Xooro Churro

July 14, 2008

This photo of a crazy looking churro and the tube it came in was found on flickr. It’s called the “Mississippi” and it costs a mighty $4. It’s a peanut butter filled churro covered with chocolate and peanuts. The photographer calls the tubes “wasteful” and while I appreciate good package design, I have to agree… one stinkin’ churro for that whole cardboard tube with plastic ends? I mean, do they expect you to re-use it? It looks like the churro in this photo melted a bit - I doubt someone would spend the time cleaning out the melted chocolate to re-use the tube.

The design of the website wasn’t very well thought out either. Whenever I write about a chocolate peanut butter treat, I’m sure to check out the company’s website to find more info about the product. But the Xooro website is seriously useless. All it shows is floating pictures of the churros, which identifies the names of the churros but doesn’t elaborate on the flavors or ingredients. And the photos don’t even look good because as they go spinning around in their circle they get all funny and pixelated. Oh, useless flash websites. When will people learn?

This is where I have to remind myself that this is a food blog, not a design blog. It seems unfair to be so downtrodden about a product merely based on the faults of it’s marketing scheme. What we’re really here for is the taste. Since I haven’t tried it, I have to go by the photographer’s opinion for now. He says, “The churro was okay. I like cinnamon a lot, so I really like regular churros. I don’t like chocolate so much. My first two choices were the Turkish Hazelnut and the Macadamia but they were out of those two, so I settled on the Mississippi and the Creme Brulee.”

Well the photographer doesn’t sound totally enthused, but as a non-chocolate lover, it makes sense that he wouldn’t be. So let’s ask someone else. What does Yelp* say?

“They should’ve spent more time concentrating on the taste of the product instead of the packaging!” - Esther Y.

“Xooro (noun) - a day old, slender, stale pastry resembling a turd” - Puno i.

“I Tried them yesterday. And I have only one word to describe Xooro. Amazing!” - John J.

There are 8 reviews total ranging all across the board from happy and satisfied to grossed out and bitter about spending $4. Not very conclusive, so I guess you should try them and decide for yourself at Xooro in Santa Monica, California.

*UPDATE: I was recently notified of an in depth review of Xooro from a churro lover and former resident of Spain. This might be a more trustworthy review of the Xooro experience than some of the insulting one-liners from Yelp. Check it out at Happy Go Marni.