Monday, November 4, 2024

Cheetos Flamin' Hot Cajun Cheddar

 


This is a presumptive Ephemeral Nom.

Product circa: 2024

Like Cajun seasoning, this seasoning is tough to pinpoint:  along with the cheese powder, there is clearly black pepper, chile pepper, tomato powder, and maybe thyme?  More herbs, probably.  The heat doesn't disappoint.  This is good stuff.  I doubt I'd buy it regularly if it were available always.

Monday, October 28, 2024

Chili Cheese Fritos Jack Link's Beef Jerky

 


Product circa: 2024

What an odd crossover!

Just as it seems to promise, this is beef jerky covered in what tastes like the exact same seasoning from Chili Cheese Fritos.  It's all well and good until even the cheese becomes apparent as you chew.  Unfortunately the cheese doesn't pair well at all, and it's even a bit putrid and disgusting.

Monday, October 21, 2024

Mountain Dew Baja Blast Gelato

 


Product circa: 2024

Whichever Taco Bell marketers called this product a "gelato" knew exactly what they were doing.  You could probably call this a sherbet, as it does technically have milk in the ingredients list, but this is more of an "Italian ice" product, than anything.  Essentially no creaminess, and yes, its flavor is noticeably that of Mountain Dew Baja Blast.  In the end, the marketers chose the most outrageous sounding frozen dessert to pair with a Mountain Dew product so that suckers like me would try it out of morbid curiosity.

Froot Loops Icee

 


Product circa: 2024

I'll usually bypass even the most esoteric of slushy products, but I had to try this one out at Target.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have the signature bergamot flavor of Froot Loops at all, and instead it tastes precisely like a melted assortment of Skittles candies.

Monday, October 14, 2024

Pepsi Peach

 

Product circa: 2024

I've long contended that Pepsi is way better at making flavored colas than Coke, and at this point, one could argue that they are more prolific as well.  While Coke has been making more and more "odd" colas, they have often involved various levels of exclusivity, with some being harder to find than others.  Pepsi has continued to issue colas over the past few years, and their availability has mostly been wide and long in duration, and as always, they taste better.

Pepsi Peach is perfect for what it is trying to be.  Artificial peach flavoring is ubiquitous, being mostly employed in candy, but beverages as well.  The flavoring is extremely strong and can be overpowering and artificial-tasting.  In this product, it is not.  They used the perfect amount to pair with the Pepsi flavoring, and while it doesn't exactly taste like you're biting into a juicy peach, this stuff is perfect, and I wish they made it year-round.

Herr's Philly Cheesesteak Potato Chips

 


Product circa: autumn 2024 (for football season?)

My skepticism of this product was corroborated by the ingredients list.  As expected, these have no meat flavoring in them whatsoever.  In fact, at this point, most sandwich-flavored snacks can safely be assumed to be sandwich toppings-flavored ones.

At first taste, these seem to be mostly a copy of the "sour cream & cheddar" genre of chip.  If you concentrate, however, you can get some added onion powder.  And eventually I realized that the cheese flavoring on these is exceptional, with a deep, aged, and vibrant flavor.  They're also noticeably oilier and saltier than normal.

These are perhaps the best cheese-flavored chips I've ever had, but they taste nothing like a cheesesteak.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Funyuns Steakhouse Onion

 


Product circa: 2024 and most likely earlier

Oddly enough, the first impression I get of these is tomato powder.  It's in the ingredients list, and I'm not sure why.  But other, these are heavy with herbs and spices, and with the tomato, it reminds me most of pizza-flavored snacks.  There's also a heavy dose of steak sauce-like umami here.  Overall, I'm not sure it's better than the original, but it's a nice change.