Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips (notable)
Oh no!! Not another bacon cheese flavored snack from Old Dutch….
Luckily our fear was unwarranted, and these Arriba Cheddar Bacon Cheese Stix aren’t half bad!
Question: why exactly did Old Dutch feel it necessary to call these cheese stix instead of the more commonly used cheese puff, or curl, classification? Do cheese stix sound tastier? We’re sure that they wanted to differentiate their product from the rest of the bunch, but come’on, when you are clearly making a product that is already so widely recognized as another established product, why not just call them by that name?! Next thing we know they will be giving us ‘sliced fry potatoes’.
The back of the bag says Intense Flavor + Amazing Crunch. Well, we can get behind the amazing crunch portion of that statement, but we would actually say the exact opposite as for their flavor.
Arriba’s cheese puffs (excuse us – STIX), are a touch crunchier than the usual cheese puff. Despite their solid initial bite, the stix do still melt in your mouth (a necessity for any good cheese puff) if you let them hang out and absorb your tongue’s moisture.
If subtlety is a synonym for intense, then yes these bacon cheddar stix are indeed intense. They delivered just a kiss of smoke to represent the bacon, which we enjoyed. A good level of tangy and salty cheddar cheese rounds out the combination. And, that’s it. Simple, precise and notably delicious. Much, much better than Old Dutch’s popcorn of the same flavor!
As always we would love to hear what you think. Let us know.
Discovered at Kwik Stop Gas Station; Plymouth, Minnesota
Chip Ratings Scale:
(1/4 increments)
© – return to sender
©© – tolerable
©©© – notable
©©©© – lip-smacking
©©©©© – “A” list
Chip Review 