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. 

Oishi Ribbed Cracklings in Old Fashioned Salf & Vinegar

Dante and I went exploring at an Asian grocery store on Sunset Boulevard called Grocery Warehouse. We combed the aisles and I came across several items that I wanted to try including shredded papaya, Seasoning (that's what the sauce is called!) and this here bag of chips. I was intrigued by the "old fashioned salt & vinegar," but I was sold when I read that "'Beer Match' series of snacks are cut in big, big bite-size pieces. Flavors were selected specifically for a beer drinker's [sic] enjoyment!" Chips flavored and shaped for beer drinkers? I've got to try those!

When you open the bag you get a whiff of typical salt & vinegar smell, but these are not like any
S&V chips I've ever seen or tasted. First of all, these are not potato chips. They are starch chips made from wheat, tapioca starch, corn starch, oil and flavoring. They have the same texture as Shrimp Chips and even the same background fishiness.

The first taste...There is a spicy flavor as if there's some pepper in the mix, which there very well might be since listed "spices" as an ingredient. I feel like the tang is supposed to be the tang of vinegar, but the flavor chemists didn't quite hit the nail on the head. So instead of vinegary flavor, its vine-peppery!
There is not an unpleasant aftertaste, but the spicy flavor leaves a light tingly sensation in your mouth for a while. Also, after having ate a quarter of the bag, I feel like I have a slight balloon head going on right now. I'm not dizzy, just a little floaty. I'm going to blame that specifically on the MSG without any evidence or facts to back me up. Darn skippy!

I kinda like them because the flavor is different and as a potato chip taster, it is so pleasant to taste something out-of-the-ordinary. But I will never eat them again, because I felt like I dropped a sample size LSD dose after eating them. Chips aren't supposed to give you balloon head. And finally, I try to avoid MSG and artificial pork flavoring as much as one potato chip eater can. A solid Two Potato for Oishi's Ribbed Cracklings.

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.

Zapp's New Orleans Style Kettle Voodoo Potato Chips

Perusing through Cost Plus World Market, I found a bag of chips I recognized from my Austin trips a couple of years ago. For two years in a row, I visited a friend in Austin, and as I am prone to do, I would go the store and pick up bags of potato chips that looked yummy and interesting. I think I may have bought and tasted these chips then, but I couldn’t remember whether I liked them or not. So, flash back to the aisle in World Market, I decided to grab a bag: What the heck!? Then, I discovered that there were two additional Louisiana-inspired flavors, so I bought all three bags.

Open bag. Select a chip. Initial crunch followed by some chewing. I usually follow that up with a double-chip taste just so I can get a good sense of the flavor, but that wasn’t necessary with these chips. They were potently flavored! Once you open the bag you are assaulted by the salty, tangy smell. Then the first bite was so salty that I felt my tongue tingle and wither like a snail when you sprinkle salt on it (Don’t try that at home. It’s a mean thing to do.) . Man! And don’t get me wrong the flavor was good: Slightly sweet, tangy and salty or how about this: Seasoned rice vinegar with seasoned salt. But it was just too strong. They could have cut it down 50% and had a nice flavorful, crisp chip. I will admit that a day or two after opening the bag, the chips were easier to eat. Maybe they just needed to air out a bit? But they were still really strong. These get 2 out of 4 potatoes.