#misc chips

Coop Corn Snacks with peas, red lentils & black beans (Italy)

Back from the spring break and let's get things started with a special entry.

I wasn't sure whether these were exactly chips when I bought them and I have to say I might have been a little too hopeful. The texture is remarkably similar to rice cakes despite the pieces being as thin as potato chips. They don't have an attractive appearance at all, with the green and black splotches signaling to my brain that every bite is rotten beyond rescue.

More sour cream & onion than I expected if I'm being honest. The flavor is there. Once the surface mix is gone you can taste the beans and other ingredients, which can be a pro or a con depending who you ask. It's worth the tradeoff if you specifically want 11% protein content in your chips, but I'm a bit more old school. They're alright, just not for me.

4 / 10 ________________________

BalSnack Grand Chips (Estonia)

We've had it too good for a while. 8's, 9's and even a 10. Let's take a look at what's going on down below.

Grand Chips, unlike what the bag says, are not potato chips. They are almost equal parts potato flakes and wheat. I'd call them very flat potato biscuits but that's just my take. I don't know about you but wheat isn't what I'm looking for when I crave myself some chips. Another funny detail is that the ingredients do not list onion at all. It might just be hiding behind the word "seasoning", but it's very unusual for a chip to not mention onion specifically.

Worth mentioning too that the packaging is irritatingly bomb proof. Scissors or knife is needed to open the wrapping, it takes finger strength to get through the transparent second layer of wrapping and then the chips are held in a little plastic tub. Feels excessive.

The chips themselves have this interestingly long, rectangular shape. If anything the texture is pretty alright. Not crunchy by any means but there's a fun flaky feeling when you bite down on it. That's the one good thing I have to say.

My experience with Grand Chips ended as soon as it began. They have a powerful artificial butter taste that overwhelms whatever other flavors might be there. It's not that they're buttery, no, it's that whatever is in them is imitating butter so hard the neolithic humans who first churned fat off of milk are rolling in their graves. Sour cream, onion - Grand Chips might contain them but I surely won't be fighting my way through this barricade to find them. The taste is so unpleasant I did not finish a single chip.

Just to be sure, I returned to them after a few days. Just as repulsive as I remembered.

I have a friend who likes these and I know of others who are obsessed with them. So that explains how they are still being sold to consumers despite my experience. But on my rankings Grand Chips will be the first chip to enter the 0 points category: thoroughly inedible.

0 / 10

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OLW Cheez Cruncherz (Sweden)

Another scream product from OLW. We remain in the realm of cheese snacks and from my experience, that can go one of two ways.

Crunchier than Estrella Linssisnacks, not as crunchy as Taffel Juusto-Crunch. They're on the small side, which isn't necessarily a problem for these kinds of snacks. They are however quite dry, which has become OLW signature feature at this point.

Flavor-wise we are unfortunately leaning towards Taffel Crun'Cheez with these ones. Very potent salt, giving me an instant adverse reaction. They taste a bit like cheese, in the sense that that is the flavor they have. And not much else. It's not strong, barely there after the wave of saltiness has faded, but I guess it's different enough from normal cheese snacks that I can admit the presence of sour cream & onion. They don't assault or offend me, but we are not friends.

If you crave cheese snacks you ain't picking these. If you crave screams you ain't picking these. It's impressive how many disappointing, mediocre scream variants OLW has managed to push out.

Estrella Juusto-Crunch (Sweden)

A crunchy cousin of the Linssisnacks made of corn.

Accurate name - they sure are crunchy. It's hard to compare the structure to anything else, kind of like a cheetos with a really hard outer surface. Apparently this type of snack is more common in North America where corn is more available, and I can believe that. Over here though there's nothing quite like it. The little pop when biting down on one is very satisfying, almost addictive.

Their flavor is quite similar to Linssisnacks, but not nearly as strong. There's less cheese powder but also less sour cream and onion, so basically the same thing but milder. It kinda works with the sturdier texture, but leaves me missing a more tasty experience. So close to being perfect.

Taffel Crun'Cheez (Finland)

Oh did Taffel make a competing product to Estrella's Linssisnacks? Did they successfully grab some of that cheese+scream audience? NO!

Why do these taste like salt? Salt exclusively? Where is the cheese? Where is the sour cream and onion? These hellish snacks could have been great. They are similar to Linssisnacks but even thinner and crunchier. It's a very fun shape with a neat mouthfeel. But they completely dropped the ball with the "flavor". It is PURE salt. It's not just on the surface, but in the batter as well.

Horrible. I can't quite drop them all the way to 0 because the texture is really good and I know a couple of people who supposedly like these (though I have my doubts about them confusing these with the Estrella product). Either way, I'd rather eat anything else.

OLW Ringar (Sweden)

Same flavoring as the previous OLW chips, but being made out of corn instead of potato adds a lot. The flavor is sweeter and stronger, and yet the structure is softer, which makes these a fun deviation from the norm. Not necessarily for better or for worse - just different.

Perhaps I'm just not used to corn, but after a while it starts to feel like too much. It doesn't have the same airy property of potato chips. And yet, they feel dry in my mouth somehow. Seems like a reoccurring OLW theme.