BIJOU-REVIEW: Food Should Taste Good – Potato & Chive Tortilla Chips

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

Food, should taste good….don’t you think?

Just the other day we were asking ourselves, when do you think we will finally see some all natural chive flavored multigrain pita puffs?  Today, that question is answered.

These are a delight to crunch on.

The snack is certainly more about the pita puffs themselves than any chive seasoning.

Light and airy and crispy, with just a touch of sweetness recognizable on the tail end, from the inclusion of some honey.

F.S.T.G. keeps it really simple with the seasoning, which results in an extremely subtle chive flavor (again, letting the puffs be the stars of the show).  In fact, and we’re not joking around here, all there is to the seasoning is chive, and every chip’s BFF salt.

Discovered at Walmart; Villa Park, Illinois

Food Should Taste Good Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Ikea – Potatischips GRÄDDFIL & LÖK (Sour Cream & Onion Potato Chips)

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

Right on the heals of last week’s review for Ikea’s Salted Potato Chips, comes their only other flavor – Sour Cream & Onion.

We know what you are thinking – Hey Chip Review, which one of the two is better?  And honestly, we can’t answer that.  They are both lip-smacking in their own right.

Both of Ikea’s Potatischips are deliciously rustic, skin on, thick cut, a touch oily (in a good way), crunchy and toothsome!

While last week’s salted potato chips deliver a good dosing of salty-salt, at the same time still letting the rich potato flavor shine, today’s sour cream & onion flavored potato chips deliver a nice splash of a sort of sweet, and adequately sour, creamy-onion seasoning, that compliments the chips more than highlighting them.

If you like thick cut, and extra crunchy potato chips, then you can’t do wrong by either of the two flavors – or you can just do right by both, and grab a bag of each!

Potatischips Saltade Chips discovered at Ikea; Bolingbrook, Illinois

Ikea’s Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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BIJOU-REVIEW: Cabana – Sour Cream & Onion Potato Chips

Rating: ©©-3/4 chips  (tolerable)

Don’t you just hate it when your first impression becomes obliterated by your last?  Complete 180.  Well, that’s what we’ve got here.

Everything started out just perfectly as we reached in to grab a few of Cabana’s thin and large potato chips.  They delivered a perfectly light crisp, with loads of real potato flavor.

But, when it came to the sour cream and onion seasoning, well, that’s when things made a turn for the worse.

Strong punch of pungent onion, with a salty sour splash of cream, but then…what’s that…..sweet sugar?!  An uncomprimisingly sweet layer that completely throws the classic flavor combination out of whack!  Sweet & Sour Cream & Onion?  Doesn’t have a nice ring to it, and nor do we love it!

Weird and off-putting.  We’re going to stay away from these ones.

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Lay’s – Flavor Swap – Smoked Gouda & Chive Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©© chips (lip-smacking)

One Stays.  One Goes.

Hang onto?  Or, let go?

Two shall enter.  One shall leave.

Alright, you probably get the picture….

That’s right friends, it is that time again.  Lay’s has fried up an all new Potato Chip Promotion – FLAVOR SWAP.  Basically Lay’s is pitting 4 totally brand new flavors up against 4 current market flavors.  In turn, we the consumers vote to save our favorite flavors – either the new, or the old.  Swap, or save.

Lay’s new Smoked Gouda & Chive are going head to head against Lay’s Sour Cream & Cheddar flavor.  That’s a tough match up, against a classic and time tested flavor!

These are really good chips.  Not extraordinary good, but really good.

The Smoked Gouda & Chive seasoning is simple, smooth and pretty accurate.

Just about every other potato chip we actually tasted a hint of smoke.  The cheesy Gouda aspect tasted mild, a little nutty, a little salty, and all smooth.  And lastly the chives added just enough onion punch to cut some of the cheese.  If you love gouda, or heck, ever cheese, you will like these chips.

So, the question is would we SWAP these new chips for the classic Cheddar & Sour Cream?  Well, we have said elsewhere that we would want to keep SAVE the originals, but the more we have thought about it, we would actually change our decision.  SWAP them up*!!

*Honestly, part of our change of heart, and ultimate decision to SWAP them, is due to the fact that Frito Lay’s will forever offer their fantastic Sour Cream & Cheddar flavor on their Ruffles chips!!

And for those of you who aren’t familiar with Lay’s Flavor Swap, here’s the rest of the battles looks like this:

What do you guys think?  Tried any of the new ones?  Or, perhaps there’s one or more of the old flavors that you really want to stay?  Or, perhaps go?

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

Chips discovered at Walmart; Villa Park, Illinois

Voting ends March 21st, so make sure you go to the link below, and let Lay’s know which flavors should STAY, and which should GO!!

Lay’s Flavor Swap

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

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©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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REVIEW: Lay’s Kettle Cooked – 40% Less Fat Cream Cheese & Chive Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©-1/4 chips (notable)

For a second there we thought Lay’s has given us a new and unique flavor type – Cream Cheese & Chive.  But then we though about it for more than a second and realized that essentially, these are Sour Cream & Onion flavored chips, and there is nothing new or unique about that!

Initial thoughts, yep, these taste PRETTY MUCH like any other sour cream and onion flavored chips that we have tried. And really, what’s the difference between cream cheese and sour cream?  Texture?  Pretty sure the texture of each in seasoning form is very similar….

Maybe, just maybe, the seasoning provided a ittle extra salt, and tang from the “cheese” component.

Nothing wrong with the seasoning, just nothing special either.

While the kettle cooked potato chips are perfectly edible, it was very apparent that they were missing some fat content.  They sort of seemed dry in a way, and lacking the reason we all naturally love fat – a tongue coating, fatty, rich mouth texture.

Due to the lack in fat the chips also seemed sort of…..should we call it brittle?  Like they were missing moisture (fatty oil?) that keeps the chips from being overly crispy and crumbly.

All in all, we were more than fine eating with eating these chips, but we won’t be going out of our way to buy them again.

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

Chips discovered at Jewel Osco; Clarendon Hills, Illinois

Lay’s Official vote for your favorite

Chip Ratings Scale:

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©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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RATING: Nick’s – Sour Cream & Onion Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©-1/2 chips  (notable)

Chips provided to Chip Review by Nick’s Chips for review

Nick’s Chips Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Alaska Chip Company – Chilkoot Sour Cream & Chive Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©-1/2 chips  (notable)

If you’re a regular around these parts, then you know that we’ve already told you all about Chip Review’s favorite Sour Cream & Cheddar Cheese Chips (and you’ve told us yours).  So, when we taste any new bag of chips, we always wonder if these could possibly be THE chips that crack the list, and knock off one of our favorites from the Top 5…..

Who knew that potato chips were being made in Alaska?  Before a little while ago, not us! We were as surprised as you!  And, in case you are unaware, there’s popcorn being made there as well – really tasty popcorn!

So, what the heck is Chilkoot?  Well, apparently it is an obsolete gold rush trail that runs from Alaska into Canada.  Maybe a better question would have been, what the heck does Chilkoot have to do with Sour Cream & Chives flavored chips?!  That, we’re not quite sure of….

Alaska Chip Company’s kettle cooked potato chips are on the thinner end of the spectrum, with a good solid crispy crunch, a little bit oily, and plenty of real Alaskan potato flavor.

The seasoning on these just didn’t quite do it for us.  An odd flavor combination of rather sweet, and also sour, creamy buttermilk, mingling with pungently potent chives, was just a bit disjointed for us. Not that these chips were necessarily bad per se, but they just didn’t do it for us.

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

Chip provided to Chip Review from Alaska Chip Company for review

Alaska Chip Company Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list