Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips from Food Should Taste Good

Photo from Love With Food.
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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!

Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips from North Fork

Product Description:

The ever popular blend of a tangy pure vinegar and  raw all natural salt complement each other perfectly and give  your taste buds a real punch.

I received a bag of these chips in my July Knoshbox!

Tea Suggestion:

When I eat salty snacks like potato chips, I really want iced tea.  I want something that’s easy to guzzle down to quench the thirst fast.  This Strawberry Mint Julep White Tea from 52Teas makes a really refreshing iced tea, and the sweet berry notes and crisp minty notes offered an enjoyable contrast to the tangy vinegar and salty chips.

What I Think:  

Salt & Vinegar chips are one of my favorite flavors, I love the contrast between the salty, the tangy and the hint of sweet that I get from these chips.  So, I didn’t mind a bit when these chips were featured in my July Knoshbox.

These are “Kettle” style chips, which means that they are thicker than your average potato chip.  They are crunchy … but what I’m liking is that even though they’re very crunchy … there is something different about this crunch.  You know how sometimes you get some of those other kettle-style chips out there, and there’s more crunch than substance?  The chip seems to be so crunchy that it’s difficult to bite into it.  These are crunchy … but they’re not “hard as a rock” crunchy.  They’re crunchy with that light “crispness” that a thinner potato chip has.

I can taste the potato here.  On North Fork’s “Our Story” page on their website, it says that the reason why the potato flavor shines through is because these are fried in 100% Sunflower Oil.  As someone who has not fried a whole lot of potato chips, I’m going to believe what they say based on two things:  1) I don’t fry a lot of potato chips so I really don’t know if there is a difference in oils or not, and 2) as I’m munching and crunching my way through this bag of chips, I can TASTE that there is definitely something different about these chips.

I also like that the salt and vinegar has not been overdone here.  They’re salty … sure.  They’re tangy and vinegar-y … yep.  But the flavor is not so overpowering that I’m not tasting the potato goodness that these chips have.  In some of the salt and vinegar chips that I’ve tasted, there is so much flavoring that is all I taste.  I like that I’m tasting the potato.

My Final Thoughts:  

These are really good.  I’d love to try some of their other flavors.  I find myself intrigued by their Sweet Potato flavor as well as their rosemary and garlic flavor.  I’d definitely consider ordering more of these!  They are definitely YUMMY!

Sweet Potato & Ginger Marshmallows from 240Sweet

These unique puffs are described as simply

A fall favorite

240Sweet Marshmallows are available on the 240Sweet website.

Tea Suggestion:

When they’re not serving as a fluffy, delicious cap to my hot cocoa, I usually prefer to eat marshmallows with a cup of hot tea.  However, the heat from the ginger on these gives me cause to want something that is easy to “chug” … lest I need to cool the palate immediately.  So I chose a white tea because even when served hot, I prepare it at a cooler temperature than I do other tea types, and white tea tends to offer the body and palate cooling properties.  I chose this amazing Organic White Tea from Steenbergs Organics.  The sweet, crisp flavor of the tea offered lovely refreshment from these deliciously sweet yet spicy puffs.

What I Think:

I think I may have mentioned before that 240Sweet makes my favorite marshmallows.  And it’s not just because the marshmallows are huge and fluffy and perfectly sweet.  It’s not just because 240Sweet has managed to create works of art with their marshmallows.  Sure, these reasons factor in to why I love these marshmallows so much, but there’s something more to it too.

It’s their gutsy approach to marshmallows.  They’re not afraid to get ballsy with their marshmallows and put flavors in them.  They’re not content with just letting a marshmallow be a simple little puff of sugary sweet goodness.  I mean, seriously, who ELSE would think to put SWEET POTATO flavor in a marshmallow, encrust it with crunchy, candied GINGER and turn those simple little puffs (or in this case … HUGE puffs) into spicy, savory, sweet bits of culinary joy?

Oh.  My.  Goodness!  These are amazing.  So yummy!

