How Awesome Are New Awesome Sauce Goldfish?

There’s a shiny new Goldfish flavor hitting stores this month, and people are getting very curious about it. “Awesome Sauce” is the name of this limited-edition flavor, and apparently it’s supposed to taste like Chick-fil-A’s signature dipping sauce. I have a feeling this one’s going to sell out fast. Sometimes, all you need to do is slap the word “awesome” on a product, and we, the sheeple, will turn up to buy it. 

Anyways, allow me to use the obvious segue: Is this new Goldfish flavor actually awesome? I tried it. I’m a (generally) honest person. Here’s what I think. 

New Goldfish!

Goldfish Awesome Sauce

Target

When you open the bag, you’ll find pale Goldfish crackers coated ever-so-lightly in yellow flavor dust. For me, this was a red flag—on looks alone, I wasn’t expecting much in the way of flavor. 

Pros: The flavor is bright, tangy, smoky-sweet, and brings to mind different things to different people. It’s definitely a dead ringer for Chick-fil-A sauce, but someone also said it tastes exactly like Carl’s Jr Sweet & Bold BBQ sauce, too. It reminded our editor-in-chief Justine Sterling of Synder’s honey mustard pretzel pieces, which I totally see. But it really does taste like someone dropped a tiny dollop of fast food BBQ sauce on a naked baked Goldfish. I’m impressed in the same way that Lay’s Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘N Fruity Chips impressed me—by evoking a highly specific and deeply nostalgic flavor experience, almost to a T. (Only somehow, this new Goldfish somehow evokes different highly specific flavor experiences depending on the person. It’s a prism Goldfish. Shine a light on it, and it creates a flavor rainbow with a color for everyone.) 

Cons: Is it awesome? In a sense. I stand by how cool it is, as an experience. But when it comes to actual yumminess, I don’t think it’s that awesome. I’m sorry, folks. It’s no Spicy Dill Pickle Goldish, I’m afraid to say—though luckily that flavor is also returning this month, if you didn’t get a chance to try it last year. I have two big critiques of this new Goldfish: 1) the flavor doesn’t last very long, so midway through, you’re basically snacking on a plain Goldfish cracker. 2) It needs cheese! Please, pretty please, make this Goldfish cheesy! Maybe it would taste less like Chic-fil-A sauce, but gosh would it be delicious smothered in flavor-blasted cheese dust.

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

7/10

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