BIJOU-REVIEW: Keogh’s – Sweet Chilli & Irish Red Pepper Potato Crisps

Rating: ©©©©-1/2 chips (lip-smacking)

Just in time for Saint Patty’s Day, more great potato crisps from Ireland!!

FIELD: Abbeyville

VARIETY: Lady Claire

Come’on, how many other companies can you tell, or at least do tell you, what field the potatoes you are eating came from, and what variety of potato?!  Very cool!

We’ve told you before, but figure that it wouldn’t hurt to tell you again:

Keogh’s Farm is a family owned and run potato growing and crisping business based in North County Dublin, an area famous for producing Ireland’s finest potatoes.  Keogh’s has been farming the rich fertile lands in this area for over 200 years and have recently set up a “crisping house” on the farm…now producing Ireland’s only “hand cooked on the farm” artisan potato crisps.

Launched in 2012 to celebrate St Patricks Day, Keogh’s Shamrock and Sour Cream potato crisps combine the delicious tangy taste of Sour Cream with the freshness of traditional Irish Shamrock. Our Shamrock is grown in Ballinskelligs Co. Kerry by Livingshamrock. This area also produces the fresh Irish Shamrock which is presented to the American president on St Patrick’s Day! www.keoghs.ie

Keogh’s delicious potato crisps are varying sizes of rustic, skin on, bright yellow hued fried potato slices!  Medium thick, loads potato flavor, and a crispy kettle cooked consistency!  Maybe a little greasy, but nothing that hinders the clean and neutral flavor!

Truth be told these crisps remind us a lot of some other crisps from across the big pond – Tyrrell’s Sweet Chili & Red Pepper Hand Cooked Potato Crisps, and even a little bit reminiscent of some of our own country grown potato chips – Kettle Brand Spicy Thai.

The Sweet Chilli & Irish Red Pepper seasoning is fantastic!  Love, love, love the addition of ginger and coriander, and also what appears to be licorice root – all adding flavor notes that are uncommon in most seasoning combos.  Combine these with red bell pepper, spicy chiles, and garlic, and what do we have?  Deliciously sweet, spicy, tangy, and amazingly fragrant potato crisps!

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

Crisps discovered at World Market; Oak Brook, IL

Keogh’s Official Website

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

©©©©© – “A” list

REVIEW: Late July Organic – Red Hot Mojo Multigrain Chips

Rating: ©©©-3/4 chips  (notable)

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