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.

All That and a Bag of Chips

Dom and Cindy are dear friends and loyal readers of this blog. You might know them as they accompanied The Bride and me on one of our Disney trips and cruises, and are both regular contributors here as well. This Christmas they gave me a very thoughtful and French Fry Diary centric gift.

Last Christmas The Bride got me a bag of rare chips from Anchor Food Finds. Dom and Cindy kinda did the same thing, but they did it in their own, seeking out the rare chips themselves from all over their local Maryland area. Dom took great delight in finding some real oddities.

So over the next few weeks and months, I will be featuring reviews from this terrific gift package that included some odd and arcane potato chip flavors and styles, as well as some potato chip candy bars. Thank you for the generous and thoughtful gift, Dom and Cindy!

French Fry Diary 505: The Bottom of the Bag o' Chips

I'm finally there, finally at the bottom of the bag o' rare potato chips from Anchor Food Finds that The Bride got me for Christmas. Here are the last three bags.

Dirty Sweet Potato Chips - Yeah, these again, from the folks who just want to have the chips with the absolute longest name. Dirty, like Zapp's, is owned by Utz. I did not like these at all. Taste, smell, all bad, and no, they hasn't even come close to expiring.

Utz "The Crab Chip" - Speaking of Utz, other than the Herr's silver foil (however now with new packaging more reflective of Old Bay marketing), these are usually the only Maryland Old Bay seasoning chips we see up here in the Philadelphia area.

As opposed to the above mentioned Herr's, "The Crab Chip" has Chesapeake Bay Crab Seasoning instead of Old Bay. It doesn't have as much of a bite, so it's not as hot, but it does have a bit of an aftertaste. Not bad, I would get these again.

Blair's Death Rain Buffalo Wing Chips -These are truly in the rare category. Not only are they buffalo wing flavored, but they're made by a company that specializes in hot sauce, owned by another company called Extreme Food. That's why these are last. I'm afraid of these potato chips. But then again, who wouldn't be afraid of something called Death Rain chips?

All that said, they are not bad, but there is quite a bit of heat. It should be noted that these were the 'Medium' heat chips, so it could get quite a bit hotter. I'm not a big buffalo sauce guy, preferring barbeque instead so maybe that also put me off, but I have to say these kettle chips aren't bad. I could be talked into trying other Death Rain chips.

And that's it, the end of the bag o' chips. Not a bad holiday gift from The Bride. I wouldn't mind getting it again next year. Hint hint.

French Fry Diary 490: The Chips of West Virginia

Usually it's my friend Marni who finds the odd and out of the way potato chips for me to write about on this blog. This time, she put her boyfriend/partner/common law husband, Bob, to work for me. He was hiking in West Virginia and picked up two different bags of WV-based barbecue flavored potato chips. Surprisingly both of these regional brands I had tried before, but not these flavors.

First up were the Smokehouse BBQ potato chips from Miss Vickie's. Believe it or not, I had encountered this brand before, pretty far from West Virginia at the Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney, Orlando FL. Granted, it was a different kind of barbecue potato chip at the time, but still.

The Smokehouse chips are kettle cooked and claim to be all natural. They have the weird funky shapes that mark kettle cooking yet are quite small. While built for dipping, they might indeed be too small to do so.

And although the smokey flavor is hyped on the back of the bag, the sweetness of the seasoning is overpoweringly delightful from the brown sugar and molasses in the ingredients. These chips rock, I liked them quite a lot.

Next up were the barbeque potato chips from WV's Mister Bee. A bag of the sour cream & onion were included in the Anchor O'Reilly's Food Finds bag o' rare chips that The Bride got me for Christmas. They were not my cup of tea. I hope these might be more to my liking...

But alas, that hope would be for naught. These chips, just like the other Mister Bee's, are overseasoned and grainy, and the barbeque flavor is unpleasant and overpowering. I coukd only eat a couple of them. They had so much seasoning, at least a handful of the dusting was at the bottom of the bag. These did not make me happy.

Happily I don't think they cost Bob much, or at I hope they didn't. Either way, thanks, Marni and Bob!

French Fry Diary 489: The Onion Chips

There were some similar potato chips in the bag o' rare chips The Bride got me for Christmas from Anchor Food Finds. In this case, there were three bags of much the same theme - onions.

Deep River Sweet Maui Onion - this would be my second bag of Deep River chips from the bag o' rare chips. These were really not as good as the first bag. No great aroma, no great flavor. All in all, a disappointment.

Grippo's Sweet Bermuda Onion - this was by far the biggest bag of chips in the whole bag o' chips at three and a half ounces. It also had the tightest expiration date, so I probably should have opened it first. No worries, they were still good. However as a regular "Hoarders" viewer, I do feel the need to point out that expiration dates are NOT just a guideline.

Grippo's is a company that's been around for almost a century. They started off making cones for ice cream, moved on to pretzels, then chips, and now make a lot of stuff, including dips, seasonings, and even BBQ sauce. They have an intriguing variety of chip flavors including Hot Dill Pickle and Cheddar Cheese with Jalapeño.

