Archer Farms Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips
New Reclosable Bag

Acquired by: retail purchase at local Target store

Price: $2.29 for 9 oz. bag

Rating: Salt & Vinegar chips, 2 out of 5

Rating: New Reclosable Bag, 4 out of 5

I reviewed Archer Farms Wasabi Mustard Potato Chips about a month ago. They were quite tasty, and though I don’t normally like kettle-cooked potato chips because of the overly hard crunch, they were easy to eat. I gave them a 4 out of 5 rating.

I spotted the Archer Farms Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips on the shelf at our local Target last week. Salt & Vinegar chips are one of those tastes I got from my father - they’re a big favorite of his, and mine. Having liked the Wasabi Mustard chips so much, I thought I’d try the Salt & Vinegar variety.

As a bonus, the chips come in a new style of bag - Reclosable. Pull the little tab at the top of the package, and you open a slit. Inside is a zipper-type plastic bag closure. Good and sturdy, I found that the zipper was easy to use, closing readily when I wanted to put the chips away, and opening just as nicely when I was ready for more. A squeeze test of the sealed bag showed it to be fairly airtight, so I think we can expect an opened bag of chips to stay fresh even if stored for a while.

The Reclosable Bags are so new that not every Archer Farms flavor on the shelf at Target had them yet. If you don’t see them at your local Target, be patient - they’ll roll out as stock turns over.

Based on its good performance, I give the Archer Farms Potato Chips Reclosable Bag a 4 out of 5 on my new Gizmos, Gadgets, and Thingamabobs ratings scale. Sadly, the Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips inside were nowhere near as good.

I expect kettle-cooked chips to have a hard crunch, and be somewhat wrinkled and folded from the cooking process. I found the Salt & Vinegar chips to be so hard as to be difficult to break apart, even with my teeth. They were very badly folded and contorted, too, sometimes making it necessary to bite through at least four layers of chip at once. Or more - I frequently found that more than one chip had been folded together.

As for the vinegar flavor, it was weak and uninspiring. Vinegar flavored potato chips should have a fairly strong, acidic bite to them. The Archer Farms Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips were weak in flavor, barely giving my tongue a tingle.

Ultimately, the issue is clear - Archer Farms Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips failed me in two areas. For crunch, they had far too much bite. For flavor, they had far too little.

I’d eat them if they were put in front of me at a party, so long as there were no other chips offered. I almost certainly won’t buy them again, unless they improve the recipe. Archer Farms Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips only rate a 2 out of 5 on my scale.

Related Links:

• Archer Farms (Warning - plays video and sound.) This is a minimally informative promotional site at Target Online, but it appears to be the only one they offer. Archer Farms foods are not available for purchase at Target Online - only in brick-and-mortar Target stores.

Posted: October 19th, 2007 under Packaging Innovations, Chips and Crackers.
Comments: none

Nabisco Wheat Thins - Sundried Tomato & Basil

Acquired by: retail purchase at local supermarket

Price: unrecorded, but under $3

Rating: 4 out of 5

Back in the early days of this blog - a whole month ago! - I posted a review of another Nabisco product, the Garden Harvest Toasted Chips. Among the flavors they came in was Tomato & Basil, which prompted a comment from Sara recommending the Sundried Tomato & Basil flavor of Wheat Thins as a worthy snack.

I’ve been a fan of Wheat Thins since childhood. Of course, for most of my life the only variety offered was good ol’ plain and tasty Wheat Thins - no adjectives, modifiers, or flavors involved.

I have a habit, which I’m trying to break for Shopping Jen, of being cynical about tried-and-true brands that suddenly decide that “original” and “traditional” flavors aren’t good enough. My suspicions get aroused - is it just a gimmick? Are they selling out just to make money? Will they abandon what has worked perfectly well for decades? So, although the various flavors of Wheat Thins have been on the market for a while now, I had avoided them.

Until now. Thanks to Sara’s prodding, I decided to pick up a box of the Sundried Tomato & Basil flavor. And I don’t regret it for a moment!

Opening the box, the aroma of the tomato and basil wafted out and tempted me. This was promising. I tipped out a pile of the crackers onto a plate.

Clearly, at least part of the flavor is achieved by dusting the basic Wheat Thins with powders and seasonings. As you can see in this photo, the distribution was pretty uneven - there were some superloaded crackers. Most, though, just had a light dusting.

I attempted to lick the dust off one of the more lightly coated crackers - I wanted to see if the base Wheat Thin underneath was a plain original, or if there was a change in the recipe for this flavor. Using a few sips of water as a palette cleanser first, I chewed carefully, examining the taste. The classic Wheat Thin flavor was there, surely, but there was still a good note of the tomato and basil. Whether it was baked into the cracker, or merely absorbed thoroughly by long contact with the seasonings, I can’t be sure. But I was pleased that the flavor permeated the entire piece, instead of just being layered on top.

