Tag: Pringles

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.

Since the dawn of civilization, Pringles has pretty much been synonymous with two things: salty and vaguely potato-ey.

Attempting to condense flavors ranging from authentic southern barbecue to mozzarella sticks and marinara sauce in the convenient delivery vehicle of dried potato flakes and cottonseed and/or soybean oil, Pringles has built an empire out of coming up with more flavors than Land Before Time sequels.

For the most part, I’m cool with that.

No, the Pringles All-American Cheeseburger isn’t going to satiate an In-N-Out craving, but one’s snack of choice can do a lot worse than ambiguous salty, cheesy, and crispy flavors. Which begs the question: what the hell is the deal with Pringles getting all sweet on us for the Holidays?

Perhaps it has to do something with the Pringles guy bearing a striking resemblance to what I can only assume was once a younger Santa Claus (or Pringles now being produced by Kellogg’s), but the new Limited Time Only Pringles White Chocolate Peppermint and Pringles Cinnamon & Sugar join Wheat Thins and Ritz crackers as long-time savory standbys trying to capitalize on the salty and sweet craze that seems to hit each holiday season.

I was expecting the White Chocolate Peppermint Pringles to be covered in a smooth, lickable white chocolate fondant with candy cane pieces sprinkled on top. Well, I guess I got what I paid for, because for $1.53 the Pringles bore the tan shade of the ubiquitous plain Pringle. The taste is akin to having an out of body experience. If you lick the chip – excuse me, crisp – you definitely pick up flavors of peppermint and white chocolate. It’s short lived though, like a stick of gum.

The flavor is actually really good, but it’s completely disjointed from the characteristic Pringles finish, which for lack of a better word is best described as slightly, possibly, sorta potato-ey. In a lot of ways, it’s like watching your favorite baseball player getting a hanging fastball over the plate, putting bat on ball, and getting what looks like all of it. Your spirits are raised – it’s outta here! – until you realize it’s going dead center at The Trop and right to the center fielder. Yes, the aftertaste of these Pringles taste like a routine fly-out to end the game against the Devil Rays.

The Cinnamon & Sugar Pringles look exactly like regular Pringles but with little specks of shiny brown which I’m assuming are cinnamon-sugar granules. On the Cinnamon-Sugar spectrum of 1-10, with 10 being Cinnamon Toast Crunch cooked in butter and then drowned in cinnamon and sugar, I’d estimate the cinnamon-sugarage to be a 3. I did not find the taste to be as sweet as the seasonal Cinnamon Wheat Thins, and it definitely wasn’t enough to drown out the salty, starchy Pringles aftertaste.

Continuing the baseball analogies, this was like watching an infield groundball. You’re kinda sorta hoping it gets through a hole, but no, as soon as you bite in, you realize it’s right to the shortstop, and tastes just like every other groundball – er, Pringles – you’ve eaten.

If you like collecting Pringles cans or just enjoy smelling Christmasy food flavors, then the two new sweet flavors of Pringles are just the stocking stuffers for you. But when it comes to actually eating them, the broken and disjointed taste sensations of sweet and cooling just don’t mesh with the loud, salty aftertaste of the vaguely potato-ey Pringles.

(Nutrition Facts – 150 calories, 80 calories from fat, 9 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 95 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 2 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.)

Item: Limited Time Only Pringles White Chocolate Peppermint and Pringles Cinnamon & Sugar
Purchased Price: $1.53 each
Size: 6.38 ounces
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 5 out of 10 (White Chocolate Peppermint)
Rating: 4 out of 10 (Cinnamon & Sugar)
Pros: White Chocolate and Peppermint has actual white chocolate and peppermint taste. No trans fat. Fun if you like out of body eating experiences.
Cons: Pringles aftertaste clashes with sweetness. Cinnamon Sugar flavor is weak. No substantial crunch. Realizing the Pringles guy could pass for Santa Claus in his 30s.

When it comes to hot spicy foods, I don’t think I ask for much.

When I put it into my mouth, the capsaicin should cause my face to excessively ooze out four different bodily fluids at the same time: sweat to help cool my face, tears of pain, saliva to help cool my mouth, and snot being cleared from my nasal cavity. It should also make my tongue feel like kittens used it as a scratch post.

And then after it’s been digested and the heat is just a memory, it should make the opposite of my digestive system feel like it’s being cleaned by a bidet that shoots molten lava. The heat should make my rear yell out for Preparation H to help soothe it.

Unfortunately, the limited time only line of Hot Sauce Pringles doesn’t attain the level of heat that makes you feel like you’ve been sucking on Lucifer’s teat or a bottle of Sriracha sauce.

Like the number of hot sauces on a table at a decent Mexican restaurant, the Walmart-exclusive Hot Sauce Pringles come in three varieties: Original, Chipotle, and Roasted Garlic. Since new Pringles flavors are rare, I was extremely excited to find these flavors, so much so that I wanted to celebrate their arrival by stringing them up and then bashing them with a bat until their potato crisp goodness fell to the ground. But since Pringles tend to be fragile, I didn’t raise my bat to any of them.

