REVIEW: Herr’s Kettle Cooked – Cheddar Bacon Jalapeno Potato Chips

Rating: ©©-3/4 chips  (tolerable)

Comments:

CHEDDAR – BACON – JALAPENO – OH MY!!

Based solely on flavor concept alone, this combo would seem like it simply could not fail.  A culinary slam dunk. First of all, jalapeno is the spicy chile pepper of choice for every brand of chips these days.  Secondly, jalapeno and cheddar is a proven and tasty classic flavor combination.  Lastly, everyone knows, and should agree, that everything tastes better with bacon.  So, one plus two plus three should equal a new flavor home run!  Right?

Unfortunately, for you, and us, the stars did not align this time.  Rather, A plus B plus C, equaled a culinary strike out in our opinion.  In other words, they did not taste very good together.  Right off, Herr’s crunchy kettle cooked chips start off sugary sweet.  What exactly the sweetness is there for, or supposed to represent, we’re not exactly sure.  Maybe it is supposed to act as a part of the bacon aspect, or perhaps to help counter the peculiar and overly salty bacon seasoning.  Either way, it is not very effective.

We are at a cross roads as to whether these flavors were not executed well, or executed well together.  The seasoning blend is not very cheesy; despite an ample dusting of bright orange powder.  The bacon seasoning is slightly smoky, slightly porky, very-very salty, and leaves an off-putting aftertaste in our mouths.  The jalapeno aspect, practically nonexistent.  Maybe the tiniest bit of tingly in the backs of our throats after countless handfuls of chips, but with none of the chile flavor.  All together, the chips sort of taste like some super salty BBQ flavored chips.

Each of the three flavors, on their own, were executed to satisfactory standards at best.  So, maybe these flavors are not meant to be joined together, and maybe they would bring too much competition against each other to ever be a happy family, however, it seems as though they were not given a shot from the get go!

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

Chips provided to Chip Review by Herr’s Foods, Inc. for review

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REVIEW: Pepperidge Farm Goldfish – Cheddar Bacon Puffs

Rating: ©©©© chips  (lip-smacking)

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Comments:

From the depths of the salty-snack-sea comes the latest wonderfully cheesy venture from everyone’s favorite little golden gill’d swimmers.  Except for this time around Pepperidge Farm’s Goldfish have decided to do some laps in the deep end of the pool and try their best at backstroking their way into the cheesy puff industry (which is definitely not easy to do)!

We noticed the other day that someone over at the Impulsive Buy made the comment “bacon can be an assertive flavor and, if not treated with care, will stomp all over your sandwich, maple-glazed doughnut, or, in this case, cheese puff.”  Well, we say that there are too many snacks out there who claim to bring the bacon, and just don’t deliver on the promise.  So as far as treating that bacon with care……

“To pork with that!!!”   Give us BACON!!!  Like that silly dog on tv says “Bacon, bacon, bacon!”  Bring on the smoky, salty, piggy flavor!!  Go pork, or go home. Take us to “Porkapalooza” please!

Luckily for us Mr. Golffish Puff has brought that bacon in full force.  Just one glance over to the ingredients list and it is clear that Pepperidge Farm was not messing around with the promise of delivering on that bacon flavor.  Vegetarians beware, these are not for you.  The ingredients include: dehydrated pork stock, natural smoke flavoring, and bacon flavored pork fat!?!  Let’s repeat that: dehydrated pork stock, natural smoke flavoring, and bacon flavored pork fat!!! Need we say more?!?  Even with all of that porky goodness, we actually thought that the bacon presence was not too overbearing, and integrated rather nicely with the salty cheddar cheese seasoning.  If you like bacon flavored snacks, we’re quite certain that you would most likely enjoy these.

