REVIEW: Cheetos Sweetos Limited Edition! – Cinnamon Sugar Puffs

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

Anytime we see a new sweet variation from one of our typically savory snack companies, we are hesitant to give them a shot.  Which is why last year around this time, when Cheetos first released these Sweetos, we simply refrained from trying them…  Now that we have gone and bitten the bullet….

WHAT WERE WE THINKING!?!?!

Seriously, these are really quite delicious!

That’s right, every once in a while the chip companies can completely surprise us here at Chip Review, and create a fantastically sweet, and in this case, ever so slightly savory snack.  We would place Cheetos Sweetos smack dab along side other notable savory-gone-sweet successful snacks such as: Pretzel Crisps Cinnamon Toast, Snyder’s of Hanover’s S’mores Pretzel Pieces, and Pringles Tortillas Cinnamon Sugar (which in our books is some fine company to be included among).

Cheetos Sweetos Cinnamon Sugar Puffs are shaped like, we’re going to go with, sledding inner tubes – despite the fact that Chester has opted for the more classical racer sled.  The puffs are approximately half the size of a Funyun ring, but their texture is eerily similar.  The Cheetos do not exhibit their usual melt-y cheese puff texture, but more of a light and crispy, layered ring puff.

The ultra classic Cinnamon and Sugar combination works wonders with the puffs.  Delivering all at once an aromatically sweet treat, as well as, a savory richness.  A quick glance at the ingredients list shows that this savory layer has to come from the inclusion of buttermilk.  Everyone who was chomping on these agreed – they are delicious, and hard to stop eating.

Probably the best way that we can describe them to you is that they are like savory Cheetos ring puffs that have been crossed with the greatest of all sweet cereals – Waffle Crisp.  A marriage of rich, savory, butter notes dancing with sweet maple like syrup, and spicy, aromatic cinnamon.  Beautiful.

If you are fans of Cheetos (and we’re guessing that you are – who isn’t?), and you also like some sweet treats every now and again, then we suggest you give these a try.

Cheetos discovered at Walmart, Pontiac, Illinois

Cheetos Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Lay’s Stax – Xtra Flamin’ Hot

Rating: ©©©-1/2 chips  (notable)

Apparently, we rather enjoyed Lay’s lip-smacking Flamin’ Hot Potato Crisps when we reviewed their original variation nearly four years ago…

Lay’s has now followed Chester’s lead, and taken their Flamin’ Hots, and XTRA-fied them.

Unfortunately, just like with Cheetos original Flamin’ Hots, the XTRA sequel version falls short of the classic.

That being said, they do still bring a lot of that unmistakable Flamin’ Hot flavoring!

And, they most certainly, without a doubt, bring a lot of XTRA heat on them.

The inner curve side of the crisps are absolutely caked with a thick layer of electric red Flamin’ Hot powder.

The seasoning and the potato crisps do not jive in harmony the way that other Flamin’ Hot snacks have.

In the end, if you like spicy chips, and you are already a fan of Lay’s Stax, then you are certainly going to like these.

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

Stax discovered at Quik Trip; Clayton, Missouri

Lay’s Stax Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Paqui Tortilla Chips – Nacho Cheese Especial

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

By now we’re guessing – NO! We’re hoping!! – that most of you chip lovers out there are familiar with Paqui Tortilla Chips.  (If you are not, we are in fact slightly judging you and letting you know that you should be flying out the door right now to try them!)

Their most recent, insanely spicy, venture has been all over the Twitter-sphere!  You may have heard about it, the #OneChipChallenge?

Somehow, Paqui’s Nacho Cheese Especial chips snuck onto the chip market, and we didn’t even realize that we had never reviewed them.

And as usual, these Paqui chips are lip-smacking!

Take this next statement as you will, but these chips taste an awful lot like the classic Doritos Nacho Cheese chips, in the best ways possible.

Same deliciously cheesy seasoning, only with maybe a touch more zing. 

Extremely light, crispy, airy, and flaky corn tortilla chips.  But, to top it off, also with some real corn flavor depth.

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

Chips discovered at 7-eleven; Addison, Illinois

Paqui Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Paldo – Crab Chips

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

Do you like crab?

Do you like chips?

Do you think you would like crab flavored chips??

Well, for the most part, we here at Chip Review do not necessarily enjoy eating sea-food flavored chips.  We just don’t love the combination of chips, with the flavors of the sea, or sea creatures.

Still, that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate when a company puts forth some chips that, despite our disgust with them, are impressively accurate.

Paldo’s Crab Chips taste like shrimp that have been sprinkled with a light dusting of sugar.  Their seafood essence is impressively spot on!

The chips themselves are of an unusual variety.  An odd puffed wheat creation.  Sort of like a cheese puff crossed with a Popchip.

Well, there you have it.  Anyone else out there tried them yet?  Thoughts?  As always we would love to hear what you think.  Agree or disagree.  Let us know.

Crab Chips provided to Chip Review by MunchPak for review

Paldo Official Website

MunchPak Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Zapp’s – VooDoo Heat New Orleans Kettle Style Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©©-3/4 chips  (lip-smacking)

Long, long ago, in a place far, far away (we’re talking at least eight, maybe even ten miles) Chip Review fell hand over mouthfuls for Zapp’s Original VooDoo chips….

So, when we first heard about Zapp’s new HEAT variation of the original lip-smacking chips we had high hopes.  Not high hopes like, oh we sure do hope this pull-tab is a $2 winner.  No!  High hopes as in these new Zapp’s chips could just be flippin’ amazing!

Before we go ahead and crunch into these new Zapp’s, perhaps a little backstory is in need.

