REVIEW: Pop Weaver – New! Barbecue Crispy Pops Popcorn

Rating: ©©-3/4 chips  (tolerable)

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How much corn could a Crispy Pops pop, if a Crispy Pops could pop corn?!?

Apparently, quite a lot because this bag of Pop Weaver’s Barbecue Crispy Pops Popcorn contained, what seemed like a million, tiny gumball sized “pops”; that no matter how many of them we popped into our mouths never seemed to disappear!

The Crispy Pops’ texture is  truly unlike any other snack we have an encountered on our crunchy journeys thus far!  Pop Weaver describes their Crispy Pops as “the crispy, crunchy, toasted popcorn snack”, and while all of those adjectives certainly hold true, they do not begin to really describe what the Crispy Pops are like.  We would have to either describe them as Corn Nuts (for those of you unfamiliar with these, we pity your sheltered lives) meets hull-less, fluffy, popcorn.  Aka, tiny, puffy, popped Corn Nuts!  Or, maybe popcorn that has had their irritable hulls removed, and their kernel “meat” forced, or compressed, into a slightly dense little nuggets of popcorn-ness.  The nuggets are toothsome, slightly dense, yet light, and surprise, surprise, perfectly poppable!  In other words, unlike anything else currently out there on the market!

However, it is the Crispy Pops’ seasoning that takes this popcorn on a turn for the worse!  The Crispy Pops are heavily coated with an ultra-flavorful combo of barbecue seasoning that includes the classic flavors of tomato, onion, garlic, chili pepper (Cayenne), sugar, and honey.  The combo almost seems like it works, and certainly hits all of the flavor notes we have come to expect from a barbecue snack – tangy, salty, sweet, and smoky…..cigarette ashtray!  What is that?!!?  Sorry Pop Weaver, somewhere along the flavor line, a certain special ingredient, or combination of two, has left quite an off-putting taste in our mouths.  A taste that made more than one Chip Reviewer refer to the seasoning as having an unappealing, ashtray-ness!!

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

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©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

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REVIEW: Popchips – New! Tuscan Herb Veggie Chips

Rating: ©©-1/4 chips  (tolerable)

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How would it sound to you if we said that we just tasted some spinach, navy bean, kale, chickpea, beet, pea, pumpkin, tomato and red bell pepper chips?

That’s what we thought!

As if we didn’t already dislike the majority of Popchips enough already, they have decided to go ahead and use one of what we consider the oldest, most gimmicky chip tricks in the book!  Chips, disguised as vegetables.  In this case, popped veggie chips.  The funny thing is, despite Popchips’ declaration from the back of their bag that they ”pop a flavorful blend of nine (count’em, nine) veggies and add our zesty tuscan herb blend for tasty chips that are light, crispy, and gluten free;” the very first ingredient listed on the back of these veggie chips is still good old trusty potatoes!  Kind of ironic, don’t you think?  Not to say that Popchips is lying to us, because according to the list of veggies above, the ingredients do in fact include at least nine vegetables.  It’s just we wonder, no we ask, ‘why’?

According to the visual on the front of the bag, Popchips has suggested that there are five different colored Popchips within this bag of veggie chips; however, in the end, our eyes could only decipher four distinct colored chips within the bag – green, orange-ish red, golden tan, and lighter white potato.  Our mouths on the other hand, could decipher practically zero flavor difference between the multiple colored chips, and only a slightly noticeable textural difference between them.  So again, we ask, what exactly is the reason for the veggie chips?

The tuscan herb seasoning blend was rather potent, and from what we could decipher consisted of a wide melange of flavors, most prominent of which were salt, tomato and thyme.  The seasoning blend was adequate, but did not wow us for any reason.  So, in the end, Popchips new Veggie Chips aren’t bad for any reason, it’s just that they don’t necessarily bring anything new or exciting to the table for us!

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

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Chip Rating…..

Lay’s Air Pops – Original Potato

Rating: ©-3/4 chips  (return to sender)

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REVIEW: Popcorners – Memphis BBQ Popped Whole Grain Chips

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

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“The New Shape of Popcorn Whole Grain”

What exactly was the old shape of Whole Grain?

Maybe to answer that question, we must first understand what whole grain represents in this case.  According to the ingredients list on the back of PopCorner’s bag, the whole grains in this instance are none other then the infamous sorghum grain?  That’s right, sorghum; and we’re not talking about what you get from eating too much beef jerky.  According to Wikipedia: sorghum “is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants, either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide.”  As far as we know, these are officially the first line of chips that we have ever tasted made from a species of grass….