These puffs evoke thoughts of Thanksgiving dinner when I was a child (which is why I chose to schedule this review for Thanksgiving) … My stepmother would always make sweet potato casserole.  And this puff is very much like that sweet potato casserole, only BETTER because first of all, it’s a confection and so it’s OK that this is sweet.  (Now that I’m grown I’m a little disappointed that the delicious flavor of the sweet potato was masked by all that sugar and stale, commercially manufactured marshmallow)  Second … the ginger on this gives it a fiery heat that my stepmother could never duplicate (she had no clue when it came to spices).

The sweet potato flavor is IN the marshmallow itself.  However, if you want to taste the sweet potato flavor, you need to be sure that you bite into a bit of the marshmallow that is not studded with the crystallized ginger.  Otherwise, what you’ll taste is mostly spicy-hot ginger.  The sweet potato flavor is overwhelmed by the ginger when you bite into the ginger … but when you take a bite into just the marshmallow, you can taste the creamy marshmallow and the sweet, savory taste of the sweet potato.   I like to alternate bites, eating some of the puff without the ginger.  Its sweet and savory, the sweet potato adds such an interesting flavor to the marshmallow.   Then I like taking a bite with the ginger and POW!  It’s like a spicy kick in the mouth!

My Final Thoughts:

I wanted to try these because they sounded so unique (come on… sweet potato flavor in a marshmallow?  Aren’t you at least a little bit intrigued?) and I’m really glad I did.  I love the contrast of flavors and textures that these puffs provide.  A lovely autumnal treat!

Rosemary & Olive Oil 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.

These chips are available at Knoshbox.

Tea Suggestion:

Well, as you probably guessed, I didn’t eat these chips with beer.  When it comes to alcohol, I am a TeeTotaler (a TEAtotaler!) … but not for religious or other reasons … just because I don’t like alcohol all that much.  I do not completely abstain, I take an occasional sip or two… but, for the most part, I’m just not all that fond of the drink … unless that drink is TEA!  So instead of a dark beer, I chose a black tea to drink with these tasty snacks … specifically, this Black Tea Merlot from Vintage TeaWorks!  And while I wasn’t too sure about the combination, since a beer was the suggested beverage with these chips rather than a wine, but, I really like these two together.  The rosemary seemed to compliment the currant flavors in the tea … and I could really taste the olive-y notes in the chips much better WITH the tea than when I munched on my first few chips without the tea.  A really delicious pairing!

What I Think:

I am LOVING these chips.  I don’t know that if I saw “Rosemary and Olive Oil” flavored chips on the shelves at my supermarket that I’d be enticed to grab a bag … then again, I might, just for the sake that it is a DIFFERENT flavor … one you don’t see every day.  You’ll see a lot of sour cream & onion and barbeque flavored chips, but not so many Rosemary & Olive Oil!

These are “kettle” style chips, they are a little thicker cut, and are cooked until bubbly and crispy.  They have that hearty CRUNCH to them.  They aren’t those wispy little potato chips.  These are substantial!

And so is the flavor!  The rosemary starts off rather delicately (at first they smell more rosemary-ish than taste it), but as you’re nearly finished with the serving the rosemary really comes through – tasting slightly lemony with just a hint of resinous pine.   They are salty, but they don’t taste overwhelmingly of salt.  The olive oil comes through very nicely too, I can taste the faint flavor of olive, it’s really quite tasty!

On the downside, these are a little on the greasy side.  I poured out my serving onto a piece of white paper just to gauge the oiliness of it, and some oily specks did seep into the paper.  I would like them to be a tad less oily… but then, they are “Olive Oil” flavored … so I guess some oil is to be expected?  I don’t think they are any more greasy than a typical mass-produced potato chip, in fact, I’d say these are probably a little less greasy than the thin-cut, popular brand from the grocery store.  And they taste better … too!

My Final Thoughts:

These are deliciously different – a nice alternative to the tired old flavors that you find in the grocery store.   I could taste the rosemary, I could even taste the olive oil!  Tasty … but probably not something I’d indulge in on a regular basis.  But that’s what I love about the Knoshbox, I get to try a lot of different, delicious food in small portions, stuff I wouldn’t normally buy for myself.

