REVIEW: Wai Lana – Lime Chili Cassava Chips

Rating: ©©©-1/2 chips  (notable)

Comments:

All right, now we have officially seen it all.  The chip industry, will never be the same.  It is one thing for a rap or country star to endorse some chips, and it’s no big deal for a race car driver or comedian to have their own line of chips, but when a globally renowned yoga guru decides to release her own line of chips, we just can’t believe it?!?

Apparently, according to Wai Lana’s website bio page, “it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find anyone as influential as Wai Lana in bringing yoga to the mainstream. Her internationally aired TV series continues to attract a huge audience and has played a key role in yoga’s skyrocketing popularity. Famous for making it easy and effective, Wai Lana excels at making the ancient art of yoga a life-enhancing experience for anyone who practices along with her.” (www.wailana.com).

To be completely honest, prior to these chips, we had never heard of Wai Lana, and her ginormous yoga brand, but as you all know, our hobbies consist of eating and writing about chips, not yoga.  However, with the release of these Chili Lime Cassava Chips, Wai Lana is trying to bring the two disconnected interests closer together.  Do the two belong together?  Sure, why not!

According to Wikipedia “Cassava is the third most important source of calories in the tropics, after rice and maize.”  In other words, cassava are more popular than potatoes in many parts of the world.  Wonder why we don’t see more cassava chips then?  Wai Lana’s cassava chips are not like traditional cassava or potato chips that are simply fried and sliced cross sections of a cassava.  Instead, Wai Lana has opted for the lighter and healthier popped version of the chip.  How this popping of the chip is executed is still beyond us?  What it does texturally to the chip is expand and puff its body, making the chip lighter, and more airy, and we think more crunchy.  We don’t necessarily love the chips’ texture, but they were easy to eat, and a perfectly acceptable vehicle for delivering loads of flavor into our mouths.

These chips are heavily coated with plenty of chile and lime seasoning.  However, we think that Wai Lana is not doing them justice by simply calling them chili lime.  At the very least we would have named them sweet-chili-lime, as there is loads of cane sugar mingling with the spicy acidic flavors.  At the most, we would have named them sweet-chili-lime-leek-thyme-rosemary, and that would have been a more accurate and fun flavor name.

Now that we’ve finished the whole bag we think we better do some stretches, and poses!

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

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RATING: Old Dutch Gourmet – Honey Dijon Thick Cut Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©© chips  (lip-smacking)

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REVIEW: Simply 7 – Sea Salt Hummus Chips

Rating: ©©©© chips  (lip-smacking)

Comments:

Simply 7 produces three types of chips – Hummus Chips (present), Pomegranate Chips, and Lentil Chips.  They are all unique and fantastic in their own right, and luckily we have more to review!

The Hummus chips, just like their Lentil and Pomegranate cousins, have a unique texture, and flavor.  We still slightly prefer the flavor, and texture, of the Lentil chips, but we can appreciate that the chickpea flour exhibits a certain clean, smooth, and “bean-y” quality & flavor to the chips, as well as, providing more than a few heath benefits.  The chips are definitely light and crunchy, making it almost too easy to chomp through a bag before you even realize it.

The Sea Salt chips were very well seasoned.  Each hummus chip, in addition to the simple sea salt, was also thoroughly coated with an ample dose of those traditional hummus flavors – tahini, lemon, olive oil and of course garlic.  Lots of garlic.  We were a bit pleasantly surprised to find the hummus flavors so pronounced, we honestly thought that the chips were simply going to taste like salty chips.

Stay tuned for reviews on the rest of the Simply 7 family coming soon!!

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 from Simply 7 for review

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REVIEW: Pan De Oro – Blue Sesame Tortilla Chips

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

Comments:

Pan de Oro means “bread of gold” in Spanish.  However, in this case, the “bread” appears to be made of precious sapphire colored blue corn, rather than precious metals.

Pan de Oro’s Blue Sesame Tortilla Chips, their entire line-up in fact, are among the minority of chips in the market today that without any indication on the packaging, we could have told with one bite that they were all natural.  These chips proudly carry just about every healthy label that one chip can support, and yet taste as good, and crunchy, and “greasy”, as those unhealthy tortilla chips.

