Pepsi x Peeps

Product circa: spring 2023

With this insane crossover, Pepsi proves why it's the unmatched with its crazy flavored colas.

This tastes like the old Pepsi Vanilla, but with an added flavor that tastes exactly like the kind of marshmallows you'd find in a cereal.  It's not quite as tasty as the original Pepsi Vanilla, unfortunately. However, I have no idea how they have captured the flavor of cereal marshmallows and applied it to a beverage.  Thankfully, in the years since I first tried this product, I have also tasted that flavor elsewhere in other snacks.  I'm glad to see it's being used more. 

Mystery Oreo 2017 & Fruity Crisp Oreo

 

Products circa: 2017 & 2016

Mystery: This one was easy.  Upon first bite, it was overwhelmingly clear that it was flavored like Post Fruity Pebbles cereal.  The likeness is uncanny.  And also very odd paired with chocolate cookies.  But quite tasty overall.  The first of the Oreo Mystery flavors, if I recall correctly.

Fruity Crisp: Almost identical to the product above, these use vanilla cookies, which pairs much better with the cereal-accurate creme.  Absolutely delicious, and very novel.

Kit Kat Duos - Strawberry + Dark Chocolate

Product circa: 2022

I suppose that strawberry and chocolate aren't a strange combination, but they are when the strawberry is the same artificial flavoring used for hard candy and soft drinks.  They tried to dial back on too much strawberry, but it ends up being unremarkable.

Doritos Spicy Pineapple Jalapeno

Product circa: 2023

What a wild ride these are.

It starts with the aroma, which is a familiar green vegetal jalapeno, the likes of which I’ve encountered on other snacks.  The immediate taste is an off-putting artificial fruitiness that I can’t help but compare to a fresh-scented surface cleaning spray.  After a few chomps, once you get past the typical onion and garlic, you’ll notice a familiar pineapple flavoring, tasting identical to that which is put into the pale yellow Life Savers in a typical variety pack.

Not an ultimately pleasing combination, but I can’t deny that they took a huge swing here.

Coca-Cola with Coffee

 

Product circa: 2021

A short-lived line of really interesting products from Coke.  A successor, in a way, to Coca-Cola Blak, this version boasted more coffee added to the formula than Blak.  There were also Vanilla and Caramel versions in addition to the original Dark Blend (black coffee).

I'm only going by memory for this entry.  I do remember Coke with Coffee tasting much more of coffee than Blak.  But like I said in my thoughts on Blak, I don't think more coffee made it a better product.  Coffee and Coke are flavors that don't necessarily marry well, but they did an impressive job trying.  I recall the Vanilla and Caramel versions being better than the black version, as taking the focus off of the coffee/Coke combination was beneficial. 

Pringles Wendy's Baconator

 

Product circa: 2020

You love to see cross-branding like this.  Unfortunately, these come across as a little one-dimensional.

Despite not having any meat products in these, the first and most prominent flavor is smoky pork.  After that… really nothing.  No beef or cheese… which, it seems, is literally all that is in a Wendy’s Baconator.  The ingredients list boasts things like spices, cheese powder, and tomato powder, but I don’t get any of it.  Just smoky pork rind-like powder, and that’s it.  It could be part of how old this can is, though it was air-sealed and is in great condition.

Coca-Cola Blak (ULTRA THROWBACK)

Product circa: 2006

Due to the time elapsed since this product's release, this post will concentrate on what the product was, and not how it tastes.  But to be clear: I have this bottle pictured, and I drank it around the year 2020.  Years ago, on a whim, having remembered this old product, I went on eBay and bought an unopened bottle.  As expected, the taste wasn't much, due to age.

If I'm not mistaken, Blak was Coke's first coffee-flavored product.  It was piloted in France, then released in North America, and it shows; it was a boutique product.  It was released in 4-packs, in small glass bottles wrapped in plastic which had a coffee-like design.  These were fairly expensive, as well.

