White Bean with Sea Salt Chips from Beanitos

Photo from Beanitos. Click on the pic to go there.

Ingredients:

Whole Navy Beans, Whole Grain Long Brown Rice and/or Long Grain White Rice, Pure Sunflower and/or Safflower Oil, Guar Bean Gum, Sea Salt.

I received a bag of these chips in my February Love with Food Box.

Tea Suggestion:

As with most salty snacks like this, I went with a glass of refreshing iced tea, and the tea that I had chilling in my fridge when I opened this bag of chips was this Very Big Hill Dew Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas.  I liked the sweet-tart contrast that the drink brought to this salty, savory snack.

What I Think:

Having previously tasted another Beanitos product, I was fairly sure I’d enjoy these too.  And I did enjoy them.

What I like best about them is the texture of the chip – crisp, but not dense like a typical corn chip.

I also appreciate that they’re not too salty.  I can taste the bean.  I can taste what seems like a hint of lime to these too … and I found myself wanting a little more of that acidic flavor.  I think that maybe just a little bit more lime would really brighten up the flavor a bit.

My Final Thoughts:

A tasty snack.  As I said above, I found myself wanting a little bit more of that lime note.  It would be really tasty with a guacamole with an extra squeeze of lime, I think.

Whole Grain Espresso Chip Shortbread Cookies from Lark Fine Foods

The Holiday Trio box has three different cookies in it: to the left is the burnt sugar and fennel cookies, the middle is the salted rosemary, and the right is the espresso chip.

Product Information:

100% whole wheat shortbread with espresso and chocolate chips

I received the Lark Holiday Trio box which included these cookies in my December Knoshy Box!

Tea Suggestion:

When I have shortbread cookies, I like to have a rich black tea to go along with … perfect for dipping!  I chose This English Breakfast Tea from Tea of Life to drink with these cookies.  Yum!

What I Think:

OK, I am not a fan of coffee.  No, that’s not completely accurate.  I used to be a big fan of coffee, but, I realized at some point that it was that morning cup of java that was making me feel ill around 11 am every day.  And what I’m not a big fan of is feeling ill.

So, I stopped drinking coffee and started drinking more tea.  At the time that I was drinking coffee, I was also drinking tea but I was more of an occasional tea drinker.  I fell in love with tea and the rest is history.

So, whenever I’m encountered with stuff that … has coffee or coffee products in it (and espresso is coffee) I tend to be a bit … leery of it.  And so I was leery of these shortbread cookies.  But, I do love the other cookies I’ve tried from Lark so I  was hopeful.

And these are tasty.  A strong coffee taste to them and notes of chocolate.  I wish there was more chocolate but every once in a while, I get a bite with big chocolate flavor and I like that.  I love the texture of these cookies.  Lark manages to nail the shortbread texture perfectly in their cookies.  It’s sort of flaky and layer-y and buttery and crumbly … and just plain WOW!

My Final Thoughts:

These were tasty.  Of the different Lark cookies that I’ve tried, I’d have to say that these were my least favorite, but that’s because of the espresso.  I would have much rather had the spiced chocolate krinkles cookies from Lark … they sound amazing!  However, these cookies do get bonus points for being made with whole wheat.  It makes me think I’m eating healthy when I know that I’m not.  But, the illusion helps me feel less guilty … somehow.  So, I liked them … but didn’t love them as much as I’ve loved the other Lark cookies.  Still real good though.

Sweet Corn Crunch Dried Snack from Sensible Foods

Product Information:

Little crunch dried kernels of corn never tasted so good! The crunch dried process removes water while maintaining the natural flavor of the product. There are no preservatives in the product, and there’s only 2 ingredients! The bag is easy to store and makes for a great salad topping!

I received this snack in my November Love with Food box!

Tea Suggestion:

I chose to sip some iced tea while munching on this Sweet Corn Crunch, and the iced tea that I had chilling in the fridge when I opened this bag was this Vanilla Cola Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas.  I don’t know how “ideal” a pairing this was, but the iced tea was delicious, and the snack was tasty, so I enjoyed it.

What I Think:

Wow!  These are very different from what I was expecting.  I guess I was kind of expecting something more along the lines of HalfPops or CornNuts, but this snack is like neither one.  It’s more like the cut corn you’d serve at dinner, only instead of tender and juicy, this is light and crisp.

It doesn’t have that very toothsome crunch of a CornNut.  This is a very delicate kind of crunch.  Light and crispy, like a chip, only not like a dense corn chip … more like a light potato chip but with the flavor of corn and in the size of a corn kernel.

It’s sweet and has a really enjoyable texture.  It is a very satisfying snack.  It’s deliciously different, but familiar enough that it doesn’t taste “weird.”  A really good snack!

