French Fry Diary 556: Joe Chips

I go to Whole Foods quite often. Their meat department in Marlton is easily among the best in this area. That said, I stopped looking for potato chips there a while ago. I've reviewed the few I have wanted from their selection, and since they stopped carrying Michael Season's, I have even stopped going down the snack aisle there.

Had the Joe Chips not been at the check out in the 'impulse' section, I never would have seen them. Curious for something new, and in the mood for chips (I know, when am I not in the mood for chips?), I grabbed two bags, the regular and the barbeque of course.

Joe Chips are made the same company as the more recognizable Joe Tea. Why would an iced tea company go in the potato chip business? Well, it makes a little more sense when you know that Joe is the black sheep of the family going into tea. Potatoes are actually his family's business for more than a couple generations.

The Classic chips boast all the good stuff - kettle cooked with sea salt, cholesterol free, gluten free, no transfats, no MSG, lactose, preservatives, artificial anythings, or peanuts. Yeah, no peanuts, they went there. And the story on the back of the bag indicates they are cooked in batches, another gold standard of modern potato chips.

The chips themselves are not bad, very tasty and addictive. I honestly did not expect them to taste as good as they did, because they are cooked in the one negative - vegetable oil. These chips have a nice middle ground between regular chips and thick crunchy kettle chips. And while maintaining the wonderful twisted shapes of kettle chips, they are also quite big as well, a perfect dipping chip.

Off Road Joe's BBQ Chips were the other ones I got. I'm really not sure why these are 'off road,' but we'll see. These chips have the same texture and structure as their plain counterparts but with a subtle sweet and smokey barbecue taste. All in all, I prefer the Classic chips even though these are barbecue.

Notably, Off Road Joe's BBQ Chips were also included as one of the treats in my Christmas package of chips from friends and frequent FFD contributors Dom and Cindy. This was a very pleasant surprise from a tea company, and from my friends Dom and Cindy. I would definitely get Joe Chips again.