Buffalo / Hot Wing

REVIEW: Good Health Natural Foods – Wild Blue Buffalo Half Naked Popcorn

/ duthow / Leave a comment

Rating: ©©-3/4 chips  (tolerable)

Good Health Natural Foods - Wild Blue BuffaloFrom the back of the Wild Blue Buffalo bag:

All of the “Yee-Haa!” None of the “Uh-Oh.”
Who says you have to pack on the fat to enjoy the lip-smacking zing of spicy buffalo wings?

Well, good question, but after tasting this popcorn we actually say that the fat should be packed on to enjoy the lip-smacking zing of spicy buffalo wings!  This popcorn sounded like it had real promise to us, zesty buffalo sauce mixed with tangy bleu cheese somehow low in fat and calories, but in the end we were a bit let down with the execution and flavor.

First, the positives. The seasoning has a pretty good bleu cheese funk to it.  Aromatic, a little bitter, and slightly salty, and really does taste a bit like bleu cheese.  The buffalo wing seasoning does have some of that classic cayenne heat to it, but not a whole lot.  The popcorn itself is light and airy and crispy and very easy to crunch down.  But that’s about all the good things we can say about this Half Naked Popcorn.

Probably our most favorite part of any good buffalo wing sauce or seasoning is the over-the-top, aromatically pungent, vinegar tanginess!  Buffalo seasoning is never, ever subtle, nor should it be.  Unfortunately, this popcorn has cracked the recipe code and is exactly that!  None of the required vinegar nasal burn!  Seriously, none.  To top it off, the popcorn has no richness to it.  No fatty depth.  Which is of course sort of what Good Health Natural Foods is going for; but they should know that if the popcorn isn’t going to provide any fatty, delicious, comfort, than it needs to make up for it with some potent seasoning!!

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

Discovered at Marianos; Westchester, Illinois

Good Health Natural Foods Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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REVIEW: Doritos JACKED – Test Flavor: 855 / Spicy Street Taco

/ duthow / 3 Comments

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

Doritos Jacked - Test Flavor 855 - Spicy Street TacoNow that Doritos has disclosed that the winning flavor of their Bold Flavor Experiment is none other than Test Flavor: 855, we felt like this entire experiment, and experience, deserved a bit more conversation.

Test Flavor: 855: Spicy Street Taco

Our final ranking: 2nd place 1st place!

Thoughts on the reveal:  We really, really like the name.  It sounds modern, edgy, delicious and touches on the very popular trend of urban food trucks.  We were pretty accurate with our original flavor guess below; feeling like the flavor seemed to combine enchilada spices with hot wings.  Originally liked this flavor the most, but after revisiting each of the flavors again, they dropped down to second behind Caribbean Citrus Jerk; however, since revisiting them again, and again, and probably again, these are pretty awesome!  Without a doubt, if this flavor was available in Doritos original (non-JACKED) tortilla chips, they would be among the best ever!  Thank you Doritos for such an amazing flavor experiment!

>> Original Review Below <<

Test Flavor: 855

Report granted: test flavor is acceptable, proceed with enjoyable consumption!

Rather than bore you with a bunch of repetitive wittiness lifted from our first two Test Flavor reviews, we will simply direct you to head on over here, and here to hear what we thought about the other flavors from Doritos Bold Flavor Experiment (which is really pretty brilliant don’t you think)!?!

*Really super quick side note: We here at Chip Review have never been the biggest fans of the JACKED line from Doritos.  They are indeed – BIGGER – BOLDER & THICKER, and while we have no problem with the bolder aspect (bolder of course equaling more flavor, which these do for the most part); our issue with the JACKED Doritos lies in the tortilla chips themselves.  The chips just seem too big, and their texture is so thick that they no longer encompass that perfect Doritos light, crispy crunch that we all know and love.  Luckily, the BOLD flavor aspect almost completely distracts from the the texture all together!  *end side note

Well, regardless of a special “flavor experiment”, or ‘test flavor 5-4-3-2-1″, we are always excited when we spot new Doritos on our local supermarket shelves (slightly less excited when they are the JACKED version, but still excited)!  We will not delve deeply into our thoughts on what we think either of the two other flavors may possibly be, but based solely on their listed ingredients, we suspect that from Test Flavor: 404* we could be getting some form of sweet & sour chicken (uniquely weird).  From Test Flavor: 2653*, we suspect to taste some spicy chocolate (which could really compliment Doritos corn tortilla chips). *now that we have tasted the 404’s and 2653’s, you can find out what flavor we really think they are over here.