The taste was not unlike its successor, Coca-Cola with Coffee.  It had a dark-roasted coffee flavor, which doesn't perfectly pair with the cola flavor, but it was fine.  In a prescient move that wasn't popular at the time, Coke switched half of Blak's sweetener with the sucralose and acesulfame potassium mixture that was getting popular at the time.  Did it make the product suffer?  Probably.

In the end, Blak is simply one of the more oddball entries in Coke's historical stable.  While not as storied as something like Pepsi Blue or New Coke, I consider it among them as one of the more memorable blips in the beverage industry history.

Brownie Batter Oreo

 

Product circa: 2015

Simple: a chocolate cookie, with chocolate creme.  But the creme is somehow different than the regular Chocolate Creme Oreos that you can find; it’s darker, more sumptuous/unctuous??  It might even have some flour or flour-like flavor mixed in, like some cake batter products do.  Really good overall.

 

Mountain Dew Liberty Brew & DEW-S-A

                  

Products circa: various years after 2016

Liberty Brew- Supposedly this is 50 fruity flavors all in one recipe; it certainly tastes it.  There are some interesting but unknowable flavors that pop up here and there on the tongue, but ultimately this just ends up taste blue, like its color.  But this is one of the sweetest Dews I’ve ever tasted.  After this product was released, it was re-released in subsequent years as Liberty Chill.

Dew-S-A - This product is a mix of the Code Red, White Out, and Voltage products, to match the red, white, and blue theme of the American flag.  However, this formulation was the 2017 version, which had zero calorie sweetener in addition to sugar.  Aside from this awful sweetener combination, the tastes of Code Red and Voltage combine to provide an overall berry taste, but it's further ruined by the pepperiness of the White Out.

Dr. Pepper Strawberries & Cream

 

Product circa:  2023 and after

Note: This is a presumptive Ephemeral Nom

Not the first Dr. Pepper to have berries or cream added.

Not much to see here.  While vanilla is assuredly in Dr. Pepper’s original mix of flavors, if they added more here, it doesn’t come through with the artificial strawberry.  The strawberry here doesn’t play well with the regular formula.  As always, I applaud the attempt, as well as the numerous recent attempts at other Dr. Pepper variations, but this one misses the mark.

Kit Kat Birthday Cake

 

 

Product circa: 2020 and occasionally since

This basically tastes like a white chocolate Kit Kat with a bit of vanilla and cute sprinkles in it (the crunchy kind, not the waxy kind).  Should I have expected more?  Hard to say.  When it comes to birthday cake flavored snacks, I yearn for that uncooked flour taste.  Am I strange?  Probably.

Doritos Flamin' Hot Korean-Style BBQ

 

Product circa: 2025

These had huge potential, but they fell flat.

Perhaps the most pleasant part of the experience in the first bite, where there's an immediate smokiness that reminds me of the charred beef that you'd find in Korean barbecue.  After that, the experience is mostly a combination of chile powder and what I would describe as the flavor of a dark umami-heavy Asian sauce, whether it's the kind on Korean barbecue, or even something not far from a teriyaki sauce or even a potsticker dipping sauce - slightly distinct, but also a bit bland.  There's a bit of heat too.  However, after eating a few more of these chips than I should, I start detecting a pungent flavor that borders on disgusting... I'm not sure what it is... maybe the citric acid combined with the other flavors?  Also, if you eat too many of these, the taste will stay in your mouth for hours and hours.

Caramel Cold Brew M&M's

 

Product circa: 2022

The chocolate is infused with coffee powder.  The first few bites will have you think you’re chewing on a chocolate-covered coffee bean.  Soon after, the caramel center takes over, and it’s very chewy, with a pleasing texture.  The coffee flavor stays until the end.  A perfectly executed snack, very satisfying.

Choco Chip Oreo

 

Product circa: 2016

Golden Oreo cookies with vanilla creme, both of which have chocolate specks in them.  The creme seems to have a bit of brown sugar added to it and, IMO, I think the cookies might have a bit of that as well.

