Junk Food Nation, do you hear that? That sound is…the absence of baseball.  Today is an eerie day.  On a day which will be filled with people talking about the Presidential Debate, my attention is focused on the baseball world, where it feels like the All-Star Break.  After 162 games and some amazingly close races, today is a day off – no baseball, no football, no golf, no hockey, no basketball…until the playoffs begin tomorrow.  Some notes:

1)      WOW is all I can say as far as how the races ended. I never thought I’d see a Nats victory that would guarantee them homefield throughout the playoffs. I never thought the Yankess, with ALL of their flaws, could seal up the best AL record. I never thought the A’s could come back from 9 games to knock off Texas. I never though I’d see Baltimore and Texas in the Wild Card game.  And I never thought I’d be alive to see a Triple Crown being won.  Holy moly.

2)      Speaking of the Triple Crown, one of the biggest debates will be who should win the AL MVP: Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera or rookie sensation Mike Trout? Here’s the thing – even though the Triple Crown is amazing, it encompasses three stats: HR, RBI, AVG.  Rotogeeks like me know that in terms of offense, there are two more categories basically used to evaluate offense: Runs and Stolen Bases.  Who leads in Home Runs and RBIs? Miggy.  Who leads in Runs and Stolen Bases?  Trout. Who has the best AVG? Miggy. Who is #2? Trout.  Truthfully, whoever wins will be deserving. My personal vote goes to Trout, despite the amazing season Miggy had, due to this: Trout had 80 less at bats.  80!  Who knows what Trout could’ve done with 80 more ABs…maybe the Angels would’ve had a better chance.

3)      CLOUT WARS, my fantasy baseball league, is OVER (finally).  My buddy Steve and I TIED on the VERY LAST DAY to finish 1^st in the league.  Wow.  My beer trophy will go to Steve to carry until next season.  Congrats, Steve.

Tomorrow we’ll go over how my and others’ baseball predictions ended up. I know some of you could care less about the baseball talk. No problem; skip ahead to the junk food! It’s baseball time in my mind, so you’ll be hearing a lot about baseball for the weeks to come.  And you’ll read these words and like them.  MMMmmmm eat those yummy baseball words.

Today’s junk food is an extra long review of these Limited Time Only Pringles! Salsa de Chile Habanero Pringles, Chile y Limon Pringles, and Chile con Queso Pringles….OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

These Limited Time Only Salsa de Chile Habanero Pringles, Chile y Limon Pringles, and Chile con Queso Pringles were found WHERE ELSE but at Walmart.  I was walking through the aisles and saw the Queso can hidden amongst a bunch of random Pizza and Sour Cream Pringles, and was giddy with excitement.  Then I turned and BAM! there was one of those huge Walmart cube displays in the center of the floor FILLED with all three flavors!  SCORE!

I gotta give Kellogg’s credit – they are BRINGING it when it comes to new flavors.  And if you think about it, WHY NOT??? I really have to imagine it doesn’t cost anything to make a new flavor – I think Pringles should trot out new flavors every week!  I’ll keep eating them.  Let’s get to the review.

Salsa de Chile Habanero Pringles were really tasty, just gonna lay it out there.  Quite honestly, I thought they tasted exactly as the pictures on the front looked – the flavor began with the tangy tomato taste, and then rounded into a sweet onion flavor.  It had a little bit of burn throughout the chew, and then as I swallowed, the burn lingered and grew.  Good hat tip to the habanero pepper.  This sort of tasted like a spicy BBQ chip – though it was more because of the pepper and onion interplay than anything else.  Not too sweet, but lots of spicy flavor.  Great stuff.

I was nervous with these Chile y Limon Pringles, given my history with chile and lime chips (example here) but I gotta say….these were also REALLY GOOD.  Damn, Pringles.

These chips tasted like a tangy chili pepper, but the lime flavor was perfectly balanced.  That is, it was muted and not club-me-over-the-head.  It’s weird for me to say a lime chip was good because it didn’t have too much lime, but I think the ratio of lime powder used here created a flavor that replicated a squeeze of actual lime juice over these chips.  The lime wasn’t sweet – it just made the chips citrus-y and enhanced the flavored of the chili.  The lime here acted like lime does in real life Latin food – it helps bring the OTHER flavors out, and is not the flavor itself.

FINALLY A TASTY LIME AND CHILI CHIP.

I bit into some of these Chile con Queso Pringles and WOW.  I can’t say it enough times…WOW WOW WOW.  These tasted totally different than the first two cans of Pringles tried today, and it might be my favorite.

First of all, the first taste I got wasn’t cheese or chili or spice…it was a strange vegetable flavor.  It tasted, to me, exactly like the taste of raw green pepper or jalapeno pepper.  It really caught me off guard.

The initial shock wore off as the tangy tomato and creamy cheese taste kicked in  and mixed in my mouth…until basically, this chip tasted EXACTLY like the queso I have come to know and love.  Amazing.

And even more interestingly? The chip has a slow burn that grew and grew until it was basically SPICIER than even the habanero Pringles!  I swear.

This was a spectacular flavor.  ON POINT.

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All three of these new Pringles were EXCELLENT; I recommend you try them all.  If I had to rank them:

1. Chile con Queso Pringles

2. TIE for the other two.

Thumbs up, Pringles.  You have stepped up your game.  I likey.

PURCHASED AT: THE WALMART

COST: $1.50 each

Thoughts? Please comment below (I always reply) or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. Also, you can always email me at junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com. Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy