On National Junk Food Day, we explore some of our favourite brands and their daring flavour attempts. Let’s look at some of these tidbits and drinks that didn’t quite make the cut – nor to the permanent shelf.
#1 Oreo: Blueberry Ice Cream Flavour
Released in 2010, the blueberry ice cream-flavoured Oreos left one’s taste buds confused. The cream was more minty than ice creamish and the blueberry was faint. However, we must commend Oreo’s attempts for their creativity and endless flow of new releases. This year, the cookie manufacturer came up with the #myoreocreation contest to get some flavour ideas from Oreo fans. The company earned extra brownie points by sending actual creations of test flavours to the participant:
via TeenVogue
#2 Pringles: Blueberry & Hazelnut, Soft-shell Crab & Grilled Shrimp
Well-loved for their original, cheese, barbeque and sour cream & onion crisps, we only have one question: What were they thinking?! Savoury chips seasoned with blueberry AND hazelnut???!!! The flavoured snack looked like an original unsuspecting yellow Pringle without any sprinkled colour. It was a combination of fruity, nutty and sweetness with a tinge of salt that simply couldn’t fuse together. The product had loyal Pringle-snacking customers steering clear of this bold tube and left adventurers disappointed with its taste.
The brand also experimented with “Flavours of the Sea” in their 2010 product releases (soft shell crab in above picture):
via Taquitos
The soft-shell crab flavour was described as, surprise surprise, ‘crabby’. Many were bemused with how genuine the crab-like taste was, but the overall verdict was just an A-OK. Similarly, the grilled shrimp flavour was also described as having a strong shrimp-like taste and smell. However, some consumers felt rather uneasy about the artificiality of the brightly dyed-pink crisps. Guess it was a no-no from Pringle fans when it came to crustaceans. Their most recent experimental flavour is cheeseburger, we’ll see if it catches on.
#3 Twisties: Fizz
It’s like a carbonated corn curl snack, the taste is best described as normal Twisties with the addition of this:
via Redmart
The sweet corn flavoured fizz literally had the snack fizzing like popping candy in your mouth and turned your tongue blue. The novelty of the effervescent product wore off after 2-3 curls, leaving sapphire-tongued customers dreading the rest of the pack.
#4 Anything and Whatever
via Weekender
Inspired by daily conversations such as:
“Eh what you want to drink?”
“Anything la, anything”
The concept of the business was to gratify the lost soul on the receiving end of such dilemmas. Anything came in carbonated flavours such as Cola with lemon, and Whatever were non-carbonated drinks like ice lemon tea. The initial release of the product was incredibly well-received, with over 3.5 million cans sold in 31 days. The creators’ eye-catching advertisements and humorous commercials were also widely praised. Following such a tremendous success, many were left wondering whatever happened to the company. Some attribute it to the novelty of the idea wearing off while others felt that the beverage was a watered down version of the actual drinks.
By: Violet Koh
