2022 Snack Round Up

I have to make room on my phone, so I’m going through and finding photos, voice memos and notes about snack tastings that I have left incomplete. Here’s a roundup of stuff from 2022…

March 8 Hariboo Smurfs: Not worth the sugar.

March 15 Smartfood Cinnamon Sugar Cupcake flavored popcorn: These were delicious, but of course, limited editions with a scary amount of ingredients. After I finished the bag, I became a bit obsessed with sweet-salty-cinammony pocorn. So, I tried a couple of different brands of kettle corn with one addition: I sprinkled cinnamon on them. It’s a delicious combination. Boom Chicka Pop Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn worked the best.

July 8 Hippeas Organic Chickpea Puffs Bohemian BBQ flavor: Similar to the texture of a Funion with an easy crunchy and yummy BBQ flavor. I don’t taste chickpea flour base. I wasn't moved enough to consider buying any of these in the future.

July 28 Trader Joe’s Carolina Gold Style BBQ Flavored Ridge Cut Potato Chips – Upon bag opening, they appear very yellow - there must be a lot of turmeric. Upon first bite, you get mustard and then vinegar and then a little spicy kick… maybe Worcestershire sauce. The flavor is good, but the texture is too hard – feels like ridge cut plus kettle cooked. This flavor would be good on a regular smooth cut fried crisp chip and would be the perfect accompaniment to a hot dog.

August 

Lay’s Limited Time Flavor Funyuns Onion Flavored Wavy Potato Chips
Lay’s Limited Time Flavor Frito’s Chili Cheese Flavored Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

December Lay’s Adobadas Flavored Potato Chips, official USA snack of the FIFA World Cup 2022

Nissan Cup Noodles and Lays Cucumber Flavored Potato Chips

Nissan Cup Noodles Potato Chips Black Pepper Crab Flavor. It took me a minute looking at the bag to figure out these were chips. It just looks like they repackaged cup noodles in a bag instead of a Styrofoam cup. That being said, they were spicy, seafoody and delicious, but there was no noodle flavor and it wasn’t distinctly crabby.

 Lays Cucumber Flavored Potato Chips are disturbingly accurate. I bit into the chip, chewed and was immediately hit with the flavor of a cucumber. It’s very clear and strong. Then the flavor relaxes to a smooth, subtle, and savory indistinguishable carb. Then I got a sense of coolness in my mouth. And that was disturbing. Chips are crunchy, savory, spicy, sweet, salty. But I’ve never had a chip that made my mouth feel hot or cold. Something’s wrong with that and I want no part of it. 

Potato Chips: Dirty Brand Buffalo Bleu

I picked these up while in Buffalo, NY and ate them with my parents in the parking lot of The Buffalo History Museum. Yes! I live for puns! They were tangy and slightly spicy in a roasted red pepper kind of way. I didn't exactly taste Buffalo sauce, but thick, sour creaminess of bleu cheese was recognizable. I would eat these, again, when visiting Buffalo! Tasted 06/20/2019 

They get an okay B

PC&B Summer 2021 Collage

Boom Chicka Pop Salted Maple Flavored Kettle Corn- Delicious! Maple goes perfectly with traditional kettle corn. Definitely a dessert. Tasted this at my parents' place.

Palma Louca- A good, light pilsner from Brazil. Cafe Brasil. 

Tierra Madre- Started taking home beer samplers from Trader Joe's and this was a good, light beer find. Brewed in California. 

Doritos Late Night Oven Roasted Chicken- One of Dorito's flavors from Korea. I liked them enough, but I wouldn't want to eat the whole bag in one sitting. Brought to work by a co-worker. 
 

Lay's Doritos Cool Ranch Flavored Potato Chips

A co-worker brought a bag of these to the break room table...

It was as if Lay's put the Cool Ranch flavor onto a potato chip but didn’t attempt to duplicate the Dorito flavor. I happened to have a snack sized bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and I decided to taste them side by side. Of course, the Doritos won. Doritos have a smoky corn flavor (being corn chips), with a hint of spiciness that is a satisfying flavor pairing with cool ranch. The potato chips are okay with cool ranch, but I have a problem with Lay's calling these Doritos flavored. They're just decent, cool ranch flavored chips. 

