REVIEW: Kettle Brand – Korean Barbeque Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©©-1/2 chips  (lip-smacking)

WOW! These are really, really deliciously funky and quite spicy!!

We have not tasted very many Korean BBQ flavored chips. But, just one bite and we can tell you that these are LEAGUES above both Lay’s versions of Korean BBQ chips that we have tasted, and we weren’t even as unimpressed with Lay’s most recent attempt the way that Junk Food Guy was.  We can’t wait to hear his thoughts regarding Kettle Brand’s rendition.

Seriously, we are very impressed with these chips.  These are easily some of the best Kettle Brand Potato Chips that we have tasted in quite a while!  We also can’t wait to find Kettle Brand’s other new flavor that they just released.  Two intriguing new flavors…thank you Kettle Brand!

We are not going to pretend like we know very much about what real Korean BBQ food actually tastes like, or even what all it entails.  Our only insight into Korean food is the likes of kimchi, good old twice fried chicken, and of course the fantastic Chicago restaurant that is Parachute!  In fact, we’re fairly certain that we’ve never actually had Korean BBQ.

Apparently, the main flavors/ingredients associated with Korean BBQ are – soy, sugar, garlic, onion, sesame, ginger – according to what we found on the internet.

As for Kettle Brand’s Korean Barbeque seasoning, the first taste is of classic BBQ chip flavors – sweet, tomato, garlic, onion, with maybe a splash of smoke?  The next wave of flavor includes some more of those funky, or uncommon notes like ginger, soy, sesame, and the realization that there is a LOT of sweet onion flavor.  On the finish an impressive level of heat appears, and decides that it is staying for the entire party. The flavor tastes a lot like Kettle Brand combined their Spicy Thai, Organic Chipotle Chili Barbeque and Roasted Garlic Potato Chips, and then added a splash of soy.  All in all, the whole Korean Barbeque shebang just works.  To top it all off, it works extremely well with Kettle Brand’s deliciously crunchy kettle cooked potato chips.

And may we just point out how much we love the appearance of this bag.  First of all, bright blue is not a color we see very often while walking down our favorite aisle of the grocery store.  Secondly, we very much appreciate how Kettle Brand has yet to succumb to what seems like a recent chip industry standard of displaying the actual potato chip product on the front packaging.  We much more prefer the simple representative image that describes the flavor inside.  In this case, that image is a Korean tabletop grill with chopsticks.  Very simple, yet descriptive.

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

Chips discovered at World Market; Oak Brook, Illinois

Kettle Brand Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Lay’s – Flavor Swap – Korean Barbecue Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

Chips discovered at Walmart; Villa Park, Illinois

Lay’s Flavor Swap (done and over)

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Doritos – Caribbean Citrus

Rating: ©©©© chips  (lip-smacking)

Well, well, well, what do we have here?

Are these really the first new chips from Doritos this year?  COME’ON DORITOS, what is going on?  That’s some real chip slacking!  Oh, and just in case you are keeping track (like we do), here at C.R. we do not exactly count their “new” line of Doritos Mix snack mixtures as a new product this year (although they did technically come out this year).

You want to know what?  We are not going to count these chips as brand new Doritos either!  Yeah, that is right, we are getting a bit salty here – why you ask??  Oh, well, because Doritos hasn’t released any all new chips lately of course!

Alright, let us explain.  First, we can go as far as to call Doritos Caribbean Citrus half new chips, but that is definitely as far as we can go.  Half new because Doritos has never put this seasoning blend onto their regular Doritos tortilla chips before (it has been on their JACKED chips thought).  Also half new, because they have technically changed the name up and removed the original “jerk” aspect.  We’re guessing that they removed this portion of the description/name because 1) it did not quite live up to flavor qualifications or execution, and 2) jerks aren’t very nice!

Ok, we can quit beating around the bush here.  These “new” Doritos Caribbean Citrus are just a reboot of their JACKED Test Flavor: 404 released a couple of years ago (they had us fooled too, until we tasted them).  As some of you may, or may not recall, the final flavor reveal named the 404’s – Caribbean Citrus Jerk.  This test flavor was a true mystery when it first came out.  People were describing it as everything from curry, to Asian wings, to Cajun crawfish, to even Samosa Girl Scout cookies!  Of course we knew what the flavor was right from the get go…..”Our money is on (actually we are not willing to put our money on anything for these ones, that’s right Doritos you stumped us!).  However, if we were using your money, we may be willing to put some on: sweet garlic mojo!!  Or, maybe lime splashed chorizo tacos? Spicy chile margherita? Sweet and Sour? Sweet & Sour Chile?  Oh heck, we’re sticking with 404.”