My Final Thoughts:

I’d definitely buy this again if I saw it at the store.  I really liked the texture, and I liked the flavor.  It was a fun and tasty snack.

Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips from Food Should Taste Good

Photo from Love With Food.
Click on the pic to go there.

Product Information:

A hint of cane sugar enhances the natural nuttiness of the sweet potato in a chip that is a riff on a classic baked sweet potato. Try the chips with a fresh fruit salsa or garlic dip.

I received a bag of these chips in my December Love with Food box.

What I Think:

Over the course of the last couple of years, I’ve been introduced to some snack chip products that are providing some really delicious and seemingly more healthy options to tortilla chips.

Now, as I’ve said on more than one occasion, I’m not a nutritionist, nor do I pretend to be.  I don’t always eat as healthy as I could or should.  Flavor to me is just as important – even more important! – than nutritional value.  If something doesn’t taste good, I’m not going to eat it just because it’s good for me.

I’m liking these Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips.  According to the list of ingredients, corn is still a primary ingredient in these chips.  But what I like about this list of ingredients is the shortness of it:

Stone Ground Corn, High Oleic Sunflower Oil and/or Safflower Oil, Sweet Potato, Corn Bran, Evaporated Cane Juice, Sea Salt

There’s not a lot of stuff there that I can’t pronounce.  There’s not a lot of stuff there at all.  Sure, it might be healthier if the oils weren’t there, and the cane juice wasn’t there.  But, there aren’t a whole lot of chips out on the market that don’t have some oil in them.  That said, these don’t feel or taste oily or greasy.

Instead, they taste light and they offer a satisfying cruch.  They’re lightly salted, with a delicious sweet potato and corn taste.  The product description above suggests serving them with a dip or salsa, but, I like them straight out of the bag too.

My Final Thoughts:

These are definitely tasty.  A product I could see myself buying when I’m in the supermarket now that I’ve tried them.

Sweet Potato Pop Chips

Product Information:

sweet, crispy and a lot of delicious.

I received a .8 ounce bag of Sweet Potato Pop Chips in my November Love with Food box.

Tea Suggestion:

When I munch on salty snacks like these, I like to drink iced tea because they just seem to go well together.  I brewed up a pitcher of this OYGFIB? blend from 52Teas last night, and I enjoyed a tall glass of it with these Sweet Potato Pop Chips.  A really tasty snack.

What I Think:

Wow!

When I first saw “Pop Chips” on the grocery store shelves, I didn’t really think much about them.  Something about them sounded “off” to me … was it like a thin rice cake that is made to taste like potato chips or what?

But it turns out, they’re nothing like what I thought they’d be.  These are actual sweet potatoes (and rice flour) that are air popped to create a crispy, tasty snack that is (in my opinion) just as tasty as a fried potato chip, but without the fried thing going on, because, you know, fried is not only not the healthy way to go, but, it also is greasy and after a couple of potato chips, I tend to find this greasiness rather unpleasant.

These aren’t greasy at all.  I taste the sweet potato, and it tastes the way I expect a sweet potato to taste:  Sweet and savory and delicious.  I think that this has been “seasoned” with a touch of sugar and I can taste a hint of salt too.  That’s it.  I taste a lot of sweet potato flavor, and a little bit of sugar and a little bit of salt.  And a whole lot of YUM!

My Final Thoughts:

These are the new must have as far as I’m concerned.  I’ll be buying more of these.  Fortunately, they have acquired a certain amount of popularity, as I have seen these in my local Whole Foods.  I’ll start checking the other grocery stores as well.  I can’t wait to try some other flavors, when I do, I’ll be sure to update my blog with those taste discoveries.

Rosemary & Olive Oil Kettle Cooked Potato Chips from Deep River Snacks

Photo from Knoshbox.
Click on the pic to go there.

Product Description:

These Deep River Snacks Rosemary & Olive Oil chips are delicious with various Belgian and German premium beers.

I received a bag of these potato chips in my September Knoshbox.

Tea Suggestion:

Because this month’s Knoshbox is all about “Perfect Pairings” I read the product card before tasting these chips and tried to choose a tea according to what the curators of the Knoshbox recommended.  For these chips, Knoshbox recommended Allagash White wheat beer from Maine because it has “balanced notes of coriander, orange peel and clove” … which does sound rather intriguing but, I’ve found even with the most intriguing sounding beer, when it comes right down to it, I’m often disappointed with a beer.  So, instead, I did a little investigation into my tea collection, and came up with this Market Chai African Redbush Tea from MarketSpice, and I brewed some of it to enjoy with these chips.  Nice!  There are delightful citrus notes, and warm notes from the cinnamon and ginger, and a pleasant nutty flavor from the nutmeg … and all the delicious flavors of the chai melded quite nicely with the flavors of potato, olive oil and rosemary.  A really delightful, spicy-sweet, savory treat!

