Enough of these silly flavour combinations!
by Simon Ward | 26 October 2012 | 
7 comments
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Cheddar with tomato ketchup? Guinness peanuts? Why our man isn't buying these new taste pairings.
The lovefood inbox seems to have had an explosion of press releases trumpeting various unusual flavour combinations in recent weeks.
It’s a trend that’s been escalating for a while, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when it began.
Maybe it started by taking molecular gastronomy to the opposite extremity, via the likes of kebab-flavoured Pot Noodle?
Or perhaps it’s simply a desire to cram as many much-loved flavours into one product as possible and see if it sells?
Cheesed off
Either way, we’re really not convinced by Cheddar cheese with Heinz Tomato Ketchup and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce. This seems like an attempt to revive the awful Alex James Presents cheese range launched at Asda last year (Cheddar with salad cream, anyone?), which did include a ketchup variety. I say revive, as most of the cheeses seem to have been quietly dropped from the supermarket’s shelves.
In the case of the ketchup version, "the range has been developed as a direct response to Heinz’s brand loyalists who have been demanding cross category innovation of their favourite sauce," apparently. Really? Perhaps those 'brand loyalists' could just open a bottle and plop some on their cheese instead.
Guinness goes gourmet (nuts)
Meanwhile, Guinness seems to be launching snack foods at a rate of knots, with both crisps and gourmet peanuts hitting the shelves. These seem to be either designed to allow people to keep ‘drinking’ while lining their stomachs, or a way to recreate the bar top of a raucous Irish pub, where sundry potato snacks have spilt out of the packet and been covered in spilt booze.
And, lest we forget, earlier this year we had the coming together of Philadelphia cheese and Cadbury chocolate in a move that was arguably not so much about taste, but about Kraft showing off how many brands it now owns.
While we’re all for experimentation, it’s time to say enough is enough to these flavour combinations. They may aim to be innovative, but they’re actually just idiotic.
Do you like these flavour combinations? Or do you agree they're just silly? Let us know in the Comments box below.
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Comments
by Hennamay | on 29 October 2012
Most of the silly combos don't work. I tried Marmite biscuits once - yuck. Reverted back to a gloopy smear of the love it or hated spread on my fave bikki.
Have to say that chocolate Philly is divine. I don't normally like Nutella or similar choc spreads - too sweet. Philly however, has a very slight tang to it, to take away the sickliness and makes the whole chocolate spread thing edible, well actually gluttonously edible!
I have also tried cheese with "stuff" in it like apricots, & cranberries, but really just cheese is so much nicer and there are so many things you can dot around the edges of you plate to eat with the cheese that its a shame to have it ready mixed.
by JennyEatwell | on 31 October 2012
The flavour combinations of which you speak, to my mind, aren't for the serious foodies amongst us. They are for the convenience food-loving, don't know how to cook, short attention spanned. As such, I don't believe that these foods are launched with an intention of staying on our shop shelves for longer than a year at the most. They are simply "something new" to catch the eye of those who are fed up with buying the same old thing each week, because they know no different.
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