RIO DE JANEIRO — Ask Milton Ponce to describe the flavor of the round, little, baked snack that he has been producing for more than 50 years, and he sounds a bit stumped.
“Crunchy, light,” he says through an interpreter.
Hmm. Those are not flavors.
“It doesn’t have preservatives,” he says, trying again. “It doesn’t have dye; it doesn’t have trans fat.”
O.K.
“You can’t stop eating them,” he went on, brightening as though he had found an answer. “You eat one, and you keep eating.”
So it tastes like. ...
“After 50 years of making it, I can’t say what it tastes like,” he said.