Review: New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs & So You Can’t Take a Bag Into a Game Now. SO??
Junk Food Nation, I just wanted to start off this post thanking everyone for reading my Watermelon Oreo review yesterday. It made a bunch of news outlets, and I even got mentioned on local radio here in DC! Pretty awesome stuff. So thanks!
Second, I wanted to discuss this new NFL rule that came out four days ago. The NFL announced on June 13 that it would be limiting the size of bags that you can bring into the stadium.
IN: (1) clear plastic, vinyl or PVC bags no larger than 12 inches by 6 inches by 12 inches; (2) one-gallon clear plastic freezer bags, (3) small clear plastic bags approximately the size of someone’s hand, with or without a handle or strap (4) small clutch bag, (5) Binoculars, cameras, and smartphones also will be permitted.
OUT: purses larger than a clutch bag; coolers; briefcases; backpacks; fanny packs; cinch bags; seat cushions; luggage; computer bags; and camera bags or any bag larger than the permissible size.
And people are losing their EFFING MINDS over this rule!! Me? I REALLY don’t see what the big deal is. First of all, this is a NOT the government infringing on your personal rights, so this is different from the gun debate or even the knife-on-airplane debate. Second, this isn’t even a private entity infringing on your civil liberties, like a restaurant not serving Asian people. This is a private entity instituting a rule that, while it may be a pain for some, is within their right to promote safety. And we, as consumers, have an avenue of recourse: If we don’t like it, DON’T GO TO THE GAME.
Seriously, if Chipotle made you wait in line OUTSIDE the store instead of INSIDE the store…THAT’S JUST WHAT IT IS. Do you think I’m thrilled that grocery stores don’t put locks on their bulk candy bins resulting in awful little kids shoving their crap-filled hands into the same bucket of Sour Patch Kids I want? No! But what do I do? I DON’T BUY THAT NASTY CANDY. Filthy filthy kids. Gross. Ever hear of soap?
And who brings a backpack to the game anyways? If you’re bringing food, just bring it in the clear plastic bag anyways! “But I can’t sling it over my shoulder…” Are you for real? If the amount of food you’re bringing into the game is too heavy to carry in a clear plastic bag, you need to re-evaluate.
Look, I get it, there are always going to be exceptions, but I really don’t understand the FURY over this new rule. Explain it to me if you’re pissed in the comments below.
Today’s junk food: New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs!
New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs: The Money Shot
I found these New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs at Target, and immediately thought, “WHAAAAT.” First, you all know how much I love Buffalo Wing flavored things. As a former Upstate New Yorker, I know how these things should taste. I grew up with wing sauce in my bottle. And a new Pepperidge Farm product PLUS buffalo sauce? INTO MY CART, IT WENT!
New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs: What’s with the paintbrush?
Any self respecting wing eater knows you toss chicken wings in wing sauce. Where the heck does a brush come into the picture??? I’m not painting each wing with Frank’s Red Hot. This isn’t Memphis BBQ… what gives, Pepperidge Farm? Inappropriate labeling is making me skeptical about these New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs…
New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs: RUN ON SENTENCE
New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs: “The snack that’s puffed extra crunchy and packed with big, bold flavor for an awesome snack that’s fun to hang out with!” I’m no wordsmith (readers of this blog know that’s true) but this sentence has a bunch of flaws in it. Or, it just sounds funny – It’s like if I described Sprite as “That refreshing drink that has a great citrus flavor to form refreshing drink with great flavor!” WHAT.
New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs: 140 cal per serving
New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs: Lots of fancy words
New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs contains less that 2% of cayenne pepper sauce? That makes me nervous. And it has dehydrated blue cheese too?? That makes me EXTRA nervous. I didn’t expect these to be a blue cheese AND buffalo wing combo…certainly not labeled that on the bag. And usually companies warn you about that.
New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs: Definitely puffy
When I opened the bag of these New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs, they sort of looked like little Cheese Puff bits… the bag DEFINITELY smelled of cheese, and definitely had some noticeable wafts of blue cheese, although it went back and forth between that and a normal cheddar cheese flavor. Since I don’t like blue cheese AT ALL, I was not thrilled.
