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.