Herr's Extra Crunchy Kettle Cooked Chipotle

While Herr's Extra Crunchy Kettle chips really do have a crunch and crispiness to them that you can feel, hear and almost even taste, the actual flavouring here is a bit lacking. Unlike other chipotle chips it isn't mixed with any BBQ flavouring, so you should be getting full chipotle pepper taste. But it's hard to get a feel for the flavour with just one chip, and takes about three or four before you can really tell they are any more than plain chips. The flavour that is there isn't particularly spicy either, as you may expect from chipotle. As it says on the bag "Our Crunchiest Chip Ever" may be true, but it is not the most flavourful. If you want a slowly building flavour after eating dozens of extra crunchy chips then this could possibly be the chipotle chip for you. But if you just like to eat a few then put the bag down for another time you can feel free to skip this chip.

Miss Vickie's Applewood Smoked BBQ Chips

As always, Miss Vickie's chips come with an excellent crunch. One of the most consistent kettle chips we've had. We've been having a lot of BBQ chips lately, it being summer and all but nothing really sets the flavour on these apart. It's more or less your standard BBQ flavour, with a hint of sweetness. Not really any heat either. Probably if you're looking for a standard BBQ flavour in a kettle chip, you should grab these off the shelf.

HR Chip Bar

Sitting at work this afternoon, minding our own business, when we got this email:

It has come to our attention that you have a chip blog.

Therefore we (HR) thought you might be interested to know about HR’s Second Annual “Chip Bar” Day. (Please see the attached picture from 8:00 am today.)

As a chip fan, please also accept this invitation to stop by for a few chips if you can make it over here.

It is happening today until 4:30pm here in the HR area.

Tickled pink, we accepted the invitation and headed over, armed with a bag from our stash.
Boy, are we glad we went over! They had all sorts of different styles and flavours. Without any pre-planning they managed to not have any doubles. We felt very honoured to be able to take part.

A BIG thanks for the invite, HR department!! We're looking forward to next year!

Sensations Sweet Chili and Sour Cream

Round eleven (that's right, we've turned this week up to eleven) is another one of the Sobeys house brand flavours, sweet chili & sour cream. These are kettle cooked, so of course we like the crunch they provide. Like we've said before, better than some, but not the best ever. They're pretty darn good though.

We didn't get much of a sour cream flavour from these, but you can tell that it's there. It really smooths out the sweet chili flavour, if that makes any sense. It's like adding cream cheese to things when you're cooking, it gives it that nice smooth, creamy flavour. There's not a lot of heat behind these at first, but as you go it slowly builds. It's very nice. The sweet chili flavour itself is pretty nice, too. Not sweet per se, and not too potent. It's a very mild flavour, partially from the sour cream in the background, and we're okay with that.

They're really good. Not really a party chip, but maybe more of a staying home and having a movie night chip. Try them out, and see for yourself.

Blair's Death Rain Buffalo Wing

Round ten of our catch-up week gives us the last remaining Blair's Death Rain flavour in our stock. We've reviewed several of Blair's chips before, so you'll have to excuse us if we don't wax poetic about the crunch and texture of the chips themselves. Long story short, we love these. They've probably got the best crunch of any chips we've ever reviewed, and possibly will ever review.

On to the flavour! And what flavour it is! These are absolutely amazing buffalo wing chips. I'd wager to say that these are the best buffalo wing chips we've ever had. And they're probably one of the best chips that we've ever reviewed. They're the right amount of spicy for the flavour that they are. They're not too spicy that they'd turn off people who don't generally like very hot foods. They're right in the sweet spot. And on top of that, they actually have a chicken wing flavour to them! That's right, they didn't just go for the typical "frank's red hot sauce" style of buffalo wing flavour. Nope, they took it a step further and made it taste like chicken too! It's like you're eating actual buffalo wings. If that's your thing, then these are right up your alley. But as with everything, there's always going to be someone who doesn't like it. And that someone is Lisa. She's not a big fan of the chicken flavour to these. Otherwise she'd really like them. Oh well, can't win 'em all (secretly we're pretty sure that these are healing the dead part of Lisa's mouth).

Go out and grab a bag of these, and give them a try. Hopefully you'll be on board with us. I think we picked these up from our local Sobeys. Probably another great choice for that upcoming big football game.

President's Choice Poutine

Round nine brings us to our very first review of one of the President's Choice flavours: Poutine. Back in the pre-chip club days, we've had many of their World of Flavours line of chips, and I'm actually surprised it took this long for us to review one of them.