Overall, really delicious.  Despite being an overall “vanilla” treat, the specks still make it taste notably of chocolate, and the brown sugar tint to it all really adds a hearty nuance.  These might be slightly better than the original Oreo, whether we’re talking about the original or Golden.

Caramel Apple Oreo

 

Product circa: 2014

Artificial green apple flavor tends to be pretty rough for me, usually.  But somehow, here they really manage to make it work.  The caramel flavoring in the bifurcated creme mingles with the apple creme and is quite pleasant, in the end.

Coca-Cola Move

Product circa: 2023

One of the weird LTOs that Coke offered in the 2023 era, all of which had concept-y names that had no bearing on the product itself.

This tastes like a fruitier Coke, and I can detect coconut, but no pineapple, as the internet had been saying.  The Zero Sugar version is a damn good approximation of the full sugar.

Coke keeps being restrained with the amount of additional flavoring that they add to the variations, while Pepsi continued to be bold with theirs.  And that's why Pepsi flavored colas are always better.

Mountain Dew Baja Cabo Citrus

 

Product circa: 2025

Note: This is a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom.

Simply put, a flavor that somehow concentrates on citrus flavors within a formula that is already based on citrus.  I get added flavors of orange, lime, and maybe even grapefruit.  But it is missing additional acid - this feels sweeter than it needs to be, and I think the product suffers for it.

Candy Cane & Peppermint Oreos

 

Products circa: 2013 & 2015

As expected, these both taste about the same: simply, chocolate cookie with a peppermint-flavored creme.  Not bad, but I'm not a chocolate (pepper)mint guy.

Marshmallow Crispy Oreo

 

Product circa: Intermittently from 2014 to 2019

Golden Oreo cookies with a creme that tastes like the marshmallows you get in cereal, plus the addition of tiny Rice Krispies in said creme.

I ate opened this package four years after I bought them in 2019 and... they were fine.  But I can’t help look through my nostalgia glasses back to 2014, when I first tried these fresh.  They were incredible.  The cereal-marshmallow flavor went so well with the cookies, it was like a revelation.  The only way I’ll be able to know I’m not crazy is if Oreo every decides to revive this variety.

Strawberry Frosted Donut Oreo

 

Product circa: 2021

Vanilla cookie with 2 types of creme: strawberry (with sprinkles) and… I can’t figure out what the 2nd one is.  I’ve deconstructed the cookies and tasted the odd, beige creme on its own.  It might be different from the original Oreo creme, but only barely.  Moreover, I can’t figure out what it’s supposed to be or represent.

Despite how ridiculous Oreo varieties can get, they almost always are in balance; this variety is not.  This is the most punishingly sweet Oreo I’ve ever tasted… it’s either worse than the Double Stuf or Triple Stuff ones.

Hi-C Ecto Cooler (2017)

 

Product circa: 2017 and intermittently after

Back in the day, Ecto Cooler was one of the coolest things you could have in your school lunchbox… before Capri Sun gained popularity, that is.  I gotta hand it to Coca-Cola for bringing it back for a time, and I'm glad to hear they've done it again since.  Luckily for folks my age, companies are realizing that there is a huge amount of money in fanservice to nostalgia of products like these.

This formula tastes exactly like it did in the 80s/90s, and I have no idea how they do it.  It’s an orange flavored drink unlike anything else that’s been made.  It’s not pure orange juice, it’s clearly mixed with some kind of artificial drink, but it still maintains an acidic bite that a bottled juice drink wouldn’t have.  I think I’m going to start mixing Hi-C Orange and orange juice to see if I can replicate this.

Dum Dums with Hawaiian Punch flavors

 

Product circa: 2023

A nice little cross-branding venture between two legendary brands.

While these are from 2023, there is evidence online of Hawaiian Punch joints going back as far as 2014.

Unfortunately, these things don’t hit quite like they used to when we were kids.  They are absent of any tang or interest; they are high on sugar, low on flavor.  The Polar Blast flavor is a simple blue raspberry that tastes lifeless.  The Fruit Juicy Red flavor is definitely on par with the drink flavor, but its vigor just doesn’t translate into hard candy.