The texture of these Goldfish Puffs is reminiscent of some long lost cheese puffed snack that we consumed quite often during our youth.  We’re talking about the classic Planters Cheese Balls!!  Anyone else out there grow up devouring those perfectly pop-able cheese rounds?  If you loved them, you’re going to love these!  The Goldfish Puff’s texture is slightly dense, and crunchy, with a more toothsome mouth-feel than your typical, light and airy, industry cheese puffs (ie. Cheetos, Herr’s, etc.).  These Puffs are a bit more than double the size of the original Goldfish Crackers, and they are perfect for popping one at a time, or even a handful, into your mouths.  Either way, the bag probably won’t last that long.

Not only do these puffs taste great, but it felt like we also got our daily intake of protein from them as well.  We didn’t quite love them as much as the Buffalo Wing flavor, but still a great puff.

For two different perspectives on these new Goldfish Puffs make sure to check out:

The Impulsive Buy

Junk Food Guy (JFG appeared to be as impressed with these as we were!  However, we cannot agree with his comment that these Goldfish Puffs taste anything remotely close to Herr’s Bacon Cheddar Puffs.)

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

Chip Ratings Scale:

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©© – tolerable

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REVIEW: Ruffles Ultimate – Loaded Bacon & Cheddar Potato Skins

Rating: ©©©-1/2 chips  (notable)

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Comments:

“Now With Deeper Ridges”?!?!?

Ruffles Ultimate wavy ripple potato chips were already what Chip Review has declared the deepest ripple-y-ridged potato chips we had ever laid lips on, and now they are supposed to be even more wavy???  Wow!  That’s all there is to say about that “WOW!”.  Sadly, upon opening said ‘Deeper Ridged’ potato chip bag, we came to discover that these Ruffles were no Ultimate, or deeper ridged, than any of the other flavors we had tasted.  That being said, the Ruffles chip ripples are so deep that our tongues could barely reach the bottoms of their potato chip canyons!

These Loaded Bacon & Cheddar Potato Skins mark the fourth flavor of Ruffles Ultimate potato chips that we have tasted and reviewed.  So far, we would rank them as number three, among the four, right behind Kickin’ Jalapeno Ranch and Sweet & Smokin’ BBQ, and ahead of Tangy Honey Mustard respectfully.  Like all of the flavors before them, these chips do not go lightly on the seasoning, however, the flavor recipe is only satisfactory at best.  All of the necessary flavor components are present, but together, the combination, underwhelms.  We taste a lot of smooth sour cream, some bland cheddar cheese, some onion, representing the chives, and then of course, the fake, sweet, smoky and salty bacon aspect (that always reminds us of Baco Bits).

One small detail, or issue, that a handful of us at Chip Review had with these chips, was something we like to call “false advertising”.  Maybe more accurately, “slightly misleading advertising”.  You see, there has to be some reason that Ruffles would deliberately enlarge and highlight the two ingredients BACON & CHEDDAR apart from the Loaded Potato Skins flavor name.  Why?  Because those two ingredients are the best!  And, Ruffles had us believe that were to be accentuated and emboldened, but alas, the chips are simply fake smoky, sour cream and cheddar potato chip.  Eatable yes, but not very reminiscent of the warm, fatty, cohesive, and ultra comforting loaded potato skins!

In the end, at the very least, Ruffles Ultimate chips sure are a lot of fun for our mouths to crunch on.  However, we will forever prefer a bag of Ruffles good old original ‘The Works’ over these any day of the week!

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

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REVIEW: Wheat Crunchies – Crispy Bacon

Rating: ©©©© chips  (lip-smacking)

Comments:

Wheat Crunchies: the slightly burnt and crispy bacon flavored wheat snack in tubular form!!  Correct: the very tasty, slightly burnt and crispy bacon……  A little while ago we reviewed a different (albeit, just as tasty), bacon flavored snack called Frazzles, which were also given to us by our U.K. buddy Josh, over at Crisp Nation.  Is it just us, or does the United Kingdom have some type of infatuation with bacon flavored snacks?  The good thing being that the infatuation leads to plenty of delicious bacon flavored snacks for us to review.