As for Test Flavor: 855, well, let’s just say that this bag’s ingredients made us think we were going to be tasting some good old Buffalo Hot Wings and Bleu Cheese, and low and behold, the chips tasted like we were eating some Hot Wing and Cheese flavored chips, but with some variation, or depth.  First and foremost, the chips certainly encompassed the prerequisite spicy cayenne chili heat.  Of the three Test Flavors, the 855’s were definitely the most visually bold!  Prepare yourself for flavor!!  Loads, and loads, of deep, dark red seasoning layered each square inch of the chips.  The flavor also encompassed a good dosage of some slightly funky, rich cheese.  Along with a light background note of smooth sour cream.  Some other spices in there that we couldn’t quite pinpoint reminded us of red chile enchiladas.

OH WAIT, we’ve got it!! We may have cracked the flavor mystery!!  We suspect, that similar to the way Frito Lay just recycled their Ruffles Deep Ridged Bacon & Cheddar chips, these 855’s are a lip-smackingly delicious, recycled combination, of two past Doritos JACKED flavors! Doritos have simply taken the spicy cayenne wallop, with a nice touch of creaminess from their Ranch Dipped Hot Wings, and mixed it up with the tangy cheddar cheese, and bold Mexican flavors of their Enchilada Supreme (which is kind of funny because in our original review of these chips we described them as a mash-up of Doritos Nacho Cheese, Taco and Salsa flavors – way to recycle Doritos!).  These are definitely our most favorite of the three flavors (we changed our mind Test Flavor: 404 is our favorite).  Not because they are the most unique or revolutionary.  And, also not because they are the most recognizably “safe” flavor.  The 855’s are the best because they are the most cohesive, and simply the tastiest!

So, in the end, what do we think Doritos has attempted to create with Test Flavor: 855? Drum roll please……..

Our money is definitely on Ranch Dipped Enchilada Hot Wings Supreme!!

There you have it.  The final one of Doritos JACKED three test flavors down the review hatch.  Anyone else out there tried them yet? Thoughts? Opinions? Reviews?

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

Chips discovered at Target; Willowbrook, Illinois

Doritos Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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REVIEW: Old Dutch Ripples – Appetizers On The Go – Buffalo Wing and Blue Cheese Potato Chips

/ duthow / 2 Comments

Rating: ©©©-1/4 chips  (notable)

Old Dutch Ripples - Appetizers on the Go - BuffaloDoes it get any better than when you travel home to Minnesota for a long weekend, and you discover that your favorite chip brand (which is not currently available for retail sale in the region of the country you live now), has released an all-new line of chips?!?  NO, no it does not!!

Old Dutch’s Ripples Appetizers On the Go, are basically a new line of flavors based on those stereotypical appetizers found at any and every bar.  The other flavors include: sweet potato fries, sliders, and onion blossom; but we decided to start with what can arguably be called the most iconic, or classic, bar appetizer of all-time!  That’s right wings!!

Now, just to be on the safe side, although we can probably assume that you are all aware of what buffalo wings are, in the event that there are one or two of you out there who are not, there are two things to note here: 1) these are not wings from a buffalo, they are chicken wings, and 2) they are called buffalo wings because they got their name from Buffalo, NY (the home of the original “buffalo-style” hot wings).  Now that we have those logistics out of the way, onto more important things like – CHIPS!

First, to say that these chips are loaded with seasoning, would be an understatement.  It’s like a flavor storm came rushing through!  It took a little while, but by about the fifth handful of chips we realized that the seasoning level was most likely so heavy because it was trying to overcompensate for the lack of kick that these chips had.  That’s not to say that they weren’t accurately buffalo wing and blue cheese flavored, it’s just that they had a very mild buffalo flavor.  In fact, we would probably more accurately call these chips blue cheese w/ a splash of buffalo sauce flavor.  The blue cheese is definitely the prominent flavor aspect, and we were just left wanting more tangy vinegar bite, and spicy chili heat.

May we just say that we love Old Dutch’s narrow rippled, Ripples potato chips.  They are a tasty combination of very narrow ripples, great potato flavor, a decent level of grease, and a sturdy crunch.  In fact, the line used to include one of our favorite chips of all-time were Old Dutch’s Hot Potato Ripple Potato Chips; unfortunately, they are no more!

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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