So these are just poutine. Not bacon poutine, not cheesy poutine, not any other weird variation on poutine. Just fries, gravy, and cheese curds. It's also worth noting that none of the President's Choice products have any artificial colours or flavours, if that's important to you.

After opening the bag, we noticed that these are at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Archer Farms chips; they're huge. It's like they tried to find the biggest potatoes possible to make chips from. This of course leads to a lot of broken chips, and a lot of small fragments at the bottom towards the end. It would be better if they weren't such big chips, and that's something that should apply to all President's Choice chips. In our experience, they all have giant chips. And that's kind of annoying. But the thickness and crunch to these is very satisfactory. They're thicker cut than regular chips (they're ripple cut), and they're cooked really well so they've got a very satisfying crunch to them.

The flavour on these is great. Very strong gravy flavour, which is what we'd expect. You can just imagine yourself sitting with a nice plate of poutine in front of you. Not a very strong cheese flavour present, but that generally gets overpowered by the gravy in a plate of poutine anyways. It really helps the experience that potato chips are just a hop, skip, and jump away from french fries. They're very closely related, which only complements the poutine flavour.

Overall we were quite impressed with these. There's a few chips out there that have tried to emulate poutine flavour, but this one seems to have hit it pretty well. We'd recommend giving these a go if you can find them.

Piatto's Nacho Pizza

Round eight we're going with another weird pick: Piatto's Nacho cheese flavoured potato crisps. That's right, crisps. Not chips. I honestly don't even remember how these found their way into our possession. I think that Prajeet may have brought them in. Regardless, it's nacho pizza, and that's definitely intriguing to us. We love nachos, we love pizza, we love chips. How could we not love nacho pizza flavoured chips? The only down-side is that it's only a small bag, so I feel like we're not really getting the full tour, per se.

So we open up the tiny bag, and find that they're not even chips. They're hexagonal shapes! The texture and taste of the chips themselves remind me of crispers. The flavouring on these is really sweet, too. It's not very chip-like. And it doesn't really have much of a nacho or pizza flavour to it. Maybe a little bit of tomato, with a healthy dose of salt? Either way, pretty disappointing. Worth a buy only if you can find them cheap, and want the novelty of it. If you're looking for a good snack, look elsewhere.

Archer Farms Massaman Curry Flavour

We're going way off the board with our round seven selection. Made by Archer Farms, these Massaman Curry flavoured chips are different from everything we've done so far. We're only half impressed by the resealable bag. First of all, what kind of a chump doesn't finish what they've started? Secondly, the opening is in a weird position that restricts your ability to get your hand in there nicely, and it totally messes with that satisfying part at the end of the bag where you tip it up and let the crumbs and leftover flavour rain down into your mouth hole.

Annoying bag design aside, these are really good. In fact, they're delicious. Run out right now and get some. I don't know if it's just the batch we got, but we noticed that all the chips are from really small potatoes. That's great for something like this, which you don't need to dip at all. You don't have to somehow manage to shove huge chips into your mouth, or try to bite them in half and risk them shattering into a million pieces all over your face and chest. The flavour is fantastic, too. We didn't have to worry about that resealable bag for very long...these got gobbled down incredibly fast. It would've been almost amusing, if we weren't so busy shoveling delicious chips down our gullets. They're a little sweet, but not too sweet, with a hint of spice, and a really nice curry flavour.

Overall, I don't even know why you're still reading at this point. Back at the beginning of paragraph two, you should have switched tabs in your browser to find the nearest Target to pick up a bag or five of these. Seriously, they're that good.

Double Dutch Burstin' Onion

Round six brings us to the Double Dutch Burstin' Onion flavour. Not only do they claim it's onion flavour, but that it's burstin'. And first bite confirms their claims. These are, in fact, burstin' with onion flavour. It's very strong! Got a couple of "holy smokes!" and "oh wow!" comments right off the hop. Gord described them as onion flavour, with a dash of nitroglycerine. So when they say that they're burstin' with onion flavour, they ain't kiddin'.

I think for the most part that people liked these. Lisa was turned off a little by how strong the seasoning was. Will, on the other hand, thought that they were just fantastic. I think that they would be great to dip in sour cream. It'd be like if you were dipping your chips in that home made onion soup/sour cream dip. If you're okay with really strongly flavoured chips, give these a go.

(Organic) Kettle Sea Salt

Round Five! Kettle Brand organic Sea Salt chips. Again, coming specially from our resident organic expert. I think that we're going to be comparing these to the other organic sea salt chips we reviewed. But first, it's very important that everyone knows how difficult of a time Will had opening these. Like, it was ridiculous. He pulled and pulled, with all his might, and they would not open. Will's not a weak guy by any means, and these gave him a run for his money. Finally, after several minutes of struggling, he was able to wrestle them open. He'll tell you he was trying to be careful to not rip the bag right in half, but he's just trying to cover up his bruised ego.