Goldfish Old Bay

 

Product circa: 2022 and intermittently after

I wouldn’t have expected Old Bay to go so well with cheese crackers, but it does.  The seasoning is bold, with black pepper, onion, paprika, and celery seed singing loudly.  It would be a tragedy if they didn’t make these a permanent product.

Shoutout to my DC-area snack racketeers for getting me this.

Lay's Cheddar Jalapeno

 

Product circa: 2020 (and later?)

Note: This is a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom

Evidently this product was a joint with John Legend?

I gotta be honest, I think most Lays varieties with cheese fall flat.  This one is no different.  You’ve got your normal cheese seasoning, and this has some added heat, along with a vaguely vegetal flavor that I’ve tasted before as trying to simulate jalapeno.  But when you squint your eyes, it’s just cheese potato chips, and forgettable.

Reese's Jumbo Cup

 

Product circa: 2025

Note: This is a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom

At about 3 inches across, this thing shows that Reese's are really running out of form factor variations for their product.  But you always gotta try the new Reese's shapes/sizes, because they can affect the experience of the snack itself.

This is just like the regular Reese's Cup blown up in size.  The chocolate is thicker, but so is the peanut butter filling.  I daresay the chocolate is too a touch too thick, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were necessary, structurally.  In the end, this doesn't hold a candle to the original Reese's Cup, which is already almost perfect.

Frute Brute cereal

 

Product circa: 2022 (and many years before and still to come)

Part of the Count Chocula entourage that makes its appearance seasonally.  This is the first time I had heard of Frute Brute, despite it existing, in various forms, since 1974.

Ever had cherry cereal?  I bet you haven’t.  These seem to be cherry flavored paws with the occasional marshmallow to provide most of the sweetness.  The cherry flavoring really works well here, it’s quite a novel and pleasant experience.  If I ate cereal on the reg, and if this stuff were available on the reg, I would definitely make a habit of buying it.

Candy Corn Oreo

 

Product circa: 2020 (re-release)

These have been released intermittently throughout the years.

Honestly, I’m really struggling to discern how much these are different than the normal Golden Oreos without them in front of me to compare.  It’s possible that the creme has a bit of caramel in it, but otherwise it’s just a delicious, perhaps vanilla-heavy Golden Oreo.

Kit Kat Churro

 

Product circa: 2023

Honestly, this tastes exactly as expected.  A white chocolate Kit Kat with a heavy dose of cinnamon added to it, and also vanilla.  Vanilla and cinnamon seem to be a cheat code to make things taste delicious.  These are utterly fantastic.

Dr. Pepper Cherry

 

Product circa: 2025

I didn't realize this product was around until a friend gave it to me.  I'm going to assume that it's Ephemeral in the sense that it might be regional, seasonal, or just not available at all times everywhere.

Very tasty!  I wish it were around more, I would probably buy it semi-regularly.  However, that's only because I don't have regular access to Cheerwine, which is basically a better version of this.

The Dr. Pepper Cherry has a cherry-heavy flavor, like Cheerwine, but I feel like the spicy Dr. Pepper base actually minimizes my enjoyment, in this case.

Gatorade Mashups Cool Blue + Fruit Punch

 

Product circa: 2025

Note: This is a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom.

A cool idea.  This sounds delicious, right?  For whatever reason, it's not.  They don't marry at all.  I'd rather have each constituent product individually. 

Gatorade Lightning Blast & Midnight Ice

 

Note: These are Presumptive Ephemeral Noms.

Even though these are touted as "New Flavors", they are almost certainly available only for a limited time.

With names like these and the profuse blending of artificial flavors, it's often tough to discern the flavor components without looking online.  Lightning Blast is very melon-forward for me, with what seems like berry flavors following.  Midnight Ice undoubtedly has grape in it, with tropical flavors surrounding it.  Neither are especially good or interesting. 

