It's not exactly Coca Cola and New Coke, but it seriously annoys me that Frito-Lay discontinued its old chip-shaped barbecue-flavor snacks in favor of these new Honey Twist things. I don't like the mouth feel at all, and besides, I have good memories of the old ones.
Back in 1969 I was living on Guam, attending the U of Guam in the morning and bowling almost all afternoon, Monday through Friday, every week. The Guam Memorial Hospital had a small alley (maybe eight lanes), and it was nearly always empty. It didn't have a snack bar, but it did have canned snacks. I got pretty good at the bowling (I think my average was about 180; at $0.25 per game, it was cheap enough to practice), but I got really good at bowling while drinking beer ($0.50/can). Of course, at some point while drinking beer I'd get hungry, and of the snacks available, I liked the 12 or 16-oz. size Frito BBQ chips. I'll bet I ate two or three cans of those a day (hell, maybe the finger-holes on the ball are still stained with the barbecue dust; I still have that 16-pound thing, so I should check).
I left Guam in 1970, and I'll bet I didn't eat another container of those Frito chips for 30 years. About five years ago I found some on the shelves at the local Safeway and bought a bag. The first taste instantly brought back a zillion memories.
Then they went and changed the shape from chip to twist. Why, Frito-Lay, why?
Posted by Linkmeister at March 3, 2007 11:17 AM | TrackBackMaybe you can start a campaign, you aren't the first person I've encountered who's upset about this. I haven't tried the new ones yet, but have an immediate recall of the scent and texture of the old ones just reading this post.
Thanks. Now I want Fritos. See what you've done? :-)
Posted by: rebecca at March 3, 2007 12:18 PMNo way. I thought those twists were yet another marketing brainstorm that would go the way of most fads. Mouth feel indeed! They make me think I'm eating raw pasta, not a "chip."
Posted by: Ryan at March 3, 2007 12:22 PMMaybe you can get them on Ebay?
The Vermont Country Catalog has lots of stuff that is hard to find. You can also request that they find the old style Frito-Lay and put them in their catalog!
Hey, the campaign against New Coke made them pull the thing off the shelves and go back to Classic. In union there is strength - everybody complain and maybe you can move this small mountain.
Posted by: hedera at March 4, 2007 07:18 PM