BIJOU-REVIEW: The Better Chip – Radish Chia Tortilla Chips

Rating: ©©©-1/4 chips  (notable)

Do not adjust your dial, or screen….

It is true, your eyes are not deceiving you….

These are in fact RADISH flavored chip!

Now, we’ve been in the chip game a long, long time, but this is definitely a new first.  Sure, there have been plenty of other weird flavors out there; we’re looking at you beet, and cappuccino, and feijoada, and marmite, but radish is right up there with the weirdest of them!

Unfortunately, we have tasted much better chips from The Better Chip company.

Now, these are not bad tortilla chips by any means.  They deliver a rustic, course ground corn tortilla texture that mingles with the little nutty pop of the chia seeds.

They also provided a perfectly ample amount of salt and garlic seasoning.

What the chips did not do was exude any sort of radish AT ALL!  Nada!  Nunca!!  Nothin’!!!

To say that we were disappointed by these would be absolutely correct.  We were really hoping to taste some pungently spicy radish flavored tortilla chips.  Alas, we will just have to wait for some better chips to actually do that!

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

Discovered at Byerly’s; St. Cloud, Minnesota

The Better Chip Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

Chip Review’s Honorable Mentions – 2014

25 Chips to Christmas Honorable Mentions

These chips nearly made our Top 25 of the Year, and deserve some recognition too!!

(honorable mentions, in no particular order)

Archer Farms – Habanero Ranch Homestyle Kettle-Cooked Potato Chips

“First wave of flavors includes an impressively rich and creamy, sour, buttermilk flavor.   Then a wave of powerful garlic and onion!  And we do mean POWER. FULL!”

Jay’s – Nacho Rings

“After popping one Nacho Ring into our mouths we immediately knew what we were really dealing with there.  You can’t fool us, Jay’s Nacho Rings are the amazing hybrid offspring of a Bugle and a cheese puff!”

De-lish-us – Ripple Potato Chips

“De-lish-us just seems to consistently put out products that we are impressed with.  Simple, and straightforward.  Nothing flashy or over the top.  Simply good old, quality products!”

chipz Happen – Spice-Z Parmesan Garlic Gourmet Tortilla Chipz

chipz Happen – Cinnful Sweet Heat Gourmet Tortilla Chipz

“First and foremost, is that these gourmet tortilla chips taste real.  They taste homemade.  In fact, they trigger tasty memories of those delicious, freshly fried, mom and pop’s Mexican restaurant tortilla chips that find their way to the table as soon as you are seated.”

Deano’s Jalapenos – Ranch Jalapeno Chips

“These chips are not for spicy food amateurs, so don’t say we didn’t warn you!!  In fact, if we are being honest here, Deano’s Jalapeno Chips are very close to being too spicy for even us to enjoy!”

“Dirty” – Sour Cream & Onion Potato Chips

“Apparently, we are not the only ones who have wondered why these chips are called “Dirty”?  According to “Dirty’s” website: “The name “Dirty” comes from the process we used to prepare our chips. The potato slices are not washed, leaving more of the potato flavor….”

Pop! Gourmet Popcorn & Huy Fong Foods – The Original Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce Popcorn

“This popcorn is really delicious!  D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s, delicious; but with a surprisingly subtle seasoning when compared directly against the real hot sauce.”

The Better Chip – Chipotle & Sea Salt Tortilla Chips

“A fine textbook definition of the saying: less is more.  The Better Chip keeps it simple, and merely conveys chipotle essence to the smoky chile maximus!”

Cosmos Creations – Crushed Sea Salt Vinegar with Pepper Premium Puffed Corn

“We’ve tried a lot of different types of puffed corn in our time.  We’ve crunched our way through corn puffs, puffers, crunchies, kurls, doodles, dittos, and nuggets; and in the end, they are all sort of the same corn-y snacks.”

Pringles – Sriracha Asian Chili Sauce

“Zippy and spicy, tongue tingling, Thai chili flavor, combined with a very generous dosage of powerful garlic, and rounded out with a heavy splash of nose burning vinegar!  These are tasty, tasty potato crisps.”

