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REVIEW: “Dirty” – Funky Fusion Potato Chips

/ duthow / 2 Comments

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

Dirty - Funky Fushion

Comments:

“You’ll have what?!?” (this is what we envision the store clerk responding to us with, as we ask him for large one of the Dirty’s Funky Fusion!!).

What exactly is Funky Fushion?  Well, maybe to better help us answer that question we should first define those two words.

Funky (adjective):

  1. Frightened; panicky
  2. Having a moldy or musty smell: funky cheese; funky cellars.
  3. Having a strong, offensive, unwashed odor.

Not sure if these forms of the adjective ‘funky’ are necessarily what Dirty is referring to with these chips…?  Possibly, they are using another, slang definition of the word, such as:

slang: Earthy and uncomplicated; natural

That sounds a bit more viable for some chips that call themselves Dirty!  Then again, what do we know, maybe these chips are going to to taste like mold?!?

Fusion (noun):

  1. The act or procedure of liquefying or melting by the application of heat.  (probably not)
  2. Physics A nuclear reaction in which nuclei combine to form more massive nuclei with the simultaneous release of energy. (huh..?)
  3. A style of cooking that combines ingredients and techniques from very different cultures or countries. (warmer!)
  4. A mixture or blend formed by fusing two or more things. (yahtzee! bingo!!)

Well, that solves it, Dirty’s Funky Fusion Potato Chips are a natural and earthy blend of two or more things – in this case ingredients. It looks as those Dirty’s has taken a page out of Zapp’s VooDoo Kettle Chip recipe book, and simply fused a large selection of their traditional flavors into one funky flavor.

We would describe the flavor combination as tasting like sweet and salty vinegar flavored onion rings, but in the potato chip form.  With some barely recognizable notes of earthy garlic, and sour citrus.  Unusual to say the least, but also certainly flavorful, and tasty, if not a tiny bit one-note!  There are almost certainly other flavors included within the Funky Fusion recipe, but we couldn’t quite pinpoint any of them, as none of them were powerful enough to command attention away from all of the sweet and sour flavors!

As far as the potato chips themselves go, Dirty makes a very respectable kettle cooked potato chip.  Their kettle cooked recipe uses peanut oil for frying, resulting in a mild oil flavor that does not distract away from the potatoes themselves, or the seasoning blend.  The chips are cut medium-thin, and have a sturdy and crispy bite to them.

So, if you happen to find yourself a bag of these Funky Fusion potato chips, you do not be worried that they will taste like a frightened funky cheese nuclei, but rather just some uniquely flavored chips!

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

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REVIEW: Middleswarth – Jalapeno Potato Chips

/ duthow / Leave a comment

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

Middleswarth - Jalapeno Potato Chips

Comments:

We were turned onto Middleswarth brand of potato chips by good friend of Chip Review’s who himself received a recommendation from another buddy, who….you know how the story goes!  Either way, the initial party, the one who started the “rumor”of Middleswarth potato chips being top of the line, must have either had a personal love for them (ie. grew up with them), or their family owned the Middleswarth family business!

Well, it just so happens that if you look back on our other Middleswarth potato chip reviews thus far, we have been less than thrilled with the majority of their chips we have tasted; in other words, we do not feel the same as that friend of a friend of a friend feels about these chips!!  However, luckily for us, with each Middleswarth bag of chips more that we taste, we continue to recognize quality improvement, and feel like there could possibly be a great bag of chips lurking somewhere amongst their chip family (and these seem to be, as good as they get!).

Probably our favorite aspect of Middleswarth’s Potato Chips is their simple, retro packaging.  Plain, bold and to the point.  Their bags evoke memories of childhood, before graphics were so realistic and detailed.  Certainly a simpler time, with fewer chip choices!

Middleswarth potato chips, due to their old school choice of using shortening as their frying agent, exhibit a rather heavy mouth feel and texture.  Definitely no fresh, crispy, light and crunchy definition for these potato chips.  If you’ve never tasted potato chips that use shortening over the more modern and common vegetable oil combination for their frying, then you have no idea of that peculiar flavor and texture that the shortening imparts onto their potato chips (it is absolutely unmistakable).

