Rating: ©©©©-1/4 chips (lip-smacking)
Comments:
Red Chili is the fourth, and final, flavor from Kettle Brand’s Limited Batch re-release of classic flavors for their 30 Year Anniversary. Chip Review first reviewed the super unique and tasty Cheddar Beer flavored potato chips. Next, we decided to try the fantastic Salsa with Mesquite flavored potato chips, and we most certainly were not disappointed. Kettle Brand impressed us once more with their tangy and colorful Jalapeno Jack flavored potato chips.
The back of the Red Chili bag had a cute story that Kettle Brand wanted to mention to us regarding an employee with a long lasting obsession for a discontinued flavor of the past: “See, Jimmy’s obsessed with one of our old flavors. So much so, he still brings it up more than 20 years after the flavor was discontinued. Every. Single. Day. Not that it’s annoying or anything. So as a gift to Jimmy, we’re bringing back our Red Chili Potato Chips.” Jimmy sounds like he could hang with our crew.
Also, according to Kettle Brand’s marketing release, Red Chili flavor was “Introduced in 1982 after Unsalted and Lightly Salted…”, did we read that correctly? In other words, Red Chili is the first flavored chip ever introduced by Kettle Brand – how very cool is that?!?! And last tid bit of info, Red Chili flavor was described by Kettle Brand as “…the taste of Sriracha sauce combined with a vinegar tang and Cayenne pepper for a searing red chili heat.” You had us at Sriracha….
Whoa!! That’s quite the introduction for one bag of chips huh? Well, these aren’t just any other chips….these are the final flavor of the Kettle Brand quintessential-anniversary-re-release-quartet. And here at Chip Review we actually had the highest hopes for this flavor, but honestly, these happen to be our least favorite among the quartet…..That being said, don’t think for one second that these are bad chips by any means. We are still giving them a 4-1/4 chip / lip-smacking rating, and these would be considered better than most chips on the market, it’s just that we really thought these could be the next 5 chip / A-list rated chips, and we hold Kettle Brand to our highest chip standards. Well, as it turns out, all of the chips were delicious in their own right, but our favorites ended being the Salsa with Mesquite flavored ones.
On to the actual product. As is the case with all of Kettle Brand’s chips, the potato chips themselves are simply amazing. They are on the thicker side, sporting a great potato flavor, with a solid crunch. In our opinion, no other potato chips out there are able to execute the flavor/potato integration as well as Kettle Brand. It is like they are one and the same. Like the flavor was cooked into the chips, forming a harmonious chip balance.
Great cayenne chili pepper flavor, but by Chip Review’s standards, not very spicy….and, most definitely not “searing”. We can admit that after a couple of handfuls we did experience the faintest amount of warmth in our mouths, and on the back of our throats. In fact, the flavor combination on these chips bore some similarity to a couple of different flavors. One, they tasted like buffalo wing flavored chips, just with a lot more garlic, and not quite the normal vinegar potency! And two, they reminded us of Sweet Chili flavored chips, minus the boat load of sugar!! The Red Chili flavor was good, and you wouldn’t have to twist our arms to eat them again, but they weren’t earth shatteringly extraordinary by any means.
We mentioned this before, but we feel it necessary to say it again. How awesome does the bag above look? As far as we’re concerned, these Limited Batch chips will definitely be walking away with this year’s award for best designed bags. However, it is also worth mentioning that Kettle Brand’s bags are not only visually appealing but the feel of them is unlike any other bags that we know of on the market today. Whatever material these bags are constructed from seems of a much higher quality than the rest of the industry. We’re not sure if their design is for aesthetic reasons, or serves a more rational (fresh chips, or recycled materials…) purpose, but either way, we are huge fans!!
If you’re looking for another great perspective on these chips check out Junk Food Guy’s take.
As always we would love to hear what you think. Let us know.
Chips provided to Chip Review by Kettle Brand for review
Chip Ratings Scale:
(1/4 increments)
© – return to sender
©© – tolerable
©©© – notable
©©©© – lip-smacking
©©©©© – “A” list
Chip Review 