Category: reviews

Potato Chip Review – Sabritas – Ruffles – Queso Cheese

Posted on by AuSable

This Ruffles flavor is suppose to be Queso Cheese, and when you open the bag it totally smells like a bowl of queso. But the problem is that is really doesn’t taste like queso. Instead you get a triad of flavors on your tongue: buttery, citric acid(yeah I know, again!),and cheesy. But the the cheesy flavor isn’t a queso cheesy flavor but instead its more of a blue cheese/cheddar flavor.

And then it hit me, these Queso Ruffles are more or less Cheddar & Sour Cream Ruffles that had some blue cheese flavoring added in to make in more “queso” like, heck they even look like Cheddar & Sour Cream Ruffles. Come on Frito-Lay, how dumb do you think I am? If they would have labeled these chips as Blue Cheese Ruffles, it would have been a more accurate description than queso. Once again another let down courtesy of the men and women of Frito-Lay.

Potato Chip Review – Sabritas – Doritos – Toro Habanero

Posted on by AuSable

What do you get when you take Nacho Cheese Doritos, and add in a mixture of sour (courtesy of citric acid) and habanero flavor. You get Sabritas (Frito-Lay’s) Toro Habanero flavored chips! So on to the critical questions, that being were these chips hot, as in picante and not calinete? Oh yes they were, but it wasn’t an in your face kind of heat with the first bite, it was more of a smoldering heat that almost turns into an inferno of fire in your mouth with almost a hint of a fruity aftertaste while the heat is dying down in your mouth.

Would I get these again, right now I’m 50/50 on the flavor. I kind of wish that they wouldn’t have used so much of the citric acid, even though I understand the reasoning why they did it in the first place (for the acid to enhance the flavor of the habanero, kind of like lime in guacamole) but that is asking a lot out of Frito-Lay. But if you are looking to get your heat fix on, then these are the ticket for you.

Potato Chip Review – Jays Crispy Ridged Open Pit

Posted on by AuSable

Notice on the front of the bag, how the tomato is in front of the bottle of Open Pit BBQ sauce? Well I guess the reason that they did that was because you get overwhelmed in the taste of sugary tomatoes instead of BBQ flavor. And this taste totally threw me for a loop since the main smell of the chips is worchestershire sauce.

I have to say that I’m pretty disappointed with this flavor, since I was expecting more BBQ and less tomato flavor. But I would have never know how these chips tasted, unless I would have gotten a bag.

So I’m putting this flavor into the category of “once is nice, but no repeat purchase.” On to the next flavor!

Potato Chip Review – Lay’s Salt and Vinegar

Posted on by AuSable

This is another one of those flavors that I picked up at the Meijer in Kalamazoo. Call them the staid big brother verse his skater punk little bro in the Lay’s Dill Pickle chips.

Once upon a time, I might have had a fun size bag of Lay’s Salt and Vinegar chips in high school, because I remember not liking the tart vinegar flavor in high school. So I basically avoided salt and vinegar flavored chips until this current purchase. So lets reload an oldie but a goodie into the flavor mill. Continue reading →

Potato Chip Review – Jays Regular Potato Chips

Posted on by AuSable

These were one of the bags of chips that I picked up at the Meijer in Kalamazoo. And after having a small bowl of these chips, I have to say that the saying on the bag is true and you really “can’t stop eating ’em.” The taste of these chips reminds me a little bit of my favorite plain chips, those being regular Better Made chips (review coming soon.) The Jays have a little bit of a corn smell/taste being that they are fried in corn oil, but its nothing overpowering. If anything the smell of these chips remind me of CornNuts (which are pretty good, in and of themselves.) Continue reading →

Review – Georges Duboeuf – Beaujolais Nouveau 2009

Posted on by AuSable

Always an easy drinking wine. And what I would consider an everyday table red (to steal a line from an twice removed uncle.) Usually Beaujolais Nouveau is very thin, but after a couple of glasses during Thanksgiving a few months back. I have to say that this years wine has a little more body/substance then normal. So if this is any sign of what’s to come from France for 2009, its a very good sign indeed. Continue reading →