We aren’t going to bother writing anything new about this flavor.  If Doritos can reuse their flavors, we can reuse our words.  Let’s just take a look at what we wrote two years ago.

As for Test Flavor: 404, well, let’s just say that this bag’s ingredients made us think we were going to love them the most!  But, what they really ended up tasting like, versus what we expected them to taste like, were not one in the same.  Yet, despite still tasting pretty lip-smacking, we really cannot pinpoint what we were tasting.  Let’s break down what we thought: 1) Loads of sweet citrus notes propelled from the bag when we opened it.  The aroma really accentuates the true corn tortilla essence.  2) CITRUS – lime and orange.  3) The sweetness is evident, but not overwhelming.  Very complimentary to the citrus.  4) The more JACKED chips we ate, the more pronounced, and powerful, the citrus flavor really became.  5) garlic.  When combined with the sweet citrus, evoked thoughts of Asian sweet and sour.  6) Light vinegar splash added some depth.  7) The real stumper was the indecipherable combination of generically defined “spices”.  It definitely did not help matters for distinguishing what we were tasting, but it did help us to not stop eating!  8) Have we mentioned citrus?!

In the end, we think that Doritos should have just actually done a reboot of their Mojo Criollo flavor from their Rollitos line of chips….We like those A LOT more.  We’ve decided to give Doritos “new” Caribbean Citrus one-quarter less Chip Rating due to the fact that they tricked us into thinking that we were going to be trying new chips!  And, honestly, the flavor may have worked better on their JACKED style tortilla chips better.

As always we would love to hear what you think.  Agree or disagree.  Let us know.

Chips discovered at Costco; Oak Brook, Illinois

Doritos Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Dimo’s – Truffle Butter Popcorn

Rating: ©-1/2 – ©©©©-1/2 chips  (return to sender to lip-smacking – depending)

Just the other day we stumbled upon this popcorn while actually trying to grab a few slices of pizza.  That’s right, Dimo’s is much better known for their huge selection of pizza by the slice.  But, because we also do what we do, we had to grab a bag of this New! Truffle Butter Popcorn.

It was one of those busy days so we grabbed a handful of slices for the road and just planned on warming them up at the HQ.  We’ve pretty much perfected the re-heat of pizza at Chip Review.  Pizza stone under the broiler for 20 minutes, turn off broiler, place room temp pizza directly on stone, heat for 5 minutes – crispy crust, warmed toppings, melty cheese – perfection.

While we waited for pizza stone to get piping hot we thought we would give Dimo’s New! Truffle Butter Popcorn a taste.  We tore open the cute brown paper bag to see that the popcorn also was coated with some herbs and what appeared to be parmesan cheese.  We popped a few kernels int our mouths to discover that the popcorn was completely stale and soggy.  Practically inedible.  We all looked around at each other to confirm the disappointment.  Yep, unanimous.  But then, almost also as simultaneously we all looked towards the over.  Could this popcorn be save?!  We spread it out onto a baking sheet and threw it into the piping hot oven on the rack below the pizza stone….

A couple of minutes passed, we grabbed the sheet pan from the oven and set it on top of the stove.  We could hear the butter on the popcorn crackling and sizzling.  The popcorn looked alive again.  We let it cool for as long as we could wait and then we dug in.  A transformation miracle!  The popcorn was once again fresh, and crispy, and delicious!!

You may or may not have noticed above that we had given Dimo’s popcorn two different ratings, and now you know the reason why.  One was based on the popcorn directly out of the cute, but useless (as far as freshness goes), brown paper bag; and another rating for after we had baked the popcorn for a few minutes.  We’re pretty sure that we have never done this before, but we thought, what the heck – we had also never bought truffle butter flavored popcorn from a pizza slice joint in Wicker Park before……

As for the flavoring of the popcorn, it was really delicious.  Dimo’s popcorn definitely exuded more aromatic truffle essence than any other truffle flavored popcorns we have tried.  Coupled with the rich butter, and salty cheese, the popcorn really is fantastic (after it is warmed up).

Popcorn discovered at Dimo’s Pizza; Wicker Park-Chicago, Illinois

Dimo’s Pizza Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: XL Fresh Potato Chips – French Cheese

Rating: ©©© chips  (notable)

More potato chips from a far away land.

