REVIEW: Kettle Brand – Hawaiian Barbeque with ginger infused sea salt Potato Chips cooked in 100% Avocado Oil

Rating: ©©©-1/4 chips  (notable)

So, there’s Carolina Barbeque, and Kansas City Barbeque, there’s Texas Barbeque and Memphis Barbeque, of course there is Korean Barbeque – Kettle Brand’s most recent new chips that we reviewed – and, there’s probably even a few more regional styles that we can’t recall, but how many of you out there knew there was such a thing as Hawaiian Barbeque?  Certainly not us!

We’re not going to beat around the bush here, we had some high hopes for these chips, but then again, we almost always have high hopes for new Kettle Brand chips.  Unfortunately, we are here to tell you that these are just….OK.  They are missing that wow, that difference maker, that….ginger infused sea salt that we were promised….

Speaking of ginger, we’re onto you Kettle Brand.  You’ve released three new flavors that we are aware of – Korean Barbeque, Moscow Mule (which we still haven’t located), and of course these Hawaiian Barbeque.  What is the ingredient commonality between these three new flavors – GINGER.  Kettle Brand has gone ginger crazy!  Which certainly isn’t a bad thing in our books.  We love ginger here at Chip Review, but really we haven’t tasted all that many ginger flavored chips.

….Back to these chips being just OK.  Honestly, we could not really taste any of that ginger we were promised.  And for the most part, these “Hawaiian Barbeque” flavored chips taste like one hundred other BBQ flavored chips that we have reviewed.  Strong tomato powder presence, the usual onion and garlic tag team, of course there is a splash of smoke, but then if these chips did actually taste any different, it would have been an underlying, tropical, sweetness.  The ingredients on the back indicate that this flavor note likely comes from the inclusion of pineapple powder!  That’s unique at least, but we feel like Kettle Brand should have amp’d it up a bit more to really drive home that Hawaiian Barbeque flavor.

Luckily Kettle Brand’s Avocado Oil Kettle Cooked Potato Chips are always fantastic themselves.  So, in the end, we didn’t have any problem devouring these chips, we just were hoping for more.

Chips discovered at Whole Foods; Elmhurst, Illinois

Kettle Brand Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: G.H. Cretors – Chile Jalapeño White Cheddar Organic Popped Corn

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

We certainly would not consider ourselves pessimists here at Chip Review, but upon opening G.H.’s bag of popcorn to the left, we would also certainly call this bag more than half empty with popcorn, or should we say not nearly half full.

In G.H. Cretors’ defense , we’re sure that there is some sort of logistical transport reasoning behind their bag-to-popcorn-to-air ratio, but quite frankly we found this bag’s fill level pretty disappointing.

Luckily the bag was filled with some pretty tasty popcorn!

Large white fluffy popcorn kernels, coated in a savory, slightly funky, white cheddar cheese powder.

Despite the mention of two types of spicy ingredients – both generic “chile pepper”, in addition to jalapeño – we really didn’t get very much chile flavor, or heat from the popcorn.

The white cheddar cheese seasoning did a fairly good job of making up for the lack of heat.  A rich, and creamy, and tangy white cheese powder that sufficiently coated the popcorn.

Is this the greatest popcorn?  No.  Is it more than adequately eatable?  Yes.

As always, these are our thoughts, we would love to hear what you think. Agree or disagree, let us know.

Popcorn discovered at Whole Foods; Elmhurst, Illinois

G.H. Cretors Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Trader Joe’s – Bollywood Popcorn (Vegan Tikka Masala)

Rating: ©©©©-1/2 chips (lip-smacking)

Is Tikka Masala the new BBQ or Cheddar?  Most likely not, but the Indian flavor does seem to be picking up some traction, as Trader Joe’s Bollywood Popcorn is the second Tikka Masala flavored snack that we have reviewed in as many months.  We can tell you without a doubt, that TJ’s snack version of the flavor, is easily the far superior one!

Every year Trader Joe’s always seems to knock a couple of their new snacks out of the park – last year we loved their Ghost Pepper Lattice Cut Kettle Cooked Potato Chips and the Partially Popped Popcorn …with Butter & Sea Salt, and two years ago it was their Potato Chips with South African Style Seasoning, this year we already praised their Somewhat Spicy Dill flavored Kettle Cooked Potato Chips – and it is fair to say that TJ’s Bollywood Popcorn has joined this lip-smacking list!

To accurately describe to you what exactly this popcorn tastes like we would have to have a much better understanding of Indian cuisine overall.  So, rather that do a half-popped job with that we are just going to plagiarize a few key descriptive words from What’s Good at Trader Joe’s review:

“a big, aromatic cloud of cloves and cumin and garam masala, which quickly laid to rest how potent the seasoning might be on a simple popcorn base… Potent is an understatement. My goodness. The best way I can explain it is a “happy heat.” …it builds slowly but surely, with a lot of warmth, and it just lingers on and on, but it’s never overbearing.”

We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves, and so we didn’t.  The popcorn is amazingly fragrant, dusted perfectly with those exotic spices.  And it certainly brings a slightly spicy, steady warmth after a few handfuls.  But above all else, we would describe the popcorn as balanced, and extremely SAVORY.  We just loved it!  If you like popcorn, then you owe it to yourself to give this stuff a try!!

As always, these are our thoughts, we would love to hear what you think. Agree or disagree, let us know.

