There was a discount offer for all Frito-Lay and PepsiCo products, so I went to the supermarket and picked up every single flavour I could find. That plus a couple of cans of Pepsi.
Like planning for my travel articles, I had to find a way to categorize the varieties to make meaningful comparisons. The easiest categories were lightly salted, wavy, and Poppables, each with markedly different characteristics than the original series.
Then, there were the flavour categories. BBQ was an obvious one, as was the cheesy flavours, cream and onion, classic and original, salt-based varieties, and Asian flavours. Five leftover orphans just went into a neat pile of other. Several varieties overlap multiple categories such as Poppable white cheddar which fits into both Poppables and cheesy flavours.
To make meaningful comparisons within each category, I had to come up with a pseudo-objective way of summarizing my subjective perspectives. The easiest way would be to award each variety a score out of 100 points, split evenly between five categories.
- Appearance evaluates how it looks with its color, shape, and specks of flavouring elements
- Imitation evaluates how well the flavour resembles the food it’s supposed to taste like
- Crunch evaluates how crispy it is – a teeth-based metric
- Texture evaluates how it feels on the fingers when holding it and on the tongue when placed in the mouth
- Desirability is perhaps the most subjective, it measures how much I want to lick the powder off my fingers
