The Guilty Pleasure: The annual batch of limited-time holiday Pringles flavors. Where to Get It: Walmart for the new ones, your favorite grocery for the others. Price: A buck fifty, give or take. What it Really Costs: I'm starting to wonder who the hell comes up with these flavors.
The people responsible for new Pringles flavors continue to impress me with their sheer audacity. While it takes Lay's a million dollar contest to try and foist novel chip flavors on an unsuspecting public, Pringles just goes ahead and releases their "you have what flavor?!" chips as limited-time holiday offerings.
There are two new flavors in the Pringles holiday lineup this year, and both of them are variations on popular flavors from years prior. The Cinnamon & Sugar flavor has been extended to the Pringles Tortillas corn chip line. In a somewhat odd twist, the Tortillas one is simply named Cinnamon Sugar. I presume the flavor lost its ampersand on a bender in Cancún.
White Chocolate Pringles have a new sister product, Milk Chocolate Pringles. This makes me slightly fear that next year we're going to have something like Dark Chocolate Mocha Pringles. Pecan Pie Pringles also make a return on this year's batch, in case for some reason you really missed them.
Are either of the new ones worth your cash and calories? That depends.
I think the Cinnamon Sugar ones are a marked improvement over the potato variety. I find cinnamon pairs better with corn than it does with potato. I wouldn't mind getting a steaming mug of hot chocolate to dunk the Cinnamon Sugar Tortillas, giving a combined flavor profile to one of my favorite Mexican cold-weather drinks, champurrado.
Your opinion of the Milk Chocolate ones can be figured out quite easily: How do you feel about dunking fries into a chocolate shake? Subtle chocolate leads the flavor profile, giving way to the salty potato flavor. It's decent, but these won't come close to satisfying a chocolate itch. If I'm in the mood for this combination, I'd rather dunk actual potato chips in melted chocolate.