New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs: SCARY GOLDFISH
Munch Munch Munch…hm. These New Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Goldfish Puffs are an interesting phenomenon. That blue cheese I smelled? I didn’t taste it! Instead, the immediate cheesy flavor I got resembled more of a sharp cheddar cheese. Sure, if I closed my eyes and thought hard, yes, MAYBE I could taste blue cheese. But I tasted a tangy, nacho/cheddar cheese more.
The texture? DEFINITELY cheesy poof. These might as well have been labeled cheese curls or cheese puffs. It had that airy, cornmeal puff texture that I love. These were NOT, in my mind, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish outside of the shape…and the shapes were a stretch, too.
The buffalo sauce? Well…..not great. They were tangy, VERY tangy. And they had a slightly weird red pepper flavor, almost ketchup-like…it was sweet. The sweet plus the tang did NOT remind me of buffalo sauce at all. Reminded me more of a spicy ketchup. Yeeeeg.
On the whole, the sharp cheddar, plus the spicy ketchup taste, plus the puffed snack texture…these weren’t awful, but they CERTAINLY weren’t anything I was expecting, and they DEFINITELY did not remind me of Buffalo Wing. I won’t be picking these up again.
Sorry, Pepperidge Farm. You know I love ya. These are a thumbs down for me.
PURCHASED AT: Target
COST: $1.00
Thoughts? Please comment below 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 do this.
Sincerely,
Junk Food Guy
Discuss - 31 Comments
Funny! The Buffalo Wing flavor is the only one we grabbed from the many flavors we saw displayed at our local Target (we even picked it above the Cheddar Bacon).
We haven’t put our thoughts to keyboard on them yet, but we’re fairly certain that we agree with your assessment. Great review.
@Chip Review: YES, let me know what you think! Sometimes I need assurance that my tongue didn’t just have an off-day. Like I said, these weren’t BAD per se…just a complete different direction from what I expected (or wanted).
I was boring and went with the mega cheese version. mine were basically a saltier, fish shaped, crunchy cheeto that didn’t turn my fingers orange. I liked ’em.
@Dubba: I bet the mega cheese version would be very good
My boss bought me some of these as part of a “thank you” bag for some extra hours I put in.
You are absolutely right; these are about as buffalo wing flavored as a PB&J. But MAN I am in love with these. I thought they were so good.
@Modulok: Yeah, they didn’t taste BAD – they were just a little off for me. I’m glad you liked them though!
I will always and forever associate the one gallon capacity ziplock bag with the bar exam (fuck you, New York). But that was good, because some other jurisdictions had people bringing in stuffed animals and pillows and that’s all sorts of crazy.
Incidentally, when Chipotle first opened in Ann Arbor, they hadn’t gotten the permits for the fire exit in the back, which meant that their occupancy capacity was a lot smaller. So for the first two weeks, they DID have security outside monitoring the line with a 1:1 policy of letting people in. That’s right: Chipotle bouncer. At noon. In Ann Arbor.
@Shorneys: LOL re people bringing in stuffed animals to the bar exam.
+1 for a chipotle bouncer!
No seat cushions allowed at a football game? That seems so un-American. This makes me Nick Fury-ious!
@Dr. S.: which stadiums still have plain old metal bleachers?
I liked these. No, no they weren’t buffalo. I mostly tasted vinegar. And I wasn’t overwhelmed with the texture, but I thought they were tasty enough if I ignored the ‘buffalo’ aspect. A nice lingering tang to them. I wrote them up last night, but you basically got the readers digest version right there.
@Albany-ish Dana – concur. “Lots of vinegar, but I can see ‘buffalo wing’ in a ‘we don’t think you really know what buffalo wing should taste like’ sort of way. ” SUCH a great line, haha
Congrats on being quoted in the TIMES Newsfeed!
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/06/18/introducing-oreos-latest-limited-edition-flavor-watermelon/
@Nicole: NICE! Thank you Nicole!