The rustic whole grain chips consist of a unique monotone mixture of colors, that somehow includes hues of light greys and steely blues in certain spots.  Their mouth feel is light and crispy, without being very hard or dense.  They work pretty well as crunchy flavor delivering devices.

Luckily for us, the Memphis BBQ seasoning compliments the popped whole grain chips rather nicely.  The chips are evenly coated with a slightly sweet and tangy seasoning blend that is properly salty, but has no smoky notes what so ever.  We are not quite sure what defines Memphis BBQ (anyone?), but all we know is that it is a tasty blend, and we can say straight off that we are fans.

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 PopCorners for review

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Chip Rating…..

Lay’s Air Pops – Sour Cream & Onion

Rating: ©©-1/2 chips  (tolerable)

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REVIEW: Lay’s Air Pops – Barbecue

Rating: ©©© chips  (notable)

Comments:

Well, as the saying goes, “if you can’t beat’em, then you should probably join’em.”  And, on that simple note, may we introduce to you, the latest addition to the becoming-oh-so-mega-popular popped chip industry: Lay’s Air Pops. That’s right, we said Lay’s, which can only mean one thing – there’s money to be made in those popped potato fields!!

Up until now, the popped chip market had primarily been controlled by the ‘little guys’ – we’re talking PopCorners, Salveo, Poptillas, and of course the originators of the popped phenomenon Popchips.  Well, you little guys better watch your backs because Frito Lay is coming full speed ahead.  In fact, we wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Doritos version of Air Pops doesn’t come popping (see what we did there) up on store shelves everywhere in the very near future!

As for the Barbecue Air Pops themselves, well, they are exactly as you probably imagine – light as air, on the thinner side, very crispy, with a subtle potato crisp flavor.  We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, if you’ve tried one popped chip, you’ve just about tried them all.  However, the slight highlight of these particular popped chips happens to be in their seasoning.  Lay’s Air Pops’ barbecue seasoning blend exudes BBQ-ness.  As soon as we ripped open the bag, every taster mentioned having strong notions of BBQ, specifically thoughts of juicy ribs.  The seasoning was balanced between sweet, savory and smoky, with subtle hints of meatiness.  Overall, it was a decent BBQ flavor, on an OK potato chip.

Alright Chip Review fans we want you to be honest with us.  How many of you out there actually prefer popped potato, or tortilla, chips over the traditionally fried potato and tortilla chips??  Crickets……?  That’s what we thought.  Sure we get that they’re trendy, they’re different, and they are a healthier option for crunchy-salty snacks, but when we are looking for real satisfyingly tasty chips, the popped versions just aren’t going to cut it!

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

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REVIEW: Popcorners – Sweet Cinnamon Popped Whole Grain Chips

Rating: ©©©-1/4 chips  (notable)

Comments:

“The New Shape of Popcorn Whole Grain”

What exactly was the old shape of Whole Grain?

Maybe to answer that question, we must first understand what whole grain represents in this case.  According to the ingredients list on the back of PopCorner’s bag, the whole grains in this instance are none other then the infamous sorghum grain?  That’s right, sorghum; and we’re not talking about what you get from eating too much beef jerky.  According to Wikipedia: sorghum “is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants, either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide.”  As far as we know, these are officially the first line of chips that we have ever tasted made from a species of grass….

For the most part we are huge fans of the cinnamon and sugar combination.  The perfect harmony of the sweet, salty and earthy aromatic notes come together with supreme balance.  Personally, we always loved the combination best when it also included a fatty element, such as butter with our toast, or butter with our cinnamon roll, or melted butter with our Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal….(JK)?!?  However, these snack companies are messing with our minds a little bit. They are taking iconic flavors from our youth (knowing we associate them with happy memories), and combining them with savory snacks that we associate with our salty youths.  Either way you sprinkle it the combination seems like it just can’t lose.

The rustic whole grain chips consist of a unique monotone mixture of colors, that somehow includes hues of light greys and steely blues in certain spots.  Their mouth feel is light and crispy, without being very hard or dense.  They work perfectly adequate as crunchy flavor delivering devices, but in the end do not deliver the type of crunch, texture and richness that we like to get from our chips.

The cinnamon and sugar flavor combination seems to work just fine with these chips.  The two aren’t quite as natural of a fit as pretzels with cinnamon and sugar, but do seem more natural than potato chips dusted with cinnamon and sugar.  From the very second these hit our tongues, it was undeniable what flavor they were.  We are guessing that 9 out of 10 tasters would identify this combination in a blind taste test.  So, the prerequisite cinnamon and sugar are present, but as tasty as they always are on their own, we really wish there was a lot more salt to cut through the sweetness, and balance out the combo (while reminding us that we are also eating a chip).

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 PopCorners for review

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