Pringles Xtreme Blastin Buffalo Wing Flavor Potato Crisps Review

I learned of Pringles Xtreme Blastin’ Buffalo Wing Flavor Potato Crisps last week while browsing the Pringles web site (see link below), and decided to taste-test them out and tell my findings.

I felt Christmas morning glee as I examined the dark gray and hot yellow-orange can with the picture of hot peppers and a bottle of Buffalo wing sauce floating around on the can. Since I love Buffalo wings, and since the flavor of these crisps highly resembles the hotter varieties of wing sauce, I figured that I’d enjoy these, hands-down. So the anticipation of eating those first few hot sauce like extreme-flavored chips, almost overpowered me as I waited to pay for them. As I’ve seen others do, but have sworn never to do myself, that can in my hand tempted me to crack it open and start eating before departing the store. But I stayed sane until I actually bought them and got them outside to the car.

These Xtreme chips offer a medium-to-hot and highly authentic-tasting hot sauce flavor. But the tang is not so kicky that it completely covers up that original Pringles potato chip taste. Indeed, the wing and potato flavors harmonize quite pleasingly, as neither one overly dominates. This hot sauce Buffalo essence is among the strongest of the tastes found in the entire Pringles flavored potato crisps line that I’ve sampled.

The mildly sassy hot sauce pepper kick of these canned potato chips comes from cayenne pepper sauce, which is a natural flavoring, and thus, not artificial. Though many artificial chemicals still remain, the uncanny resemblance to real Buffalo hot wings is great evidence that sticking with natural flavors, as Pringles did with this extreme-flavored chip, produces an excellent, true-to-life taste. They coat the crisps themselves with this orange-colored flavor powder that carries the Buffalo wing hot sauce taste. This does not alter the color of the potato chip much.

Pringles Buffalo wing chips make for a delightfully intriguing turn on traditional plain potato chips. The subtle yet somewhat forceful wing sauce flavor does great justice for this product. Indeed, it actually makes this product. Pringles should consider incorporating more natural flavors and less artificial ones in their entire potato chip line. They’d do very well if they could pattern all those other tastes after this one.

Indeed, I’m looking forward to reviewing other Xtreme Pringles products should they become available. So far, I’ve reviewed this one and the Xtreme Screamin’ Dill PIckle chips.

Pros, Advantages, Benefits, and Features

The Buffalo wing flavor, unlike the more traditional bagged potato chips never becomes monotonous. I’ve consumed a couple cans now, and have never gotten tired of these crisps, just as I never grow bored with Frank’s hot sauce on my fish fillets for supper.
This product is fairly simple to find, though I’ve only seen it in the biggest stores. Fortunately, I’m close to a Walmart super center that always seems to have them.
Their snappy hot sensation can defeat that afternoon hunger or those bedtime munchies, like an efficient air conditioner cools a house on a hot summer day. The audible crunch speaks Pringles, which have never reached my sitting room soggy.
The stay-fresh can with the resealable lid well-confines the brand-newness for a week or two after opening, and many months before initially breaking that foil seal. So this is a superb snack food to stock up on.
Zero grams of trans fat.
I found this Pringles product for roughly $1.50 per Super Stack can; a reasonable price.
Though the original Pringles flavor is the one I like the best, this Xtreme Buffalo flavor just might tie it. I’m encouraged that Pringles offers so many flavors of their famed potato-chip-in-a-can, like this one.
Like with all other Pringles chips, these spicey wing ones are all shaped the same; like a hyperbolic paraboloid (horse saddle shape). So they’re easier to eat. You can, with so little effort, grasp a large handful from the can, and gobble them up with little spillage.

Cons, Disadvantages, Concerns, Drawbacks, and Problems

This product has much fat and sodium in my opinion at 9 grams and 280 milligrams respectively, per 1-ounce serving. But some other flavors have over 200 milligrams of sodium. But since hot sauce itself is a high-sodium condiment, I would expect that anything flavored like it would also be.
There’s also a long list of high-tech-sounding food additives, including sodium diacetate and monosodium glutamate. Much of the natural-ness herein, seems to be offset by these extra man-made chemicals. But these potato chips still taste quite a lot like Buffalo wings in hot sauce. So the natural component of the flavor very much survives in this food snack.
Sugar (in the form of dextrose) is here too. Get rid of that added sugar, please. Pretty please? I wish these chips could taste as delicious as they do, but without the added sugar and fat.
I’d also prefer that these crisps be thickened a smidgen, to further enhance the experience of eating them, as I often grab two or three chips at a time for a big enough mouthful. Thicker, more rigid crisps would not only boost the salty impression they make, but also strengthen them enough to hold any chip dip that you’d wish to scoop into your mouth with them. Of course, as good as these taste by themselves, I’m reluctant to put salsa or any other dip on them.

Ingredients

Dried potatoes, vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, and / or sunflower oil), corn flour, wheat starch, maltodextrin, and salt. Contains 2% or less of: rice flour, cayenne pepper sauce (aged red peppers, vinegar, salt, garlic), sodium diacetate, monosodium glutamate, torula yeast, garlic powder, dextrose, paprika extract (color), citric acid, vinegar, caramel color, lactic acid, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, and natural flavor. Contains wheat ingredients.

Nutrition Facts

Serving size: 1 ounce (28 grams or 16 crisps). Servings per container: Approx. 6.
Calories per serving: 150. Calories from fat: 80.
Total fat: 9 grams, 14% DV.
Saturated fat: 2.5 grams, 13% DV.
Trans fat: 0 grams.
Cholesterol: 0 milligrams, 0% DV.
Sodium: 280 milligrams, 12% DV.
Total carbohydrate: 15 grams, 5% DV.
Dietary fiber: 1 gram, 3% DV.
Sugars: 1 gram.
Protein: 1 gram.

Product Rating

To wrap up: I find these hot pepper flavored Pringles Xtreme potato chips a top-notch snack at home as well as on the train while traveling to Pittsburgh. Pringles add something desirable to almost any gathering too. The sizzling flavor is no exception. They retain their freshness for a few hours when poured from their protective tube into a bowl, and are widely recognized as a nostalgic party food. Since the’ve graced us in one form or another for several generations now, people know Pringles without even seeing the can, and generally like the newfangled flavors of this newfangled 1970s snack product. So I’d rate this product at 97 of 100.

Where To Buy Pringles Blastin’ Buffalo Wing Flavor Potato Crisps

Look for them in the dark gray, red, and orange can that has pictures of floating peppers on it, with the clear plastic lid, at your favorite larger grocery stores. If you enjoy hot sauce on your chicken wings or fish fillets, you’ll really like these chips.

References

Revision History

2015-01-24: Moved this piece to the Tom’s Diet Quest blog, added whitespace, tweaked content, and adjusted ad placement and category and tag assignments.
2012-05-18: Originally published.