I snacked on several crackers, enjoying the rich flavor. The over-dusted crackers were not over-flavored, which suggests that the balance of tastes in the seasoning mix was well formulated. Then I had an idea - these would taste great with some tuna salad on top. (Tuna salad on crackers is a favorite mini-meal for me - Original Wheat Thins are one variety of cracker I commonly use.)

Near mealtime, then, I mixed up a bowl of tuna salad. A small forkful on a Sundried Tomato & Basil Wheat Thin, and pop! into my mouth.

Yum!

I’ll admit it, I’m a convert. I will try not to automatically write off new flavors of classic favorites as gimmicky. I will, instead, embrace them as an opportunity to discover new variants that can enrich my snacking repertoire!

Sundried Tomato & Basil Wheat Thins are going into the regular rotation - and I may make a point of specifically having them rather than the Original. That gives them a 4 out of 5 rating. Thanks, Sara, for turning me on to a new favorite!

Related Links:

• Nabisco Wheat Thins
  

Posted: October 11th, 2007 under Chips and Crackers.
Comments: 2

Archer Farms Wasabi Mustard Potato Chips

Acquired by: Retail purchase at local Target Store

Rating: 4 out of 5

Archer Farms is the premium house brand of foods for Target stores. I must confess that, until recently - and with the exception of their excellent caramel and toffee corn varieties - I’ve mostly passed by Archer Farms products in favor of more familiar brands. Now that I have this review blog, however, I’m finding myself more adventurous in my snacking choices.

I was enticed recently by an end-cap display of Archer Farms potato chips. The flavor that caught my eye was Wasabi Mustard. Wow! I like a nice wasabi bite in my Asian-inspired meals. I wondered what it would taste like in a chip.

Upon opening the bag, the aroma of a sweet honey mustard met my nose. It smelled good. I actually took another deep, savoring whiff before moving on.

Kettle-cooked chips are the contortionists of the potato chip world, and Archer Farms kettle-cooked chips are no exception. A pile of folded, wrinkled, and just plain twisted chips filled my bowl. The color of the chips was a nice, pale gold - not dark or burnt, as I’ve so often found in other kettle-cooked brands.

I took a bite. The crunch was firm, but not rock-like. I usually avoid kettle chips because the crunch is too firm for my tastes, but with the Archer Farm Wasabi Mustard Potato Chips, I found it to be, as Goldilocks might say, “Just Right.”

The flavor of the chips is strong, but not overpowering. First, I noticed a sweet honey mustard; then a bite hit my tongue as the wasabi came to the party.

As I ate more chips, the wasabi bite became a mild burn - not painful, merely making my mouth and tongue tingle. Wasabi afficionados will enjoy this - if you don’t like spicy foods, you probably won’t. I liked it a lot.

The flavor notes are consistent throughout the experience. Unlike many flavored chips, there was little or no powdery residue left on my fingers, so this is a fairly clean snack - as clean as potato chips ever are. When I finished the serving I’d measured, I was left with a pleasant memory of a spicy, flavorful chip, but without an overwhelming aftertaste lingering.

I was also left wanting more. I’m a fan of potato chips from way back, and these were good. They would satisfy a potato chip craving, but the flavor, while immensely enjoyable, would also keep me from just mindlessly plowing through an entire bag, as I would if they were bland, ordinary, plain potato chips.

Archer Farms Wasabi Potato Chips are going on our regular snack list. I’m also encouraged now to try more flavors. Stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll tell you about them here!

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5. I’m already thinking about my next bag!

Related Links:

• Archer Farms (Warning - plays video and sound.) This is a minimally informative promotional site at Target Online, but it appears to be the only one they offer. Archer Farms foods are not available for purchase at Target Online - only in brick-and-mortar Target stores.
  

Posted: September 13th, 2007 under Chips and Crackers.
Comments: 1

Nabisco Garden Harvest Toasted Chips

Acquired by: Retail purchase at supermarket and big box discount department store

Price: $2.29 (on sale) - $2.69 for a 6-oz. bag

Ratings:
Banana, 4 out of 5
Apple Cinnamon, 4 out of 5
Vegetable Medley, 3 out of 5
Tomato Basil, 3 out of 5

Average Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The latest trend in “healthy” snack foods is baked chips that claim to offer measurable servings of fruits and vegetables. Nabisco has joined the parade with four flavors of Garden Harvest Toasted Chips.

Frito-Lay jumped on the bandwagon, in a slight disguise, with their Flat Earth line of fruit and vegetable flavored snack chips. When I saw the product in the supermarket, however, I didn’t know they were Frito-Lay. The logo for the product line includes a winged pig and the line, “When Pigs Fly”. But so do the bags for artisan bread from a bakery located in Maine. Called “When Pigs Fly,” they supply supermarkets in the region with natural, healthy bread products. I didn’t realize the new snack chips weren’t from the bread bakery, because the logos were so similar and the health food angle on the products seemed in line with the bakery’s bread offerings.