North Fork Sweet Potato Chips from Martin Sidor Farms

Where to Buy:  Martin Sidor Farms on Foodzie

Price:  $10.50 for six 2-ounce bags

Product Description:

Rave reviews by The Nibble “ Simple perfection: North Fork’s thick-cut sweet potatoes fried in sunflower oil. Nothing else is needed.” Our North Fork Sweet Potato Chips are all natural, no preservatives or transfat, cholesterol free, just slices of sweet potatoes, kettled cooked in sunflower oil. No seasoning or salt are added. This chip is plain and simple and needs no enhancements.

What I Think:

I’ve tried a few sweet potato chips in the past, and while I enjoyed the ones I’ve tried, they all seemed to lack … something.  Something that would have kept me munching. I don’t know what it was that I wanted or expected from them… but, I wanted something more than what they were. I had almost given up that I would find the perfect sweet potato chips.

And while these are not perfect, these are the best ones I’ve tried thus far.  Unfortunately, there is something off about them.  They taste … almost burnt.  When I first bite into them, they have a nice crunchy texture and a delicious sweet potato taste.  They aren’t greasy or oily (a good thing!)  But there is a somewhat over-cooked taste to them.

But not every one of the chips taste burnt.  Most of them are fine.  But occasionally (I’d estimate about 1/3 of the bags worth), I’ll bite into one that imparts a burnt-like flavor that is especially noticeable in the aftertaste.  It doesn’t overwhelm the palate; it’s more like a hint of burnt taste.  But it just isn’t… what I had hoped for.

Now… that being said, these are still the best sweet potato chips that I’ve tasted to date.  Will I order them again?  No, but, they give me hope.  Hope that one day I’ll find that perfect sweet potato chip… so I guess I just need to keep on trying!

My Final Thoughts:

I finished the package, so they can’t be too bad, eh?  Actually, they aren’t bad. Maybe my batch just happened to be a little overdone.  I don’t know.  They’re tasty, but not quite as good as I hoped.

Plantain Chips from Estrellita’s Snacks

Where to Buy:  Estrellita’s Snacks on Foodzie

Product Description:

Estrellita’s Snacks plantain chips are hand-cut and fried in 100% vegetable oil, for a taste that will exceed your expectations.

What I Think:

To tell the truth, I don’t know that I had any expectations when I opened this bag from my April Foodzie Tasting Box. So, in response to the provided description, since I had no real expectations before biting into one of these chips, it was very easy to exceed them.

That being said, these are quite enjoyable.  I like the texture.  They provide a good, solid crunch.  I don’t have a whole lot of experience when it comes to plantains.  I’ve tasted sautéed plantains on a steak sandwich from TGI Fridays, I’ve tasted plantain essence in teas, and I think I’ve had plantains a few other times, but, nothing comes to immediate memory.  I’ve seen them many times in the grocery store next to the bananas (and I have a lot of experience with bananas) and I know that even though they LOOK like bananas, they don’t really taste much like a banana.

So even though these look a lot like banana chips, they don’t taste like them.    Actually, they taste a bit like a thick potato chip, but with a little bit more sweetness.  The texture and crunch of these chips is a bit softer than a typical banana chip, but more substantial than a thick potato chip.  I can taste a “banana like” sweetness in the distance with these, but, it is in the far distance.  The best way I can think of to describe what I’m eating is it’s like a lightly salted, thick cut potato chip made from a very exotic potato.

I think they would be quite good served with a dip (perhaps one made with the horseradish dill mustard that is also included in this month’s box?), although before I could think of getting out the mustard, I had finished my bag of plantain chips!

My Final Thoughts:

These tasty chips have truly exceeded my expectations.  They can become quite addicting and it’s hard to stop eating them once you’ve started!  When I first opened the bag, I thought “these are alright, but nothing spectacular or that memorable.”  Now that the bag is gone and I realize how quickly I finished them, I realize that they are much more than “alright” – they’re really quite delicious.