Review – Sheeder Cloverleaf Dairy – Whole Milk

Posted on by AuSable

I’ve been wanting to try this Sheeder Cloverleaf Dairy milk for about the last 6 months, but for some reason I just couldn’t pull the trigger to buy a bottle. But this last time that I was at the grocery store I needed to pick up a 1/2 gallon of milk (I’ve come to realize that I don’t drink enough milk, to finish a gallon before it expires). After checking the prices and expiration date for the milk on display at the store. A 1/2 gallon of regular milk in the plastic jug was $2.14, while the Sheeder stuff in a 1/2 gallon glass bottle was $2.89. So for $0.75 extra I’m willing to give it a try, and as an added bonus the Sheeder milk didn’t expire for an extra week compared to the milk in the plastic jugs, which gives me more time to finish the bottle.

Well I’ve got to tell you, this milk is pretty damn good and worth the slightly higher price compared to generic milk. But I just can’t put my figure on what makes it taste so good (vat pasteurization, “grass based” feed, hormone-free, glass bottle, etc.) The only way that I can explain it is to say “once it touches your lips”. To me it almost seemed like the Sheeder whole milk has a higher butter fat content, because after I was done drinking the milk and I almost had a lingering milk taste in my mouth which I’ve never experienced before. Plus while I was drinking the milk I was picking up some kind of grassy/grainly flavor. I couldn’t pin down exactly what it was, but it was a nice undertone to the milk.

JRR mentioned to me one time a long time ago that once you try some of that small batch, grass feed milk, you can’t go back. So you better put if off for as long as possible. And you know what, he was right. I’m definitely not going back to drinking generic whole milk.

Here is a link to an article about Sheeder on Market to Market.

Potato Chip Review – Doritos – Smokin’ Cheddar BBQ

Posted on by AuSable

Since I don’t remember ever seeing this flavor of Doritos before, I had to get a bag. And the flavor listed on the bag is the actual order that you get the flavor when eating these Doritos. First you get the smoky flavor, and as you chew you get the cheddar flavor, with a finishing flavor of BBQ sauce. The only downside was the BBQ flavor, in that it is more of a sweet BBQ sauce flavor, almost like the BBQ flavor on Lay’s Honey BBQ flavored chips. Personally if they would have used the BBQ flavor from the old KC Masterpiece Ruffles, it would have paired up better with the smokiness and the cheddar. I guess we can all dream.

Potato Chip Review – Old Dutch – Salt & Vinegar Kettle Chips

Posted on by AuSable

I guess that everything old is new again, because the first thing that I thought of when I tired these chips was Lay’s Dill Pickle flavored chips. But when you think about it, talk about a brilliant piece of marketing on the part of potato chip companies. Salt and Vinegar chips are a down in the dumps flavor, almost a throwback flavor in these current times. But guess what, you add a little dash of dill flavoring and presto! You were able to recycle a flavor that no one was buying into something cutting edge.

As a side note, for some strange reason Salt & Vinegar flavored chips always make me think of the UK and fish and chips. Maybe it was because of the baby blue color on both the Lay’s Salt & Vinegar chips as well as these Old Dutch chips. Did I somehow miss the memo that baby blue = salt & vinegar?

But in any case, I thought that these Kettle Cooked Old Dutch chips were pretty good, and judging by my consumption of half a 8.5 oz bag in one sitting, that means a pretty solid thumbs up from me. Maybe I’m currently experiencing a salt & malt vinegar deficiency that needed to be quenched. But these salt & vinegar really hit the spot. And mixed with a little bit of beer from a free keg of BL (15.5 gallons isn’t going to drink itself away) in the kegerator it made for a nice, though unhealthy late night snack.