We Tried Pringles Hot Dog Buns And I Admit, I Love a Gimmick

I’m a sucker for a little marketing move by food companies. We’ve seen a lot in our time. Bush’s rocket pop baked beans, the giant Pop-Tart that I rushed to order while I was sitting in the vet’s office one Wednesday morning―I just can’t get enough! Sue me. Well, don’t actually. Because I’m also an honest man of the people. I tell it like it is.

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With hot dogs exploding in the zeitgeist, Pringles is here to capitalize on the culture with new hot dog buns. They’re releasing a drop of three hot dog buns, each modeled after one of their iconic Pringles flavors: sour cream & onion, BBQ, and honey mustard. The question is, is it worth throwing virtual elbows to try to get one of these limited items? Let’s talk about it.

Sour Cream & Onion Flavored Hot Dog Bun

Pros: If there was one bun I could recommend, it’d be this one. It is the closest in execution. You can actually taste the sour cream and the onion flavors that are mixed into the bun. This bun also stands out from the rest because it has actual flakes of dried herbs coating and mixed into the bun. It also came in a Pringles can! That’s fun. Pringles also sent along a can of actual sour cream & onion chips, which, admittedly, isn’t exactly a pro for the bun itself but was still fun for the overall gimmick to compare the two.

Cons: There are some general cons to all three of the buns. They are thicc! A regular sized hot dog gets dwarfed by the bun. Inversely, they’re also too short. Pringles didn’t commit to the bit of these being can-sized buns. They’re about two inches short of the actual length of the can but they are reasonably longer than the normal bun. The result is a bun that fails to stick the landing but offers just too much bread for one dog.

BBQ Flavored Hot Dog Bun

Pros: Generally this one was good, just not great. It’s still pretty similar in taste to an actual Pringles BBQ chip. You can tell that they blended the BBQ sauce/seasoning into the bun because it’s a shade darker than the other two buns. Half of me expected them to just put the powdered dust from the chip on the outside of the bun and call it a day―which I’m glad they didn’t settle for. 

Cons: Is it bad that the general cons were too long to mention just in the section for the sour cream & onion bun? Probably. To follow that up, these all have a pretty solid taste of preservatives to them. I understand that it’s hard to keep a hot dog bun fresh for any amount of time so I give them grace on that but maybe a different joke product that was easier to ship nationally would have been more ideal. I will finish this bun but I would never go back for seconds so it’s a wash for me.

Honey BBQ Flavored Hot Dog Bun

Pros: I really wish I had something to say here. It looked cool at least? The bun comes with an obvious tinge of yellow from the mustard seasoning that’s mixed in. Again, they could have just brushed some seasoning on the outside and called it a day, but they went all in.

Cons: Wow. By far the most off-putting thing about this hot dog bun is the smell. It permeates the flimsy plastic packaging that the bun comes in. I was actually afraid to open it up. It’s not even a mustardy smell―I would understand that. It’s just a putrid smell that I wish I had better words for. The taste is much the same. I got a bite down for the taste test but I would never finish this. I’m trying to pawn it onto one of my mustard-loving friends but I fear even they will reject it.