To try and describe these Wheat Crunchies, the most plain and simple way that we can, imagine that someone has crisped up (slightly over-cooked) the bacon, rolled the slices into little tubes, and packaged them into a little bag.  The bacon essence that they exude is freaky.  They honestly taste like little, crunchy, bacon crispies.  And they smell like bacon too.  They smell as if we just baked a big batch of bacon, left our home, and came back to that rich, smoky, sweet, porky smell.  Bacon on the go.  Their texture however, is a little bit weird.  The “wheaty tubes” (their words, not ours), sort of have the texture of a corn chip, but they don’t really have any of the recognizable corn flavor.  In our opinion, the tubes are solely for delivering the bacon flavor into our bellies.

Isn’t it funny how differently meat flavored chips can taste?  Some are supposed to taste like bacon, and just don’t taste like bacon, or meat, or even good for that matter.  While others like these Wheat Crunchies seem to have figured out that magical snack balance and given us something that tastes good and meaty.  They may not necessarily make our Top 5 Meat Flavored Chips, but who knows, maybe they would make yours.  Make sure to let us know at our meat flavored chips poll.

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

Frazzles provided to Chip Review from our good friend Josh at Crisp Nation

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REVIEW: President’s Choice World of Flavours – Canadian Burger Potato Chips

Rating: ©©© chips  (notable)

Comments:

A little while back we did a chip swap with our friend Dani at The Daily Yum.  We sent her a bag of each of the three ‘Flavor Finalists’ for Lay’s ‘Do Us a Flavor’ contest – you can find her opinion of those right here.  In return, we were sent a lovely trio (Moroccan Spice & Smokin’ Stampede, in addition to these) of uniquely flavored potato chips from a local grocery store called President’s Choice.  Apparently, it wasn’t Dani at The Daily Yum, but Mr. Obama himself, who has chosen these chips for us to review!  How exciting!!!

So, what exactly makes a burger into a Canadian Burger?  A Canadian burger includes a grilled beef burger with white cheddar cheese, back bacon and a touch of ketchup.  In case you are not savvy, and up to par, with your Canadian pork products, according to our Canadian sources (which consists of The Daily Yum….of course), back bacon is Peameal or Cornmeal bacon, or what we call Canadian Bacon here in the States.  So, whatever you call it, this Canadian version of bacon uses the much more lean cut of pork loin, instead of the rich, fatty pork belly we are accustom to in the U.S.  Whether or not this is the reason for why we feel these chips were lacking a bit in their flavor depth, we can’t be sure?

The ingredient combination sounded good enough to us, but after tasting only a few chips it was obvious that these chips were unbalanced, and missing some type of acidity/sour ingredient to cut through all of the sweet and fatty flavors.  We feel that the addition of some mustard, or pickle, or any pretty much any type of fresh acid could have really livened these chips up.  Instead, what we tasted were some extremely rich and sweet potato chips.  Rich cheddar cheese and grilled burger flavors, combined with the very sweet ketchup and some rich, sweet and smoky back bacon, all equaled out to be a bit too sweetly-one-sided for our pallets.  The potato chips themselves were medium thick with wide ripples, and a soft and hearty crunch.

It is obvious that President’s Choice Grocery Stores care about creating and offering their clientele unique versions of everyone’s favorite snack foods (chips).  However, it is also apparent that they have not perfected those flavors in our opinion.  Maybe it will be different for the next two President’s Choice flavors we get to try, but let’s just say that the Canadian Burger potato chips are not the best burger flavored chips we have ever tasted, and they will definitely not be making Chip Review’s Top 5 Meat Flavored Chips list any time soon….

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

Chips provided to Chip Review by Dani @ The Daily Yum 

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Review: Kettle Brand – Maple Bacon Potato Chips

Rating: ©©-3/4 chips  (tolerable)

Comments:

Initial thoughts……

1 – sweet and smoky scents….

