Category: reviews

Potato Chip Review – Wavy Lay’s – Au Gratin

Posted on by AuSable

What can I say other then the suspicions I had with the Wisconsin Cheddar Lay’s have been confirmed when I finally re-experienced Au Gratin Wavy Lay’s. Other then the obviousness of these being wavy cut chips versus the flat cut on the Wisconsin Cheddar. The flavors are pretty much the same other then the Au Gratin having less cheddar overtones then the Wisconsin Cheddar version. Surprisingly I actually prefer the Au Gratin to the Wisconsin Cheddar, since I really don’t care for the pronounced sharp cheddar cheese flavor on the Wisconsin Cheddar. But hey, to each their own.

Potato Chip Review – Funyuns Flaming Hot

Posted on by AuSable

As usual with the packaging, you see all those flames and think, “These might be pretty hot.” Well yes they brought the heat, but in an unexpected kind of way. I don’t know how they pulled it off, but somehow the folks at Frito-Lay figured out how to add heat to the Funyuns so that it tickling the back of your throat instead of your tongue. It is such a strange sensation, that I want to try these again. The ingredient list on the packaging doesn’t list what peppers are used for the heat. But whatever they are using, its gotten me interested.

Potato Chip Review – Sabritas – Habanero Limón

Posted on by AuSable

Now these were some really good chips. There is a nice balance between the heat of the habanero and the sour of the lime (citric acid). For some reason when you combine the two you almost get a mild cumin flavor.

From looking at the bag, with all the “fire” graphics. I was excepting some really hot chips. So I had put off eating them for the longest time, since I was concerned about the “side effects” after consumption. But it turned out that they brought just enough heat to keep things interesting. Giving you a chance to actually taste the habanero & paprika on the chips. But not so much heat, that you would get a sunburn inside your mouth.

When you team these chips up with a cold beer, oh’ boy. Its like a bar owners wet dream. The heat of the chips makes you thirsty, so you have some beer to tame the heat and the cycle keeps repeating of heat & beer enjoyment.

I actually had to take a break while eating them, because I was going through the tiny bag to quickly. I’d like to at least enjoy a little bit of the flavor, before I inhale the rest. But thumbs up for these bad boys, and I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled to get another bag.

Potato Chip Review – Lay’s California Cool Dill

Posted on by AuSable

What a surprise, how similar these chips taste to Lay’s sour cream & onion….except that they changed the green onion for dill. It’s a nice subtle change from sour cream & onion, without any heavy R&D costs on the part of Frito-Lay (Which I’m sure they blew on the WoW Mt. Dew flavors.) Right now if I had to pick between sour cream & onion vs dill, I would say that it is a toss up. So if you like Lay’s sour cream & onion, you’ll like the slight change up with the Lay’s California Cool Dill.

Potato Chip Review – Sabritas – Doritos – Diablo Enchilado

Posted on by AuSable

When I opened the bag, there was almost no smell. Just a faint hint of cumin and paprika. And the first bite was like a hot flash in your mouth, almost like an explosion of heat. As quick as it hits you, then it’s gone. Only to be replaced with a boot to the face of citric acid. At first I thought that it was lime, but it really didn’t taste like lime until I checked the package, and saw that it was citric acid. All I can say is holy citric acid!! These chips have so much citric acid flavor in the finish that they are almost inedible. I had to stop eating them for 10 minutes, just so that my taste buds could somewhat recover. Another strange thing I noticed is that the longer you keep the chips in your mouth, the more citric acid flavor you get. So if you love the sour of citric acid, then these are for you. But for me, I’m glad I just had a ~2 oz. bag, because anymore would have been too much for me.

Potato Chip Review – Lay’s Monterey Pepper Jack

Posted on by AuSable

Now these chips were good! Part of it might be that I had very low expectations after the whole Wisconsin Cheddar debacle. But here is the lowdown.

Right when I opened the bag the first smell that hit my nose was peaches n’ cream corn topped with butter, with a very faint after hint of Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion. Just the main corn smell started to make my mouth water craving some Iowa sweet corn. It really wasn’t until about an hour later that I started to pick-up a hint of the sour cream and onion. But really it was so faint, that it was very easy to miss. Continue reading →

Potato Chip Review – Lay’s Wisconsin Cheddar

Posted on by AuSable

Two words sum up these chip: not impressed. At first they smelled like Nacho Cheese Bugles, then I tried them and they were boring and nothing like Bugles. They basically taste like every other cheese flavored chip from Lay’s. I wouldn’t be surprised if those lazy bastards at Lay’s didn’t just repackage their cheddar & sour cream flavor with a new label, to get you to buy more of a flavor they already make. I know that I fell for the trick. So if I had two more hands, I’d give it four thumbs down.

Potato Chip Review – Sabritas – Chile Piquín

Posted on by AuSable

This is one of the chips from the care package, and it had a pretty good flavor. When you smell the chips, they don’t have a very strong smell. But what they lack in smell, they make up for in taste. Overall you get a combo of three different flavors with these chips, the chile, some cumin and lime.

The chips have some heat from the chile, but they really don’t have a lingering heat. So once you’re done eating the chips, the heat of the chilies goes away fairly quickly. At first I thought they would going to taste like a hot paprika chip, but they didn’t at all. What was really different was not so much the lime, as the cumin. It was almost like eating a spicy taco on a potato chip, but different.

I had these chips with a sandwich made of freshly baked ciabatta, and it was a good combo. These are chips that I wouldn’t mind having again at a later date. Thumbs up!

Weekly Potato Chip Feature

Posted on by AuSable

If there is one food in this world that I love, it would be “salty snacks” with the subcategory of potato chips being the focus. I kind of lump a lot of items under the “potato chip” banner. Things like pringles, tortilla chips, puffed vegetable chips, cheetos, fritos, etc. Basically most of the snacks in the “chip aisle”, even though they may not be made of potatoes.

I usually have tortilla chips & bagel chips always on hand. But I love to try out new chips flavors from Lay’s or one of the remaining indepenant producers. I just got a care package of about half a dozen different bags of mexican flavored Lay’s that I am excited to try out and post a review. I was also just at the grocery store and got 3 different bags of the 2009 Taste of America Lay’s, so those should be pretty good.

With so many different chips on hand right now (about 10). I’ll have plenty of material to write about for weeks.

As would be expected, chip flavors come and go. Here are some MIA flavors that I can’t find anymore, but would love to have again:
Ruffles – KC Masterpiece (much better the hickory BBQ ruffles)
Backer’s – german style chips (these were really good chips and they had celery salt as one of the seasoning ingredients. I got them at the Dutchman’s store one time, and they never carried them again.)

So enjoy the reviews. First up, Sabritas Chile Piquín.

Review – Pepsi Throwback

Posted on by AuSable

I had read about the whole “Throwback” thing in a packaging magazine online a few months back, and it piqued my interest. The article was basically a press release from Pepsico to let everyone know that they would be doing a limited release of Pepsi Throwback, Mt. Dew Throwback and Pepsi Natural. Well the Pepsi Natural really didn’t interest me, from it’s limited geographic release (10 major markets), to the “all natural ingredients”. Throwback on the other hand had me chomping at the bit to get some. Part of the interest being that the Throwbacks were going to be made with beet/cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Continue reading →