Original Hot Sauce Pringles had a vinegary smell that reminded me of Ketchup Pringles. This flavor was my favorite of the three, probably because it’s the best tasting and spiciest. Its flavor was a combination of red peppers and vinegar. Its heat doesn’t show itself until a good 7-10 seconds after chewing, which I thought was a little strange.

Chipotle Hot Sauce Pringles was the least spiciest of the three, which I thought was unusual since chipotle is rated somewhere in the lower middle of the Scoville scale. But then again, chipotle isn’t listed in the ingredients. Its flavor starts off tasting somewhat like black pepper and then ending with a smoky flavor. The black pepper flavor was a slight turnoff for me, which also made it my least favorite of the three.

Before trying all three Hot Sauce Pringles flavors, I thought the Roasted Garlic Hot Sauce Pringles would be the least spiciest, but they were slightly less spicy than the Original Hot Sauce Pringles. As for how they taste, there’s definitely a garlic flavor to them and I enjoyed them, but as I ate through the can, I couldn’t help think the flavoring tasted like the powder in a McCormick chili mix packet.

Overall, the line of Hot Sauce Pringles is decent, but I think it would’ve been better if they teamed up with Tabasco to create better tasting flavors. As for spiciness, Pringles is definitely capable of creating a spicy hot flavor, but these limited time only Hot Sauce Pringles failed to impress both ends of my digestive system.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 ounce/approx. 16 crisps – Original – 140 calories, 80 calories from fat, 9 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 230 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 1 gram of sugar, and 1 gram of protein. Chipotle – 150 calories, 80 calories from fat, 9 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 190 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 1 gram of sugar, and 1 gram of protein. Roasted Garlic – 150 calories, 80 calories from fat, 9 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 200 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 1 gram of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.)

Item: Hot Sauce Pringles (Original, Chipotle, & Roasted Garlic)
Price: $1.50 each
Size: 6.38 ounces
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 7 out of 10 (Original)
Rating: 5 out of 10 (Chipotle)
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Roasted Garlic)
Pros: Original Hot Sauce Pringles was tasty. Roasted Garlic Hot Sauce was good. Trying new Pringles flavors. Comes in SuperStack cans. Sriracha sauce.
Cons: Their spiciness failed to impress both ends of my digestive system. Only available at Walmart. Chipotle Hot Sauce’s black pepper flavor turned me off and was the least spiciest. Oozing four different bodily fluids from my face.

I’m trying to figure out why Pringles would come out with a multigrain version of their product. Maybe it’s because they feel like they’ve done all they could with dried potato flakes.

Or maybe they want to jump on the multigrain bandwagon before Lays Stax does.

Or maybe it’s because they want to get more peoples’ hands stuck in their cans.

Or maybe since I walk around my apartment half naked and with the window shades wide open, the folks at Pringles saw my curvaceous-in-all-the-wrong-places body eating a can of their product through a telescope fashioned from empty Pringles cans and thought I could use a little more grains in my life.

Whatever their reasoning, I’m glad they did.

The Pringles Multigrain Truly Original crisps looks like the possible result of a booty call between a can of Pringles and a bag of Tostitos, so not only are they multigrain, they’re also multisnackial. They’re shaped like Pringles, but have the visual texture of tortilla chips.

According to the packaging, the multigrain crisps consist of rice flour, corn flour, wheat starch, wheat bran, and of course, dried potatoes. While they are multigrain, they aren’t significantly healthier than original Pringles, providing only 10 less calories, one less gram of fat and 10 less milligrams of sodium per one ounce serving. Well, at least they don’t cause possible anal leakage like Fat Free Pringles do.

Like the egos of those who cry after their singing ability gets berated by Simon Cowell, these multigrain crisps are fragile. Both cans I purchased contained mostly broken crisps and I feel like I have to handle them with care or else feel the wrath of Julius Pringles and his evil handlebar mustache. They taste like a combination of original Sun Chips and Pringles, but they don’t have a very strong flavor. They taste more like a cracker than a potato chip.

Even though its flavor could’ve been a little more robust, it doesn’t provide any whole grains and it doesn’t have much nutritional superiority over regular Pringles, for some reason I enjoyed the Pringles Multigrain Truly Original crisps. Maybe it’s because these multigrain crisps aren’t just another attempt to make Pringles look like the Jelly Belly of the crunchy snack world by coming up with other flavors that taste like other types of food. Or maybe it helps me get one step closer to achieving my goal of getting my hand stuck in every Pringles can variety.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 ounce (approx. 16 crisps) – 140 calories, 8 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 16 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 1 gram of sugar, 1 gram of protein, 4% vitamin C and 2% iron.)

Item: Pringles Multigrain Truly Original
Price: $1.49
Size: 6.34 ounces
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: Decent snack. Tastes like a combination of Sun Chips and Pringles. Multisnackial. Snack booty calls. Does not cause anal leakage.
Cons: Flavor could’ve been a little stronger. Not much better nutritionally than regular Pringles. Crisps are fragile. A shitty source of vitamin C and iron. Getting your hand stuck in the Pringles can. Handlebar mustaches. Having curves in all the wrong places.