Anyways, on to the less important issues at hand. These weren't as good as the other organic sea salt chips we reviewed. They're not as salty as the other organic sea salt chips we reviewed. They are, however, crunchier than the other organic sea salt chips we reviewed. I'm pretty sure that we liked the other organic sea salt chips we reviewed better.

Side note, I had some of the other organic sea salt chips we reviewed today, and man are they full of salty goodness.

Ruffles Jalapeno Popper

Round four! Jalapeno Popper chips, made by Ruffle. Apparently we're following a theme of flavours that would be good for that football party.

First and foremost, if for no other reason than to have it be known, I want to point out that Norm got a burnt chip.

Now that that's out of the way, on to the important stuff. These have great flavour. They taste exactly like you'd expect jalapeno popper chips to taste. They've got a good spice too them...not too much, but not too little. They've also got a really good mix of jalapeno flavour with a subtle amount of cream cheese.

Perhaps the whole review can be summed up into this one simple quote from Will:
"These are really good. I forgot how good they are."

Double Dutch Buffalo Wing and Blue Cheese

Round three: Double Dutch Buffalo Wing and Blue Cheese. Another really good flavour for that Sunday afternoon football game. Sadly, they're hitting a lot of points that we don't like our chips to be like. They're cut too thick, so they don't have a good crunch to them. They're not spicy at all, which for a buffalo wing flavour is an outrage. They have that kind of weird fake blue cheese flavour to them, and it tastes a little chemical-y.

Don't get me wrong, they're not bad chips at all. They're actually pretty enjoyable. I would still probably buy them, like I said, for that Sunday afternoon football game. They just have all these small things that could have made them better.

Ruffles Cheesy Quesadilla

Round two of our rapid-fire review week features Ruffles Cheesy Quesadilla flavour. The big thing that we notice about these right away is the size of the chips. Holy smokes, Ruffles really uses the biggest potatoes they can find.

The flavour for these is pretty good. Cheesy, with a bit of a taco seasoning zing to them. These are one of those flavours that would be ideal for a Sunday afternoon watching a football game. These chips taste like the SuperBowl would, if it was potato chips. Oh, hey, would you look at that. The Grey Cup is in less than two weeks. Everyone should go and buy these for their Grey Cup party.

Blair's Death Rain Ancho Chili Cheeseburger

We've been busy lately, and have been falling behind in our posts lately. I think we've got about a dozen reviews that are still just in draft form going back all the way to September. So we're going to do a rapid-fire review blast, and pump out a bunch of them this week.

Let's start with Blair's Death Rain Ancho Chili Cheeseburger. We got these bad boys out of the whole ordeal where we got the flavourless Chipotle chips. Honestly, we were hoping that these would be a little spicier than they actually are. They have flames on the bag, for Pete's sakes! Sadly, all they have going for them is a strong black pepper-y taste. No ancho chili, no cheeseburger, just black pepper. Most were in agreement, these weren't very good. Jeff liked them, but almost everyone else was in agreement that they could use more, and better, flavour. We can't, in good conscience, recommend that anyone buys these chips. They're so disappointing that we didn't even take a picture of them. That picture up top is totally just one we found on the Internet.

Doritos Dinamita Chile Limón

When Michelle came back from Palm Springs with the Doritos Dinamita Fiery Habanero chips, she also brought back a bag of these...Chile Limón. We weren't really sure how they were going to be, since Doritos isn't exactly known for their "fruitier" flavours. Usually it's all cheese, all the time. But beggars can't be choosers, so we gave 'em a whirl.

The first thing you notice with these is how incredibly red they are. They are really, really, really, really red. Like, stain your fingers red, red. Like, stain your whole mouth red, red. I don't know if I'm being clear enough about this, but they're red. They don't really have a strong scent to them, so we're just going to have to try them and see.

Holy fake lime flavour, Batman! That's unbelievably strong! Usually when you get lime flavoured chips, you get a hint of lime. Like on those tostitos "hint of lime" chips. It's just a hint. These decided to do away with that idea and go full lime. They've still got a medium amount of spice to them, so the chile label isn't misleading (even if it's not as much as we want it to be...we'll take it). But dat lime!

Everyone was pretty split on these. Will (who admittedly hates fake lime flavour) didn't like them at all. Too much lime, he said. Arthur was on his team, comparing the taste to a bad froot loop. David and James both said that they're really good. Prajeet said that they were probable one of his favourite flavours yet.