Regarding the bag issue, I’m thinking about potential difficulties for people with children. Kids can require diapers, bottles/sippy cups, small snacks, etc. It might be hard to fit everything into a clear bag that size, especially one without handles. And when you’re in a crowded space with smaller kids, you need to keep one or both hands free to hold on to them.
@Linny: Yes, stuff for kids was the only thing I could think of that presents a problem. Diaper bags, especially. But maybe if someone had more than one “clear plastic, vinyl or PVC bags no larger than 12 inches by 6 inches by 12 inches”, it could work?
A while back ago like maybe in january/february I was paid to taste these and give my thoughts about them, to see if they could change anything before being released to the public. And by the looks of it theyve changed it a lot. The pacakage use to look plain and the actual snack werent at all cheesy looking like the ones in your pictures but maybe because they gave me a different falvor to try, it was a cheese burger flavor. It tasted nothing like chese burger and the taste was so gross, it tasted like plastic. >.< but I did love the crunchy grainy feeling they have. I might pick some up now that there in stores and give them another try.
@Kat: HAHA Cheeseburger flavor. Wow… Please do try these and let me know if they’ve changed, in your opinion!
Wow, these are quite the buzz in the Gluten Free world at the moment. I’ll be out hunting them down tomorrow in the Dallas TX area. My 15 yr old loves “junk food” but since she was DX with Celiac disease 5 years ago we’ve suffered thru some very bad tasting crackers, bread & cookies. I think these will be a hit for her! It sounds like you live in DC? My daughter is @ Fort Meade
This summer visiting her dad so my guess is other targets should carry them in the area?!?
@Sara: I do live in DC! Yeah, I went to a few other Targets and they all had them. The MEGA CHEESE flavor I’m sure is excellent. These were fine, just not buffalo-enough for me. I’m always happy when snacks can be eaten by those with gluten allergies. 🙂
I hated these. I bought them for a plane trip, and when I ate one they were nasty. I offered the entire bag to the lady and her kid next to me, she asked if they were spicy. I said no, because they tasted about as spicy to me as those spicy nacho Doritos. (actually I think the Doritos were spicier but beats me I haven’t had them in a while) She ate one and said wooh those are spicy. Then her kid ate them and kept complaining that they were super spicy and the drink cart needs to come faster. Then the lady started being rude to me.
@Ms. Spice: Lol, sorry that these PF Goldfish puffs are linked to such a negative experience for you! Yikes.
I haven’t tried the buffalo wing version but the ‘Mega Cheese’ version is excellent. Like a Cheetos puff with a much cheesier flavor. Yum!
@Laurie: On my shelf as we type, they will be eaten next 🙂
I agree with Dubba! The mega cheddar flavor was amazing. So good and addicting. My husband and I couldn’t stop eating them. They’re definitely similar to cheese curls, but were a little crunchier which I liked. Like you junkfoodguy, I did not like the buffalo wing flavor at all. I still want to try the bacon cheddar flavor though.
@Aileen: That settles it – need to eats me some Mega Cheese, NOW. Glad you concur re the buffalo wing flavor – it was not great….
Have you tried the Bacon Cheddar flavor? Curious to know what you think of that one. I’m eating some right now! They’re delicious and I do enjoy a salty snack, but these are SALTY as all get-out.
@Staif: I have! http://junkfoodguy.com/2013/07/19/review-x2-new-pepperidge-farm-cheddar-bacon-goldfish-puffs-salsa-con-queso-goldfish-puffs-what-can-be-done-to-fix-detroit/
The bacon cheese flavor made me VERY SICK be warned i’m not sure what it was, I’ve been GF for about 2 months because i was getting sick all the time with everything i ate, GF free diet has been manageable and I’ve been fine, I rarely eat junk and it could just be the preservatives and crap thats in here but i was straight on the toilet, banging headache, upset stomach feel like crap YAY.
@Keith: OH NO! I’m sorry you got sick.
Thought it was just me but these were not good at all! I also love buffalo wing flavored snacks but I cannot eat the rest of these. I did buy the cheddar bacon and although they weren’t the best they were still much better.
Bought a big bag of these on clearance at Big Lots for a $1.