cabel.name: Weekend Snack Discoveries

If a successful weekend can be measured by discovering "New!" snack food products — and if yours can, then maybe we can form some kind of lonely support group — mine was very successful weekend, indeed. One might even say deliciously successful! Etc etc.

One General Mills (Big G) new product can be considered a successful discovery by any measure, but three¹ new cereals at once? In Australia, they call that "drowning the manatee" — true success with no downside!

I thought you might like to see what's new in these parts. Don't be surprised if these items wind up in a future Panic TwinRate taste-off...

Tried any of these snacks? Post a comment and let me know what you thought!

1 (You're right — technically, French Toast Crunch was introduced years ago. However, this radical redesign is far more than then starbursted "Great New Flavor" — it completely replaces the original FTC form-factor (crunchier, edged) with the traditional, more familiar CTC design (flat ridged wafer) — although, naturally, with new stenciling. Also, if I worked in foods, would I be able to talk like this all the time, but for reals?)

21 Comments:

I swear, Reese's puts out a new candy every five days. They know that suckers like me will say, "eh, what's 93 cents for a new taste sensation?"
I'm waiting for the Peanut Butter Cup with Peanut Butter-Flavored Chocolate Crunch Inside Chocolate-Flavored Peanut Butter with Cookie Crunch. I think that's two cycles out.

Drew Bell 1/30/2006 9:33 PM

We call it whatting the what? Drowning the manatee? Bizarre.

Chris Clark 1/30/2006 9:42 PM

I'm sick of this faux-diversification of the snack market. It seems that every name brand snack now comes in 13 different flavors, sometimes even to the exclusion of the original! I love those Blue Diamond Smoked Almonds, but whenever I stop for gas on the Mass Pike, I'm faced with a choice of 6 different "extreme" flavors like "wasabi" or "french onion" or something.

I have to admit I prefer "Spicy Hot V8" to the original, but mostly with all this brand expansion, I just wonder while looking at the shelf 6-wide of a variety of Kit-Kats - what was in its place? Did regular Kit-Kat take up this 6-wide space?

Daniel Jalkut 1/30/2006 10:07 PM

Panic should start creating special limited edition versions of their software with slightly different icons and deliciously different functionality. You know you're just dying to try the new Transmit Gopher Edition! (Only available for a limited time! Get yours today!)

Prachi Gauriar 1/30/2006 10:43 PM

I found a new snack recently, frighteningly named Crack Sandwich -- I can only imagine the joy the English-speaking employee experienced when his name was approved for overseas sales.

Nate Beaty 1/30/2006 10:56 PM

> In Australia, they call that "drowning the manatee"

Err, we do? First I've heard of it.

Alastair 1/31/2006 1:32 AM

I hope they introduce the Peanut Crunch here in Europe soon - sounds like the perfect combination. The Cherry-flavored KitKat they can keep though...

Nora 1/31/2006 6:05 AM

That neopets cereal has a lot of fiber in it. I bought it for my kids, and it's like a colon sneak attack!

Cherry KitKats? French Toast Crunch? Time for a twinrate®!

//k

macfixer 1/31/2006 7:58 AM

I've had the Fiery Habanero Doritos. They actually pack a punch - and I'm no nancy-boy on the Scoville scale.

I bought the chips and, on a whim, a jar of the pre-fab toxic orange cheese sludge ("hot" flavor) that Fred Meyer's upsells on the snack aisle (yes, fell for the product placement trick - i'm a whore).

The first few bites were nuanced, the next few were 2-alarm-ish, and well into the second suggested serving size I felt the sting of flavor betrayal. Not sweating, but bordering on uncomfortable. All in all, not a bad experience.

Kevin Klein 1/31/2006 12:49 PM

Cabel,
My Mom always told me it was wrong to call millionaire software dudes motherfuckers, but motherfucker, the way images clicked upon on your blog float up to full size is nothing more than magic to me, motherfucker. I've sat here tonight with my girlfriend doing it over and over again, while going over the source code, and the only explanation is that someone met someone at the crossroads and sold their soul. Hat's off, good chap!
Love,
Joel

PS: Before anyone comments, if it's really that easy to implement, why doesn't everyone do it? Thank you, Cabel for showing us how it could be done.

Joel Conrad Bechtolt 1/31/2006 9:15 PM

on a completely unrelated note - good to hear you on the leo/amber mac podcast thing (can you tell I can't remember it's name?)

craigm 2/01/2006 6:16 AM

Very nice discoveries. Adding new ingredients to candy bars will eventually just blur the lines of brand recognition beyond usefulness. One day we'll see "Three Muskateers, now with Peanuts," and you can be sure the Snickers department is gonna be pissed.
At the risk of sounding like a oportunistic shill, we have an ongoing taste test of Pocky and related snacks over at the Journal of Ephemeral Inspiration: Food Of The Gods: Pocky, Pretz & Pretenders V. Enjoy.

Editor, The J.E.I. 2/05/2006 8:22 AM

I had the Berry Lucky Charms...they're a slighty better verison of the old BooBerry cereal.

Brandon B. 2/05/2006 2:29 PM

I had the milkshake kit kats over the weekend. They were okay, I liked them. They have a taste that's more like a malted milkshake than anything.

Aaron 2/06/2006 5:40 AM

I've tried all These Kit Kats, and I'll be honest, none of them approach the goodness of the original. Okay, the mint was good (but not WHOA good).

Chris Glass 2/16/2006 3:08 AM

General mills makes no sense. why would they introduce a cereal as new if there has already been a French Toast Crunch?
Not only that, but it is a completly different cereal! I'm mad now...

Anonymous 2/22/2006 6:37 PM

I am a Dorito snob.....but, the new Fiery Habanero Doritos are amazing....its may end up being my favorite flavor....we'll have to see how it tastes on top of turkey sammiches.

Marc 2/27/2006 12:37 AM

We used to have Lucky Charms here in Britain, but they got banned because they used to (and probably still do) have an obscene amount of sugar in them that made all the children fattys.

Morbid Martian 6/12/2006 9:58 AM

I tried the new french toast crunch, it is absolutely terrible - a disgrace to the original.

Can't find habanero doritos ANYWHERE :(

Anonymous 11/13/2006 1:21 AM

The habanero doritos are pretty good.

There's also a green green-tea KitKat in Japan.

Anonymous 12/29/2006 2:57 PM

The original French Toast Crunch was a thousand times better than the new stuff. It was my favorite cereal, and General Mills had to replace it with this new crap. Pisses me off.

Anonymous 6/07/2008 10:34 PM

Weekend Snack Discoveries

Monday, January 30, 2006

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