Dispatch 2. Tweesties Churro & Sweevory
Twisties Churro, interesting. I wonder if PepsiCo had launched it, would we have Chester Cheeto making love hearts on the front of the pack?
I tried the Orion Turtle Chocolate Churro variant, and that was way too sweet for me. But the Twisties Churro are good. I appreciate the churro shape, but honestly, I would have loved them to keep the classic Twistie shape because it challenges our expectations; it rocks our boundaries between cues and flavour experience.
This might be a new experience from an iconic Aussie heritage brand, but it’s definitely not a new practice around the world. This, my friends, is what was not-so-long-ago called “Sweevory”; sweet flavours in savoury formats and vice versa. Sweevory has been the ancient way to introduce Mexican kids to spicy food. Picture a mango-shaped lollipop made of sweet mango-flavoured caramel, covered in a thick layer of… Savoury… spicy… acid… TAMARIND PASTE. Sweevory is also present in other cuisines, such as Nordic, Russian, South-East Asian, and Middle Eastern. But Western Europe, Canada, the USA…and the Anglo-Australian cuisine seemed to have developed other spoken or unspoken rules about where sweet flavours and formats belong.
Anywho!!!! This could be a whole anthropology thesis, so let’s go back to sweevory in snacks.
Australia and the world have been getting this sweevory snack inspiration mainly from Japanese and Korean treats and snacks. There are no boundaries for them. I love it. It’s a sensory play with textures, flavours, and formats: crunchy, layered, gummy, soft, slimy you name it. Snacking is an experience, and limited-time offers are common practice; they even tailor them by region.
But it has its limits.
I haven’t tried a sweet-flavoured potato chip I like just yet. It’s a difficult base to flavour; potato has a strong and earthy aftertaste. I thought these honey butter chips (picture below) would prove me wrong, but no. The butter seasoning lacks a proper base to support it, and it feels like you overdo the butter flavour in the powdered seasoning, immediately hitting your taste buds with a strong butyric note that doesn’t leave. The Aussie market is heavily based on potato chip ranges, so disrupting with sweet flavours is challenging.
On the other hand, we have the extruded snacks, your Cheezels, Twisties, and Cheetos that offer a better base with a wider potential for flavouring; corn, wheat, and rice bases… go for it! Like PopCorners, I love that you can get popped-corn triangles in sweet chilli, cinnamon, or cheese.
“But Fabi! What about maple bacon and honey chicken? That’s sweevory “. I hear you, but I’m drawing the line at meat-themed flavours. My blog, my rules. I can have that as lunch, tho.
For years, I have heard the discussion in Australia and New Zealand about introducing more savoury flavours into sweet format, let’s say a cereal bar with pizza flavour. Can you imagine? Being able to get that savoury flavour without munching a whole pizza or Vegemite roll…. But at the same time, not as dry as having savoury crackers? But that hasn’t happened yet, at least not in mass production.
The popularity of international snacks in mainstream retail, TikTok viral food-discovery videos and trends are pushing local brands to try different things, like the Twisties Churros, Twisties pickles, and PopCorner cinnamon. Can we have Cheezels apple caramel?
Ahhh, my sweet tooth is taking over this dispatch like a field researcher who started eating the specimens.
Challenge your senses, be an adventurous taster. I can guarantee you, you will not love everything, but it will keep your mind and soul young. According to me, of course.
I’m curious, what’s your best sweevory moment? And please, no maple bacon.