What I Think:

These are really tasty … so tasty in fact, I found it difficult to stop munching on them long enough to start typing out my thoughts about them.  The bag is nearly gone now!

The potatoes have been slightly thick cut – these aren’t the thickest cut potato chips I’ve seen, but, they’re thicker than your average potato chip.  And they’ve been kettle cooked to give them that hearty crunch.

After they were cooked, they were flavored with rosemary and olive oil.  I like how these are flavored … nothing overwhelming.  I like the combination of the olive oil and rosemary.

Rosemary can be a very aggressive herb and take over the dish that it flavors, and because the description on Knoshbox’s website suggests a robust rosemary flavor, I thought that the herb might overpower the chip, but it is balanced nicely here.  I taste resin notes and notes of pine.  It’s a very pleasant flavor and I like the way the rosemary is presented here.

My Final Thoughts:

A delicious, savory chip, and even though I didn’t pair it with the beer they suggested, I found that the flavor profiles they described helped me immensely with the choosing of the tea suggestion for this snack.  I don’t usually choose a chai to drink with potato chips, but I’m glad I did today!

Feta Herb Hummus Popped Chips from Smartfood Selects

Product Information:

Herbs are a perfect accompaniment to cheese. This delicious recipe combines feta cheese with rosemary, basil, and black pepper for a flavor that perfectly complements our hummus popped chip.

Learn more about this product here.

Tea Suggestion:

These make a great snack with any kind of tea, really, but I chose this First Flush Black Tea from Teatulia.  It’s a flavorful tea, and I liked the way the sweetness of the tea brought out some of the savory qualities of the cheese and herbs.  A really tasty combination.

What I Think:

I found these popped hummus chips in single sized serving bags at my local Subway.  Just about everything about this product enticed me:  popped hummus chips … yum!  Feta and herb … YUM!  I also liked that there are no artificial flavors or colors, and because they’re popped chips instead of fried … that means less fat too.

These are really tasty!  They have a zesty flavor to them.  I can taste the tangy feta cheese and I can taste notes of rosemary, pepper and basil, as well as a hint of onion and possibly garlic.  They are very flavorful.  And they have a very satisfying crunch too.  They are a delicious, salty snack chip that doesn’t taste or feel greasy, and that’s a plus.

My Final Thoughts:

Two thumbs up for these.  I like that they aren’t greasy like a potato chip, but they have all the other qualities of a snack chip that I look for.  They’re crunchy and salty and have a really tasty, savory flavor.

Orange Dried Fruit Crisps from Simple & Crisp

Product Information:

These natural orange crisps from Seattle, Washington are a delicious cracker alternative. Orange slices add a burst of citrus to cheese plates, cocktails and craft beer. Pair with our favorite cheeses: Jasper Hill Cheddar, Willow Hill Autumn Oak and Cypress Grove Midnight Moon.

I received a package of these dried fruit crisps in my September Knoshbox.

Tea Suggestion:

I love the bright and complex flavor of these crisps!  I went with a chocolate-y tea to enjoy with them mostly because the idea of chocolate and orange really appealed to me at the time.  So I brewed up a cup of this Choco Nut Black Tea from the Ambessa Line from Harney & Sons.  It was indeed a deliciously decadent tea time!

What I Think: 

Wow!  These are amazing!

At first … I was … a little hesitant.  These are very thinly sliced pieces of orange that have been dried.  Peels and all!  I even see bits of seeds in some of these slices, and that just … seemed … weird.  But then I kept reading praises of these on Knoshbox’s facebook page so I decided to break open the package and give ’em a try.

And they’re really, really good!  They’re crispy, a little bit chewy, and even a little bit juicy once you bite into them.  I can feel that “burst” of juicy flavor – even if I don’t feel the juice itself – when I bite into the pulpy section of these crisps.

It’s a very bright and invigorating sort of taste on the palate … my palate seems “energized” when I eat these.  It is sweet, tart, and a little bit bitter.  A really interesting contrast when eaten on their own, these also made a nice “cracker” for cheese.

I didn’t try these with the above suggested cheeses.  Instead, I tried them first with a bit of room temperature goat cheese and found this to be a nice pairing.  The tangy quality of the goat cheese brought out not only the tangy notes of the orange, but also the sweetness.

My Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed these.  I was skeptical at first just because … I wasn’t sure how I’d like the orange peels (well, specifically the pithy part), but they add a hint of bitterness to the bright citrus sweetness.  I really liked these with the goat cheese.