If you can find them, and are feeling adventurous, give these a go. They're worth a try.

Kettle Brand Sriracha

Sraracha flavoured chips? Has science gone too far???
...
...
...
Probably, yeah. These aren't as good as we expected. They're only medium spicy, not quite the flaming bottle labeled "HOT!" as depicted on the bag. And they don't taste like sriracha. They're not terrible tasting by any means, but we had higher hopes when we opened the bag. Honestly, they're a little disappointing. We were expecting more. Poor form, Kettle Brand.

(Organic) Boulder Canyon Sea Salt

Organic. It's one of those words that elicits strong opinions in one of two directions, depending on who you speak to. There's a running joke around here to rile up our resident organic evangelist that every new food that comes through the office is "organic, gluten-free, hormone-free, BPA-free, grass-fed, free range, free trade, with no artificial colours or flavours". These chips were no different, from the moment they came in the door.

We opened the bag, and we got the requisite comment "Yup, they're potato chips, all right." Also heard a "You know what's missing on these? A healthy coating of pesticides."

Once everyone got all the complaining and joking and insulting out of the way, these sure went fast. There's nothing particular about them that really stands out that you can point at and say "That right there, that is what makes these so good. We're not sure what it is, but they're just good. They were actually some of the best plain chips that we've ever tried. They were crunchy like kettle cooked chips, and had just the right amount of salt. They also have a little bit more oily residue than other chips we've had, too. Maybe that's the delicious secret.

In the end, it seems like everyone loved these. I think that they're high up there on the list of the quickest-consumed chips we've reviewed yet. Does it justify the price bump to buy organic? Maybe. They were delicious and, if you believe the propaganda, healthier.

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Doritos Dinamita Fiery Habanero

When you think about Doritos, you get that iconic triangle shape. It's the way tortilla chips have always been. It most likely comes from the fact that tortilla chips were originally a way to get rid of weird, misshapen, or old tortillas by cutting them up and frying them into chips. You take the round tortilla, cut it up like a pizza, and voila! Triangles. Now, sure they aren't done like that anymore. The size and shape are all too uniform, and it's fairly reasonable to assume that they're cut out like that on purpose. But they've stuck with that triangle shape, because it's the de facto tortilla chip shape. Sure, you can get rounds or scoops, but those are just "novelty improvements" on the standard.

Well get ready to have your minds blown, because Doritos have gone full "novelty" on today's feature flavour. Doritos Dinamita is a line of Doritos chips that, instead of being triangular, are rolled up into "sticks" of tortilla. Hence the Dinamita name. Dynamite sticks. As far as we're aware, you can't find these in Canada. In fact, they come to us all the way from Palm Springs, CA. We've also seen them in Texas.

Being the spice lovers that we are, we were drawn immediately to the fiery habanero flavour of these guys. The bright colours on the bag, the exploding hot peppers, what's not to love? Ripping into the bag, the first thing you're struck by is the colour. So much red dye. Then you grab a couple. Pop 'em in your mouth. Instant satisfaction. They've got a good heat to them, more than almost any other Doritos on the market. Three's also the subtle cheesy Doritos flavour. Delightful.

Then you crunch down on them. It's like nothing you've ever had before. The idea of rolling them up has changed the texture. We figure it's because the act of rolling them makes them thicker than the average chip, so they give a more satisfying crunch when you bite down.

Whatever it is, it's working. I think everyone was on board with these. We only wish they were available in our neck of the woods.

Sensations Black Pepper & Lime Flavour

Looking back we've been going with a lot of brand name chips so far here. This time, we've chosen to go with a little bit more of a generic brand this time, selecting Compliments branded chips from Sobeys.

Done well, black pepper and lime can be a great flavour. It's a little less prevalent than other flavours,but what kind of a review site would we be if we didn't branch out a little bit?

Right from the moment we opened the bag, these had a nice smell to them. Not too strong, but not too subtle. The first bite starts out a little sweet, but then you get the lime flavour and it erases any hints of that sweetness. The lime flavour is subtle, but noticeable. It's not overpowering, like fake lime flavour sometimes tends to be. The black pepper flavour is there, too, and it compliments the lime nicely. Being kettle cooked chips, these had a pretty good crunch to them. Better than some, but not as good as others. It was pretty middle-of-the-road - enough to satisfy, but sort of left us wishing for a bit more.

Aside from Will whining about not liking lime flavour in general, the only real complaint about these was from Michelle, that she kept expecting the tortilla chip aftertaste instead of the potato chip aftertaste. Which is hardly a complaint.

Final verdict: would buy again.