BIJOU-REVIEW: Miss Vickie’s – Lime & Black Pepper Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

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

Aren’t Miss Vickie’s available here in the U.S.?  Yeah, we’re positive they are, but apparently Miss Vickie’s is actually a Canadian chip company that just so happened to be acquired by Frito Lay a few years back.  In other words, Frito Lay does offer a certain few of Miss Vickie’s kettle cooked potato chips throughout the U.S., but for the most part Miss Vickie’s offers their large flavor line-up in Canada.

We have tried a number of Miss Vickie’s chips over the years, but it is safe to say that these are certainly our most favorite of the bunch!

All at once salty, creamy, sour and even a touch spicy, the combination of lime and black pepper is not a flavor combo we see very often.

The black pepper is very fragrant, and permeates the nostrils; actually delivering a spicy tickle to the mouth that we don’t normally get from just black pepper.

The lime aspect doesn’t necessarily taste anything like the real green citrus fruit but more like that fake, overly acidic, tongue punch we’ve come to expect from salt and vinegar chips….and don’t get us wrong, that is not a bad thing, we often crave that flavor.

Miss Vickie’s medium-thin kettle cooked potato chips are delightfully crispy, with just a touch of greasy.

In case you were interested in a little backstory on The Real Miss Vickie.

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 JK – acquired in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Miss Vickie’s Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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REVIEW: Doritos – Black Pepper (Japan)

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

Just for the fun of it we here at Chip Review recently ordered a variety of unique (aka weird) flavored Japanese Doritos and Cheetos from eBay.

First up on the reviewing docket are these Black Pepper flavored Doritos.  And, before you say anything, yes it is fare to say that these “black pepper” were the most unoriginal, or to put it another way the most safe, flavor among the bunch.

Black pepper is not an uncommon potato chip flavor here in the U.S. (we’ve reviewed a handful over the years).  Still, that being said, the flavor is not really widely used to season tortilla chips, plus the flavor is almost always accompanied by its better half – SALT.  Doritos, at least as far as we have read through the translations, has opted to label these chips as strictly ‘black pepper’, and completely forgo the salt portion of the equation.  Which begs the question….what exactly does that mean?  Have Doritos simply made the decision to not include salt in the flavor name because they assume that we know that they will be including everyone’s favorite table condiment atop their tortilla chips?  Or, has Doritos Japan actually excluded the salt from the seasoning altogether (BLASPHEMY!!!)??

Please pause for a moment to recognize the suspense we are trying to build…..

Okay, we are happy to report that Doritos has in fact included salt into the flavor equation – thank goodness!!  Hold on a second, what’s that we taste??  Yep, these chips also include a good sprinkling of sweet sugar.  So, in case black pepper flavored tortilla chips were not quite weird enough for you, we’re hoping that sweet & salty pepper chips will do the trick!  The black pepper is amply coating the chips, and provides a decently aromatic punch, along with a pleasantly spicy bite.  And, believe it or not, but the black pepper mingles quite well with the sweet and salty notes.  Nothing extraordinary, but perfectly crunchable.

The Japanese Doritos themselves are definitely smaller than our U.S. version.  But, other than that, their texture and flavor are pretty much the same.  Stay tuned for reviews of even more unique flavors like Soy Butter Sauce, Tandoori Chicken, and Seafood Stew!!

Well, there you have it.  Anyone else out there tried them yet?  Thoughts?  As always we would love to hear what you think.  Agree or disagree.  Let us know.

Chips purchased from market_tokyo on ebay.

Frito Lay – Doritos Japan Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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25 Chips to Christmas….

#6

Manomasa – Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper – and – Green Lemon & Pink Peppercorn Tortilla Chips

Original Reviews Here and Here

What do you get when you combine the classiest looking packaging of the year, with some of the best executed, and most creative flavor combinations….?  Well, some of our most favorite chips of the year of course!!

REVIEW: Deep River Snacks – Krinkle Cut Salt & Cracked Pepper Potato Chips

Rating: ©©©© chips  (lip-smacking)

We are not the biggest fans of the krinkle cut kettle cooked style of potato chip.  Maybe not quite as crunchy as the kettle cooked waffle cut variety (seriously teeth shattering!), but still a little too solid for our mouths!

Despite their texture, we really dug the seasoning covering these chips.  Impressively simple, and concise! Salt, oil, potato (in chip form of course), and PEPPER!!  Lots and lots of coarsely ground, cracked black pepper!  And no skimping on the salt.

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 Deep River Snacks for review

Deep River Snacks Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Manomasa – Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Tortilla Chips

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

RECIPE No. 34 The Sixer (did it take 6 attempts to nail down this recipe, or what?)

SHAPE: a HEXAGON – the shorter sturdy sides help hold the seeds in place (huh? – don’t quite understand that theory, but we can crunch with it)

TEXTURE: a strong yellow corn masa packed with six types of seed rolled out to a medium thickness, rested awhile then toasted carefully before tumbling through sunflower oil for the crispiest chip! (oh, now we get what ‘The Sixer’ is…six types of seeds – clever!)

