Rating: ©©©©-1/4 chips (notable)
Small time pickle company, turned big time pickle company, who then turned potato chip company, huh!?! Well, if McClure’s can crank out chips that are this lip-smacking, then it works for us!
We have been fans of McClure’s pickles for quite a while now (probably ever since Ted Allen mentioned them on the Food Network), and it was over a year ago that we reviewed McClure’s other two potato chip flavors – Spicy Pickle and Garlic Dill Pickle. Both of those potato chips came in crinkle cut form, and these new ones are not only NOT crinkle cut, but also now kettle cooked. Changing things up are we McClure’s?!
Oddly enough, as we passed around this ruby red bag of crunchy kettle cooked chips at Chip Review, not a single one of our tasters actually claimed to be fans of the classic bloody mary beverage. Obviously, we understand that we are likely in the minority here, who doesn’t love the zippy, tomato-ful, brunch and hang-over beverage champion?! Well, apparently Chip Review doesn’t!! Luckily, we’ve tried nearly a handful of Bloody Mary flavored chips along the way, and as a whole, have rated them all rather favorably.
If real bloody mary’s tasted as fantastic as these chips do, maybe we would actually be admirers!! We were very surprised to like the seasoning as much as we did. In the end, we’re pretty sure that McClure’s may have just combined a lot of the major ingredients from the two other flavors. First, comes the tongue tingling spicy acidic burn. Not to be confused with the traditional spicy chile burn that envelops the entire mouth, and lingers for quite some time. No, the acidic burn attacks the throat sort of harshly, but then quickly subdues to a moderate burn in the mouth, and gently coaxes you to want more! The other major flavor component here is garlic. So, you can see what we were saying about combining their two other flavors – spicy and garlic. Well, the flavor combo really works when sprinkled on some crunchy and salty kettle cooked potato chips!
So, these are delicious, but do they necessarily taste like real bloody mary’s to us?? Nope, not at all. They have that tangy acidic sour aspect, and certainly deliver the heat, but we could not detect any real tomato flavor. Which, as we recall, is the predominant ingredient in the bloody mary, correct? Or, has it been too long since any of us tried one?? Nope, we just looked it up, we were right, bloody mary’s contain tomato juice. We do see that both tomato and paprika are listed among the ingredients, but it seems like they were both there more to add color, than to add flavor. Maybe, just maybe, we could detect a small amount of sweet and tangy tomato powder from behind the powerful garlic and heat, but it certainly would not have been enough for us to call these blood mary flavored in a blind taste test.
The potato chips themselves are textbook kettle cooked. They are medium thickness, a good hearty crunch, decent level of oil, plenty of salt, and of course twists, and turns, and folds, and crevices. A great delivery medium for this spicy garlic flavor! That’s right, these chips are delicious, but we’re not going to call them blood mary flavored!
As always, these are our thoughts, we would love to hear what you think. Agree or disagree, let us know.
Discovered at Macy’s – Oak Brook Center; Oak Brook, Illinois
Chip Ratings Scale:
(1/4 increments)
© – return to sender
©© – tolerable
©©© – notable
©©©© – lip-smacking
©©©©© – “A” list
Chip Review 
The best Bloody Mary is made with Clamato juice. And unlike James Bonds maritini, that he ordered, “stirred not shaken.” After you have added all your ingredients, you shake well and then pour.
@ Michael – thanks for the comment. We enjoy a good bloody caesar from time to time too.