Combos – Pizzeria
When I first had Combos, I don’t recall pizza being one of their main, widely available flavours. By the time I tried it, pizza as a flavour was becoming vogue and this along with Pringles were at the forefront of the movement. The thought of Combos bring me back to memories of childhood looking through grocery stores and seeing all those crazy packages aimed at attracting attention and more specifically kids. Being a kid and loving fun and exciting snacks, Combos was an easy pick up.
These fill me with so much nostalgia – they bring me back to a time when pizza flavours were becoming a thing in my childhood, and these remind me of the first time I had a pizza flavoured snack. The flavour is best described as a blend on tomato sauce, cheese, onion, garlic and general dairy to give it a nice distinct flavour. Whether you agree that it tastes like a pizza or not is irrelevant to how classic and iconic this flavour is. Between this and pizza Pringles, any kid that grew up eating I’m sure just hearing about it will bring back good memories of a simpler time.
Texture is realistically dry as the Mojave wasteland. Part of why this works, and the charm of it is that the pretzel dryness is offset by the fatty, creamy cheese on the inside. The interplay between the two balance each other out to give you something not too dry and not too moist or fatty. Also a side benefit is these aren’t generally too greasy because the pretzel acts as a sort of barrier to the fat you get when you eat potato chips (usually).
Combos are one of those things where nostalgia and prior experience generally work in it’s favour. I sometimes wonder if I didn’t have childhood memories attached to these, if I would enjoy them as much. But then I take another bite, turn my brain off and and reminded that yes, I probably would. The nostalgia is just like an extra bit of seasoning on top of what’s already there.
All that to say, it’s a given that I would, and have gotten these repeatedly. It just seems like such a ubiquitous combination I don’t see a situation where you can go wrong with these.