TASTE: a subtle taste of onion and garlic, along with a pinch of salt and a smattering of black pepper lets the seeds shine through – pops of flavor come from the poppy, sunflower, pumpkin and golden linseed along with distinctive warmth of caraway.

Other than our few comments in italics above, the rest of the descriptive verbiage is taken straight from the Manomasa bag, which is pretty darn impressive, don’t you think?  Honestly, there’s not much more that we can say, or even really need to.  Thanks Manomasa for making our difficult job of eating and reviewing your chips – easy (we kid)!

Just in case you were looking for a little more feedback from us here then we would just tell you that we really, really, really enjoyed these chips!  There was just something about them that sat well with us.  Maybe it was their unique variation of the classic salt and pepper combination?  Not simply relying on plain old salt and pepper to season the chips but adding other flavors like onion and garlic to the mix.  Or, maybe it was their recipe of untypical seeds that provided complex layers of flavor and texture that slowly materialized with the more chips we ate?  Imagine salt and peppery everything (bagel) flavored tortilla chips.  On the tail end of the flavor ride there was even a prominent “heat” from the black pepper that lingered on the backs of our tongues – fantastic!!

One thing that we would like to mention, as we’re fairly certain that our first review of Manomasa’s Green Lemon & Pink Peppercorn Tortilla Chips never touched on this, is how beautiful Manomasa’s packaging is.  Seriously, each bag is like a piece of artwork, or not like a piece of artwork, it is artwork.  Vivid paintings of the chips’ ingredients surround the chip itself, while the Manomasa brand name boldly pops from the red banner it rests on.  We’re sure a lot of time and effort went into this design and it deserves to be recognized and praised!

Best looking chip bags ever!!  To go along with some of the best tasting Salt & Pepper flavored chips we’ve ever tried as well!

Once again we have to give thanks to Josh from Crisp Nation for making us aware of these fantastic chips!  Now we just need someone in the U.S.A. to start carrying them.

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

Chips provided to Chip Review by Manomasa for review

MANoMASA Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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REVIEW: Pringles Exclusive Flavor! – White Cheddar & Black Pepper

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

We’re sorry Target, but we just have to say it, as far as Pringles Exclusive Flavors are concerned, you got stuck with the worst of the bunch (thus far at least)!  Seriously, it is one thing to have one good flavor, and one bad flavor, but for both of your Exclusive Flavors to ultimately be less than stellar is just, well, disappointing!!

We have to admit we were pretty excited for these as the cheddar & pepper combination is not one we have seen very much of.  In fact the only other example we can find would be Lay’s Kettle Cooked Lattice Cut’s version, which we thought were lip-smacking!

So, what went wrong Pringles?!?

First of all, other than a tiny black dot here, and an even tinier black dot there, the black pepper aspect of these Pringles is practically nonexistent.  Seriously, some of our tasters could not taste any (nor see any) at all, while others said that they did catch little hints of the slightly spicy and fragrant spice.  This black pepper seasoning was not reminiscent of Pringles regular Salt & Pepper Crisps.  Strike 1.

Even worse than the black pepper facet, was the seasoning combination used to represent the white cheddar cheese!  In one word – Eeewww!  Actually, three words – eeewww, yuck, eewww!!  The seasoning just tastes off.  Apparently, the combination of cheddar cheese, buttermilk, nonfat milk, sugar and citric acid does not sit well with our palates!!  First, a shock of sour hits the tongue, then a creamy-milky wave coats the mouth, and then finally at the tail end we actually taste something recognizable as cheddar cheese powder.  It is almost impressive how weird these taste!  Not our favorite Pringles to say the least.

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

Discovered at Target; Hillside, Illinois

Pringles Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

BIJOU-REVIEW: Herr’s – Peppered Bacon Potato Chips

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

When we snagged these chips from our local Walmart store we thought that they must be brand new!!  Turns out, Taquitos.net had reviewed them months back.

Seems like no matter how many times we try another poorly executed bacon flavored snack, we still get excited for the next one!!

Initial thought upon opening the bag was that these chips have a very potent smoky aroma.  Thoughts of bacon?  A little bit.

Taquitos.net wasn’t kidding when they mentioned that these chips are covered in dark blotches.  Are these old potatoes?  Stained potatoes?  Maybe it is just the super finely ground black pepper not distributed evenly?!?

Standard Herr’s extra wide rippled larger potato chips.  Good crisp potato chips.

These are pretty tasty chips, but calling them peppered bacon may be a stretch!  Only a very faint, fine grind, black pepper dusting, combined with a semi-faint smokey bacon flavor.  Neither flavor is very commanding, but the combination of the two, plus whatever other ingredients they’ve got going on, forms to create one delicious flavor!

Chips discovered at Walmart; Villa Park, Illinois

Herr’s Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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