Just keep swimming.

It's mid-September as I write this and, for me personally, it might as well be fall. The leaves are already changing, the nights are getting cooler, and the PSL is available at Starbucks; it's a beautiful thing!

All that said, I felt remiss just moving on and not acknowledging some of the great summer snacks and promotions I've enjoyed over the last few months.

In my last post, all the way back in (checks notes)... June, I was begrudging the lack of summer promos I was seeing from the usual suspects, like Lay's, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola.

What I would say is that instead of going for the usual fare, there were some weird swings this summer, but overall it actually ended up pretty okay!

This is just going to be a photo dump of junk I enjoyed over the summer months, but I'll add some commentary.

McDonald's Summer 2024!

McD's never fails to disappoint and I must say, they've been showing Canada some serious love lately. First, we finally got the Grimace Shake, which dropped in the US last year. It didn't knock me out colour-wise, but it tasted great! They also brought us the Orange Cream Pop Shake, which tasted like a Buried Treasure and was a serious highlight.

Finally, I have to mention the Throwback Meal, which came with three retro dipping sauces, Garlic Parmesan from the 80s, Szechuan from the 90s, and Jalapeno Cheddar from the 00s. The Szechuan sauce was amazing - I didn't try the others - but the retro packing that homaged all three eras was the highlight, honestly. It was serious trip!

This was also topped off with McShaker fries, which offered a variety of different flavours over the summer. I only tried Tzatziki and Ramen, but they also offered Masala and Churro. They were kinda messy, but delicious! I hope we get more of these in the future!

Soda Pop!

I think I've gushed about all of these on my social accounts, but at a high level: Sprite Chill Zero Sugar was amazing and was very short-lived. Sprite Chill is still in stores, I believe, but the Zero Sugar (which was far superior to the full sugar version) disappeared quickly.

We got Mountain Dew Summer Freeze! This dropped in the US last year, but we finally got it and it was amazing. I think my favourite of the summer, however, was the Dr. Pepper Strawberries & Cream. This also dropped some time ago in the US, and I actually imported it months ago, but it was nice having it as a regular offering for a while.

I still missed seeing Pepsi Throwback on shelves, but Peach Pepsi was a nice distraction, even if I only tried it the one time. It was tasty, though! I saw the Zero Sugar version once, but didn't buy it and I never saw it again. I would've liked to have tried it!

More Chips!

Doritos dropped a trio of Late Night flavours, which is something they've done in the past. I feel like I've had all these flavours before, but it was nice to have something different on shelves, as least! I think Fully Loaded Nachos was my favourite, but there was also Sizzlin' Cheese Burger and Creamy Jalapeno Popper.

Ruffles dropped another KFC collab! They've offered KFC flavoured chips for a few years now as the occasional promo, but this year they added a Zinger Sandwich flavoured chip, which was just a spicier version of the old flavour, but on a double crunch chip! It was meh.

Miscellaneous!

Wendy's had an orange cream milkshake thingy of their own this year. It was simply white Frosty mixed with orange soda, but it was tasty!

I don't talk about Smarties enough. I know they're only in the UK and Canada, but they are the superior candy-covered chocolate. That's right, I said it. This summer they had a strawberry variety, which was just okay, but I just like to see Smarties taking the occasional swing!

That's probably not everything, but I think it's the big hitters (what's up with the sudden baseball references). All-in-all, it was an okay summer!

I posted a video earlier this week about the return of Hostess potato chips, which although it technically dropped in the summer season, I'm not considering a summer promo. Especially, as it appears that they're here to stay. You can check that video out here, though, if you're so inclined!

Anyway, here's to the autumn proper! It's less than a week away. As I mentioned, I've already started my usual traditions, which includes lots of tiny sized junk food and horror movies, but it was nice to cap off summer and put a bow on it.

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Here come the chips! I've got Cool Ranch and Barbecue! Ow!

The first post I made on this new site was - not shockingly - about potato chips (a personal passion of mine) and since it's been just about a full revolution around the sun since then, I figured it was time for more.

So, I hope you like reading way too many words about junk food, because I'm back on my bullshit. Let's talk about the Lay's Canada Flavour Icons summer promo for 2024!

I'm not going to lie to you, this year's promotion isn't a complete knock out. One of the flavours is recycled from last year, Miss Vickie's Spicy Dill Pickle, and the other two offerings, although new to Canada, are frequently flyers in the US: Cool Ranch Doritos and Cheetos Lay's.

Out of last year's offerings, I really enjoyed the Spicy Dill Pickle. As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't really dig it on the actual Miss Vickie's chips, but it somehow jives better with the classic Lay's potato chip.

As for the Cool Ranch Doritos flavour? Something just isn't clicking. I think there's something to say about texture when it comes to eating Doritos and maybe I've just had my brain wired to expect a corn chip, but whatever it is, I didn't dig Cool Ranch on a Lay's potato chip. Nothing wrong with it, just not for me!

And then finally the Cheetos Lay's; I really liked these. Last year, I loved the Nacho Cheese Doritos Lay's and this year the cheese flavour takes the cake again. In 2022, Lay's did Flavour Mashups in Canada and they had Cheetos Puffs + Lay's Ketchup chips that I really didn't like, but it must've been the combination of the two, because Cheetos dust tastes delicioso on a standard chip.

So, overall I'd give this year's Flavour Icons a big meh. It's just okay!

I've decided to practice brevity on this post, even though I did what most sane people would consider far too much research about the Lay's summer promos of yesteryear, but I will save you all that.

What I will say, is that this year's promo being recycled kinda tracks with PepsiCo (owner of Lay's) this year. Usually, Pepsi would have multiple pop offerings in the spring and leading into early summer. Although it has been somewhat spotty, we've pretty much had Pepsi Throwback (a.k.a. Pepsi Real Sugar) every summer for a long while, and then also periodically there's been Crystal Pepsi and even Pepsi Blue!

This year, however, there's really nothing I'd call a standout promo. They are pushing the zero sugar varieties of Wild Cherry and Lime pretty vigourously, but they're always on the menu. In the US they at least have full sugar varieties of Pepsi Lime and Pepsi Peach! Not here, though.

I keep hoping for Lay's Canada to reach deep into their back catalog and come out with a Hostess potato chip summer promo. I've even written to them - yes, I am that lame. And here we are again, no dice.

Here's hoping for next year! And I'm still holding out hope that Pepsi Throwback graces our shelves in the next few weeks. You folks in the US who have access to Pepsi Real Sugar on the regular don't know how good you have it!

Anyway, keep on crunchin' and cheers to summer!

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