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

BIJOU-REVIEW: Deep River Snacks Honchos – Ranch Tortilla Chips

Rating: ©©-1/4 chips  (tolerable)

We have been huge fans of Deep River Snacks for quite some time.  We respect the company’s decision to provide us with a more nutritious snack option, and we quite simply love a lot of their chips.

Unfortunately, these Ranch flavored Honchos are not among that long list of the Deep River chips that we do love.

We were going to simply chock these chips up to being tortilla chips, and that Deep River Snacks perhaps had not yet perfected their new Honchos line, but then we remembered that a couple of years ago we reviewed, and loved, their lip-smacking Peach Habanero Tortilla Chips.  Today these chips are apart of the Honchos line, but back when we reviewed them they were just tortilla chips with In Your Face Flavor!

But, enough about those great chips, today we are dealing with these only tolerable chips.

At first we thought that we were going to really like these chips.  All the usual ranch flavor notes were present and accounted for, but then somewhere in the background was a weird, sorta tangy and very salty intruder…..

And there it was, smack-dab in the middle of the ingredients list – cheddar cheese?!?  Huh?  Sorry, cheddar cheese is not meant to be used in ranch dressing.

Unfortunately, that is not our only issue with these chips.  We are also not very huge fans of the tortilla chips themselves.  Maybe we let the chips slip too close to their expiration date, or maybe they had already taken a wrong turn down the too hard and crunchy chip highway.

No light and crispy chips here.  Simply too dense, too hard and rigid tortilla chips for lthe likes of our palettes.

Sorry Deep River but these are not among our favorites from you.

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 Deep River Snacks for review

Deep River Snacks Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

RATING: Lay’s Kettle Cooked Limited Edition Flavor – Spicy Chili & Cheese Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

As we thought to ourselves “Lay’s All New Limited Edition Spicy Chili & Cheese Kettle Cooked Potato Chips are a pretty darn tasty addition to the L.K.C. line-up….and yet, at the same time…..also very familiar.”

Apparently, a little bit too familiar.  A few minutes of Chip Review research and we discovered that a couple of years back we tasted and rated (but no review) Lay’s Kettle Cooked Spicy Cayenne & Cheese Potato Chips, or in other words, what we’re guessing were the SAME EXACT CHIPS!!  We can’t verify the accuracy of this statement for, but if we could locate the  Cayenne & Cheese list of ingredients we’re more than certain they would look exactly like THESE.  We mean come’on, both bags are using the SAME EXACT INGREDIENT PIC!  Bunch of kettle cooked, heavily seasoned potato chips, with a large block of white cheese, and a couple of red chili/cayenne peppers sitting directly in front.

So, long story short, we’ve eaten these chips before.  That being said, technically we did not review them the first go around, so we will take this time to scribe a few descriptive details regarding their flavor.

Lay’s Spicy Chili & Cheese seasoning is not lacking in flavor.  To more or less quote the great Junk Food Guy, these taste a lot like Spicy Nacho Cheese flavored Doritos did a bit too much mingling with Ruffles Sour Cream & Cheddar chips.  In other words, the seasoning has plenty of salty and tangy cheese flavor, a decent enough dash of chili pepper heat, and a surprisingly tasty splash of tart sour cream.  The flavor combo has been used plenty of times before, but that does not make it any less tasty.

All in all, tasty “NEW” limited RE-edition of Lay’s.  We’ll enjoy them while they last.

Chips discovered at Walmart; Villa Park, Illinois

Lay’s Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Popchips Potato Ridges – Tangy Barbeque

Rating: ©©©© chips  (lip-smacking)

OK, we are starting to feel a bit redundant here but Popchips just continues to impress us again, and again, with their Potato Ridges line of potato chips.

Popchips new Tangy Barbeque Potato Ridges are yet another lip-smackingly solid addition to the new-ish line of ridged potato crisps.

It has now become apparent to us here at Chip Review that the unifying element that makes this line of Popchips so great is their potato RIDGES texture.