**Chip Review’s Top 25 list of the Year consists of chips that we tasted and reviewed during the 2014 calendar year for the first time.  The chips are not necessarily new to the industry, but they were new to Chip Review in 2014!

REVIEW: The Better Chip – Chipotle & Sea Salt Tortilla Chips

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

Within the past decade or so, Chipotle has become a common household name among the majority of us.  Many of us, for one reason or another, are still pronouncing it incorrectly (and yes – I’m looking at you chee-pull-tee people!), but nonetheless it is now everyday terminology in our vocabulary arsenal.

And for those of you who only know name the name Chipotle as a place where you, or your friends, or your kids, or your kid’s friends, or basically anyone and everyone you know goes to get their burrito fix, well then, chipotles are actually vine ripened red jalapeno chiles, that have been smoked and dried.  So, just in case any of you were thinking that these new tortilla chips from The Better Chip were going to be tasting like your favorite football size chicken and steak burritos, think again!

What The Better Chip has delivered to us are some lip-smacking chipotle chile enhanced tortilla chips!  A fine textbook definition of the saying: less is more.  The Better Chip keeps it simple, and merely conveys chipotle essence to the smoky chile maximus!  Each chip has a delightful burnt orange hue to it, as if the chipotle chiles actually tinted the tortilla dough.  The chips also contained small pieces of chipotle chiles randomly strewn throughout them.  Quick question, a year or two ago we reviewed, and raved about, The Better Chip’s jalapeno tortilla chips.  That being said, those chips were not green!  So, why is it that when chipotle chiles are mixed with tortilla masa the dough becomes colored, but when jalapenos are blended with the masa, the chips remain white?  The chip loving public may never know!!

Warning!  These chips do deliver a sneaky, and lingering wallop of heat!  A heat that nonchalantly creeps up in the background, but then pounces on your tongue and throat like a wild cat!  In our opinion, the tortilla chips themselves are a tad too dense. Not sure if blending the chipotle pieces directly into the tortilla chip flour changed The Better Chip’s typical crispy consistency, but the chips are a little too hard and crunchy for our loving.

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

Discovered Pete’s Fresh Market; Westmont, Illinois

The Better Chip Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

RATING: The Better Chip – Beets and Sea Salt Tortilla Chips

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips (notable)

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: The Better Chip – Sweet Onion and White Cheddar Tortilla Chips

Rating: ©©©-1/2 chips (notable)

Comments:

So far, we’ve encountered highs and lows with The Better Chip brand.  First, we fell head over heels in love with their Jalapeno & Sea Salt flavored tortilla chips.  In fact, they were nearly the best chips we tasted in all of 2012.  However, on the other hand, just a few weeks ago we reviewed The Better Chip’s Red Pepper and Salsa Fresca flavored tortilla chips, and we were less than thrilled.  This latest flavor has landed somewhere in between the first two in our opinion.

Regardless, of the seasoning, The Better Chip tortilla chips are among that small percentage of “all natural chips” that wouldn’t need to indicate it on their bags.  One look, one taste, and you just know that these tortilla chips are different.  You can see their tasty onions, and red peppers, and jalapeno slices scattered throughout the corn tortilla chips.  The chips are rustic, round, mostly whole, fresh, crispy and most of all, tasty.

Sweet Onion and White Cheddar?  Well, the white cheddar half definitely holds true.  The white cheese powder liberally coats each chip and adds a tremendous amount of saltiness to them (nearly barring on too salty, even for us).  Luckily, the onion flavor helps to mellow out and cut through some of that saltiness, but not quite enough, and definitely not with its natural sweetness which was basically nonexistent.  The onion flavor was strong, but not pungent as if it was raw.  The sweetness that is usually created from cooking/sweating/caramelizing onions was not apparent at all, which was a bit deceiving due to the name of this flavor.  We were a little disappointed with overall flavor assemblage, and pretty sure that even a little bit of sweetness would have really brought it all together.