Lay's Thai-Style Red Curry

 

Product circa: 2025

Not a Lay's product imported from Asia, but a rare instance of US domestic Lay's adopting the flavors of exotic food.

This shit's the bomb, it evokes a perfect red curry: lemongrass, coconut, tomato, chile, garlic, and the spices that make up the curry base.  Bravo!

Herr's Special Hot Stromboli

Product circa: 2025

This flavor was the winner of a potato chip flavor contest.  As a big fan of Herr's and complex chip flavors, I went into this with high hopes.  While there are a ton of flavors going on, this largely tastes, to me, like pepperoncini and cheese.  That's it.

Post Malone & Selena Gomez Oreos

 

Products circa: 2024 & 2025, respectively

How do I feel about the increasing prevalence of celebrity-themed ephemeral noms?  I'm not entirely sure.  The problem is that the celebrities tend to be fairly unimaginative with these products, inasmuch as they have any say at all in how it's created.

Post Malone: Supposedly a salted caramel and shortbread flavor, it tastes like any other brown sugar or caramel-leaning Oreo that I've had a million times.

Selena Gomez: A creme of overwhelming cinnamon and vanilla.  The chocolate cookie is an interesting addition here, as opposed to a vanilla cookie, which would have been the more obvious choice.  Overall delicious, but very intense.

White Chocolate Marshmallow Crispy Treat M&M's

 

Product circa: 2023

Post-hoc thoughts.  These were delicious.  The crispy M&M's in general are really a home run; I remember when they first came out.

Mountain Dew Fruit Quake

 

Product circa: 2022

These are post-hoc thoughts from memory.  Ostensibly a fruitcake-flavored Dew (I love fruitcake), instead this is really perhaps the best fruit punch soda I have ever had, with a heavy concentration on cherry.  Fantastic.  I hope they re-release it with a more welcoming and crowd-pleasing name/branding.

Oreo Coca-Cola (cookies, not soda)

 

Product circa: 2024

It feels like I've been waiting forever for this exact product, but I'm dismayed to find that how Oreo has executed this is much more of an enigma than I expected.

The smell and initial taste is unmistakably cola, but as you keep chewing, you might be surprised to find cola's constituent flavors identifiable here.  Notably, I explicitly get cinnamon and lemon/lime, both of which are indeed in your average cola.

It's almost like I would have liked this more if I had gone in with a different mindset.  I expected a creme cookie that tasted like gummy cola candies, and instead I got a complex cola flavor, almost like those expensive boutique cola brands.  I'm disappointed in my own reaction.

Overall, an impressive product from Oreo, one that I never would have expected from them.

Oh yeah, it also has popping candies in the creme to emulate a cola's carbonation.  Those can fuck off. 

Moon Pie Key Lime

 

Product circa: 2024-2025

Note: This is a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom

There's a small handful of Moon Pie flavors out there, and I would love to see more!

Seemingly a plain (vanilla?) Moon Pie (a mini one, in this case) covered in a thin frosting that is so green, it has hints of blue in it.  The frosting is the only part of the snack flavored like key lime, and it has an ever-so-slight perfume of lime in it.  Overall, this is fairly unpleasant. 

Spotted in the Wild: Oreo Loaded

 

 

Note: These are a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom. 

I found these in Walmart.

I'm not going to buy them.  They look like a hybrid of the Oreo's The Most Stuf and their Cookies & Cream variety.  I'm pretty confident how they'll taste.  And I know most of its contents would go to waste. 

 

Lay's Argentenian Style Steak

 

I'm not sure if these are regional to here in South Florida or if these are available nationally.

HALLELUJAH there is beef flavoring in these chips, and it shows.  They lead strongly with a flavored of steak, specifically charred steak.  Next up is heavy black pepper.  There are the typical aromatics like onion and garlic, and a hint of parsley which is boosted by some vinegar powder.

These are good, but they probably should have been marketed as some other product/flavoring, like "Steakhouse" or something.  If they want to mimic chimichurri, they need to get bolder on the botanicals, like parsley, garlic, chile, and citrus. 

