As a recovering ketchup addict, I remember the cold, hard
day when I faced that fact that by dumping nearly an entire bottle of ketchup
on fries, I was coupling my future of heart disease with that of diabetes. I
actually got to the point where I thought that if I had to hear somebody say,
even one more time, “Do you want some fries with that ketchup?”, that I was
going to drown in a sea of re-occurring Dad jokes.
I remember reading
an article about a person who switched to hot sauce after a long, indulgent
affair with ketchup and actually lost five pounds naturally after making no
other changes. The thing about hot sauces is that no two are quite alike. In mainstream
culture, there are two camps. People who love Tabasco are the long standing
traditionalists. The no frills, vinegar taste is nearly guaranteed to be
available at any eating establishment. On the contrary, people who love Frank’s
basically “Put that shi*t on everything,” and can give you a dozen reasons why
it’s better than Tabasco. For the purpose of this article, I will
diplomatically say that both of these hot sauces have their time and places in
my life, respectively.
Let’s fast forward to 2015 when Sriracha, like cookie
butter became the “salted caramel” of 2014. The bottle boasts you can put it on
anything from pizza to eggs and major food retailers are pumping out products
heavily accompanied by this condiment. Regardless of the two earlier major
players in the hot sauce game, Sriracha is my #1.
Not long ago, Men’s Health published an article warning
ingesters of the 1 gram of sugar per teaspoon in the stuff, meaning that for my
originally intended purpose of minimizing my extracurricular sugar intake, this
sauce doesn’t fit the bill. Thank you very much for your words of caution Men’s
Health, but the reality is that there are a tremendous amount of teaspoons
getting past these lips with far more sugar than just one gram. May that be the
very worst of it.
You can only imagine my imagination’s delight when I laid
my eyes on Trader Joe’s Lattice Cut Kettle Cooked Sriracha Potato Chips. There
are so few things from TJ’s that’s ever disappointed me. Admittedly that’s half
because I can barely afford to buy anything there based on the prices, but
certainly partially because they truly know how to pump out a high quality and interesting
snack.
Opening up the bag, it was a little bit droopy to see how
empty the bag itself was. Sure, these chips were firm and decent sized, but for
seven servings – let’s not have Cracker Jack flashbacks. The second best part
of the chips was the smell. I have no way of knowing why exactly, but these
chips smell exactly like a pork egg roll from a Chinese Restaurant.
Understanding my sanity can be questioned saying this, let’s just say that I
was not the only nose that detected that very specific scent from these chips.
The combination of the lattice cut with the kettle
cooking made these chips substantial and sturdy. There seemed to be no threat
of cutting the roof of my mouth, which I never actually worry over, but always feel
relief when the texture of such firm chips is just right. You can see visually
that some chips have more flavoring than other. The ingredients list mentions
Sriracha powder and it’s interesting to see that the powder didn’t spread more
evenly in transit.
Most importantly, the flavor. These chips were excellent
by my standard. The heat wasn’t nearly as overpowering as sometimes the
Sriracha sauce itself can be. There was a meat taste associated, but in the
best way possible. The entire time I was dreaming of having some dip to
accompany these, but regretfully recognize that the lattice cut would make it
more of a sloppy experience than my awkward mannerisms might otherwise do with
regular chips.
I would purchase these chips again. I’ll find a holiday
party to bring them to as a contribution, just so I can eat them again. Maybe I
will even go out and meet new friends to get invited to a holiday party, to buy
the chips in hopes of eating these again. Before I go on and on with a joke
that’s probably only funny to one (me), let me wholeheartedly recommend these
chips to anyone who likes a sweet, hot , beefy chip experience. With adjectives
like those, you can’t go wrong.
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