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

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: The Better Chip – Red Pepper and Salsa Fresca Tortilla Chips

Rating: ©©-1/4 chips  (tolerable)

Comments:

Can we be honest?  We had built up some pretty high hopes for these chips (maybe a little too high in their defense), but when the first flavor we had ever tried from The Better Chip company was among the best chips we tasted all of last year, can you blame us?!?

The Better Chip describes their Red Pepper and Salsa Fresca Tortilla Chips as seasoned with a “light dusting of natural spices…”

Huh, what…?  Not how we would describe these chips, not even in the slightest!  We can’t quite put our fingers on what it is exactly that we don’t love about these chips, but we are most certain that it is not for their lack of seasoning….in fact, it may actually be for the opposite.  The flavor level of these chips was too much, even for our taste buds.  So much in fact, that the seasoning felt, dare we say, harsh at times.

These chips tasted exactly like so many other salsa flavored chips we have tasted in the past– tomato powder, onion, garlic powder, a little spice, and bell pepper, what we just don’t quite understand is why the Red Pepper was chosen as the highlighted component from the salsa?  Maybe, that is what gives these chips their unforgiving flavor punch….

Even though we did really like The Better Chip’s tortilla chips themselves – rustic, round, whole, fresh crispy tortilla chips – they stood no chance against the jumbled flavor onslaught that coated each of them.

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

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

Chip Review’s 25 Chips to Christmas – 2012

Well, that concludes our countdown of Chip Review’s Top 25 Chips of the Year!!!  We hope you enjoyed reading about them as much as we enjoyed writing about (and devouring) them!!

Once again, it has been a true pleasure sharing our thoughts with all of you as we chomped our way through hundreds of bags, and thousands of calories 🙂  Thanks to all of you who follow us each and every day.  We appreciate it, and we wouldn’t be here without each and everyone of you!!  Also, a very special thanks to those companies who graciously provided their products for us to review.  It’s a tough job (especially for our waistlines), but someone has got to do it.

For any of you who missed the list, you can check out the entire list below.  2012 was one heck of a year! Stay tuned for all new reviews beginning the first of the year!!  Until then, sit back and enjoy the holidays.

#25 – Herr’s – Deep Dish Pizza Cheese Curls

#24 – Laurel Hill – Pumpkin Seed Tortilla Chips

#23 – Food Should Taste – Good Kettle Corn Tortilla Chips

#22 – Deep River Snacks – New York Spicy Dill Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

#21 – Dakota Style – Blaze ‘N Hot Kettle Chips

#20 – Better Made – Salt & Pepper Potato Chips

#19 – The Billy Goat Chip Company – Original Potato Chips

#18 – Doritos – Intense Pickle

#17 – Ruffles Ultimate – Kickin’ Jalapeno Ranch Potato Chips

#16 – Popcorn, Indiana – Chip’ins – Classic BBQ Popcorn Chips

#15 – Pretzel Crisps – Chipotle Cheddar Deli Style

#14 – Wild Riceworks – Sea Salt & Black Sesame Gourmet Wildrice Crisps

#13 – Pringles – Limited Time Only! Chile con Queso

#12 – Flamous – Falafel Chips Spicy

#11 – Food Should Taste Good – Chocolate Tortilla Chips

#10 – Laurel Hill – Sweet Chili 40% Reduced Fat Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

#9 – Smartfood Selects – Buffalo Cheddar Popcorn

#8 – Ruffles – Sour Cream ‘N Bacon Potato Chips

#7 – De-lish-us – Original Cheese Potato Chips

#6 – Kettle Brand – Limited Batch Salsa with Mesquite Potato Chips

#5 – Pretzel Crisps – Cinnamon Toast

#4 – Doritos – Tangy Buffalo Wing

#3 – Better Made – Red Hot! Barbeque Potato Chips

#2 – The Better Chip – Jalapeno and Sea Salt Tortilla Chips

#1 – Hawaiian – Mango Habanero Kettle Style Potato Chips

**Chip Review’s Top 25 list of the Year consists of chips that we tasted and reviewed during the 2012 calendar year for the first time.  The chips are not necessarily new to the industry, but they were new to Chip Review in 2012!