Pringles Mingles
Posted by starsystemerror on Nov 13, 2024
Pringles, the snack known for its prime position in the fairly small niche of snacks being made from flattened, reconstituted potato mush, has decided to try its hand in the much more saturated niche of puffed corn snacks. I’m no stranger to puffed corn, and in fact, I might even say I enjoy it, especially the cheesier types. All that is to say, when I saw Pringles Mingles in a small display in a local grocery store, I thought I could try them for fun, and I could tolerate or maybe even enjoy the new experience.
I did not quite know the experience I would get when I mingled with the Pringles Mingles.
I chose the Cheddar and Sour Cream flavor, which is one of my favorite potato chip flavors. I failed to consider how a flavor that I adored on a potato base might map to a corn one, and I paid the price. To be fair, it’s not like the other flavors would have been much better. For the issues I had, I think the other flavors of “White Cheddar and Ranch” and “Dill Pickle and Ranch” would have in fact been worse. Before that, though, my first impression: these things are SMALL. I have tiny hands, and the strange “bowtie” shaped puffs were not nearly as large as I thought they would be. They’re not a good shape for picking up, and the flavor powder has a hard time sticking to the oddly smooth surface. There are no crags or lumps for flavor to settle into like that of a Cheeto or even a generic cheese puff. Pringles Mingles went out of their way to be as smooth as possible and it did them no favors.
As for the taste…well, it didn’t taste like a Pringle, that’s for sure. And it didn’t taste anything like any of the other puffed corn snacks I’ve tried before. The flavor powder must have been the same as that used on normal Pringles, and it was very much not formulated to work with the much sweeter taste of a corn-based snack. The main flavor I got out of it was just…sour. Of course, I thought, this must be due to the “sour cream” flavor advertised. But it did not taste like sour cream. I was tasting nothing but the citric acid they doused this thing with. It became more obvious the more I ate. The bag was fairly small, but I thought if I ate a few pieces I would get used to the taste, as sometimes is the case with foods I find have a strange flavor at first. Not so with these. The sourness continued to intensify until it was this awful acidic burning feeling, less “flavor” and more “damage to my taste buds.”
Still, I pushed through. I had brought these as a snack to work, thinking I could have a fun snack to keep me going and also have something mildly entertaining for an article later. I did not realize just how difficult these would be. I didn’t have a backup snack, so if I didn’t eat these, I would have to shell out for the overpriced vending machine, or just wait until dinner. Sure, I could have spent a couple dollars on an Oatmeal Creme Pie. I probably would have enjoyed that more. But I bought these vile little things, damn it, and I was going to eat them.
Near the end of the bag the acidic feeling developed into more of a bitter aftertaste, a metallic tang in the back of my mouth. I tried to push through, but I just couldn’t. I ended up not finishing the 2-ounce bag. I told myself I was saving it for Will or Paula to try, but who was I kidding? These were awful. As I type this, the crumpled bag with the small handful of Mingles sits on my desk, taunting me. It’s closed with a paper clip taken from my desk at work, some kind of vain attempt to preserve the already-stale-feeling puffs that I am definitely not going to attempt to eat again. The Mingles left me desperately wishing for Cheetos, or even just normal Pringles. Anything but these. I tried to chew a piece of gum to get the taste out, but the gum acquired the Mingles Flavor, and I had to spit it out and get a new piece of gum, which still retained a small amount of sourness.
Save yourself the suffering. Don’t mingle with Pringles Mingles. For your own sake.
i had to take this secretly at my desk because we arent supposed to have cameras out
Categories: food
On this day...
- Viridi (Nov 13, 2015)