Now that I know better, I may review the Frito-Lay product at a future date. Today, however, the focus is on Nabisco’s Garden Harvest Toasted Chips. These recently arrived on market shelves in four flavors, two sweet and two savory: Banana, Apple Cinnamon, Vegetable Medley, and Tomato Basil.

I always approach “trendy” new snack offerings with a suspicious eye. I wonder if the quality of the food product itself suffers in the rush to catch the latest diet and health fads. It was with that concern that I tested these Nabisco offerings.

First up was the Banana flavor. I tore off the top of the bag, and inhaled.

Remember the best banana bread you ever had? The one that you had to make double batches of, because the first loaf always got eaten hot from the oven? The stuff that you always took long, deep sniffs of to inhale the baked banana aroma before you would take a bite?

That’s what I smelled. I considered it a very good start.

The nutritional data on the back of the bag said that one serving equaled 1 ounce, or about 16 chips. I counted 16 chips into a snack cup.

I’m a snacker from way back - the kind who takes the whole bag, and considers that a single serving. That’s why my initial reaction to the site of this cup with 16 chips was that it wasn’t much. But I know it’s a bad habit, and I’m working to re-train my expectations, so I set aside my doubts about quantity, and moved on.

The chips themselves are large triangles, resembling a completely flat tortilla chip more than anything. The overall appearance was a mottled golden brown, with slight bubbling.

I opened my mouth, and took a taste. The sense memory of that good banana bread came back again, only this was what it would taste like if you’d spread the batter very thin and baked it crisp.

The chips may appear cracker-like at first, but their structure is denser, producing a deeper crunch, and a chewier bite. The flavor of the banana lasted throughout, not fading a bit as I crunched away.

I ate the rest of the serving, savoring it slowly to make it last. I could see substituting these for cookies or caramel corn on those occasions when I’m having a craving for “sweet-crunchy.” By the time I reached the bottom of the cup, I could honestly say I was satisfied with the serving size, and delighted with the flavor.

Any doubts I had about Nabisco rushing to meet a trend and producing a disappointing product were dashed. Eagerly, I moved on to the Apple Cinnamon flavor.

The results were as satisfactory as the Banana. The initial aroma was enticing. Bits of apple and peel were visible in the chips. When tasted, there was an initial burst of apple flavor, which slowly faded to the flavor of a good apple pie crust, dusted well with cinnamon sugar.

I saved the savory flavors, Vegetable Medley and Tomato Basil, for a separate tasting session. I was not as captivated with these as I was with the sweet flavors, but I can see using them as a healthy substitute for potato chips, to satisfy a craving for “salty-crunchy.”

The Vegetable Medley flavor and aroma were a little odd. There was an overwhelming and distinct sense of “Vegetable,” but no single item stood out. According to the nutritional information on the package, the blend of vegetables was achieved using dried carrot, tomato, broccoli, onion, green bell pepper, spinach, and mushroom.

The chips themselves showed flecks of red, green, and dark brown. Other than that, the somewhat generic flavor did leave you feeling like you’d eaten “vegetables,” but not sure which vegetables you’d had.

Mind you, the flavor and aroma were both pleasant. I immediately thought these would be a perfect accompaniment to a nice bowl or soup, or a salad. They’d let the main dish be the star, and would provide a good supporting crunch to round out the meal, but without tasting bland.

The Tomato Basil flavor had a more distinct personality. Wafting from the open bag was an aroma reminiscent of a fresh tomato and basil pizza I’d had not long ago. The chips had an overall reddish cast, with flecks of deeper red and green visible.

Oddly, the ingredients for the Tomato Basil showed a list of vegetables almost, but not quite, identical to the assortment in the Vegetable Medley. On the Tomato Basil, spinach moves to a spot before the green bell pepper; red bell pepper is added to the list; and the mushroom found in the Vegetable Medley is absent.

However they did it, though, the flavor tastes as you’d expect - like fresh tomato, with a good dose of basil. My husband tasted these chips, too - he doesn’t like basil when it’s overdone, but he said there wasn’t too much here.

Overall Impression

I’m pleasantly surprised! Nabisco answered a trend, but did it with a product that actually tastes good, and provides satisfaction to both mind and stomach in a modest serving size. Not only can I see buying any of these flavors again - especially the Banana and Apple Cinnamon - but I find myself looking forward to snacktime, so I can eat another round. Nabisco has a winner here!

Related Links:

• Nabisco: Garden Harvest Chips (Warning: site plays audio and flash video)
• Flat Earth Snacks, a Frito-Lay company
• When Pigs Fly, a Maine bakery company

Posted: September 6th, 2007 under Chips and Crackers.
Comments: 3