REVIEW: Skinnygirl – Sweet Thai Chili with Flax Blue Corn Tortilla Chips

Rating: ©©©-1/4 chips  (notable)

Skinnygirl snacks.  Really?  What the heck is a Skinnygirl Snack?  Do we have to be skinny girls to enjoy these chips?  Will these chips transform us into skinny girls?  Were these chips made by a group of skinny girls?  All good and viable questions, but not really the ones that we answer here on this site.  What we want to know, and what we think you really want to know, is if these Skinnygirl chips really taste good?

These very well could be the sweetest chips we have ever tasted (definitely in the top 5).  The description of sweet doesn’t even come close to accurately describing these chips.  We would call them Sweet-sweet, sweet, sweet….sweet sugary Thai Chili.  When the first two seasoning ingredients are sugar and fructose what can you expect…?

Luckily for all, there are plenty of other flavors to compliment the sweetness, while also trying their darndest to offset and challenge it as well.  Those classic Thai flavors like garlic, Thai chili, and ginger add some delicious layers to the overall flavor profile, but it just didn’t seem to matter because each time we grabbed a new chip those complex flavor layers disappeared, and the sugar slap overwhelmed our palettes again and again.  Honestly, this cycle just repeated itself over and over and over again throughout the entire course of the bag.  Plain and simple, if you like sweet chips, than you will like these, and the same goes for the opposite.

The blue corn chips are slightly greasy, really crunchy, medium thickness, with a generous scattering of flax seeds.  The tortilla chips are tasty, and the flax seeds deliver a slight nuttiness that we really appreciated.

In the end, we’re not really sure of what we thought about these chips, and we really don’t understand the correlation between the Skinnygirl brand and these chips?  As far as we could tell, there was nothing about these chips that were skinny!  Wait, unless enormous amounts of sugar is some new found recipe for becoming skinny?

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 Barrel O’ Fun Snacks for review

Barrel O’ Fun Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

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©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

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REVIEW: Mikesell’s Groovy – Cincinnati Style Chili Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

We like to believe that we have a pretty good attention to detail, so when we grabbed this latest bag of Mikesell’s potato chips we thought that something seemed a little bit different than the other ones we had reviewed in the past.  Take a look at these other Mikesell’s bags and see if you can tell too??  Could you spot it?  Apparently, at some relatively recent point in time, Mikesell’s decided to remove the hyphen from their company name…huh?  Which of course begs the question, why remove it?  Or, more importantly, why was there even a hyphen in the first place??  The world may never know!

Alright, moving on to more important matters, like how are the chips?!?  Mikesell’s Groovy Potato Chips are very crispy, and thicker ridged chips.  Medium thickness, with a slightly hearty bite, but not overly heavy.  In other words, these chips are Groovy!

As for the flavor, these are definitely a first for us. So, for any of you out there who are unfamiliar with Cincinnati Style Chili, what the heck is it?  According to the internet machine, Cincinnati Style Chili “is a regional style of chili con carne characterized by the use of seasonings such as cinnamon, cloves, allspice or chocolate. It is commonly served over spaghetti or as a hot dog sauce, and is normally of a thin, sauce-like consistency, unlike most chili con carne.  According to the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau, Cincinnatians consume more than two million pounds of chili each year, topped by 850,000 pounds of shredded cheddar cheese.” (wikipedia)  Is anyone else out there a little bit worried about visiting Cincinnati now after hearing this information?  We don’t want to jump to any hasty conclusions but we know what happens when we eat chili, and we’re pretty sure we don’t eat anywhere close to two million pounds of it!!  So if you put two and two together….

The chips are loaded with lots of seasoning.  A familiar flavor combination, with enough just subtle difference to mix things up a bit. Chili powder, lots of salt, and plenty of those secret Cincinnati chili ingredients.  We could swear that there is cumin in there, but the spice is not recognized as one of the common staples that differentiates Cincinnati’s chili.  Some reviewers were impressed with the seasoning, while others were a little off-put with the flavors.  But, in the end, nearly everyone could agree that the flavor reminded us of a salty-chili-mole hybrid.  Maybe the flavor is meant to remain on spaghetti?

