Within the Food Kingdom exists a product that is a fiefdom unto itself. It is so popular that it has a section all its own in the grocer's freezer case. It's alluring packaging promises a heaven of warm bread, gooey cheese, rich sauce, savory meats, and tempting vegetables. Frozen junk though it may be, whom amongst us hasn't been tempted to try the Hot Pocket in all its infinite varieties, with new additions to the line seemingly added every week: pizza, cheesesteaks, buffalo chicken, cheeseburgers, tacos, and on and on.
Does the Pocket Fulfill Its Promise?
Yes the Hot Pocket always seems to promise more than it actually delivers, and perhaps that's why, as much as we return to it, it always vaguely falls short of its potential. Today we answer the question of how accurate the picture on the package is, and our conclusions are mixed.
To some degree, the picture on the package isn't really a lie, and here's why? While each bite into a hot pocket seems to leave us wondering where all the filling went, it actually is possible to reproduce the results we see on the package IF we treat the breading container like a tube of toothpaste, placing our thumbs on the scale, so to speak, and pressing down firmly on one end of the pocket. This pushes all the filling to the open side. Why look! We have somewhat made the promise of the package come true!
Conclusions
It would seem that our investigation has exposed the Hot Pocket as a minor piece of fraud, but let's consider the value proposition a little more closely. This is after all a mere snack item, something you enjoy when you really only want a nosh, something less than a meal but on the filling end of a mere snack. The Hot Pocket fulfills the mission of tiding our hunger for something warm and savory reasonably well. Let's also remember the average $2.50 price point for two Hot Pockets and ask if we really have a right to expect more than that for the price. If the manufacturers were really able to supply more beef than we see here at that cost, one would wonder at how bovine the origins of the material was, and have concern for the animal welfare practices of a manufacturer that could deliver that much animal product so cheaply. So in sum, the Hot Pocket does deliver as much tastiness and belly-filling capacity as we have any right to expect for the hit to the pocketbook. Score one for Nestle, I guess. Rock on, Hot Pocket.
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| The Hot Pocket package promises a veritable feast within! |
Yes the Hot Pocket always seems to promise more than it actually delivers, and perhaps that's why, as much as we return to it, it always vaguely falls short of its potential. Today we answer the question of how accurate the picture on the package is, and our conclusions are mixed.
To some degree, the picture on the package isn't really a lie, and here's why? While each bite into a hot pocket seems to leave us wondering where all the filling went, it actually is possible to reproduce the results we see on the package IF we treat the breading container like a tube of toothpaste, placing our thumbs on the scale, so to speak, and pressing down firmly on one end of the pocket. This pushes all the filling to the open side. Why look! We have somewhat made the promise of the package come true!
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| Yes indeed! Our pocket is bursting at the seams! (seems?)
Performing a Little Hot Pocket Surgery
But let's go a little deeper and see what we find. If we butterfly-cut the our Philly Cheesesteak Hot Pocket and look inside, let's see what we get. At first glance the results are remarkably generous. We see cheese, red and green peppers, and what appears to be an adequate amount of steak. But let's really analyze the contents. The steak seems to cover a wide area but it is actually paper-thin. Now examine all the gaps between each steak fragment and add it all together mentally. What we actually have here is a single deli-thin slice of roast beef that has been separated into shreds and dispersed such that it seems to cover a wide area, but in fact its a deli-slice that, if reunified into a single piece, would not even cover the surface area of the pocket. This explains the mismatch between what your eyes see and what your mouth tastes.
Paltriness or adequacy from our naked Hot Pocket? Tis all in the eye of the beholder.
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It would seem that our investigation has exposed the Hot Pocket as a minor piece of fraud, but let's consider the value proposition a little more closely. This is after all a mere snack item, something you enjoy when you really only want a nosh, something less than a meal but on the filling end of a mere snack. The Hot Pocket fulfills the mission of tiding our hunger for something warm and savory reasonably well. Let's also remember the average $2.50 price point for two Hot Pockets and ask if we really have a right to expect more than that for the price. If the manufacturers were really able to supply more beef than we see here at that cost, one would wonder at how bovine the origins of the material was, and have concern for the animal welfare practices of a manufacturer that could deliver that much animal product so cheaply. So in sum, the Hot Pocket does deliver as much tastiness and belly-filling capacity as we have any right to expect for the hit to the pocketbook. Score one for Nestle, I guess. Rock on, Hot Pocket.
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