So as to not have to recreate the descriptive words to describe these chips once again:

The Ridges take Popchips into a tasty terrain that we have never encountered with their chips before – SubstantionalPotatofulLand.  We have always thought of Popchips as light, and airy, and crispy, but these Ridges are hearty, sturdy, crunchy, and packed with lots of potato flavor!  We really like’em.  Same standard shape as traditional potato Popchips, only now those potato Popchips a little bit thick (we think), and they have ridges in them (duh!).

As for the Tangy Barbeque, well it is definitely more tangy than TANGY.  Quite frankly they taste an awful lot like Popchips regular bargeque chips.  Slightly smoky, on the sweeter side, with just a lightest hint of tang.  Nothing unusual, but perfectly eatable.

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

Chips discovered at Walmart; Villa Park, Illinois

Popchips Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Popchips Potato Ridges – Chili Cheese

Rating: ©©©© chips  (lip-smacking)

Ever since we tasted Popchips lip-smacking Potato Ridges earlier this year we have been excited to try another flavor from this same “new” style of Ridges Popchips.  Well, finally that time has come, and the newest flavor offering is Chili Cheese.

First of all, the chili cheese flavor is not as tasty as Popchips’ cheddar & sour cream flavor.

Second of all, they are still very crunchable.

There may not be anything extraordinary about them – they don’t taste like some extra funky or tangy cheese, and they don’t use some especially unique chip flavor chili seasoning like Ancho, or Aleppo – but, overall, they are exactly what you would think, or in the end hope, they would taste like…..

Delivering an ever so slightly spicy chili flavor, with a good dashing of salty cheese powder.

Certainly savory.

And maybe a touch heavy handed with the chili powder…but then again, Popchips is making sure that there is no denying what we are tasting.

The seasoning mingles pretty well with Popchips greatest chip creation – their ridged style of potato chips.

You know what, maybe this seasoning would pair even better with some ridged corn tortilla version of PopChips that have not yet been created – but they should be!

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

Chips discovered at Jewel Osco; Clarendon Hills, Illinois

Popchips Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Goldbaum’s – Barbecue Multigrain Quinoa Crisps

Rating: ©©-3/4 chips  (tolerable)

Another all natural, wholesome, gluten, wheat, and a handful of other things free, multigrain snack option from Goldbaum’s.

We’ve tasted an array of different “healthier” snack food options from Goldbaum’s now, and for the most part they been pretty good.

These latest barbecue flavored multigrain quinoa crisps fall right there inline with the rest.

The quinoa crisps’ texture is just sort of……off, or off-putting, let’s say.  Kind of stale, with a soft crunch.

Goldbaum’s tries to redeem the crisps by dousing them with a heavy orangish-red seasoning coat, but it does not quite do the trick.

The barbecue seasoning blend reminds us of a Texas BBQ sauce that is heavy on the Hickory smoke essence.

The inclusion of paprika adds another smoky, and slightly sweet, note, while some sort of chili adds just a touch of peppery heat.

We recognize the necessity of these crunchy crisps in the snack market, but that doesn’t mean that we would be choosing them over tastier, more unhealthy, options.

Crisps provided to Chip Review by Goldbaum’s for review

Goldbaum’s Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Food Should Taste Good – Potato & Chive Tortilla Chips

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

Food, should taste good….don’t you think?

Just the other day we were asking ourselves, when do you think we will finally see some all natural chive flavored multigrain pita puffs?  Today, that question is answered.

These are a delight to crunch on.

The snack is certainly more about the pita puffs themselves than any chive seasoning.

Light and airy and crispy, with just a touch of sweetness recognizable on the tail end, from the inclusion of some honey.

F.S.T.G. keeps it really simple with the seasoning, which results in an extremely subtle chive flavor (again, letting the puffs be the stars of the show).  In fact, and we’re not joking around here, all there is to the seasoning is chive, and every chip’s BFF salt.

Discovered at Walmart; Villa Park, Illinois

Food Should Taste Good Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list