These get two potatoes out of four. I could eat them again, but they are not something I'd buy.

Lay's Chestnut Flavored Potato Chips

 A co-worker brought these to the break room table...

These are Lay's from China! And they're delicious. The chestnut flavor is more sweet than salty or savory. But the sweet, slightly savory flavor matches nicely with the crispness of the Lay's. I don't know why it works, but it does. That being said, Its not a flavor that matches with food well, in my opinion, so these chips are a great novelty, but I wouldn't buy them as a snack chip. 

I give these three potato out of four.

Lay's Wavy Jerk Chicken Flavored Potato Chips

This is one of the three limited edition flavors Lay's released in summer 2021.

Lay's did a great job capturing the jerk flavor onto these chips. I remember the chicken flavor, a clear jerk blend and more than a hint, but not enough to blow your roof off amount of heat.  They were so delicious. I know because I finished the bag even though I was struggling with leaving a few chips so that I could write a detailed review and take a photo or two. Now, I'm left with this spare review and a lack of detail. I bought this bag along with the BLT flavor. I never found the third flavor of the Lay's summer releases: Chile Mango flavored chips, holla when you see me!

Wavy Jerk Chicken flavored chips get four potatoes out of four. 

Lay's Summer BLT Flavored Potato Chips

These are one of three flavors Lay's released for summer 2021. 

Summer BLT chips have a smoky, salty, clearly bacon flavor, which, is the first flavor hit,  but then a muted, earthy tomato sneaks up. The more you tongue ruminates, it will get a light onion flavor along with something vegetal. It’s a smooth combination that is quite delicious and pairs well with so many entrees. So far my it is my favorite new chip since Lay's Electric Lime. Please add this to your regular roster Lay's!

Four potatoes out of four. They’re a hit! 

Turkey & Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips

During Thanksgiving, Trader Joe's provided its loving customers with a special treat: Turkey and Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips: "All the flavors of Thanksgiving in each potato chip." I get very excited at the prospect of entree flavored chips such as 7-11's Big Bite Hot Dog Potato Chips or Lay's Classic BLT, but this bag of chips promised me the flavors of a Thanksgiving dinner! Move over Willy Wonka!

I brought these to a Friendsgiving potluck for my food-loving friends to taste with me and although no one thought they were awful, I was only one having a hard time eating just one. I closed the bag so I would have room to enjoy all the amazing food my friends made, but took the chips home, where I ate them by myself over the next few days, along with leftovers.
The back of the bag says "first you taste the turkey, then comes the stuffing, and if you close your eyes, you'll swear you can taste the creamy gravy, too."  My experience was slightly different. There is a distinct flavor of poultry, sage, celery and onion. They taste like I took a forkful of turkey and stuffing and popped it right into my mouth. No gravy, but I also didn't close my eyes while tasting them! As far as mouthfeel goes, they are a light kettle-style chip and therefore did not tear up my mouth and they also did not leave an oily feel nor a bad aftertaste.

Trader Joe's has successfully bagged the "traditional American Thanksgiving meal," although, and I am grateful, they did not try to squeeze dessert in on this chip!
Flavor: accurate
Texture: kettle style
Rating: Three Potato. I can't eat these all the time, but they're a great treat and worth buying one bag of during the holiday season.

P.S.
Two Thanksgivings ago, I found Boulder Canyon Brand's Turkey and Gravy and Pumpkin Pie Kettle Cooked Potato Chips (two separate chips). As you can see on the left, there was a time period I was not posting any blogs and I wasn't really doing a good job at chip tasting, either. I let those chips expire in my snack cabinet and I'm ashamed of wasting food, and more importantly of wasting possibly delicious chips. I'll keep an eye out for Boulder Canyon for next holiday season.

East Coasting 2013 Part V... Utz Potato Chip Factory!

May 2013

This was kind of a dream come true. I'm into snacks, hence this blog, and I've always wanted to go to a food factory. So when I found out the plant for my favorite chips was not very far from where I was staying in PA I  knew I had the perfect opportunity. 

