Onion / Chive / Shallot

REVIEW: Cofresh – Cheese & Onion Potato Grills

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Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

Cofresh - Cheese & Onion Potato Grills

Comments:

Happy New Year!

What better way to celebrate the start of a fresh new year than with the taste of some (Co)fresh new potato grills!  Potato grills?!?  Yes, potato grills!!

Cofresh Potato Grills, according to their own packaging, are “Britain’s Favourite Indian Snacks!”  If any of you Brits out there can concur or deny this, feel free to chime in!  What we can tell you with utmost certainty would be that the flavor combination of cheese and onion is a classically iconic British flavor combo that has withstood the test of time!! We have tasted plenty of variations of the combo over our many years of chip reviewing, but yet the combination just seems like it has not caught on here in the States.

The grill’s cheese flavor aspect is front and center from the get go, and definitely the more prominent flavor.  Plenty of very, very salty, and pungent cheese, adequately coat each potato grill.  Cheese’s teammate onion is in the game, but really only there to support and compliment the powerful cheese presence!  The onion essence is subtle, and only apparent after the salty cheese settles on the tongue for a few seconds.

Alright, getting back to those curious potato grills.  If we had to describe the grills to someone who could not see their picture above, we would call them radiator shaped (radiatore anyone?), crispy potato puffs (texturally very similar to Market Pantry’s Pumpkin Shaped Cheesy Potato Puffs).  The potato grills are not very similar to corn puffs, instead they are actually quite dense, a bit hefty, very crunchy, and certainly do not melt in our mouths!

The potato grills have a unique texture, unique shape, and a classic flavor.  Pretty much all Chip Reviewers found the grills rather tasty, and very edible!

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

Discovered at Brookhaven Marketplace; Burr Ridge, Illinois

Cofresh Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

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©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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Smartfood Selects – Sour Cream Onion Puffed Corn

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

Smartfood Selects - Sour Cream Onion Puffed Corn

Comments:

Contestant: Smartfood Selects for $400 Alex

Host: this creative hybrid of popcorn and extruded cornmeal

Contestant: What is ‘Puffed Corn’?

Or, basically tasty, light, and mouth-meltable popcorn shaped corn puffs.

Thus far, our encounters with Smartfood Select’s snacks have consisted of popcorn only; and while puffed corn may resemble, and sort of sound like popcorn, the two are worlds apart.  Smartfoods Selects puffed corn is much more like what we know as cheese curls or puffs, only smaller, and obviously trying to mimic and represent popcorn (minus the annoying hulls and kernels!).

Smartfood Selects makes sure to remind us that “sour cream and onion work so well together because the cooling effect of sour cream balances the up-front, tangy flavor of onion,” and inform us that they “added a tasteful touch of herbs to complement this classic, popular flavor combination!!”  Well, luckily for us, everything they told us is very true.  The white and green flavor dusting was a terrifically tasty, rich, creamy, sour and pungent flavor rendition.  Each puffed corn “kernel” was well coated with the potent seasoning. Smartfood Selects sour cream and onion recipe appears to include a good dose of garlic in the background, with some fresh lift from a scattering of bright, herbacious parsley as well.

Whether it is popcorn, or puffed corn, Smartfood Selects seems to have a pretty great understanding of what flavors will go well with it!  While these Sour Cream Onion Puff Corns may not be quite as lip-smacking as their popcorns that we’ve enjoyed, they are certainly still notable and snack worthy!

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: Zapp’s – Limited Edition Sweet Creole Onion New Orleans Kettle Style Potato Chips

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Rating: ©©-3/4 chips  (tolerable)

Zapp's - Sweet Creole Onion

Comments:

Zapp’s makes some really great kettle cooked potato chips, and we have touted their lip-smacking tastiness plenty of times on this site, however, this time we simply cannot share the same enthusiasm!

Thank goodness these Sweet Creole Onion potato chips are only a Limited Edition for Zapp’s because they certainly do not accurately exemplify what we have tasted with any of their other flavors!

The back of Zapp’s bag states that the “Sweet Creole Onion….are known for their robust onion flavor, with a mellow sweetness.”  Well, that’s not exactly what we experienced, rather we would have to describe what we tasted as the exact opposite of that – ‘ROBUST SWEETNESS, with a mellow onion flavor!’  In other words, sugary sweet onion flavored chips!  The onion aspect was actually rather creamy, sweet and mellow, but nearly indistinguishable due to the level of sweetness.  And, unfortunately the salt level was not nearly enough to cut through, and compensate for the sweetness!  We usually love the sweet and salty combo, but this was not a very good rendition.

Luckily for us, Zapp’s semi-thick, crunchy kettle cooked potato chips themselves are always great!  When it comes to frying sliced potatoes, Zapp’s really knows what they’re doing.  However, when it comes to evening mixing sugar and salt, it appears they may need a little practice!

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)

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©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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Herr’s – Sweet Onion Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©©-1/2 chips (lip-smacking)

Herr's - Sweet Onion Potato Chips

Comments:

Herr’s Sweet Onion Potato Chips have been out there available for quite a while now, but for one unfortunate reason or another, we just never seemed to cross paths with them.  That is until now!

Be forewarned: these chips are very sweet, not overly sweet in our opinion, but certainly on the verge, and possibly passed that verge for some.  The sweetness aspect of the seasoning blend consists of dehydrated onions, brown sugar and white sugar.  The addition of dehydrated onions is a new one for us, and it definitely provides a powerfully-pungent, concentrated, sweet onion essence.  The sugars interplay with the salty-savory notes of the chip very well.

Each chip was colorfully coated with bright green specs, which we are guessing represents another onion presence in the form of chives (although, we did not see them listed among the ingredients anywhere).  The flavor combination subtly evoked thoughts of a mild sour cream and onion flavor, only sweeter, and with a wonderful addition of garlic.  The piquant garlic heat lingers ever so lightly in the background, and helps to add some much needed flavor dimension to the chips, that otherwise were close to verging on one-note!

Combine the super sweet, salty and savory flavoring with Herr’s large and extra crispy, wide ridged potato chips, and we’ve got some deliciously tasty chips.  We could help ourselves, this bag was devoured in no time, and now we just have to wait until that next time they cross our paths again!!

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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