Powerade FIFA World Cup 2026 Trio

Products circa: Summer 2026

Yet another promotion for the 2026 World Cup.

Blood Orange Kick - It took me years to understand the flavor of blood orange.  The way I describe it today is a slightly more savory version of orange, a savoriness that borders on tomato.  Anyway, this has nothing of that.  It tastes mostly like any orange sports drink, but the flavor is slightly worse.

White Grape Wave - They somehow managed to alter the artificial grape flavor to simulate a commendably realistic white grape flavor.  It's not bad, but it's an odd mix with the sports drink base.

Cold Berry Burst - A tart blue raspberry with other generic "berry" thrown in.  Not teeming with flavor, but probably just the right amount of subtlety to make it easy to chug.  However, this stuff has the "cooling" menthol-like ingredients (which the internet doesn't readily identify)

Lay's Brazilian-Style Garlic Sauce

 

Product circa: summer 2026

One of several Lays products promoting the 2026 FIFA World Cup, representing Brazil.

With a possibly extra-salted bite, these start with easily the strongest and most realistic raw garlic flavor I've ever tasted in a snack.  Next, the various cheese powders in the ingredient list manifest as butter on the palate, very much like that of buttered popcorn.  In the end, there is a tanginess that doesn't taste like vinegar at all, and well mimics the lemon juice that is intended.

These are very tasty, but because of the fact that they make your mouth taste like garlic for 6+ hours after you eat them, I'll never buy them again.

Fritos Flavor Twists Spicy Dill Pickle

 

Product circa: Summer 2026

I guess "spicy dill pickle" is plenty zeitgeisty enough to be an "American" flavor as part of this US semiquincentennial promotion.

They really provided "the works" of flavor profiles here for this snack.  I've tried plenty of spicy pickle snacks recently, and this is different.  This seems to have a ranch flavor base, with dill flavor added, with salt & vinegar powder added, and also the "red hot" flavor on top.  They're not unpleasant, but they are very busy in an All Dressed kind of way.  More than anything, this snack highlights that the flavor twists form factor provides an impressive crunchy texture when using new-fangled flavors, and I wish Fritos experimented with them more.

Lay's Wavy French Onion Soup

 

Product circa: 2026

Evidently as part of a promotion for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, this product represents France.

Onion powder is immediately evident here, but it avoids the pitfall of being too sweet, which I have experienced on past Lay's onion products.  Along with the onion is a heavy maltodextrin/MSG like flavor that is hard to miss.  There is also a lot of brown meatiness to simulate the beef broth of French Onion Soup, and it does well and making sure that this snack isn't too sweet.  In the end, this is a very enjoyable chip.

Snickers Adventure Bar

 

Product circa: 2008 (!)

Indeed, I still have this bag of snacks!  Unfortunately, the chocolate has gone rancid, and they are inedible.

This was a promotional product released for the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  It was a regular Snickers bar base with the added flavors of coconut and chai-like spices... why they chose those flavors to promote this movie, I do not know.

I recall the candy having a subtle coconut flavor that accented the original very well.  I personally do not recall any flavor of spices at all, though some concurrent sources did.

Fanta Chucky's Punch

 

Product circa: autumn 2025

Released as part of a group of horror-themed sodas in preparation for Halloween 2025, I believe this one was the only brand-new flavor among them.

This stuff is good, and I'll tell you why.  Fruit punch sodas often miss the mark.  I would say most often they are simply too sweet, with not enough acid.  After that, they often have very little flavor.  This one bucks both trends with a restrained sweetness and flavor on the level of any proper fruit punch beverage.  Major kudos to Coca-Cola for producing this - too bad something like this isn't available permanently.

Gatorade Citrus Cooler

 

Product circa: autumn 2025 

 Evidently a re-release of a vintage favorite from 1987.  I wonder if Gatorade still used glass bottles in that year... I'm too lazy to look it up.  Anyway, this is a product promoting the final season on Stranger Things.

 I can see why it was a favorite. To me, this tastes like a more subtle and natural orange flavor... it's almost as if I can taste the pulp in my mouth.  It's more like an orangeade than a orange sports drink.  I'm not sure I'm tasting any additional citrus in here... but if you told me it was part of the formula, I'd believe you.  If this flavor were available permanently, I probably would never reach for any other flavor.

Doritos Collisions Stranger Pizza & Cool Ranch

 

Product circa: autumn 2025

A promotional item commemorating the upcoming final season of Stranger Things (get excited!!!).

I like that these exist, but I hate that this flavor combination exists because of losers who dip their pizza in ranch dressing.

Anyway, the Cool Ranch chips are what you'd expect.  The pizza chips are pretty interesting.  There is a ton of tomato powder on these, with what is likely additional sweetness... these things are very sweet.  There is also the deep oregano flavor which is usually what makes "pizza" snacks taste like pizza.  That's about all I get from these.  Pretty tasty, but not stellar.

No pizza chip will ever rival Pizzarias from the 1990s... IYKYK. 

Fanta Haunted Apple

 

Product circa: late Summer 2024, promoting the film Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

I've been thoroughly enjoying the horrible reviews of this stuff that I've been seeing online, and so I was excited to find a bottle and waste my money on it.

Damn, I'm disappointed, because it's really not that bad.  Self-described as a spiced apple soda, the spice is clear on the nose, and the apple taste is somewhere between green apple and red apple.  The spice also makes itself known on the tongue, and it probably contains more than just cinnamon, but it's hard to tell what.  The flavors combine with a bitterness at the end that prevents this from being cloying.  Honestly, it's really not that bad.  I've tasted so many things that were worse.

Mountain Dew Game Fuel Tropical Smash

It was summer of 2017 that Pepsico released yet another Game Fuel variation called Tropical Smash. This product was part of a promotion with the release of the video game Forza Motorsport 7.

Once again, Dew has added zero-calorie sweetener to a drink that already has almost 200 calories. I'm not sure how many dozens of calories are saved by adding Ace-K and sucralose, but I must be the only one who thinks that the taste of the product suffers because of it?

Anyway, the onset of Tropical Smash has a similar feel to the iconic smooth sweetness that normal Dew has, with little in the way of acidic bite to balance it. As the name suggests, bright tropical punch flavors dominate the palate; although official documentation says mango and pineapple, I get mango and banana. Regardless, it's quite tasty. Unfortunately it's punctuated with the sharp pinch of zero-calorie sweetener.  And minutes after drinking, the aftertaste is probably the worst I've ever experienced.

The 0-cal sweetener always takes these products' ratings down by 1 NOM, but this is the best one I've ever had, so welcome your first 3-NOM product with 0-cal sweetener!

Mountain Dew Game Fuel Tropical Smash:- Great

Original Mountain Dew(for comparison):- Great