The tortilla chips are semi-thick, but not very dense, with a light and crispy crunch.  One taster described the chips as being flaky.  You can definitely taste the difference, and the additional dimension, that the addition of the sesame seeds adds.  The chips encompass a wonderfully rich nuttiness that seems to pop with toasty baked flavor.

We love how the dark blue corn can impart such a rustic blue color to the chips, and yet is completely all natural, no coloring needed.  Blue corn tortilla chips are our all-time favorite tortilla chips – due to appearance, flavor and texture.  And we are about to make another big declaration here.  Similar to Junk Food Guy’s declaration of Cabo Chips being the BEST tortilla chips he had ever eaten (we agree with his enthusiasm of those chips, they are some truly great tortilla chips), but for our money, and tummies, we have decided that Pan de Oro’s complete line-up of all-natural, organic, Non-HMO, whole grain, etc., etc….tortilla chips, are the BEST over-all “plain”, unseasoned, line-up that we’ve ever tasted.  It is all about the chips, with these chips!  We’ve had better individual bags, but each and everyone of their varieties, is exquisite.  We only wish that they were sold in our region!!!

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 from Pan de Oro for review

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REVIEW: Ziggy’s Kettle Corn – Sweet & Salty with Himalayan Sea Salt

Rating: ©©©©© chips  (“A” list)

Comments:

We are making a declaration for the year of 2013 here at Chip Review.  2013 is the Year of Great Popcorn.  We are only a third of a way through the 2013 calendar year, and we have already tasted, and reviewed, so many amazingly delicious popcorns, and kettle corns!!  We’ve enjoyed everything from terrific versions of classic flavors like white cheddar popcorn , or caramel & cheese Chicago Mix, to creative new takes like sweet & salty cheddar, or kettle corn with black licorice flavored hints of Anise.

Well, Ziggy’s Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn with Himalayan Sea Salt can officially be added to that amazing line-up!  Great, fluffy-puffy, light, round and full popped kernels, make up the majority of the bag.  At first taste, Ziggy’s Sweet & Salty may seem like any other stereotypical kettle corn.   However, after just a few handfuls we realized that there was definitely something different about this stuff.  Just enough of a twist from the addition of Himalayan Sea Salt, yet it doesn’t deviate from the authenticity of the classic sweet and salty recipe, but simply enhances the overall flavor experience tremendously!

We are not familiar at all with Himalayan Sea Salt (and our guess is that neither are you?), but based on the little bit of research we did on it, as we munched through Ziggy’s Kettle Corn, we liked everything we read about.  To try and describe the salt to you won’t do it justice, but we would describe it as adding an earthy mineral, rustic, slightly spicy, deep and rich sea water depth to the popcorn, as well as, a some colorful hues of pink and black.  Seriously, we’re not exactly sure what’s causing it, but our tongues have a little bit of a magical “spicy” zip going on to them.

The sweet and salty combo is perfect.  We cannot stop eating this stuff.  Ziggy’s Kettle Corn rivals any hot and fresh kettle corn that we have tasted from the art fairs and carnivals over the years.

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

Popcorn provided to Chip Review by Ziggy’s Kettle Corn for review

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REVIEW: Pan De Oro – Multi-Grain Tortilla Chips

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

Comments:

Pan de Oro – “bread of gold”.  However, in this case the “bread” appears to be made of precious grains like corn, rice, and poppy, flax, and sesame seeds rather than precious metals.

Pan de Oro’s Multi-Grain Tortilla Chips are among the minority of chips in the market today, that even without them indicating that their chips are all natural on the packaging, we could tell with just one bite.  These chips proudly carry just about every healthy label that one chip can support.  To top it all off, they are loaded with whole grains and seeds that add great texture and flavor to the chips.

Pan de Oro’s tortilla chips are semi-thick, but not very dense, with a hearty, and yet crispy and airy crunch.  You can definitely taste the difference in the quality of grains and seeds being used, as well as, the cooking technique.  These multi-grain chips explore a wonderfully rich nuttiness that seems to pop with toasty baked flavor.  They remind us an awful lot of some other really great multi-grain chip – Wild Riceworks.

Another fine tortilla chip from Pan de Oro. We sure wish these chips were available locally, they would definitely be a part of our standard tortilla chip rotation.

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 from Pan de Oro for review

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RATING: Lundberg – Pico de Gallo Bean & Rice Chips

Rating: ©©©© chips  (lip-smacking)

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