The Utz Tour Gallery is completely self-guided. You get a history of the company and then you get to walk down a corridor with windows to view the factory and the different stages of production. Fascinating! Yes, it is old and the decor outdated, but that is so secondary to the awesomeness of seeing Utz being made. 

After you're done watching how the chips are made, you drive to the secondary location for the Utz Factory Outlet Store, where you can dance around a room full of every potato chip flavor and Utz product known to man. You can leave with a car full of Utz products, or you can have them shipped to you! They also had every flavor from Zapp's and Dirty Brand potato chips. I highly recommend these places for every potato chip fan.

Catching up...East Coasting 2013 Part II

The above are photos of random chip experiences from my East Coast trip in 2013.

• The chip aisle at Walmart in Chambersburg, PA. 
• Middleswarth Potato Chips. 
• Beet chips  and a hibiscus beverage from the Chalsty's Cafe in the Museum of the City of New York.
• Wise All Natural Potato Chips: Delicious! Plain crisps and lightly salted but with a potato-y aftertaste which is appropriate for potato chips. There's a little bit of an oily feel, but again, that's what is expected from a potato chip. These are great just potato- potato chips. (05/26/2013)
• Grandma Utz' Handcooked Potato Chips: I missed Utz so the first single serving bag I came across I bought. I actually almost bought all the varieties they had available, but sensibility won over and I ended up with Grandma Utz's Handcooked,  original Utz, and BBQ flavored. At the commissary they were only 27 cents. So I was trying to remember and I thought that I really liked the hand cooked, but my taste buds must've changed because the bag I just ate wasn't pleasant. They left an odd aftertaste like they used a different oil or something. But I did like the texture. They felt like they were in the middle between the hard crunch of kettle-cooked and the light crispy of regular-cooked. (05/26/2013)

Calbee Seaweed & Salt Flavored Potato Chips

Tonight I opened my Chip Chest and pulled out this bag of Calbee brand Seaweed & Salt flavored potato chips. I'm pretty sure I bought these a few months ago at Assi Supermarket, a Korean grocery store.
Yum! These are really delicious, almost like putting a sheet of those seaweed snacks together with a regular potato chip and then CRUNCH! I love how well the chips capture the seaweed flavor and I love that its a mild flavor, meaning the chips would go well with many other food pairings because they're not too strong and overpowering. I thought the chip itself had a nice, crispy crunch to it, but it was a bit on the greasy side. Surprisingly, there was no unpleasant aftertaste or mouthfeel. Even though they have MSG listed in the ingredients, I see myself buying these again, or, at the very least, trying to make my own seaweed flavored chips.  They get four potatoes!

Herr's Pizza Flavored Potato Chips

This video was a long time in the making and I'm really happy with it. My parents, the two other crazy people you'll hear in this recording, are the ones who got me into tasting stuff. They always have new snack products around the kitchen to try and we always experiment when we go out to eat or to events. Both of them are great with words and fantastic at storytelling, so I thought they'd make excellent potato chip testers. This slideshow proves that I am correct, again!

                                                                                                 

Potato Chip Pop-Up Visit: A Slideshow

Here's a slideshow of mine and Dante's visit to the Potato Chip Pop-Up at Iam8bit Gallery, 2147 W. Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90026. We went on December 21, 2012. Enjoy!

Last Night the Music Killed My Taste Test

This evening, Dante and I stopped at Mendocino Farms for dinner before I dropped him off at work for the graveyard shift. They have really interesting and delicious sandwiches there, if you've never gone, I highly recommend ordering a familiar sounding sandwich because more than likely, there will be some ingredient that gives you a little pleasant kick in the tongue, as has been my experience. And their spicy dijon potato salad is truly divine.

Mendocino Farms also has baskets full of chip varieties you just don't find too many other places if at all. Well, Dante and I got our sanwiches, sides and chips and sat down to enjoy them. We were going to start by recording a chip tasting of the Sour Cream N Chive and Barbeque flavors of Route 11 Potato Chips, but almost right before we started, this mind-scrambling music started playing overhead and it totally threw me off my chip-tasting-game. My crazy response to the music influenced Dante and there we have the perfect storm of bad taste tests. It is funny nonetheless. Enjoy.

