect. Sugar is the first component in the breakdown of the seaweed extract in the ingredients list. That sweetness is really their defining taste characteristic.

Essentially what you have here are green Pringles. The minute changes to the standard recipe barely make these worth noticing. They could sell these in the U.S. as a St. Patrick’s Day limited edition. You could say that almost non-existent earthiness was meant to hearken back to old Ireland or a field of shamrocks somewhere. No one would bother to contradict you.

Are these bad? No, not at all. They are just unremarkable. These should have been a seaweedy smack in the face. But they’re just green. A little disappointing. Come on Pringles, if you’re going to do seaweed, do seaweed.

Don’t expect any algae-based Claymation characters anytime soon. We’ve got a long way to go, you guys.

(Nutrition Facts – 17 crisps (25g) – 130 calories, 7 grams of fat, 130 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates, and 1 gram of protein.)

Other Seaweed Pringles reviews:
Crazy from Kong (video)

Item: Seaweed Pringles (Thailand)
Purchased Price: $6.99
Size: 110 grams
Purchased at: eBay
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: Green Pringles. St. Patrick’s Day. The Snorks.
Cons: Sugar. Absence of seaweed. The California Raisins.