2 – we have no doubt that these are really just bbq potato chips disguised as maple bacon chips.

3 – because of numbers 1, and 2, we are disappointed.

4 – Maple & Bacon……?  Nope! Not to us!

We had very high hopes for these chips.  We are lovers, and connoisseurs, of the sweet and salty combo.  We love our breakfast for dinner.  We love our Yin with our Yang.  And we recently fell head-over-heels in love with Lay’s maple-y-sweet-savory Do Us a Flavor – Chicken & Waffle Potato Chips!  So, needless to say, our hopes were high for Kettle Chips answer to Lay’s amazing new venture.

Kettle Brand’s Maple Bacon Potato Chips taste exactly like they smell.  And, they smell like sweet and smoky bbq potato chips.  With the simple (and, in our opinions, incorrect) addition of chile pepper and paprika, we’re pretty sure the entire stereotypical barbeque recipe is present.  To be completely honest, we don’t really taste any notes of maple.  None.  There is plenty of sweet, sweet cane sugar, but no maple.

It is probably only fair that we mention, as we’ve done numerous times before, that for the most part we are not huge fans of really sweet bbq flavored chips.  So, maybe we didn’t think these new chips through far enough, because when we first heard that Kettle Brand had created a flavor called Maple Bacon, we had visions of potato chips studded with nibbles of porky bacon, and drizzled with rich maple syrup.  Instead, what we are given is nothing more than another simple variation on the standard sweet and smoky bbq chip.  You can understand our disappointment.

And for the bacon aspect of the equation – of course the exuberant amounts of smoke flavoring conjures immediate thoughts of bacon (smoked meats in general), but when you sit back and further examine the actual bacon execution, do you really taste bacon??  Or, is it just a bunch of smoke?  Is there any fatty richness??  They are fried potato chips, of course there is a certain level of yummy, fatty richness, but not in the porky-meaty-bacon sense.

The only thing saving these chips from dropping down to that level of complete loathing is the fact that in the end, they are still Kettle Brand potato chips.  Medium to medium-thick, kettle cooked, potato chips.  That perfect level of seasoning, which always melds flawlessly with their potato chips.  Loads of real potato flavor exude from each crunchy chip.

Maybe our rating is a bit lower than it should be.  We are not denying that this was a very emotional rating, and review, for us.  We had also high expectations for these chips, maybe too high in fact.  We love Kettle Brand.  We love, and have loved, so many of their products, but this is simply one of them that we are not going to be able to rally behind.

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

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REVIEW: Lay’s Stax – Bacon & Cheddar Potato Skins

Rating: ©-3/4 chips (return to sender)

Comments:

The antithesis of manufactured, stereotypical, fat soaked, artificial, over-salted, and preformed, flavored potato flakes coming straight at you.  Greasy U.S. bar food, converted into a crunchy, salty snack, delivered in a handy-dandy, easily transportable, plastic container.  These crisps have no essence, no personality.

The ‘good old’ loaded potato skins.  For any of you out there still unfamiliar with this classic bar & grill appetizer (we’re guessing that there aren’t many of you); potato skins are russet potatoes that have been cut in half, and some of the potato innards have been scooped out to make a potato canoe, or bowl.  The halves are then thrown into the deep fryer, once removed they are covered with chopped bacon, and cheddar cheese, and then put under the broiler to melt the cheese.  Lastly, they are topped with chopped green onions, and served with sour cream on top, or on the side.  And the U.S. wonders why we have weight issues….

The only reason why we even gave these potato crisps an additional 3/4’s of a rating, was simply because their flavor wasn’t necessarily off-putting, and the crisps did crunch in our mouths like they were supposed to.  They were relatively edible – in a bland, mish-mash, smoky seasoned salt, sort of way, and they were sprinkled with a colorful confetti of seasonings – light orange (cheddar cheese), red (bacon), and green (onion).  If we didn’t know any better, we would think that those colors were the national colors.

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

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