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

Discovered at Super America; Lexington, Kentucky

Mikesell’s Official Website

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REVIEW: 2 Explosive Snacks 1 Bag – Cheetos Flamin’ Hot & Doritos Dinamita Chile Limon

Rating: ©-1/2 chips  (tolerable)

So, what do we get when Frito Lay decides to lazily combine one of their greatest creations ever, with one of our least favorites ever?!?  Well, that would undoubtedly depend upon whether you are a half full, or half empty bag, sort of person…  In other words, there are two distinct ways of looking that this collaboration: One being that the addition of Doritos practically intolerable Dinamitas to Cheetos impeccably perfect Flamin’ Hots is an outrage, and injustice to the snack world!!  The second, being that the addition of the oh-so-delicious Flamin’ Hot Cheetos to Doritos Chile Limon rolled tortilla snack, was actually a brilliant idea, and helps tasters distract from negative thoughts they may have towards Rolled Corn Snacks (aka taquitos, flaquitos, takis, you name it…) as a whole!!

We hate to be the pessimists here, but unfortunately the negatives of these “2 Explosive Snacks in 1 Bag!” out weigh the positives!  Apparently, good does not always defeat evil, and even Cheetos are susceptible to peer pressure!!  In fact, these are even worse than just eating the Doritos Dinamitas on their own!  The textural differences between the two confused our mouths so much that it caused us to bite our tongues on multiple occasions!  And visually, we almost practically could not tell the two apart; both being enveloped with a deep red blanket of spicy powder.

So, the question we really want Frito Lay to answer for these ones is why?  Why do it?!  Why take a great snack and combine it with a mediocre one?  Why make us waste the time and effort to review this “NEW” snack?

We believe that the answer to these questions is similar to the reasons behind Snyder’s of Hanover’s decision to utilize two of their preexisting flavors in their “new snack” Flavor Doubles, along with, Doritos Locos Tacos relatively recent stint on the store shelves.  It all boils down to money and lack of creativity!  We are less than happy to say that we seem to see an unwelcome trend forming in this chip industry, where brands are either getting lazy, or think that they can combine two of their preexisting products, re-package them with some clever title, and make us believe that we will be tasting something revolutionary, or at the very least that we should buy them and try them.  When, in the end, the simple fact is that the sum of the two chips, is not greater than the individual chips themselves – ESPECIALLY – when you combine an A-list one like Cheetos Flamin’ Hot, with an only slightly tolerable one like Doritos Dinamitas Chile Limon!

Other than that, we don’t have too much more to say or report about these.  By now, you have all tried Cheetos Flamin’ Hot right?  If not you are crazy, and we seriously question why you are reading a review about chips?!?  If for some reason you have not tried any of the onslaught of rolled tortilla snacks on the market these days, well then, good for you!  Stick to it, you are not really missing anything.  And, as for the combination of the two, well, we would suggest never trying these.  If you really need a snack fix, and these are the only thing in site, then go ahead and buy them.  But, may we suggest you dump out the entire bag and sift through them, separating the two snacks into two piles.  Try your best to enjoy the Cheetos after all of the hard work of separating the two, and dump the Dinamitas straight into the garbage!

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

Discovered at 7-Eleven; Burr Ridge, Illinois

Frito Lay Official Website

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RATING: Doritos Dinamita – Chile Limon

Rating: ©© chips  (tolerable)

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RATING: Kettle Brand – Twisted Chili Lime Krinkle Cut Potato Chips

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

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RATING: Archer Farms – Chili Lime Tortilla Chips

Rating: ©©©-1/2 chips  (notable)

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REVIEW: Bokados – Chilikos Picosssitos!

Rating: ©©-3/4 chips  (tolerable)

Comments:

Wait!  What do we have here?  Have we tried these before?!

Survey says “NOPE!”  At least not technically that is.

However, one quick glance back at our recent reviews, and we realized that we actually had tried these before, they were just called Churritos, not Picosssitos!  And they were made be Barcel, not Bokados.

That being said, dump both the snacks into the same bowl, and see if you can tell them apart!  Visually, and texturally the two snacks were practically identical.  Both consisted of weird, little, skinny sticks!  They kind of resembled a cross between a wiggly-curved pretzel stick, and crunchy chow mein noodles!  Their texture was crispy and light, and bread-y; while apparently being made with corn?!  That being said, we could not really distinguish any of the actual corn flavor that we love.  Both snacks were very easy to devour by the handful, however neither encompassed very much depth, richness or character.

Where the snacks did differ a bit was in their spicy red seasoning.  Barcel’s ‘fuego’ seasoning consisted of the classical Mexican flavor combo of chili & lime.  While Bokado’s sticks were basically just chili.  The “spicy” chili flavor was not really spicy in this case, more like a harsh, unnaturally acidic burn.

Overall, we were not huge fans.  We would compliment Bokados on their uniquely shaped addition to the chip game, but apparently it’s actually not that unique!

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

Discovered at Shell Gas Station; Darien, Illinois

Bokado’s Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

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