We would've loved to have been a fly on the wall at the product development meeting at Jones Soda Co. when they decided to roll out their new bacon-flavoured fizzy drink. The Seattle soda manufacturer is marketing the new drink as "refreshingly meaty," and if you order it online, you get a bag of bacon popcorn, a tube of bacon lip balm, and a pouch of bacon gravy too.
(If you're sick of bacon, no problem. Jones also makes a "Tofurky and Gravy" soda, which it promises is "100% Vegan.")
Delicious or disgusting? Ingenious or insane? What were the creators thinking when they came up with such kooky concoctions?
We rank bacon soda among the most dubious commercial food inventions we've seen in recent years. Here's a taste of some others:
- Dunkin' Donuts new "Pancake Bites": Bite-sized sausage links wrapped in maple-flavoured pancake batter. Think of them as meat-filled Timbits. ""Everyone loves a traditional pancake and sausage breakfast, but in our typical busy day it's almost impossible to find the time it takes to sit down and enjoy it," the company's executive chef Stan Frankenthaler said in a press release.
- Batter Blaster: Prepared pancake batter that comes in a pressurized spray can, saving customers the inconvenience of mixing and ladling it onto the griddle. Did we mention it's also organic? "Batter Blaster is fast, easy and fun for the whole family," the company says. We can wrap our heads around the fast and easy part, but if this is your idea of fun, you might need to get out more often.
- Kraft "Bagel-fuls": A frozen bagel tube with a cream cheese filling - you know, because toasting and spreading cream cheese on a bagel is just way too much work.
- Sweet Sue Canned Whole Chicken: Just as it sounds, a fully cooked, ready-to-eat, whole chicken that comes in a can. That unmistakable slurping sound that the gelatinous chicken makes as it slips out of the can signals dinner's ready.
- Candwich: A sandwich stuffed in a pop-lid can. Despite a lawsuit against one of its investors earlier this year, Mark One Foods is launching this wacky product, with flavours like peanut butter and strawberry jelly, BBQ chicken and pepperoni pizza pocket.
Wency Leung