According to Zapp’s themselves, the:

“Voodoo flavor is a result of an accident. An employee was moving a pallet of spices off the top shelf, and dropped it. While cleaning it up, someone stuck their finger into the mixture of about 5 flavors and pronounced it great.”

Now, if we had to gander a guess as to how the VooDoo Heat flavor came about, it would go something like this…

“The VooDoo Heat flavor is a result of someone (perhaps us, who knows) saying that the VooDoo flavor is lip-smacking, and wouldn’t they taste EVEN BETTER if we made them even SPICIER?!?!”

With Zapp’s original VooDoo chips we didn’t understand what exactly the VooDoo name was meant to represent (of course other than Zapp’s is New Orleans), but with these new chips, we totally get it.  These chips encompass, and deliver, and absolutely cast a delicious dusting of VOODOO flavor Magic all over the New Orleans Kettle Style Potato Chips!

You really have to taste these chips to really understand the wonderful circus of flavors they have going on.  First and foremost, the chips deliver a pungent zing of zippy vinegar.  Then came a sugary sweetness that paired nicely with the vinegar’s acidity.  Next, came the heat, and a good level of it for sure.  One taster thought that they may have tasted horseradish…?  Finally, we tasted a touch of sweet and tangy and vegetal tomato flavor, which helped round out the entire flavor combo.

All said and done, probably the best way that we can describe this delicious flavor to you would be to compare it to some spicy version of an American Chinese breaded chicken dish….sweet, tangy, sticky, spicy, and delicious in all of the right ways.

As far as the potato chips themselves go, Zapp’s knows what they’re doing.   Their Cajun Kettle Recipe makes for some really crunchy, perfectly greasy, semi-thick potato chips, that we could munch on all day.

Overall, we were really, really impressed with these chips!  And, although Zapp’s aren’t always readily available here in the Midwest, we know for certain that these chips are almost always available at Potbelly!

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

Zapp’s provided to Chip Review by MunchPak for review

Zapp’s Official Website

MunchPak Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Tic Tac Snack Original (Indonesia)

Rating: ©©-3/4 chips  (tolerable)

Hello all!  It’s time to introduce chip-snack-thing #2 from our gift box full of goodies that we recently received from our new friends at MunchPak.

We first mentioned this fantastic goodie box a couple of weeks ago in our review of Japanese Consomme flavored Pringles; which we thought were decently tasty.

MunchPak’s goodie box included chips from all over the globe.  From Germany and Korea, to Ireland and Japan.  Today’s reviewed snack apparently hails from Indonesia!  Exactly which one of Indonesia’s 13,000 islands these came from, we have no clue.

Our initial thoughts of Tic Tac’s Gobstopper-size snack balls were actually of Newton’s balls; which you may technically know better as Newton’s cradle.  And if that still doesn’t ring a bell for ya, we’re talking about that thing – CLICK-CLACK – that sits on top of those nice corner office desks – CLICK-CLACK – with the metal balls hanging by strings….the ones that never, ever stop CLICK-CLACKING once they start going.  We’re guessing that it has something to do with Physics…  Either way, Tic Tac’s little white snack balls made us think of Newton’s balls, probably because of their name more than anything.

Second thoughts…..these are not THOSE Tic Tacs!  These snack balls WILL NOT improve your breath in any way, shape, or form!

Tic Tac’s texture really reminded us of Kix cereal.  And that was because, well, it had exactly the same texture as Kix cereal.  Light and crunchy, and sort of melt-able like the best cheese puffs.  However, we’re guessing that Tic Tac’s may or may not be kid tested, and we’re certainly hoping that they are not mother approved…..

Let us put it this way, Tic Tacs do not taste bad necessarily, they sort of have this savory-sweet-salty thing going on.  They are made up of tapioca powder (safe enough), palm oil (high saturated fat), and flavored with garlic, MSG, and…. Aspartame!  Oh yeah, the old A.M.G. flavor combo!!  In other words, Tic Tacs are probably the farthest thing away from being all natural that we have come across in a long time.  Honestly, it was sort of hard eating these after we knew that they basically consisted of two artificial flavor enhancers that may do amazing things for flavoring food, but that have also been known to be unhealthy for our bodies.

There you have it, another foreign pack of munchies from our MunchPak box of goodies.

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

Tic Tacs provided to Chip Review by MunchPak for review

Dua Kelinci Official Website

MunchPak Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Fresh Thyme Farmers Market – Jalapeño Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

Rating: ©©-1/4 chips  (tolerable)

Do not let it deceive you, Fresh Thyme Farmers Market is not in fact a farmers market that specializes in fresh thyme….  It’s really just another grocery store hopping onto the farmer, fresh, healthy, etc., etc., grocery store bandwagon.

And, like any good grocery store worth a damn, Fresh Thyme of course has an aisle, or maybe it was only a portion of an aisle, dedicated to the greatest snacking food in the world – chips!

Within that aisle were these jalapeño flavored kettle cooked potato chips, branded with the Fresh Thyme Farmers Market name.

Unfortunately, Fresh Thyme’s chips are really not that good.

The kettle cooked chips themselves may in fact have been THE THINNEST, kettle cooked, potato chips that we have ever encountered.  Very thin.

This thinness resulted in an extremely light crunch, and an invariably greasy chip, with no distinguishable potato flavor.

The jalapeño seasoning was potent enough to cover up any grease flavor, but it was also more of a spicy seasoned salt blend, than it was jalapeño in any way.

In the end, just really salty, salty, salty.  Dash of onion here, a splash of garlic there, and maybe a sprinkle of jalapeño at the end.

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

Chips discovered at Fresh Thyme Farmers Market; Downers Grove, Illinois

Fresh Thyme Farmers Market Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list