Oh, the music festival I refer to is the Moogfest, and if you go to the Live In Concert from All Songs Considered site, you will see some Moogfest concerts available so you can experience them for yourself. That's just not my kind of music.

Drake's Hefeweizen at Elevation 66 Brewing Company

Norm and Cliff welcomed me.

I went up to the bay area for family event and thought it was the perfect time to hang out with my friend, Aram, who was talking about leaving the country for a few months, if not longer. First thing we did was to meet up at his favorite bar, Elevation 66, a modern looking joint, with half its seating at the bar, and beer tanks behind the bartender. Aram knew almost all of the brewpub's crew, but also a lot of the customers walking in, out and sitting around us. It was like an episode of Cheers and I was guest starring! Ha!

Bad picture. Good beer.

Elevation 66 obviously has their own house brews, but I ended up with a glass of Drake's Hefeweizen, one of the bar's guest beers. And I couldn't have been happier. Drake's had a really beautiful, almost floral mulling spice flavor. It was flat like all hefs. And didn't leave my mouth with any unpleasantness.
I was pretty hungry when I got there, and so along with the beer, I ordered cod and crab cake sliders, a side of chips and housemade pickles. It was like a festival of things I love!

Fries, sliders, chips, pickles and aioli. 

As far as the seafood sliders, I wish they would have had a little more seasoning, but I wonder if the food is prepared with the idea that you'll be drinking beer with it. In that case, it was perfectly seasoned not to throw one's tongue off of the beer's flavor. Plus, the sliders enlivened when a little curry aioli was smeared on them. The pickles couldn't have made me happier. They're the perfect accompaniment to beer and a great palate resetter. The chips were great for pub chips. They're not what I'll be coming back to this place for, but I will order them again....with the pickles! Aram ordered french fries, which were yummy, too.

This place is great. I love the care and attention they pay to everything they serve. The people were pretty cool, too. Thanks, Aram!

Deep River Snacks Rosemary & Olive Oil Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

Sometimes I have no business being in a store. Sometimes I'm just bored and want to shop. Sometimes I'm just on a snack hunt. That's what happened one work day. On my lunch break I walked to Walgreens for no particular reason and I found these chips on a side-of-the-aisle display. They had the Rosemary & Oil flavor as well as Zesty Jalepeño, but I'm not a big jalepeño person, and who can pass up the mystery of rosemary flavored potato chips? Not I, said the fly!
So I walked back to work, passed the day, went home and into my secret chip storage (a liquor store black bag hidden behind my dining room table) the Rosemary & Oil chips went. That was probably over a month ago. I'm actually quite surprised that I was able to keep these chips for so long. I guess my secret chip storage is doing a great job!

Upon first opening the bag you are introduced to a lovely fragrance of rosemary and kettle cooked chips. Most people don't know, but rosemary is a cousin to the pine tree. Its an evergreen and is super fragrant both fresh and dry. I know that it is often used to season meats and roasted potatoes, but I was doubtful, yet intrigued to taste how it paired with potato chips.

The mystery of rosemary flavored chips is solved! They are quite toothsome! The rosemary flavor is pronounced but not overbearing. The salt perfectly compliments... no, enhances that amazing evergreen taste. They're beautifully chips. These are definitely a Four Potato.

I ate these with a yummy turkey and balsamic mustard wrap (home made). Rosemary & Oil chips are for food pairing. They are not just for snacking by themselves so don't sit back, crack open a bag and catch the latest episode of Hard Knocks Miami Dophins. Don't do that. Sit down with a good sandwich and enjoy these chips. From a BLT to a French dip I think these will go so well!
And, oh! The bag size is perfect. It doesn't come in those mini bags they put in children's lunch boxes. They're not Grab Bag size, which I think are too big. They're a great Goldilocks in between. Perfect for tasting, perfect for sandwich pairing, even though the Nutrition Facts says it holds two servings.
Rosemarenjoy!