Thanks again must be given to our BFF’s S&A for bringing us back the great U.E. chip spread!

Despite being called XL Fresh Potato Chips, we wouldn’t call these potato chips XL at all.  The chips themselves were what we would call medium – at best.

The French Cheese seasoning was….well, let’s just call them unique, and on the verge of being weird.

The cheese seasoning has a touch of tang with a good level of smooth creamy essence, but the weird part comes from just how sweet it was as well.  SWEET?!?  Yep, we’ve got sweet cheese here!

That being said, it sort of worked.  Odd, but certainly unique and got our taste buds thinking.

The potato chips themselves are okay.  Light and thinner, with a soft crunch.  Potato flavor not very noticeable from behind the French Cheese seasoning.

Anyone else out there tried them by chance?  Thoughts?  As always we would love to hear what you think.  Agree or disagree.  Let us know.

Chips provided to Chip Review by S&A, acquired in Dubai, United Emirates

XL Fresh Potato Chips Official Facebook Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Buck Wild – Garlic Sea Salt Tortilla Chips

Rating: ©©©-1/2 chips  (notable)

Time to go BUCK WILD ONCE AGAIN!
Yep, we will never tire of saying that, and we will also never get used to the buck with aviators staring us down, insisting that we try the goodies inside of his bag!

A few months back we reviewed a few of Buck Wild’s other offerings, including their Roasted Garlic Popcorn.  We were big fans of this lip-smacking popcorn, in fact, we were fans of both of the flavors of popcorn we tried.  And wouldn’t you know it, it appears as though both of these flavors are getting the tortilla chip treatment now.  Granted, these chips are called Garlic Sea Salt, and the popcorn was Roasted Garlic, but (we’re going to let you in on a little secret) the seasonings taste very much the same.  The Chipotle Cheddar Popcorn has also gotten the tortilla chip treatment and we will be reviewing those soon as well.

So, as far as these Garlic Sea Salt tortilla chips go – we like them.  Like we said before the seasoning is very similar (if not identical) to the seasoning used on Buck Wild’s Roasted Garlic Popcorn.  Very garlic forward, with a sort of underlying sweetness, and a smooth, creamy finish.

Buck Wild’s tortilla chips are really good too.  All at once light, airy and crispy, as well as, a bit hearty and substantial.  A healthy scattering of flax and chia seeds can be found within the chips, and they deliver a nice and subtle textural enhancement that we appreciated it.

Overall, we did not quite love these chips as much as we did the garlic flavored popcorn.  Both the seasoning and chips are great in their own ways, but together they just don’t work quite as harmoniously as the popcorn and garlic did.

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: Cheetos – Bag of Bones Flamin’ Hot

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

It’s that time of year again!

The time of year when all of the stores begin to market for holidays that are still roughly two months away!  It seems like it is getting so bad these days that we’re not sure if we are supposed to put up the Christmas lights for the trick-or-treaters or not!

But, we really do love this time of year, especially for the kiddos.  They get excited about dressing up as their favorite movie characters, or sports heroes, and of course those spooky creatures who typically scare them in the night.  And then they are let loose in the neighborhood in search of bags full of teeth rotting sugar loaded treats!

That being said, they are in for a surprise when they come knocking on Chip Review’s doors this year.  This year we will not be delving out any sweets, instead we will be delivering them some spicy and spooky bone shaped puffed corn!  Isn’t that what every kid really wants anyways?

Chester’s Flamin’ Hot Bag of Bones is this Halloween’s addition to last year’s release of Cheetos White Cheddar flavored Bones.  We are nearly certain that we tasted the white cheddar bones last year, but for whatever reason we did not actually review or rate them.  All we can assume is that they must not have been that tasty…

The Flamin’ Hot Bag of Bones basically just consists of Cheetos Puffs, in cute (we mean spooky) skeleton bone shapes.  They deliver the same, classic, unmistakably delicious, spicy, bright red Flamin’ Hot seasoning!  We don’t love them nearly as much as Cheetos Original Crunchy Flamin’ Hots, but they are just as fantastic as the Puffs variation of the Flamin’ Hot powerhouse flavor; probably better in fact because they are delivered in fun shapes.

For another positive review of these tasty bones check out Junk Food Guy.

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

Cheetos discovered at Walmart; Countryside, Illinois

Cheetos Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list