The chips themselves are heavily seasoned, and not flatteringly so. The chips look like you might have to shake it off, there's so much. This is not a happy onion flavor but it's there, and lingers for a while. And saddest of all, it kinda masks the potato flavor of the chip as well. Another disappointment as I really was looking forward to trying these.

Mister Bee Sour Cream & Onion - Mister Bee is a regional family run company recently purchased by the West Virginia Potato Chip Company. Careful inspection of this blog will reveal a complete lack of reviews or even mentions of the popular potato chip flavor sour cream and onion. Easy answer: I don't like them.

That's why I wanted to hand this bag off to The Bride, not in an ungrateful way, but because she likes that flavor. However, The Bride not being around at the moment of writing this entry, I bit the bullet, er, um, chip.

There was a good(?) aroma of sour cream and onion when I opened the bag. The chips however had the same grainy and overseasoned texture as the other Mister Bee's chips I have encountered. Ick. Not a good flavor, and not a good chip either, in my opinion.

Sadly, this was not a good batch of chips this time.

French Fry Diary 480: Zapp's Voodoo Chips

Former oil man Ron Zappe started his potato chip company in the 1980s when his old business was going bad. Headquartered in Louisiana, Zapp's specializes in local flavor style chips like Spicy Creole Crawtator, Cajun Dill Gator-tator, and of course, the dreaded Voodoo chips.

I had tried the regular Zapp's New Orleans Kettle Style potato chips before, but had wanted to try the Voodoo chips at some point. I guess my hunger was answered, twice. The bag o' rare chips had a bag, and my friend Marni also snagged one for me. Double the supply, these better be good.

The black bag, decorated with multi-pinned voodoo dolls, didn't help. When I opened the bag, the aroma was not good. The taste however was not bad, and definitely had a kick. Seeing how the chips had a definitely seasoned color, and almost barbecue potato chip look, I took a peek at the ingredients.

Other than the usual potato chip stuff in potato chips, there was a little bit of paprika, onion, garlic, and smoke among others. Basically these are glorified BBQ chips, not that there's anything wrong with that, 'cause these aren't bad. Their kettle cooking make for an excellent crunch and dipping shape.

Zapp's Voodoo chips are quite good. I'm glad I have double the chips. Thanks to The Bride, and to Marni!

French Fry Diary 463: Ole Salty's Regular Salt

Next up from the Bag o' Chips, that The Bride got me for Christmas this year, a selection of rare potato chips from Anchor's Food Finds, we have the scariest bag of the bunch - Ole Salty's Regular Salt.

This is a silver bag of chips with just a label, almost as if it was astronaut food. Not even an expiration date. Folks, it does not even say 'potato chips' on the bag. The ingredients however assure me whatever it is, it's made of potatoes, soybean oil, and salt.

Ole Salty's of Rockford Illinois is a mail order only company, and this scary plain silver bag had no expiration date. Ole Salty also sells popcorn, dips, among other things, and also chips of lesser and more salt added. The packaging appears the same for that stuff. I guess it's a thing. Foil does keep sunlight out, which is not so good for chips in long exposures.

Only one thing to do. Open the bag. Not the easiest job in the world. So difficult, they could sell these things at Trader Joe's. Once open, this extra large snack-size bag yielded, as noted, a 1.25 ounce serving of chips, filling roughly the bottom third of the bag.

These chips are rather small but very crunchy, perhaps kettle cooked. Their taste is a bit of a cross between Munchos and Lays regular chips, a little greasy. Perhaps the Extra Salt might be better, because these are a little bland. For something called Ole Salty's, these chips needed salt.

French Fry Diary 461: Deep River Rosemary & Olive Oil Potato Chips

Here's the first entry from the bag o' rare chips from Anchor's Food Finds that The Bride got me for Christmas. One, the Avocado Oil Chilean Lime Potato Chips I have already reviewed when I found them locally. You can check that out here. The rest were pretty new to me.

Next up from the "Bag o' Chips" are Rosemary & Olive Oil Kettle Cooked Potato Chips from Deep River Snacks. They make a wide variety of interesting flavors of potato chips, as well as tortilla chips, popcorn, and baked fries. Among their other flavors are zesty jalapeño, New York spicy dill pickle, aged cheddar horseradish, and sweet Maui onion (I think there actually might be one of these in the Bag o' Chips), as well as regular stuff like mesquite BBQ and original salted.

These are terrific kettle chips, thick and crunchy, twisted with nooks and crannies, and excellent for dipping. As soon as the bag is open, that rosemary and very garlic aroma hits you, the same flavor that makes rosemary baked potatoes so good. Very flavorful, a nice change of pace for the potato chip form. I like these fancy chips.

And bonus, Deep River Snacks is a snack partner with Autism Speaks. Great chips, and a great cause.