American Grocers Have No Fear
American food companies have never really been interested in leaving flavors well enough alone. Apparently, cereal can taste like bacon, baked beans can drown in Dr Pepper, and an ordinary pickle isn't exciting enough until blue raspberry enters the mix. Whatever the case, these 20 products prove that if you’re ever craving something a little insane, America has you covered.
1. Hormel Cinnamon Toast Crunch Bacon
You like bacon. You like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. They’re both breakfast foods. Do you see where this is going yet? Hormel Black Label did, in fact, take thick-cut bacon and covered it in the cinnamon-sugar dust used on those beloved squares. The bacon is naturally hardwood-smoked before its sweet coating, giving you a combo of pork and sugar in one strip.
2. Sweet Sue Whole Chicken in a Can
Sweet Sue somehow manages to fit an entire fully cooked chicken inside a 50-ounce metal can, which would impress us if we weren’t so scared. It’s complete with broth and plenty of gelatinous liquid around it, too. When you open it, you're meant to slide the whole bird out before heating it, and the sight is as disturbing as you’d imagine.
3. Dr Pepper Baked Beans
Serious Bean Co. sells baked beans flavored with the famous soda's blend of 23 flavors. Yes, you read that right, and yes, they're real canned beans in a sweet sauce containing Dr Pepper flavor. Walmart now sells them nationwide online.
4. Warheads Blue Raspberry Pickles
Van Holten's teamed up with Warheads to bring you packaged jumbo blue raspberry pickles. That means one pickle delivers dill, extreme sour candy flavoring, and the unmistakable look of a blue raspberry treat. Walmart sells these, too.
5. Pickle Cotton Candy
Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop decided that cotton candy didn't need to taste sweet and fruity. No, it was actually missing sour dill pickle. That’s right, you can nab cotton candy that combines spun sugar with pickle flavoring, producing a fluffy greenish-yellow snack that Walmart currently carries.
6. Flamin' Hot Cheetos Mac 'N Cheese
Look, sometimes you just want to combine a treat and your dinner in one go—and now you can! Cheetos created bright-red Flamin' Hot macaroni and cheese. The pasta carries the spicy Cheetos seasoning in creamy cheese sauce, so now you get the best of both worlds.
7. Maple-Flavored SPAM
SPAM has been around for years, and though it’s caught enough strays from naysayers, it’s held its own on shelves. However, the Maple variety takes canned meat firmly to the breakfast plate. Hormel adds sugar, molasses, and maple flavor, even recommending the meat loaf for waffles and morning sandwiches.
8. Heinz Pickle Ketchup
Fear not, you no longer have to choose between putting ketchup or pickles on a burger; Heinz combined them in one bottle. Pickle Ketchup blends regular tomato ketchup with cucumber juice, vinegar, dill-like seasoning, and other pickle flavors. It's currently stocked at major U.S. retailers.
9. Pringles Dill Pickle & Ranch Mingles
We had Pringles, but we may introduce you to Mingles? They’re little bowtie-shaped corn puffs that carry two flavors at once, though that might not be a good thing. One current variety combines dill pickle with ranch seasoning, providing two intensely American snacks in one bite.
10. Costco's 72-Pound Wheel of Parmesan
We hope you’re hungry ‘cause Costco will sell you an entire wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano that roughly weighs 72 pounds. To break it down further, that’s over one thousand servings of cheese. It's aged for at least 24 months and imported from Italy, so the product itself is legit—and so is the hefty price tag.
11. Vlasic Dill Pickle Sunflower Seeds
Have you ever wanted to just take a big swig of a pickle jar? Well, you have the next best thing here. BIGS partnered with Vlasic to make sunflower seeds taste pretty much just like that. The shells are coated with salty, garlicky dill pickle seasoning, meaning the flavor hits before you even reach the seed.
12. Pancakes & Sausage on a Stick
Jimmy Dean took a breakfast sausage link, covered it in sweet pancake batter, added syrup flavor, and put the entire breakfast on a stick. You can’t ask for anything else. It’s frozen, which means it can easily be microwaved and eaten without plates or any need to assemble an actual breakfast.
13. Reese's Dipped Animal Crackers
Animal crackers are delicious, but so are Reese's cups, so what’s a retailer to do? Luckily, we don’t have to pick between the two because Reese's coats those little crackers in peanut butter candy and then dips them in chocolate. Talk about a twofer nostalgic snack!
14. Old Bay Goldfish
Goldfish crackers and seafood seasoning don't sound like an obvious combo until you remember how seriously some Americans take Old Bay. Pepperidge Farm knows it too, which is why it coats its familiar crackers with the Maryland-born blend of celery salt, paprika, and spices. It’s a limited-time flavor, but it is out there.
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15. Hidden Valley Ranch Mashed Potatoes
If your spuds need a little pizzazz, Idahoan and Hidden Valley teamed up to make instant mashed potatoes flavored with ranch. The box mixes Idahoan potato flakes with the buttermilk, garlic, and herb flavor of Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning. Hey, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so you never know when you’ll need this.
16. Pop-Tarts Crunchy Poppers
Apparently, putting a Pop-Tart in a toaster just wasn’t easy enough. Say hello to Crunchy Poppers, the solution that shrinks the pastry into bite-sized snacks! Current flavors include Frosted Brownie and Frosted Strawberry, and Target currently stocks them.
17. A Seven-Pound Can of Nacho Cheese
Okay, maybe you don’t want a whole wheel of cheese. How about a whole can of it, though? Sam's Club currently sells Ricos Gourmet Nacho Cheese Sauce in a 107-ounce can, which works out to nearly seven pounds of warm, pourable cheese sauce! Though these were meant more for concession stands, nobody’s going to stop you from taking it home for yourself.
18. Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cinnadust
Sorry, we’re not done with this stuff yet. Cinnamon Toast Crunch sells its cereal flavor as a seasoning shaker. For anyone curious, Cinnadust comes complete with cinnamon, caramel, vanilla, and graham notes—and the company suggests putting it on everything from toast to coffee and ice cream.
19. Skittles Drink Mix
We’ll have you know that eating Skittles is totally optional, especially because you can just drink their flavors. Skittles Singles-to-Go turn varieties such as Wild Berry and Tropical into zero-sugar powdered drink mixes that dissolve in water. Walmart currently carries over a dozen flavors, so you have plenty to choose from, too.
20. Wendy's Chili in a Can
You can walk into Wendy's and order its chili, or you can keep it in your pantry. Either way, it’s a win. The shelf-stable version contains beef, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and seasonings, and it’s actually licensed under the Wendy's name. Target and Walmart currently carry it, and now you know you’re getting the real stuff.
