This unusual artifact was discovered at 2:30am in the 7-11 convenience store at the corner of Valmont and Folsom, in Boulder, CO. ¡Sponch! seems to be a Mexican snackfood cake produced by Marinela brand of the massive Bimbo Bakeries Group.

¡Sponch! is a strange concotion. It starts with a graham crackery biscuit base. This is then topped with four round marshmallows, two pink and two white. These marshamallows are coated in dry coconut flakes and the orifice between them is injected with strawberry jam. A friend noted that this recipe “sounds like the kind of candy you invent when you’re five.”

Despite (or because of) this novel combination of flavors, eating ¡Sponch! is a strenuously unpleasant experience. My expedition colleagues’ reactions were “Mmf….this is very disppointing” and “I can’t…I can’t eat this.” In the name of research, I finished my cake item and I regret the experience. I catalog the failures of ¡Sponch! as follows:

When the cake is pressed against the transparent package, the blood-red filling oozes out from the fleshy marshmallow surface, striking a unsettling resemblance to an open wound. The moisture from the jam and marshmallows is absorbed by the graham cracker base, transforming the crisp biscuit into a soggy mass of paste reminiscent of the breadcrusts that didn’t quite make it down the sink drain while you were washing the breakfast dishes. The marshmallow texture is all wrong. Instead of the light foaminess of campfire marshmallows, or the sugary crisp of Lucky Charms ‘marhsmallows’, ¡Sponch! marshmallows are dense, rubbery, and spongy (sponchy?). ¡Sponch! is simply too much. Too many different flavors, too many textures, too many exclamation marks. And the cake is about 30% too large. Like pizza and ice cream, great flavors don’t neccesarily taste great together.

All of this leads us to an interesting question: “Why, if ¡Sponch! is so unappetizing, does it continue to be produced, sold, and, judging by internet research, widely popular? ” I believe there are 4 possible explanations.

Incidental: The ¡Sponch! we tried was a bad sample. It had sat on the shelf too long and was manhandled in delivery Personal: Most people find ¡Sponch! delicious. My research colleaques and I have peculiar tastes and are overly picky. Cultural: As a Mexican product, ¡Sponch! is designed for Hispanic cutural tastes, and is considered to be quite tasty in that culture. Much like menudo, we have diffiulty appreciating ¡Sponch! with our Anglo-Saxon Americans palettes. Actual: ¡Sponch! is truly unappetizing, and most people agree. Like Spam and Twinkies, the product is desired purely out of tradition, novelty, nostalgia, and morbid curiosity.

And then there’s the name. “¡Sponch!” almost certainly sounds less bizarre in Spanish. It instantly reminded me of “SBlounskched!”, a fictional candy bar featured in this episode of a popular web cartoon.

Interestingly, S.P.O.N.C.H. is an acronym used by biochemists to refer to the key elements that comprise living organisms: Sulphur, Phosporus, Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, and Hydrogen. Perhaps these are also the key components of ¡Sponch!. For one, I don’t think the name accurately describes the experience of eating the product. I suggest “Spliidge…”

Note the lack of exclamation marks.

Continuing Research: Investigation of the Marinela and Bimbo websites and company literature. I will return soon with more information on this peculiar discovery.

Food for Thought: When used in packaging, what images and experiences does the color pink conjure? How important is the role of texture (as opposed to flavor) in your enjoyment of food? Which foods or flavors in your culture must seem bizarre to to others?

Note: Photo credits are due to the Photobucket account of ‘WendySue1000’ and the Flickr accounts of ‘justjason’ and ‘MMMMichelle’. Of course, I documented the experience with my own photographs, but misplaced my camera before they could be uploaded. Whoever you guys are, thanks for the photos, and please don’t yell at me for using them.