14 September, 2023

These are some humble chips, eh.

A few weeks back, my Frau and I stopped in at Whole Foods because she was looking for a particular brand or type of something or other. I think I can count the number of times I've been to Whole Foods on one hand so this was almost a new experience for me. While the Frau sought out her particular items, I was drawn like a moth to the flame to the snack aisle. At first, it was all of the usual suspects such as Kettle Brand, but, when I got to the end of the aisle, I saw a brand that was new to me - humble potato chips. They're so humble that they don't even capitalize the name of their brand. Low and behold, they had salt & vinegar chips, sea salt & cider vinegar, no less.

Honestly, I thought humble was Whole Foods' house brand but it turns out they are not. Hailing from Ontario, Canada, I do believe these are the first salt & vinegar chips from north of the border. And here I thought they only had plain and All Dressed flavors up there, eh.

I suppose I initially thought them to be Whole Foods' house brand because they're organic and the bag proudly proclaims that it's compostable. Oh, and they're gluten-free. They hit all of the right spots to ensure customers feel completely guilt-free about buying these chips.

Things started off on a fine note when I stuck my nose in the bag and took a whiff. A mild oily aroma was complemented by a big one of that cider vinegar. Ooh la la! The slices appeared to be a little bit thicker than normal. They were lightly-colored with a rather uniform creamy off-white hue and looked to have some skin on the edges. Either that or they just brown easily. An area of food science in which I am lacking.

Taking a couple into my mouth, I found that the salt was applied with a light touch and this perfectly complemented a really nice earthy spud flavor. Just very tasty. I enjoyed it so much that I didn't even think of the vinegar. So I had threw a few more into my maw.

Nothing.

I had missed the tang because it wasn't there. So I smelled them again. Yep, I smelled the vinegar. Or did I? This was very strange. It was like these were homeopathic potato chips. Maybe there was some organic apple cider vinegar seasoning initially and they just kept diluting the batch by adding unflavored chips under the impression that potatoes have memory. Can the lining of a compostable bag be imbued with vinegar aroma?

Take off, eh!

These chips were nice'n'crispy and with a fine potato flavor. Just no vinegar. Some of the strangest chips to date. All the aroma, none of the flavor. Not even at the bottom of the bag.

No comments:

Post a Comment