As you’ll notice, most of my articles start with a personal fact. Be it a confession, a ‘did you know?’ or just some random information about myself. This one has two:
- My wife was born and raised in Buffalo, NY, home of the chicken (Buffalo) wing. There is no better gastronomic adventure than attempting to savor all of Western New York’s best wing joints.
- I used to travel around the country playing music for months at a time, living in a van/RV/bus and scraping by on per diem payments and saved money from spare design jobs between tours.
When you take that information and throw it in a blender, out pops hundreds of trips to Buffalo Wild Wings in nearly every state that they exist (usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays, of course).
Let’s throw another wrench in that blender: I love football. Doesn’t matter what level, who the teams are, or if I have any connection whatsoever. I’ll enjoy it.Oh, one last thing: to my wife’s dismay, I have an affinity for the neon sugar concoction that is Mountain Dew. I know it’s not healthy and it’s rotting my teeth, but I just cannot kick the ‘Dew habit I’ve developed over the last 25 years.
…but what does it all mean?
Okay, so I stumbled upon a release from the aforementioned “wing joint” of choice for broke traveling musicians. It starts out straightforward:
The Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl, featuring the University of Michigan and University of Florida will be played at 1:00 p.m. ET on Friday, Jan. 1, 2016 and televised on ABC.
Sounds good. I enjoy New Years college football bowl games. It’s a great way to recover from the rowdiness the night before.
Then things get weird.
To celebrate the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl, Buffalo Wild Wings partnered with Mountain Dew to create a limited time only sauce – Zesty Citrus. Available in restaurants from December 14, 2015 through January 2, 2016, the bold citrus flavor of Mountain Dew was infused with lemongrass and spicy red pepper-flakes to create a blast of sweet and spicy that will leave Guests asking for more.
Okay, so “Zesty Citrus” sounds pretty good. So does the lemongrass and spicy red pepper-flakes. But wait, back up a bit. They said Mountain Dew flavor, right?
Hmmm. I’m going to have to contemplate this one for a bit.
While B-Dubs, in my honest opinion (and ironically), has a fairly weak traditional wing sauce (across the heat spectrum), I thoroughly enjoy their options for non-cayenne-based flavors, specifically “Spicy Garlic”, “Asian Zing”, and “Teriyaki” (or “Ter Ter” as my band and crew came to start ordering them as, confusing dozens of employees across the country).
So what do you think? Will the Mountain Dew-flavored “Zesty Citrus” be a hit? Will you even be bold enough to try them?
I’m beginning to think I may have to follow this post up with a taste-test review of the special edition wings.