S’more Cookie from S’more Bakery

Photo from Knoshbox
Click on the pic to go there

Product Description:

These all-in-one s’more cookies are hand made by S’more Bakery of New York City. Semisweet chocolate chunks, handmade vanilla bean marshmallows and rolled oats come together to create a delicious thin and crispy cookie.

Made with unbleached all purpose flour, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, eggs, old fashioned oats, unsalted butter, pure vanilla extract. Due to the delicate nature of these crispy cookies, some breakage may occur during shipping.

I received this S’more Cookie in my July Knoshbox!

Tea Suggestion:

When I grabbed this S’more Cookie, I was already sipping on a Chai Latte!  I made a rich, delicious Chai with this Strong Brew Chai concentrate from Chico Chai!  I am sure I could have found a more suitable pairing in my cupboard, but I love this chai, and the cookie was delicious with it. YUM!

What I Think:

My cookies out of the package …
broken and crumbly … but still yummy!

I was a bit disappointed when I opened my July Knoshbox and found this cookie broken into bits with quite a few tiny crumbs at the bottom of the package.  I know that the cookie tastes the same whether it’s broken or whole … but let’s face it, if presented with a platter of cookies, most of the time you’re likely to choose a whole cookie rather than a broken one, am I right?  Whole cookies are more fun to eat.  That’s my story and i’m sticking to it.

Before reading the above product description and before opening the package, I expected that this would be a thick, soft cookie, but it isn’t.  This is a thin, sort of crispy cookie.  I say “sort of” because even though it’s been baked to be crisp, the chewy marshmallow-y aspect of the S’more cookie gives it a compelling chewy texture.  The so it is crisp when you bite into it, and then it becomes chewy as you chew.

These are actually quite tasty.  They are chocolate-y and I can taste the oats, and I like the cocoa and oats combination.  On the rare occasion that I bake oatmeal cookies, I usually prefer chocolate chips to raisins, so the chocolate and oats combination is a welcome pairing.  The marshmallow is not so much “tasted” as it is experienced in the cookie.  The aforementioned chewiness gives this treat a very intriguing texture.  There is also a LOT of butter in this cookie.  Not complaining about that … I like a buttery cookie.

My Final Thoughts:

This is not so much a s’more taste to me as it is a chocolate and oat cookie, so therefore I feel like these cookies suffer from a bit of a misnomer.  People who might buy this thinking they’re going to be eating a s’more are in for a bit of a surprise.  I expected more of a s’more-like taste but it is still really delicious and something that I’d be happy to eat again.

Veggie Sticks from The Daily Crave

Ingredients: 

Potato flour, expeller pressed safflower oil, rice flour, tomato flour, spinach powder, salt, beet powder.

I received a bag of these Veggie Sticks in my August Goodies Box!

Tea Suggestion:

I wanted iced tea with these salty snacks, so I chose my new favorite iced tea:  Pink Lemonade flavored Black Iced Tea from 52Teas!  YUM!  The sweet and tart drink went very nicely with the salt in these crunchy sticks.  Psst … click here to learn about Zoomdweebies (aka 52Teas) campaign to re-open their tea bar in Wichita, Kansas!

What I Think:

My first observation:  there a lot more potato sticks in here than tomato, or spinach or beet sticks.  They resemble an uncooked french fry from McDonalds.  (That is to say that the color is not golden brown like a french fry!)  When I bite into them, the texture reminds me a bit of my favorite onion ring snack “chip”:  Funyuns!

They don’t taste like Funyuns, though.  The potato sticks … taste like potato chips, but without the greasy feel that often comes with potato chips.  These still are slightly “greasy” but not quite as greasy as the chips would be.  I noticed some “grease spots” on the paper that I put out to catch these sticks … for my “grease test.”  As I continue to eat, I notice more of the greasy taste though.

There is very little taste variation when it comes to the greener “spinach” sticks and the reddish “tomato/beet” sticks.  The flavor is very mild here, and is most noticeable in the aftertaste.  If I eat a couple of spinach sticks together, I notice more spinach-y taste, and the same is true of the tomato sticks … and the flavor for the reddish sticks is definitely tomato (not beet), making these my favorite part of this bag of snacks.  Unfortunately, of the three color sticks … there were fewest of the red sticks.

My Final Thoughts: 

They’re tasty enough.  I didn’t really like the developing greasy taste though, especially since I would most likely purchase something called “Veggie Sticks” as a healthier alternative to chips, and if these are still greasy … that doesn’t feel “healthier” to me, you know?  Also … my favorite of the three flavors represented here was the tomato, and it was under-represented in comparison to the other two flavors.  So, I don’t think I’d buy these in the store, unless I was given an option to choose just the tomato sticks.