We Tried BWW’s Brand New Popping Ranch

Yes you read that right. Buffalo Wild Wings just released ranch flavored popping candy, available for sprinkling on any of your BWW favorites. And well, I tried it so you didn’t have to. 

Videos by Sporked

First let’s clear up what exactly it is. It’s a popping candy like Pop Rocks. But it’s ranch flavored. So all those herbs that make ranch, ranch? Yup, those are in the popping candy. It’s weird. I know how weird it sounds. When I ordered it, even the server was surprised. She even forgot that they had that available now. It’s interesting that they’ve released this new thing and there was no promotion of it in store. Nothing on the tables. No limited menu to show it off. Nothing. I wasn’t sure if they even had it. But when I checked their online ordering portal, it did list it as available. 

Our Process

So I ordered a bag and a variety of food to try it on. Because you can’t just try the popping candy alone. If I was going to eat this weird thing, I was going to be very thorough. First, I tried the popping candy alone. Just to get a baseline of what to expect when putting it on food. I have to say, whatever I was expecting, wasn’t this. It actually somehow had very little ranch flavor. Which is wild considering ranch is a pretty noticeable flavor. Like, I’ve smelled ranch powder more potent than this. It delivered on the pops for sure and it at least wasn’t overly sweet. I did worry it would be sweet since it is a candy. 

So, with the baseline (disappointment) in place, I moved on to trying it with food―which is what they recommend for the sauce, rather than stand-alone. I guess only die-hard ranch fans are going to try to eat it straight. They’ll be disappointed, but they’d be the ones to do it. I got a mix of Chipotle BBQ rub wings and parmesan garlic, just for a balance in flavors. 

Our Verdict

The first thing that got me was the sensation that came from eating the wings. It was… not the most pleasant. When I’m eating wings, I don’t really want it to fizz in my mouth. It wasn’t terrible. But it wasn’t the greatest sensation. I first sprinkled straight on the wings. The Chipotle BBQ was fine with them, weird fizzing sensation aside. The parm garlic though? Disgusting. I love parmesan garlic and the ranch candy made it so sweet and gross. So if you’re going to try it yourself, you definitely are going to want to have some heat to counter it. 

I also tried with with wings and ranch. Mostly because it wasn’t giving me ranch flavor so I wondered if maybe it would enhance the regular ranch flavor. It was about the same. The ranch actually kind of tamped down the fizzing so it wasn’t as unpleasant as when it was straight on the wing. Same with ranch and a carrot. And fries and ranch. The last experiment was fries and ketchup and the popping candy, because I know plenty of people who mix ketchup and ranch. So it made sense. Worst mistake ever. I tasted like extra sweet fizzy herby tomatoes. It was bad. I do not recommend. 

Overall, I don’t think it’s a great creation. Part of that is the sensory experience of your wings fizzing while you chew and part is that they just didn’t add a ton of ranch flavor. If you want to dust something on your wings, just grab a bottle of dry ranch powder and you’ll have a much better time. But if you want to try something a little weird but not totally gross, this could be a fun little night out.