Popcorn discovered at Trader Joe’s; Oak Park, Illinois

Trader Joe’s Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

RATING: Lay’s Kettle Cooked Limited Edition Flavor – Spicy Chili & Cheese Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

As we thought to ourselves “Lay’s All New Limited Edition Spicy Chili & Cheese Kettle Cooked Potato Chips are a pretty darn tasty addition to the L.K.C. line-up….and yet, at the same time…..also very familiar.”

Apparently, a little bit too familiar.  A few minutes of Chip Review research and we discovered that a couple of years back we tasted and rated (but no review) Lay’s Kettle Cooked Spicy Cayenne & Cheese Potato Chips, or in other words, what we’re guessing were the SAME EXACT CHIPS!!  We can’t verify the accuracy of this statement for, but if we could locate the  Cayenne & Cheese list of ingredients we’re more than certain they would look exactly like THESE.  We mean come’on, both bags are using the SAME EXACT INGREDIENT PIC!  Bunch of kettle cooked, heavily seasoned potato chips, with a large block of white cheese, and a couple of red chili/cayenne peppers sitting directly in front.

So, long story short, we’ve eaten these chips before.  That being said, technically we did not review them the first go around, so we will take this time to scribe a few descriptive details regarding their flavor.

Lay’s Spicy Chili & Cheese seasoning is not lacking in flavor.  To more or less quote the great Junk Food Guy, these taste a lot like Spicy Nacho Cheese flavored Doritos did a bit too much mingling with Ruffles Sour Cream & Cheddar chips.  In other words, the seasoning has plenty of salty and tangy cheese flavor, a decent enough dash of chili pepper heat, and a surprisingly tasty splash of tart sour cream.  The flavor combo has been used plenty of times before, but that does not make it any less tasty.

All in all, tasty “NEW” limited RE-edition of Lay’s.  We’ll enjoy them while they last.

Chips discovered at Walmart; Villa Park, Illinois

Lay’s Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Buck Wild – Cheddar Chipotle Tortilla Chips

Rating: ©©©©-1/4 chips  (lip-smacking)

Buck Wild just continues going buck wild with their new Buck Wild chips!

Buck Wild’s Chipotle Cheddar Popcorn was the first snack of theirs we ever tasted and reviewed.  And now, Buck Wild has done what every smart snack company does, and utilized this same flavoring onto another one of their snacks!

Buck Wild’s corn tortilla chips are really very good.

Light, airy and crispy, along with delivering a hearty body to them.

The chips include a decent scattering of flax and chia seeds throughout.

Chipotle and cheese has become a fairly typical flavor combination in the crunchy snack industry.

Buck Wild’s Chipotle Cheddar is quite tasty, but much more reminiscent of a nacho cheese seasoning than anything resembling chipotle flavored.

A very salty seasoning combination packed full of bright orange cheese dust, as well as, a good melange of other zesty, complimentary ingredients.

If you are a chipotle connoisseur than you may not be impressed by these, but if you are a fan of lip-smacking cheese dusted tortilla chips, than we’re sure you are going to enjoy these!

Buck Wild’s new tortilla chips are available (we believe exclusively) at Walmarts nationwide now, or at least very soon.

As always, these are our thoughts, we would love to hear what you think.  Agree or disagree, let us know.

Buck Wild chips provided to Chip Review by Buck Wild for review

Buck Wild Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Popchips Potato Ridges – Tangy Barbeque

Rating: ©©©© chips  (lip-smacking)

OK, we are starting to feel a bit redundant here but Popchips just continues to impress us again, and again, with their Potato Ridges line of potato chips.

Popchips new Tangy Barbeque Potato Ridges are yet another lip-smackingly solid addition to the new-ish line of ridged potato crisps.

It has now become apparent to us here at Chip Review that the unifying element that makes this line of Popchips so great is their potato RIDGES texture.

So as to not have to recreate the descriptive words to describe these chips once again:

The Ridges take Popchips into a tasty terrain that we have never encountered with their chips before – SubstantionalPotatofulLand.  We have always thought of Popchips as light, and airy, and crispy, but these Ridges are hearty, sturdy, crunchy, and packed with lots of potato flavor!  We really like’em.  Same standard shape as traditional potato Popchips, only now those potato Popchips a little bit thick (we think), and they have ridges in them (duh!).

As for the Tangy Barbeque, well it is definitely more tangy than TANGY.  Quite frankly they taste an awful lot like Popchips regular bargeque chips.  Slightly smoky, on the sweeter side, with just a lightest hint of tang.  Nothing unusual, but perfectly eatable.

As always, these are our thoughts, we would love to hear what you think.  Agree or disagree, let us know.

Chips discovered at Walmart; Villa Park, Illinois

Popchips Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Good Health – Jalapeño Kettle Style Avocado Oil Potato Chips

Rating: ©©-3/4 chips  (tolerable)

Good Health Natural Foods chips may be good for our health, but not necessarily for our taste buds.

We have tasted other Avocado Oil Kettle Chips from Good Health Natural Foods, and for the most part we have been impressed….

But, these ones just don’t do it for us.

Same great medium cut, avocado oil kettle cooked, extra crispy, potato chips.

Where the chips went completely wrong for us was with their “jalapeño” seasoning.  Or, we actually say, lack there of!

Seriously, we have eaten plain potato chips that tasted more like the green, spicy chile pepper.

Maybe something was wrong with the bag we got, or maybe jalapeños aren’t good for one’s health (so they were left out of the bag)?  Either way, these chips do not deserve to be called jalapeño seasoning.

These are our thoughts, agree or disagree, make sure to let us know!

Chips discovered at Pete’s Fresh Market; Oak Brook Terrace, Illinois

Good Health Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list