What Do Pizza Pringles and Birthday Cake Oreos Really Taste Like?

From Lay’s Chicken and Waffles potato chips to mojito-inspired Crystal Light, packaged-food marketers have become pretty bold about experimenting with flavors. Chalk it up to consumers “constantly looking for something new,” said Kazia Jankowski, associate culinary director at marketing firm Sterling-Rice Group. “We increasingly find restaurants and food companies breaking the rules around traditional food flavors, forms and experiences as a way of expressing themselves.” But how much does that piña colada Jell-O really taste like the real thing? Here, we put a few far-out flavors to the test, asking a random sampling of consumers (OK, our own newsroom) to “Guess That Taste.” Here’s what they said. But first, a question: Have the chefs at Yoplait ever actually tasted red velvet cake?


Photo: Penelope Vasquez