Review: Smartfood Selects Buffalo Cheddar Popcorn

So Good Readers, Happy Monday!  And by Happy Monday, I mean I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S MONDAY AGAIN WHY WHY WHY WHY.  But I digress.  It was a great football weekend, and an even greater snacking weekend, as I finally had a chance to try something that had been burning a hole in my junk food box: Smartfood Selects Buffalo Cheddar Popcorn!  (PS: Yes, I have a junk food box.  It’s a big ole box that contains all the stuff I’ve been saving for reviews…and it smells like happiness.)

Smartfood Selects Buffalo Cheddar Popcorn is just one of the many Smartfood Selects popcorn flavors that exist right now.  These flavors also include Parmesan Herb, and Cinnamon Sugar.  Now, Smartfood also has a bunch of popcorn chips and other products that have zany flavors too – but as far as their popped corn, these are the three tastes for now.

Smartfood Selects Buffalo Cheddar Popcorn, according to the bag and the website: “This zesty flavor combination is inspired by spicy buffalo wing sauce, cooled by cheddar cheese. It’s made even more delicious with hints of cayenne pepper, vinegar, paprika, garlic, and onion.”  I have to say, I’m always skeptical of Buffalo flavored snacks.  Being from Upstate New York, I remain convinced I have superior Buffalo tasting …er…taste buds, able to detect the level of authenticity in a wing sauce.  Do your best, Smartfood!

It’s strange – my own personal experience has always been with plain old Smartfood – white cheddar popcorn.  Which is awesome.  Why mess up a good thing? Why risk messing up a stable brand by introducing this Smartfood Selects Buffalo Cheddar Popcorn?  Because if its bad, I AM GOING TO ASSAIL YOU, SMARTFOOD.

I think its interesting that cheese is a more prominent ingredient than cayenne pepper sauce in this Smartfood Selects Buffalo Cheddar Popcorn…hmmmm…

When I opened this bag of Smartfood Selects Buffalo Cheddar Popcorn, I took a big sniff….didn’t get any vinegary tang in my nose, and I smelled mainly cheddar cheese.  Not a strong smell of cheddar cheese…just a faint one.  Honestly, this smelled like every other bag of Smartfood I’d ever smelled.  Time to taste!

The first thing I tasted in a mouthful of this Smartfood Selects Buffalo Cheddar Popcorn was the cheddar for sure.  The cheese flavor was great, standard Smartfood quality cheesy popcorn taste.  But then the taste took a turn RIGHT AWAY – immediately became sour and tangy with cayenne pepper wing sauce-like flavor.

Now, this wasn’t the BEST buffalo wing sauce flavor on a snack I’d ever had, and it was sort of mild, but when it mixed with the savory taste of cheddar cheese, there was NO mistaking – this was buffalo cheddar popcorn.  One of those sum-of-all-parts-greater-than-the-components-themselves moments.  This popcorn tasted INCREDIBLE.

Not only that, but there was a decent burn with this popcorn.  It lingered slightly, and tickled my tongue and lips.  This is a creamy buffalo-wing-sauce tinged popcorn that had a good amount of heat.  Everything was nice and balanced.  And while the overall flavor didn’t remind me of, say, eating buffalo wings – it didn’t have too.  The Buffalo Cheddar label lived up to the advertising; this was, INDEED, a mouth-watering snack.

PURCHASED AT: Safeway

COST: $3.29 on sale for $2.50

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy and read more reviews at JunkFoodGuy.com. Let’s hang out.