Monday, May 2, 2011

Flavours

This blog is has come about due an afterthought relating to a purchase made at The German Pantry in Hahndorf.

The German Pantry is a shop that essentially sells food and food products from Europe that you normally would not find in Australia.

One of the purchases I made there was for paprika flavoured Pringles. Now as someone practically raised on Paprika I just had to buy this to try it out (I haven't yet).

It's only been today that I was thinking:
  • Why can paprika Pringles only be purchased in a specialty shop?
  • What other flavours do Pringles come in?
I went to the Australian Website for Pringles to find out the "standard" flavours, which are:
  • Original
  • Sour Cream and Onion
  • Salt and Vinegar
  • Hot and Spicy
  • Cheddar Cheese
  • BBQ
  • Pizza

I reckon these are pretty boring flavours, epecially when you compare them to some other chips flavours made by other producers, including:
  • Moroccan Chicken (Red Rock Deli)
  • Dijon Mustard and Honey (Red Rock Deli)
  • Thai Sweet Chili (Smiths)
So a quick look Google has picked up the following interesting flavours for Pringles, pretty much all of which are targeted at particular countries:

In the US of A:
  • Jalapeno
  • Ranch and Bacon Ranch (what does a ranch taste like?)
  • Loaded (?) Bake Potato
  • Honey Mustard

Germany: Sweet Paprika

Asia: According to wiki, these are available
  • soft-shelled crab
  • grilled shrimp
  • seaweed
  • blueberry and hazelnut
  • lemon
And then there are these "Extreme" flavours:
  • Screamin' Dill Pickle
  • Rajin' Cajun
  • Sizzlin' Sweet BBQ
  • Smokin' Hot Ranch

I don't know about you, but I want to know who makes the decisions about which country these flavours get distributed to. Has market research been conducted? Why does Australia get such boring flavours when the rest of world gets such variety? Surely Aussie taste buds aren't that bland?

I reckon there's a market in Australia for these other flavours ...

UPDATE:

Today I opened the Paprika Pringles and had a taste.  To say that I am disappointed with their take on the taste of Paprika is to say I was disappointed that our car broke down today.  It was more a slightly tangy BBQ flavour than anything resembling Paprika. I am not sure If I should have expected much more from a company that has a flavour called Screamin' Dill Pickle.

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