In September 2013, food critic Matt Gross sat down at the Second Annual New York City Hot Sauce Expo and prepared to face a daunting challenge. Before him on the table lay three small, dark red, shrivelled peppers, which he was to eat as quickly as he could. Gross, a veteran spice connoisseur or “chilihead”, completed the challenge with ease, […]

In the modern world, if you step out your door and travel to neighboring cities or even countries, you’ll generally be greeted by a slew of familiar food related franchises for your respective region, with some of the most popular in the world today including McDonald’s, Subway, Starbucks, KFC, Dunkin, and the like. In all of these, with some small […]

Ahh, a nice, warm bowl of oatmeal: could there be a more hearty or wholesome breakfast? Loaded with fibre, nutrients, and – if you’re feeling decadent – a dash of brown sugar – it’s the perfect way to start your day. Or so the big cereal companies and their cheery adverts would have you believe. But for a group of […]

When the sun scorches the earth, when incandescent air burns your lungs, and especially when that glucose curve dips at 10, 2 and 4 in the afternoon … well, there is nothing better than grabbing an ice cold bottle of a very special soft drink- its purple-ish label covered in beads of cooling moisture. I am, of course, talking about […]

In March of 2004, fast-food giant McDonald’s announced the end of an era. By the end of the year, customers at the chain’s more than 13,000 U.S. restaurants would no longer be hearing those iconic words: “Would you like to super-size that?” Since its introduction in the summer of 1987, super-sizing has become an iconic part of the McDonald’s brand […]

Crispy and golden-brown on the outside, pillowy soft on the inside, with just the right amount of salt and the perfect hearty finish. McDonald’s French fries are one of the world’s favourite snacks, with an astonishing 4 million kilograms being sold every single day. A full quarter of these are sold in the United States alone, accounting for nearly 33% […]

Fanta is among of the world’s most popular and beloved soft drinks, being sold in over 188 countries and over 150 flavours, including Lime, Pineapple, Elderflower, Peach-Apricot, Watermelon, Blackcurrant, and – the most popular by far – orange. For over 75 years the brand has dominated the soft drink market in countries like Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Japan, […]

Anyone who has seen Mad Men knows that the 1960s in America were a time of unmitigated consumerism. Advertising was largely unregulated—a fact that continues to influence certain industries. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the cereal aisle. Several mainstays of the canonically fuzzy cereal multiverse have their origins in the Wild West period of children’s marketing: Lucky the […]

If you’ve ever found yourself eating a “special” brownie or two and not long after have an insatiable urge to partake in a stuffed crust meat lover’s pizza, followed by a couple McDonald’s McGriddles, a Quiznos Steakhouse Beef Dip Sub, and then finish it all off with a McFlurry or a Fruit ‘N Yogurt Parfait, well, it turns out you […]

Tucked away in the English county of Yorkshire is a small 9 square mile patch of land known colloquially as The Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle. As the name suggests, this area is famous for producing nearly all of the rhubarb consumed in Britain and, at one point, produced enough forced rhubarb to satisfy almost the entire world’s demand. Oddly, despite literal […]