Pepsi Wild Cherry & Cream & Zero Sugar

Product circa: 2025

Note: This is a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom

As many brand competitors (in many industries) tend to release similar products to compete at the same time, this release coincides with Coke's Orange & Cream varietal.

As someone who claims that Pepsi Vanilla is his favorite soda of all time, and who also believes that Pepsi Wild Cherry is truly exceptional, I was very excited for this.  Sadly, while this stuff is taste, I think its probably a worse product than either mentioned above.  It is lesser than the sum of its parts.  I think the flavors just get a bit too jumbled.  It might have been possible to blend this in a way that worked better, but maybe not.  The vanilla tastes odd, and the cherry doesn't taste quite like the flavor in Pepsi Wild Cherry.  The Zero Sugar version isn't bad, but I don't taste vanilla at all.

Dr. Pepper Blackberry

 

Product circa: 2025

I've drunk a whole 12 pack of this stuff and I'm still having trouble assessing it.

There is a subtle blackberry flavor added to the product, of course, and it's not just a "berry" flavor - it's definitely blackberry.  But it's not a blackberry that would fool you into thinking it's natural.

I could say that the added flavor could be stronger, as I often do, but I'm not sure that'd be a great idea here.  In the end, it's just good, not great.  It's about on par with the original.

Gatorade Passionfruit

Product circa: 2023

Note: This is a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom.

A subtle but accurate passionfruit flavor, and a bit of sourness.  Very nice.  I'd love to have access to this regularly. 

Funyuns Spicy Queso

 

Product circa: 2023

Disappointing, overall.  There is cheese powder added to these, and they are notably spicy.  There are flecks of herbs on the "chips", but I cannot taste them.  In fact, these are pretty low on flavor.  It's almost like these are under-seasoned and could use more salt, though I'm sure the sodium of this product is already sky-high.

Red Bull Coconut Edition/Summer Edition 2018

 

Product circa: 2018 and intermittent since

This has had permutations throughout the years.  It was called Summer Edition in 2018, and since has been called Coconut Edition.

Ostensibly a coconut berry flavor, what I get is the expected Red Bull taste with a sour berry added in, and a hint of coconut.  I wish it had more coconut.

M&M's Mega

 

Product Circa: Intermittent

Giant M&M's candies whose form factor is flatter than your average M&M's... probably because they would be too firm to bite through, otherwise.  Their taste and texture are otherwise very reminiscent of the original, surprisingly.  But are they more fun to eat than the original?  Very.

Pepsi Salted Caramel

 

Product circa: 2017

I had high hopes for this one, but it falls flat a bit.  Your typical Pepsi with some added burnt sugar flavoring, the kind that would be added with any cheap “salted caramel” flavored product. (And there’s no additional salt in this stuff.)  I applaud Pepsi, as usual, for having such a creative variation, but sadly, this doesn’t stack up to their usual successes.

Pringles Grilled Beer Brat & Beer Can Chicken

Products circa: Summer 2025

A nice promotion done with Miller Lite beer.

Neither of these products contain meat products, so like is most often, they have to lean heavily on yeast and MSG instead.

Neither of them have a particularly meaty flavor, and instead rely on a mix of savory herbs and aromatics.  The flavor for both is fairly subtle and aren't memorable.  They're not bad, but not particularly good, either.  The Grilled Beer Brat has a particularly glutamatey/cheesy taste that approaches the taste of sausage.

It must be noted, however, that the Grilled Beer Brat variety has the distinct aroma of pork when you open the can.  No idea how they did that.

Funyuns Sour Cream & Funyuns

 

Note: This is a Presumptive Ephemeral Nom.

Product circa: 2025

We certainly have seen meta products like these before, haven't we?

Anyway, these seem to be like regular Funyuns with "sour cream & onion" seasoning on them instead of the traditional seasoning, which is definitely different.  The milk powder is noticeable, and the spices are bold, almost even like ranch dressing seasoning.  I would say these are better than the original.