Middleswarth Jalapeno Potato Chips have a very decent, real jalapeno flavor.  We can actually taste lots of spicy dried jalapeno seasoning / powder.  The heat does a lot for these chips, while not necessarily burning our mouths.  The rest of the seasoning has loads of flavor from an msg, garlic, and onion combination!  In the end, we would describe these chips as very savory!  No hint of sweetness anywhere to be found, simply fatty, salty, and spicy.

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

REVIEW: Laurel Hill – Olive & Caper Tortilla Chips

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Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

Laurel Hill - Olive & Caper

Comments:

“What do these chips taste like to you?” 

This seemed to be the fundamental question being asked during our examination of Laurel Hill’s Olive & Caper Tortilla Chips.

Some people answered with “well, we recognize a red pepper flavor that sort of brings a tiny bit of heat with it.”  While others pointed out the “mildly, pungent background notes from the inclusion of garlic.”  The most peculiar thing was that we did not notice anyone mentioning anything about olives or capers!

The obvious reason for this is that the chips simply did not contain a very strong olive or caper flavor presence.  We were expecting to be blasted with that unmistakeable cured, briny, saltiness that always personifies the flavorful olive fruit, and caper buds.  We were hoping for a bit, no – strike that, a lot more of that deep, rich, salty, earthy, bitter, briny flavor.  We wanted those tasters who still haven’t yet acquired that love for olives and capers to be turned off by these chips!  Alas, all we really could decipher was a miniscule, underlying presence of some rich olive notes.  Plain and simple, if we weren’t privy to these tortilla chips’ flavor prior to tasting them, we’re very certain we would not have been able to decipher their named flavors.

We do however love Laurel Hill’s thin, light and crispy tortilla chips.  They encompass a great mouth feel, a fatty richness, and a naturally earthy tasting corn tortilla flavor.  Their tortilla chip shape is big, bold and uniquely rectangular.  The chips are most certainly designed for dipping or scooping copious amounts of your choice of salsa, or cheese dip, or hummus, or whatever.

In the end, these Laurel Hill chips are some perfectly notable tortilla chips, but to call them olive & caper flavored is a stretch.  In fact, not only did they not have much olive or caper flavor, they could have used quite a bit more seasoning in the simple form of salt!

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

Chips provided to Chip Review by Laurel Hill for review

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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REVIEW: Popcorn, Indiana – Hot Cinnamon Popcorn

/ duthow / Leave a comment

Rating: ©©©-1/4 chips  (notable)

Popcorn, Indiana - Hot Cinnamon Popcorn

Comments:

The latest seasonal holiday popcorn variation from Indiana’s favorite popcorn company is unlike any we have ever seen or tasted before!  This Hot Cinnamon flavored popcorn is exactly that = bright Red Hot candy coated popcorn.

Honestly, we must say, we have a much greater admiration and appreciation for the execution and creativity of this popcorn, than any actual love for their taste and flavor.  Each glossy red kernel was heavily dosed with an ample, amount of sweet, tooth clingingly, hot cinnamon sugar coating.  Couple of things worth pointing out: One, the fact that this popcorn has zero, yep that’s right, zilch, zippo, ZERO grams of fat per serving.  Meaning only one thing, this popcorn must have been air popped, which did result in a less fatty, and rich, and tasty popcorn.  Secondly, the popcorn itself is not the first, or the most prominent, ingredient on the ingredients list?!?  That title actually belongs to good old sugar, provided in the form of evaporated cane juice in this case!  You know that you are in for some sticky sweet popcorn when there is more sugar than corn!!

So, in the end, if you like sweet popcorn, or if you are big fans of hot cinnamon flavored candies, then you may very well like Popcorn, Indiana’s new popcorn; however, for us, we appreciate this popcorn, but we like a little more salt, and savoriness to our crunchy snacks.  All that being said, we wouldn’t hesitate for one second to set out a big, bright red, bowl full of this popcorn during a holiday party, and watch as it quickly becomes the main conversation piece!

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