Ruffles Ultimate Sweet & Smokin' BBQ

Dante, on his tour of liquor stores, found another bag of experimental chips. Ruffles seemed to have come up with a line of what they're calling "Hardcore Flavors." The back of the bag says: "You're hunger's about to get blown up by a spicy, sweet and smoky taste bomb. Boom."

I was trying to wait for Dante and I to get together one day to taste them, but I gave in to peer pressure (and Dante's insistence) to open a bag. Mr. Brown and I tasted them today:

Mr. Brown: The texture is phenomenal because usually when you get barbeque flavored chips they're flat chip but this time its Ruffles so its a nice change. I'd like the flavoring to be a little on the sweeter side especially since its the first word in the flavor title and they could be less spicy. The flavor is good because it tastes like its cooked into the chip and not just dusted on top. I give them a 3.75 out of 4. By the way, the caption on the front of the bag says: "Chip enlarged to show texture." Did they think we were going to really believe that they were really that big?

Me: Someone must've sued them for misrepresentation! I thought they were too spicy. I agree with you, the "Smokin" took over the"Sweet." I thought the Ruffles texture was distracting. With that much flavor, I'd much rather have a flat chip, but then again, I really like flat chips. These kind of reminded me of the Sweet Southern Heat Barbeque, but I liked those better. These get 2 out of 4 potatoes.

Boulder Canyon Red Wine Vinegar Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

I have to admit, this was my second bag of chips this week. I had to break down and rip open a bag when I was dealing with some frustration. Yes. Chips sometimes help me deal with life. C'mon! You can't have just figured that out! I have a blog dedicated to snacking...duh? So you've moved on and are wondering what was my first bag of chips? Well, friends, I stuck to my old, reliable and delicious stand-by: Lay's Barbeque. They never let me down.

So, back to potato chip tasting. This week, while at Big Lots with Dante I came across this here bag of Boulder Canyon Red Wine Vinegar Kettle Cooked Potato Chips. Red wine vinegar? Now that's different. I picked those up and headed straight for the register with an armful of other items.
After the two-chip taste I found the flavor to be nice. There was a detectable difference from other vinegar flavored chips: These were sweeter, less acidy and the flavor was weak in comparison. As far as texture, these did not crunch like your normal kettle style chips. In fact, I wouldn't even have thought these were kettle style if it wasn't for the bag telling me so. They appear, and crunch like a slightly thicker cut of a regular potato chip.

Dante found the flavor pleasant and thought the wine really came through, but described them as a Goldilocks bag: One chip has too little flavor, another has too much flavor and then some have just the right amount of flavor.

Mr. Brown says "If I didn't read the label I would have thought these were BBQ flavored chips." An interesting take, and after I tasted them again, I totally see where you can get BBQ from, and I 'm sure it has something to do with the flavor intensity level. These get 2 out of 4 potatoes.

Margarita Chips, Lay's Brand in Colombia

Frito-Lay (owned by PepsiCo) has many labels around the world. Their label in Colombia is Margarita and at the time I was in Colombia, they were having a flavor contest for consumers to vote try these limited edition chips and choose which one will become a new Margarita flavor.

Hamburguesa flavored actually tasted like a hamburger. When I crunched on two or three chips at one time, I got distinct flavors of a grilled patty, pickles and tomatoes, maybe even mustard. I'm always amazed at chips that are able to accomplish that feat. I enjoyed these.

Pollo (Chicken) flavored chips unfortunately tasted and smelled like a Vienna sausage. There was no sense of chicken in there at all. That bag was never completely consumed, although I kept trying a chip here and there for a little while, just in case the chips needed to breath. This flavor was not apart of the flavor contest. It was already a regular flavor in Margarita's repertoire. Ugh.

Costillitas flavored chips were basically barbeque flavored. In fact, Ruffles was circulating Smokehouse Style BBQ flavored chips in limited quantities around Los Angeles. The Costillitas and the Smokehouse Style were virtually identical in flavor. The difference was one was a smooth Lay's style and the other was the crinkled Ruffle's style. They were good, but not distinct enough to warrant searching out Costillitas over any other BBQ flavored chip.

Onduladas con Sabor Tomate flavored chips tasted like potato chips with ketchup. It was a very simple flavor despite the length of their title. I did enjoy them.