Chili / Chile / Hot Pepper

REVIEW: Bare Fruit – Crunchy Chile Lime Apple Chips

/ duthow / Leave a comment

Rating: ©-1/2 chips  (return to sender)

Bare Fruit - Crunchy Chili Lime Apple Chips

Comments:

Alright, we realize that these may be a bit of a stretch for us, as we do not normally review fruit “chips”, but when we saw these particular ones, and they were chile lime flavored, we thought, ‘what the heck?’ Let’s give them a bite!

Unfortunately, bad idea!!  We should have just left them alone there on the super market shelf, waiting for that special someone who somehow happens to be allergic to both potatoes and corn, eager to snatch them up.

Honestly, we find it very difficult to describe these “chips” with any amount of positive enthusiasm.  The chips do have zero fat, they are 100% baked, with no preservatives, gluten free, made of non GMO, and all natural ingredients.  However, all of those characteristics seem to also come with no richness, or depth, or savoriness, or (good) flavor, and certainly no satisfaction.  While we can always appreciate it when a chip company tries their best to supply us with a healthy alternative to the deliciously unhealthy world of fried chips, we also feel that they need to provide us with something that tastes good as well!!!

At first bite Bare Fruit’s Apple Chips seem crunchy, that is if you go right at them with your teeth, but as soon as any form of moisture comes into contact with the chip, they become as soggy, and chewy, as any dehydrated piece of fruit.  Think: fruit leather!  The seasoning blend sprinkled sparsely over these chips had only the slightest chile flavor, with a tiny bit of heat, and a touch of citric-lime-sour zip.  When it came down to it, the only thing that we really tasted from the moment the chips hit our taste buds was APPLE.  Apple-y apple-ness to the extreme!!

In our books, these really aren’t chips.  These are more like what you give your toddler when all they ever want to eat are fatty and salty chips (our childhood), and you hope that these may possibly be similar enough to trick them into believing they are enjoying a crunchy snack.  We appreciate the effort.

All that being said, Chip Review does believe each that each and every chip deserves a fair assessment, so we ask that you give these a shot for yourself, and let us know what you think.  Agree or disagree, let us know.

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Late July Organic – Red Hot Mojo Multigrain Chips

/ duthow / Leave a comment

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

Late July Organic - Red Hot Mojo

Comments:

Finally, some mojo that Agent Powers can really get behind…….”Red Hot Mojo, yeah baby!”

Whomever Late July Organic has designing their wonderfully, colorful, line-up of chip bags for them, has really outdone themselves.  In fact, this Red Hot Mojo bag is so tasteful that we almost didn’t want to open it.  But, then we thought about it for a second and chips are destined to be eaten.  It’s part of the circle of chip-life.  Who are we to take that from them?  Plus, finding a frame deep enough to fit the entire bag into, was more than we wanted to tackle on an empty stomach.

Chip Review has always had a lot of respect for the little companies that work hard to produce a chip that is both healthy, but it’s even better when they are tasty.  Late July Organic’s Red Hot Mojo Multigrain Chips would definitely be considered on the healthier end of the spectrum, and they are certainly tastier than some.  The multigrain (tortilla) chips had an ample amount of textural grains running through them, while still exuding a light, airy and crispy texture.

The Red Hot Mojo aspect of these chips was a bit of a mystery to us prior to eating them.  Were they going to be extremely red hot spicy? Were they going to taste like mojo (which we know as the tasty traditional Cuban garlic citrus sauce), or did they just have a lot of chip swagger?  Well, the vibrantly red multigrain chips, pretty much live up to the red hot half of their equation.  The chips themselves are very red in color, which we believe to be due to the use of crushed red pepper, and the addition of beet juice into the multigrain dough.  The chips also have small pieces of real diced jalapenos baked into the chips, delivering an amply, rich chile heat and depth, that builds and builds in the backs of our throats, but did not do much for upfront flavor.

As for these chips’ mojo, we just couldn’t seem to really find it.  The chips were definitely not referring to the Cuban garlic citrus sauce, and mojo certainly must not mean salt, or seasoning, because if that was the case, than these chips would be called anti-mojo, or un-mojo’d – in other words, someone needs to loosen their grips from the salt shaker, and live a little!  In the end, we’re guessing that mojo must be referring to “mo(re) jo(kes)”, cause we’ve got endless amounts of them….ha ha…ha.  We’ll be here all night, eating chips of course!

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

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Popcorn, Indiana – Hatch Chile Cheese Popcorn

/ duthow / Leave a comment

Rating: ©©©-1/4 chips  (notable)

Popcorn, Indiana - Hatch Chile Cheese Popcorn

Comments:

We were thinking just the other day how we had reviewed so many different bags of popcorn as of late, that we may just have to change our name to Popcorn Review; but then we thought that, the name didn’t roll off the tongue as nicely as Chip Review, and it would mean that we may not get to review chips any more, and that would be BAD!  So it’s settled then, Chip Review it is!! (but, we are still going to review popcorn too, we just love it so much).

