Rating: ©©©-1/4 chips (notable)
Comments:
NEW! Pringles Zesty Southwest Cheese! There are a couple of items that should be addressed immediately.
Initially, we thought that Pringles was trying to tell us that when cheese is combined with some zesty, and some southwest, it apparently becomes the devil?! But, after looking a little more closely at the illustration on the canister we noticed that bright block of cheese with the blazing red horns was probably supposed to represent a bull! Add to that a cowboy hat, and a springy coil connected to the base of the cheese, and you’ve got yourself a zesty, southwestern bull!!
Secondly, can we ask you something? Could there be a more generically named flavor? Think about it for a second. We all have our own perceptions of what this zesty southwest cheese flavor entails, but really what does that mean? First of all, Pringles doesn’t even want to commit to a type of cheese? What are we tasting here?? Is this cheddar? Pepper jack? Next, what exactly does zesty mean? According to the dictionary, zesty is a “strong, pleasant, and somewhat spicy flavor”. OK, we’ll accept that, but when we look back at all of the zesty chips that we have reviewed over the years, we don’t necessarily find that defining consensus. And lastly, same thing goes for the southwest flavor adjective. What defines a flavor as southwestern? We’re going to take a stab here and say that similar to zesty, southwest adds a bit of spicy kick to a flavor, along with a decent amount of warm weather and sunshine.
Oh Pringles, before even lifting the lightly orange dusted potato crisps to our lips, we get the feeling that somewhere, sometime, we’ve tasted this flavor before. Looking back through our extensive records proves that we actually have not, but we think that it is pretty safe to say that this flavor is very similar to quite a few other Pringles we reviewed over the years. In fact, these crisps are very similar to our most favorite Pringles of all time, the limited edition Chile con Queso, only not nearly as delicious.
The zesty southwest cheese seasoning blend is definitely flavorful! The orange cheese dusting is a little tangy, and a lot salty. Hiding in the background were a melange of flavor ingredients including the typical garlic and onion, but then also an unidentified, zesty combination of spices and acids. The sharp and spicy kick is not very fragrant, but more tongue tingling. We usually prefer our heat to smell more like chiles, but each their own. Overall, we don’t love the flavor, but we don’t despise it either. If you like your Pringles zippy (a synonym to zesty) then you would probably think these are good.
We have praised Pringles ability to continually produce new, and often times unique, flavors…but, we also do not like wasting our time, or mouth space, on zesty regurgitated flavors!
As always, these are our thoughts, we would love to hear what you think. Agree or disagree, let us know.
Discovered at Walmart; Darien, Illinois
Chip Ratings Scale:
(1/4 increments)
© – return to sender
©© – tolerable
©©© – notable
©©©© – lip-smacking
©©©©© – “A” list
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