Generally we try to keep things positive here but I think you’ll see why, on this rare occasion, we’re “going low”. I just remembered this now-forgotten product this morning and I thought you all needed to be reminded it existed: Heinz Dip & Crunch.

This was released in the Spring/Summer of 2022 by Kraft-Heinz. It came in two varieties: Regular and Spicy. It was on shelves everywhere for a couple of months and appeared to sell nearly zero. In fact, that fall, I was walking through Wal-Mart and actually saw a clerk sweeping an entire almost-full shelf of the stuff into the “Throw Away” bin. The package was composed of two components: an oblong cup of “burger sauce” (Heinz Mayochup, e.g. mayo and ketchup) packaged with another oblong cup of broken potato chip pieces. The idea was that you were supposed to dip your burger into the sauce, then dip it a second time to coat it with broken potato chips. Here is their actual ad depicting this:

Now, it must be said that putting broken potato chips on burgers and sandwiches can be GREAT. Bobby Flay famously offers one at his burger place. Kenji Lopez-Alt has had an excellent recipe for a Tuna Crunch Sandwich with chips in the New York Times. Furthermore, the dipped-chipped burger had become a trend on TikTok in 2021-2. This product was likely Heinz-Kraft’s attempt to capitalize on that.

Suffice it to say, the general public either was not aware of the trend or didn’t care to try it or both. Or perhaps the fatal flaw was THIS:

NOTE that the product is to be USED FOR JUST ONE BURGER! Obviously there were countless health and contamination issues involved in using this for multiple burgers, especially ones chewed upon by different people. But the cost of this product ranged from $2.49 to $5.90, depending on the store…. uh, for JUST ONE BURGER! Who would pay even $2.49 for the privilege of using this product when you could easily use your own burger sauce and crushed-up chips for FAR FAR LESS — should you want to indulge in this particular method of burger consumption at all.

I did and do appreciate Heinz-Kraft’s commitment to innovation with all their half-baked mash-ups like MayoMust and MayoRacha (etc) but the Dip & Crunch was just… way…way… over the line.

This Week’s All-Timer

This is a recurring feature of this newsletter in which I highlight one of my all-time favorite foods or food products which I haven’t talked or posted about in a while. This time it’s the Charbroiled Santa Fe Chicken Sandwich from Carl’s Jr.

I have loved this thing for at least 25 or 30 years. First of all, it has a CHARBROILED rather than FRIED chicken breast — which has got to be healthy, right? Well, not after you add the rest of the luscious components to this thing. Melted American Cheese, MILD GREEN CHILE - not chopped, but a whole flattened Anaheim (?) Chile - lettuce, and a delicious Santa Fe Sauce. I love this more than any other chicken sandwich in all of fast food… including Popeye’s.

If you live in a region where they have Hardee’s instead of Carl’s Jr.: sorry, they don’t carry it. However you can make your own with this copycat recipe — which I have tried with great & delicious success.