Popcorn, Indiana specializes in popcorn.  As far as we know, they have created more flavor varieties than any other popcorn company.  With this latest flavor, Popcorn, Indiana has given us a new flavor that includes the underutilized Hatch Chile.  Our research shows that the Hatch Chile is native to the state of New Mexico, in fact, the chile is so popular in NM that they use it in just about everything.  Popcorn, Indiana’s chile cheese rendition tastes like a fairly typical chile and cheese combination.  The spicy chile aspect is definitely present, but we honestly cannot distinguish any Hatch green chile what so ever.  In fact, a quick glance to the back of the bag shows that Popcorn, Indiana not only decided to use the hatch chile in the seasoning, but also included chipotle and cayenne pepper as well to make sure we felt the spicy pain.

The chiles combined with a generous dose of tasty, salty, cheddar cheese was delicious, and of course a combination that we all know works well.  However, this seasoning wasn’t quite tasty enough to distract us from Popcorn, Indiana’s smaller, dense, toothsome, popcorn kernels.  We found it increasingly more and more difficult to get through each tough and chewy handful.  We would like to think that this bag of popcorn just happened to be an off day for Popcorn, Indiana, and that normally their popcorn is much more light, and fresh, and not so bogged down with oil.  In fact, we’re certain, because we’ve had better from them.  And may we just say thank you to Popcorn, Indiana for continuing to push the popcorn flavor boundaries, even if that means they have a few misses along the way.

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

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Tyrrell’s – Sweet Chili & Red Pepper Hand Cooked Potato Crisps

/ duthow / 2 Comments

Rating: ©©©©-3/4 chips  (lip-smacking)

Tyrells Sweet Chili and Red Pepper_couplef

Comments:

Apparently, some time ago, we here at Chip Review already had the pleasure of tasting Tyrrell’s Sweet Chili and Red Pepper Potato Crisps.  The bag above on the left, must be some older rendition that Tyrrell’s released years ago.  While the bag on the right displays one of the Tyrrell’s timeless black and white photos.  Since we cannot find any notes, or rating for these crisps, and none of us can even remember tasting them at all, we will approach and review them as if it was for the very first time.

First, and foremost, we must admit that there was a bit of a disagreement here at Chip Review about who each of the dapper gentlemen were gracing the front of the potato crisp bag.  In the end, after a bit of yelling and stomping, and even name calling, the dust settled and we agreed that the gent on the right must be none other than Sweet Chili himself, and that would make Mr. Red Pepper his sidekick on the left.

As for the potato crisps themselves, well, it did not take more than a couple of handfuls for us to determine that Tyrrell’s had created a uniquely complex, and tasty flavor combination with their Sweet Chili & Red Pepper.  In fact, it was easy for us to declare these as the best Tyrrell’s potato crisps that we had ever tasted!  One miniscule issue we did initially have with the crisps was the flavor name.  To us, it seemed a bit redundant to say both chili and pepper flavored, because quite often these two words are referring to the same thing.  Maybe with a tad more clarification, or description, we would have understood that the pepper in the name was referring to peppercorns and flakes, and the chili was referring to the chili pepper?  Minor qualm, but one that we felt needed addressing.

Getting back to that uniquely complex and tasty flavor combo we mentioned above.  We should just say from the get go, that we are not going to do the description of this flavor the justice that it deserves.  The complexity of this multilfaceted flavor bonanza was quite simply amazing.  From the very get go we tasted the sweet, the spicy chili, and the aromatic and zippy pepper punch.  The flavor seemed to hit each taste bud with every chip.  Beyond the expected seasoning notes, we also tasted loads of garlic, and then lots of other intricate flavors that we could not pinpoint; but one glance to the ingredients list and we saw there there was also anise, ginger, basil and white pepper – WOW!  Can we just point out the spicy spectrum that these chips deliver – they include ginger, garlic, white pepper, jalapeno chili pepper, cayenne pepper, and red pepper.

We’ve commented numerous times on Tyrrell’s potato crisps in the past.  How their crisps are very crunchy, nearly verging on being too hard.  How the crisps are made of whole cross sections of the potato, meaning that the entire edge of the crisp still has the peel intact, and that the majority of the crisps are whole slices (pretty darn unique within the industry if you ask us).  The potato crisps are a perfect match for Tyrrell’s flavor extravaganza.

Lastly, it took us a while to figure it out, but we finally realized that these Sweet Chili and Red Pepper crisps, kind of remind us of a cross between Kettle Brand’s Spicy Thai Potato Chips, and Mackie’s of Scotland Scotch Bonnet Potato Crisps.

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 Tyrrell’s Potato Crisps for review

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list