Just ran to the convenience store to pick up a cup of coffee (because I’m at work and my caffeine-withdrawal headache has reached monster proportions and there’s no good coffee within a few blocks and I’m wearing shoes that will give me blisters if I try to go too far).
While I was there a craving for something sweet kicked in. First I looked at the ice cream novelties, but then I remembered how cold it is here in the library, so nixed that idea. Then I looked for some cookies. Ooo! Single serving packages of Oreos! Ooo! Chips-A-Hoy! Ooo! Hostess Cupcakes! Ooo! A 3-pack of Raspberry Zingers!
Hey, wait a minute, the Raspberry Zingers proudly proclaim “New!” in big letters on the cellophane package.
Not “New and Improved,” just plain “New!”
What on earth is new about Raspberry Zingers?
I’ve been eating them all my life, and I’m 32.
The only thing I can think of is that they used to be sold under the brand Dolly Madison and now they say Hostess on them, but I thought Dolly Madison was owned by Hostess all along, and I didn’t see “New!” on the packages of brown and yellow Zingers.
I’m eating one now and they taste exactly the same as they always have. I’ll grant you that Zingers have always been a bit scarce round these parts (Boston), but new?
What gives? Any theories?
Has the Zinger Zapper been up to no good, messing with the labelling? Snoopy, you crafty little devil, you!
When my sister and I were kids, my mom would buy a box a week and put it in the freezer. The idea was that the 10 Zingers were enough for both of us to each put one in our lunchbag every morning, and it would be thawed by noon.
Silly Mom. Those things never lasted the week. Do you that a frozen Zinger makes a great after-school snack?
My mom used to put Zingers in our lunches, too. We couldn’t eat any after school, though, unless she OKd it - she had a sharp ear/eye out for anyone sneaking stuff from the kitchen!
Ah yes, frozen snacky-cakes! My mom used to go to the day-old bakery stuff store and stock up on mini-donuts, zingers, cupcakes, and I don’t know what-all. She loaded them into the freezer in the basement. They were supposed to be for lunches. Being in the basement, they were really easy to pilfer. mmmmmmmm frozen creamy chocolatey goodness… With 5 kids, they didn’t last long.
That’s what my Dad, Sis and I used to call Venice Beach. He would take us there when we were little kids and we’d walk up and down the boardwalk, always stopping at one particular little shop for Zingers and a bottle of Coke.
There are, of course, two types of Zinger people, those who peel off the top and eat it separately and those who don’t.
As for the OP, there is usually an 800 number on the packaging of foods. Give the number a call and ask them what the hell is going on here. They will generally have an answer ready for you and will often send you coupons for free treats.
Count me in for the peel-n-eat group, at least when I eat the Chocolate ones.
Good point. No 800# on the package, but I emailed Hostess’s customer service people via Planet Twinkie ( http://www.twinkie.com ) and I’m sure they’ll help me get to the bottom of this!
Snack cake, shaped like a Twinkie, but more cakey and less spongey than a Twinkie. The chocolate ones and the yellow ones (not sure what flavor the yellow ones are pretending to be) are frosted on top like a Hostess Cupcake, but without the white frosting squiggle. And the frosting has ridges in it. They are filled with a creamy filling, like most other Hostess snack cakes.
The Raspberry ones (my personal fave) are made of a lurid pink color cake that pretends to be raspberry, they have a creamy filling, and are coated in a mixture of a gooey raspberry-flavored jam-like substance and shredded coconut.
I seem to recall in my youth there were lots more Zinger varieties, but it’s been years since I’ve seen anything other than brown, yellow and pink.
We were latchkey kids, heh heh. Plus there was never just one Zinger stolen: “YOU took a Zinger?!!?? I’m telling Mom, unless I get one too!” I don’t think she checked the box on a daily basis, and we just quit eating them when they were gone and waited until the next week for the fresh box.
I never liked the raspberry ones – don’t like coconut. It’s a toss-up between chocolate and yellow. Yum!
Here are the best photos I’ve found so far of Raspberry Zingers.
I disagree completely with the web site author’s review of Zingers, just so’s ya know:
So you don’t know what flavor the yellow ones are supposed to be? Me either.
When I was a kid I always wanted the chocolate.
Now I like all 3 fairly equally, but I always choose the raspberry ones when I find them, because they seem to be a bit more scarce.
I like vanilla the best. When I was little, my dad would always bring me some when he came home from work. I remember they had the Peanuts gang on the wrappers.
The word ‘NEW’ is printed on each package of Zingers with a special ink that will fade over time. So the word ‘new’ will be gone from the package when the Zinger is no longer fresh.
So the Zingers you ate were less than six years old.
A good rule of thumb is that if a package says “New!” or “New and Improved!” on it, examine it carefully to figure out exactly how you are being ripped off. There’s a good chance that they’ve either increased the price or (more likely) reduced the size of the serving. If the package says “New improved flavor!”, that usually means that they’ve changed to a cheaper formulation (e.g. switching to corn syrup rather than cane sugar).
Unfortunately large corporations are filled with weasels whose only job is to figure out how to increase profits for mature products. Pretty much the only ways to do this are to lower the quality, reduce the portion, or add some useless bells and whistles and charge more for them.
Hostess Zingers?! :eek: That’s just…wrong. Like “DC Comics’ Spider-Man”, or Mick Jagger in the Beatles, or the McDonald’s Whopper.
In the vending machine at work, we have butterscotch Zingers. They might sound yummy, but not a single one’s been bought in two months. Probably because they look like vanilla Zingers that have been soaked in brake fluid.
