Review: Kellogg’s Limited Edition Frosted Pink Lemonade Pop-Tarts

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I have seen into the future, fellow breakfast lovers. And let me tell you, the world of tomorrow is weird.

Get this: in 50 years, all solid foods will be liquids, and all liquid foods will be solids! At dinner, we’ll nibble on chewy orange juice frittata slices for an appetizer, enjoy the hearty and tender roast Coca-Cola main course, and treat ourselves to Grandma’s old fashioned skim milk pie for dessert. Oh, and we’ll wash it all down with glasses of the finest carbonated mutton.

When I asked the flavor wizards of the future how this revolution came about, their answer was unanimous: “It all started with Kellogg’s Frosted Pink Lemonade Pop-Tarts!”

That’s right: before me sits a classic beverage in toaster pastry form. Along with their soon-to-come A&W Root Beer and Orange Crush Pop-Tarts, Frosted Pink Lemonade is leading Kellogg’s “Summer of Synesthesia” series (my name, not theirs).

Let’s see if these pastries can make me feel the summer sun as I sit here drenched and cold from a leftover April shower that apparently doesn’t own a darn calendar.

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If nothing else, I love the cheery, sprinkled pink look of these pastries. Each one looks like a Ditto that took a nap on a sandy beach.

The golden crust really leads the show when these Pop-Tarts are eaten untoasted. Nibbling around the edges, the taste was a dead ringer for Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts. The crust is the appropriate balance of flaky and chewy, with a buttery sweet and floury flavor balance.

The pleasantness of these “crust desserts” persisted as I made it to the filling, but the rosy stuffing also introduced a rather jarring, chemically lemon taste. My immediate thought was lemon cleaning products, and with each bite, I heard a recognizable voice echo “That’s the power of Pine-Sol, baby,” in the back of my head.

Now I’ll admit, my knowledge of pink lemonade is rather limited. My only memorable experience with the flavor is drinking Poppin’ Pink Lemonade Hi-C juice boxes as a kid—you know, the ones that had Princess Peach Nintendo trading cards on the back? But despite that, I knew this was not what pink lemonade was supposed to taste like. There was no tang and no juicy red berry finish.

I’ve never had hot lemonade or char-grilled lemonade before, but that didn’t stop me from toasting a Pink Lemonade Pop-Tart. Against all logic, it actually made the pastry taste a bit better.

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Through toaster magic, the bubblegum pink Krang goo that oozed out actually started to taste like the Poppin’ Pink Lemonade Hi-C of my youth: still way more sweet than puckering, but with a much less “sterilizing” lemon flavor and a faint, generic berry aftertaste. Imagine a Yellow Starburst that made out with a Pink Starburst.

I always try my Pop-Tarts frozen, and I was excited to try an ice-cold, crumbly, and rectangular glass of Pink Lemonade Pop-Tart. Unlike a certain “frozen bacon” incident my therapist is trying to help me forget, these pastries seemed born to be chilled.

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And that assumption is totally correct. With a refreshing and cold popsicle-esque chewiness, a much more noticeable lemon bite, and a persistent granulated sweetness that evokes poolside drinks with umbrellas in them, frozen Pink Lemonade Pop-Tarts will have a permanent place in my beverage cooler during summer barbecues. For anyone who’s made lemon bars, picture those wrapped in a protective pastry casing.

Truth be told, I was about ready to give these Pop-Tarts a middling review based on their lukewarm and hot tastes, but they’re redeemed by their frozen quality. If you don’t like lemon, stick to frozen Cookies & Creme Pop-Tarts, but for the rest of us, we now have edible, citrusy ice packs.

They’ll keep your drinks cool, and then they’ll taste even cooler! 😎


 

The “Bowl:” Limited Edition Frosted Pink Lemonade Pop-Tarts

The Breakdown: These unique, golden pastries take a page from Goldilocks: too chemically when warm, too sweet when toasted, just right when frozen.

The Bottom Line: 8 Starbursts getting to first base out of 10

(Quick Nutrition Facts: 200 calories, <1 gram of fiber, 15 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein per 1 pastry serving)

Our friends at Junk Banter and Snack Cellar reviewed Pink Lemonade Pop-Tarts too. Check out what they had to say!

One response »

  1. I don’t know WHEN they started putting BERRY anything in LEMONADE and calling it PINK LEMONADE but when I was a kid in the mid 60’s to late 70’s PINK LEMONADE was simply lemonade with pink food coloring in it

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