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Have you ever wondered why the chips in American grocery stores are so aggressively boring? While Canada gets ketchup chips and Thailand has king crab with XO sauce, the only new entrant into the American snack flavor canon in decades has been Flamin’ Hot. 

 

There is actually a documented reason for this, even if it’s a frustrating one, as Jaya Saxena reported on Eater last week. TL;DR: It’s just too risky for big companies. As an associate professor of marketing she spoke to put it, “they need flavors that 60 percent of the population want to buy. That just knocks off all that cool stuff.” 

 

It’s well worth reading Saxena’s full report to understand why chip companies favor large buy-in over interesting flavors. But until that changes, those of us with more adventurous palates will be stuck turning to other countries for the cool stuff. At least many of them ship. 

Soy sauce from Yun Hai, Ina Garten's chocolate cake, and Joya's Grateful Dead candles.

More things to buy

• The smoked mushroom garum from Noma Projects, the pantry line from celebrated fine dining restaurant Noma, is officially available for preorder today.
• For a more immediate hit of umami, do peruse this extensive guide to soy sauce from Carolyn Phillips. The small-batch soy sauces that populate the finishing soy sauce category are particularly intriguing (and giftable), such as this traditional firewood soy sauce or this one, which is actually a paste thickened with glutinous rice.
• While we’re on the subject of condiments, there’s a new chile crisp brand entering the fray. Bowlcut comes from three children of Chinese restaurant owners. They also make a Char Siu BBQ sauce.
• Meanwhile, consistent fave Fly By Jing was featured in Eater’s “How I Got My Job” column. If you haven’t hit “Add to Cart” on any of their products yet, maybe you’ll be inspired after reading about founder Jing Gao’s mission to take Chinese food out of the ethnic aisle.
• The Grateful Dead iconography is having a real moment. In addition to tie-dye being generally everywhere, the band partnered with Gotham Greens on a “Grateful Greens” lettuce medley. A QR code on the packaging links to a Grateful Dead playlist to accompany cooking at home, which a deadhead could do while wearing a Grateful Dead x Hedley & Bennett apron. If they can wait a few weeks, they can add a Joya dancing bear candle to the scene: That collaboration includes a trio of candles with candy scents. Choose between cotton candy, lemon drop, and sour strawberry, or buy them as a set.
• For your next celebration, note that Ina Garten’s Beatty’s Chocolate Cake is now shippable via Goldbelly.
• Baggu’s latest collection includes cooler bags for all your warm-weather picnicking needs. I’m particularly fond of the forest green “trail mix” colorway, but there’s also one with a fun vegetable print.
• If you’re looking for drinks for your next picnic, or even for a last-minute Mother’s Day hang, Drizly is offering Add to Cart readers $40 off orders of $100 or more with the code EATER40. It’s good until the end of the month. Cheers! 

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