popchips sea salt and vinegar

If you saw my previous comment on ThrallMind’s post about the popchips Salt and Pepper chips, then you saw that popchips was nice enough to send us some of their chips to try. And of course, you know about my love for salt and vinegar chips. So of course, I had to try the popchips sea salt and vinegar chips.

When I opened the bag, the smell of salt and vinegar hit me and made me immediately want to start eating away. The taste of the chips has the bite I was looking for in the vinegar, and the slight sweetness of the sea salt. However, while the flavor is strong and pleasant, it lacks that little bit of saltiness the makes you want to reach for another chip.

The crunch on these, like the other popchips I have tried, are fantastic. And because they are air popped, the grease is non-existent. Even the bits of flavor that would usually stick to your fingers doesn’t exist.

Overall, I have been impressed with the popchip products I have tried, and look forward to trying the rest of their flavors. Definitely a brand of chip I will look for the next time I am out.

Archer Farms Smoky Bacon & Cheddar Baked Crisps

Wow.  Now that’s a name.  First thing to remember is that this is a potato crisp, and not a potato chip.  Now that that is out of the way, the chips, er, I mean crisps.

The smell is the first thing that got me.  These smell of Bacos, which actually makes perfect sense to me.  But then the taste, matches the smell.  Bacos.  Well, not quite.  Bacos covered in processed cheese powder.  But maybe that much is to be expected?  Unfortuantely, Bacos is not exactly bacon.  In fact, it is nowhere close to being bacon.  However, while these chips don’t manage to give you the taste of bacon, they do manage to give you the salt of bacon.  With a processed cheese taste.  So what we really have here is Salty Almost Cheddar Smells Like Bacos Baked Potato Crisps.  For some reason, I don’t think that flavor would sell very well.  In fact, I don’t think it would sell at all.  Which is what these crisp should be.  Not sold.  It is very rare that I find a chip, crisp, or any other item that I don’t like, but in this case, it stands out as an exception.

Yes, there is the standard baked crisp crunch, and lack of grease, both good.  But without a taste, they belong back on Archer Farms.

Lays Baked Southwestern Ranch

I first happened on these “chips” at a Subway a couple weeks back.  Definately had a unique flavor to them, which I really enjoy.  But it wasn’t until I bought another bag for this review, that I realized something.  (slowly waves hand) These are not the chips you are looking for.  And by that, I mean that these are NOT potato chips, but potato crisps.  Now some of you might not understand the difference, so let me throw a quick little lesson here.

A potato chip is sliced potato.  Simple enough?  A potato crisp however is dehydrated potatoes.    Definately NOT the same thing.  The most common of this type is the Pringles and Stax.  Now that this little lesson is out of the way, on to the review.

The smell when opening the bag is of a sweet pepper smell, which just hints at the slight amount of bite that they offer.  However, once you actually taste them, you realize that slight southwestern bite actually overpowers any hint of the ranch flavor you might expect.  While still an enjoyable taste, it tends to miss the distinct ranch taste that I was anticipating.

Lays Baked Southwestern Ranch Chip CloseUp

On note with the flavoring, is the slightly “off” picture on the bag.  Now, I know that this is just advertising, but for a bag that advertises it’s “Baked-In Flavor” on the bag, I fail to see any of that flavor.  You can see for youself in the picture.

Being a baked crisp, there is very little in the form of greasiness on these, which is always a good thing in my books.  And they have the crunch of a thin tortilla chip.

While not what I was expecting when I bit into them, I was very impressed with the flavor of them.