The Atlantic has an article (below) talking about the popularity (or free advertising) of unlikely products like mustard skittles or deep fried butter.
What examples of this have you seen or tried?
Any of these frankenfoods good enough to buy on a regular basis?
Didn’t you used to have self-respect?
Any other thoughts or stories?
And … why? The Skittles are the latest in a long line of pseudo-snacks, including ranch-dressing-flavored ice cream, Velveeta-flavored martinis, and several French’s-specific fusions, beget by the truism that shock value, like sex, sells. They are foodstuffs that function as spectacles, and TikTok trends in waiting: In them, the abilities of the chemist collide with the demands of influencer culture. They are the edible effects of marketers’ ongoing efforts to turn paid media and earned media into the same thing. As foods, their flavor is, generally speaking, disgusting.
The most salient fact of the new Skittles, though, is not that they taste like mustard. It is that they are not intended, really, to be tasted at all.
Jones Soda has a number of weird holiday-themed sodas, like turkey & gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, Christmas ham, etc. Never tried one but I can’t imagine they’re something that anyone would ever try more than once, out of curiosity or on a dare.
Is this all that different from Thrills chewing gum? Years ago it advertised itself as “tasting like soap” (which it does for maybe two seconds) and now it advertises for the nostalgia market “that it still tastes like soap”. Ice cream has long included strange flavours.
I get the feeling the article is some kind of intellectual nonsense which is basically decrying the intrusion of marketing into our daily lives by way of an argument that skates pretty close to elitism IMO.
I mean, who cares if someone makes some kind of weird novelty ice cream, candy or drink, and it’s primarily for shock value/marketing purposes? It’s mildly entertaining to try something like that, which is the point. And if it takes off, great. If not then they still got people to consider their product. Meanwhile the consumer got the minor thrill of trying something weird and new.
These extremely unavailable mustard Skittles are probably produced more to generate online buzz than anything else, but I bet if they hit it off, they’ll be more widely produced. Think of it as a online focus group, rather than something so cynical as something never intended to ever be produced for mass consumption.
I have a pretty good sense memory for taste, so I can fairly closely imagine some of these weird flavors. If it sounds good to me I might try it. If the combo sounds gross, I’ll skip it. I have no interest in shock eating.
Writers gotta write about something, so this seems as good a thing as any. A lot of stuff in The Atlantic might be categorized as elitist, but some things are easier to look down on than others. I agree with the fact that companies trying to drum up publicity is pretty routine and expected, so who cares? On the other hand, marketing has long intruded into daily life, and ever more so. It’s not yet Blade Runner, but mustard Skittles will be widely produced when hamburger and ketchup ones are - never - it’s not really about making them available. You are also unlikely to enter a competitive eating contest. But this isn’t the point.
Deep fried ice cream or butter dipped in a sweet batter is actually a lovely cold treat for a hot day at a carnival or theme park, but mustard flavored Skittles sound disgusting and dumb on the face of it,something that will only be eaten by show-offs who only eat it to show off. And velveeta martinis (velveeta anything, for that matter, and cocktails that contain cheese or pseudo-cheese in general) should be a jailable offense.
I had a proper pb&j and bacon burger a couple years ago at some place in Phoenix. It was fine for a bite or two, but just too damned rich for my tastes.
I have tried garlic wine and garlic ice cream at the now-defunct (Gee thanks COVID!) Gilroy CA Garlic Festival. Not good. Not at all. But interesting. I’ve also tried horseradish-flavored icee / slushy / shaved ice and a horseradish-laced pastry akin to a cinnamon bun at the
Also not good, not good at all. But good dumb fun.
I get boosterism by grower’s organizations. I don’t like the idea of social media novelty-seeking for novelty / notoriety sake only. Ref NYC’s Union Square yesterday, too many ways for that mindless shit to go wrong.
The endless restless pursuit of novelty for novelty’s sake is sure to end in tears. Novelty in pursuit of a distinct aesthetic is utterly different.
Yes, the jelly beans are Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans from the Harry Potter books. My husband and I got them once for fun as we are Harry Potter fans. The black pepper jelly beans are good.
The same flavors are also packaged as Bean Boozled, in which a particular color could be a good flavor or a gross flavor. My boys had a Sunday school lesson with these, something to do with not judging someone based on outward impressions. I also put them in their Easter baskets once or twice. The box has a spinner challenge on the back to show what color bean you have to eat. I spun exactly once, got a blue toothpaste flavor, counted myself lucky, and noped out of the challenge after that.
Both of those seem pretty normal to me. Wasabi peas are easy to get anywhere that sells Japanese snacks - they’re in all the grocery stores in Hawai’i. They’re a perfectly fine snack, although not my favorite. I like the slightly sweet rice crackers with tiny dried fish and seaweed better.
The chocolate-chili combo was kind of trendy a few years ago, IIRC. I can understand the appeal (it’s not really all that different a flavor combo than what you’d find in a good Mexican mole) but I’m not personally particularly fond of it.
I can’t think of any truly weird flavor-combo frankenfoods I’ve eaten, but I did get a box of Cheetos mac-n-cheese mix on a lark a while ago. I thought it might be good, in a down-home sort of way (I confess, I like Cheetos), but it was horrible. The instructions on how to make it suggested serving it with crushed Cheetos on top. That would have been a waste of a perfectly fine snack.
I quite like the black-pepper flavored jelly beans, and the grass-flavored as well–better than some of the traditional flavors, in fact. As @LSLGuy says above, there’s a difference in intent between shock-novelty and novelty for the sake of creativity, but sometimes shock-novelty still hits some people’s aesthetic. It may not be the intent of the marketeers, but if someone discovers a new flavor that they like, it’s not a bad thing.
One of the nicest things anyone ever said about my endeavors in the kitchen was, “I didn’t know these flavors existed, and now I need them.” (In reference to an orange-blossom and sea-salt flavored ice cream.) Responses to my dessert ramen are more…mixed. (I swear that it’s actually good!)
I’d try the orange blossom ice cream. I never liked rose water until I tried Paan Masala ice cream. It had exactly the right amount of rose water to give a burst of fragrance without imparting a soapy taste. The same ice cream shop has a vermicelli and ice cream treat called falooda that I want to try, so I would try your dessert ramen.
Brach’s has made Thanksgiving dinner flavored candy corn for the past few years. I want to pick up a bag for my boys to try for fun, but I never see it in the stores. I don’t want it bad enough to spend lots of money ordering online or lots of time going from store to store.
