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Cactus Canyon

Snack Bar

by Mark Gottlieb
Answer: M AND M

Each of this puzzle’s 17 pictures contains 3-6 name brand snack foods, breakfast foods, and/or energy bars.

The “bland name” identifying each amalgam is made of letters from those foods’ logos as an aid to identifying the foods or as confirmation that you’ve got the right ones. Most foods are identifiable by shape, such as Pringles and Annie’s Bunny Grahams, but some require the logo to be uniquely identified, such as Kettle Chips or Bigs Sunflower Seeds (because all sunflower seeds look exactly the same).

The foods pictured are the blandest versions available. As clued by the puzzle’s flavor text (“insert flavor text”) and the “bland names” on the pictures, solvers are looking for flavors. The group of foods in each picture all come in the same flavor or variety. The solver’s task is thus to identify the foods, then identify the flavor they share.

While constructing the puzzle, I took words seriously but I let the packaging lead me. For example, “Cinnamon Sugar” is, sadly, a different flavor than “Cinnamon & Sugar,” so there weren’t enough good examples to be able to use either one. Similarly, “Cheddar” is different than “White Cheddar.” However, although the Oreo flavor is technically “Mint Creme,” the word “Mint” appears inordinately bigger than the word “Creme” on the package, so this is reasonably considered as just “Mint.” BarkThins do a similar thing; they have a variety whose full name is “Dark Chocolate Almond with Sea Salt,” but “Almond” alone appears in a bold color swipe.

In picture order, and then in logo order, the foods are:

AUSTERE
Lay’s Poppables
Quaker Rice Cakes
Harvest Snaps
Cheez-It
Smartfood
PopCorners
Shared flavor: WHITE CHEDDAR

BLECH
Lay’s Poppables
Kettle Chips
PopCorners
Popchips
Shared flavor: SEA SALT

BORING
Pirate’s Booty
Corn Nuts
David Sunflower Seeds
Wheat Thins
Pringles
Shared flavor: RANCH

CHEAP
Quaker Chewy
Goldfish Grahams
Quest Bar
Luna Bar
Pop-Tarts
Shared flavor: S’MORES

CLEAR
Clif Bar
Oreo
Larabar
Shared flavor: CARROT CAKE

DIM
Goldfish
BarkThins
M&Ms
Shared flavor: PRETZEL

EMPTY
Oreo
M&Ms
Pop-Tarts
Ritz Bits
Nature Valley
Shared flavor: PEANUT BUTTER

MEEK
M&Ms
Hershey’s Kisses
Snickers
BarkThins
Shared flavor: ALMOND

MODEST
M&Ms
Oreo
Ghirardelli Squares
Mentos
BarkThins
Shared flavor: MINT

MUNDANE
M&Ms
Crunch 'n' Munch
Ghirardelli Squares
Quaker Rice Crisps
Seneca Apple Chips
Hershey’s Kisses
Shared flavor: CARAMEL

PALLID
Popchips
Quaker Rice Crisps
Pringles
Lay’s
David Sunflower Seeds
Shared flavor: SOUR CREAM & ONION

RANK
Oreo
Annie’s Bunny Grahams
Rice Krispies Treats
Shared flavor: BIRTHDAY CAKE

SEVERE
Lay’s
Quaker Rice Cakes
Harvest Snaps
Fritos
Pringles
Shared flavor: LIGHTLY SALTED

SIGH
Pretzel Crisps
Bigs Sunflower Seeds
Cheez-It
Shared flavor: BUFFALO WING

STALE
Annie’s Bunny Grahams
Pop-Tarts
Clif Bar
Quaker Chewy
Shared flavor: CHOCOLATE CHIP

TAME
Mentos
Seneca Apple Chips
Teddy Grahams
Life
Shared flavor: CINNAMON

UGH
Quaker Rice Crisps
Rold Gold Tiny Twists
Goldfish
Shared flavor: CHEDDAR

The flavor lengths listed under the grid help confirm when solvers have the right set. These numbers also confirm that the ampersand in SOUR CREAM & ONION must be converted to the word “AND” for entry into the grid, since there is a 17 enumeration, but not a 15.

The grid can be uniquely filled by using the two given constraints.

Since the longest entry is 17 letters, two entries must appear in each of columns 9 and 15. One and only one entry must thus appear in each other row and column containing any shaded squares to be able to place a full set of 17 entries.

Since there’s only one entry in row 7, it must be at least 11 letters long. Similarly, the entry in row 12 must be at least 10 letters long. The top entry in column 15 has to be short enough that it doesn’t intersect the entry in row 12. This helps narrow the search space. The complete grid looks like this:

C S
A E
B I R T H D A Y C A K E
A S P
M A R
E L E
L I G H T L Y S A L T E D
Z R
S E A
O A L M O N D
U W C
R C H O C O L A T E C H I P
C I I
R T N B
E P E A N U T B U T T E R
C H E D D A R C A F
M H M F
S A E O A
M I N T D N L
O D D O
C A R R O T C A K E W
E N R I
S I N
O G
N

The numbered squares spell the message ANY BLUE ITEM IN A PIC. Out of all the pictures, the only blue items were M&Ms. The final answer length listed under the grid is 5, the clue is singular, and the SOUR CREAM & ONION entry in the grid indicates that the ampersand should be converted into the word “AND.” The answer is M AND M.