Popchips Ridges Buffalo Ranch

Coming to write up this crispy snack I am struck with the idea that ten years ago I wouldn’t have had a clue what the name meant.

The me of ten years ago would ask “What’s a Popchip? Because maybe we didn’t have popchips then. Perhaps not.

“What does ‘Ridges’ mean? Well, maybe I was a bit behind the times on the crispy snack front. I usually think ‘crinkle cut’ but obviously these days I can accept either.

I’ve been to Buffalo NY because I have a friend who lives there (handy for Niagara Falls and there’s a nice art gallery too but what has that got to do with snacks? Yeah, again I was really slow to discover what ‘buffalo’ means. This is because I discard the wings of a chicken as all but inedible (seriously... nothing but skin and sinew) so never discovered the alleged delights of the buffalo wing and hence, of course, buffalo to mean chicken as a crisp flavour. Which when you break it down like that does seem pretty weird. I do have a friend who says chicken wings are the best bit. But I’ve told her several times that she’s wrong and I’m sticking with that and Cliffs of Moher taste tester agrees with me. Luckily with a crisp you get the chicken flavour but not the sinew.

And ‘Ranch’? Well obviously it’s a dressing. But did I know that ten years ago? I think probably not.
Well maybe, but I don’t think I’d have had the opportunity to try.  So nothing to do with ranching buffaloes then.

So what did the reluctant taste testers of 2018 think of this crispy snack? Some of them are young enough not to realise that the name of this snack is a very modern concept in this country but naturally that didn’t stop them crunching in to this quite hot snack. It was hard to pick the chicken flavour through the ranch flavouring (which seems to be mostly cayenne pepper) but if you concentrate hard I think you can taste it.

The crunch is pretty good, and once you’ve grappled with the heat, the taste is pretty good too. Yes, not bad at all. But truthfully? A bit too hot.

Popchips Galactic Puffs Sour Cream & Chive

Well, this Star Wars themed crispy snack proved to be a popular choice.

Except with Tall taste tester who doesn’t get sour cream as a crispy snack flavour. But the rest of the reluctant taste testers seemed quite keen. I have to say I was a little disappointed that although the packet has a great big image of R2-D2, but there was no R2-D2 shaped snack.

Slightly Red Haired Bristolian must have been disappointed too because she made a lot of R2-cheese2 jokes. Maybe R2-D2 was the “secret shape “ which I didn’t spot. It’s hard to keep an eye on every shape when you’re sharing with everyone in the office.

“These are the snacks you’v been looking for” Obi Wan never said that, but perhaps he wasn’t aware that “every Jedi knows that boring snacks are the path to the darks side”. I dare say his mind was on higher matters.

I liked the TIE fighter shape best but they all taste the same. A nice light crunch, and not a bad sour cream and onion flavour. Perhaps a little oniony for me, but as I said before, the reluctant taste testers were quite keen. And I think it comes in another flavour... so another taste testing in store.

Vegetarian, gluten free, nothing artificial and, er, popped with the force.

Popchips Ridges Smoky Bacon

Still a Student taste tester had a packet of Smoky Bacon flavour ridgey Popchips for lunch. I haven't seen this new (to me at least) departure on the Popchip front so I was interested to try. Almost all the packet had been scoffed before I arrived on the scene but Still a student kindly offered me the chance to try.

Quite tasty. And a good texture too. I'm not sure I was ever mad about Popchips; hmmn yes, this is what I thought about Popchips Barbecue flavour, however, this seems rather a good crispy snack. I think the ridges are a good thing.

Here's the Popchips website. It would be interesting to try some of the other flavours.

Big crunch. Bold flavour. sizzling, smoky, sinless says the packet. These popped chips are popped not fried. Looking for something fried? try your local chippy. you can get deep fried anything there. looking for bold flavour and epic crunch? you've come to the right place! Pop chips are actually called popchips (because they don't seem very keen on capital letters) but I find it hard to write without using caps. I feel that a headline always looks better with capital letters.

And the Popchip company is based in a building called The Mothership. Great.

I don't want you to feel short changed with only one photo, so here's one of a pastel drawing I got out of storage the other day. This is my father's deerhound Finetta. I was very young when we got her, not even 18 months, and I couldn't pronounce doggy. So she became Goggy or Gog.

Popchips Barbeque Potato Chips

I had hoped I was going to like these crisps because I don't like posting a series of negative reviews all in a row. But to be perfectly honest I really don't care for them much.

Perhaps they don't really qualify as crisps because they're made of potato flakes and potato starch. And then they are neither fried nor baked but, somewhat mysteriously, pressure cooked in some way to produce these strangely circular crispy snacks.

The packet tells me they contain "no artificial anything". So, no fake colours, no fake flavours, no fluorescent orange fingertips, and no wiping your greasy hand on your jeans. Hmmm. I actually rather enjoy the crispy snacks that leave you with fluorescent orange fingertips!

They sound promisingly healthy for a crispy snack don't they? 50% less fat per 23g serving (the size of this packet), and suitable for vegetarians; always a plus. Available in 6 different flavours so it's unfortunate that I'm trying the barbeque flavour because I really don't like barbeque/BBQ flavour that much. Indeed, in some cases I have found it absolutely disgusting!

I don't really get why anyone wants to eat food that tastes of nothing but smoke.

Actually, I don't really get real barbeques either. You usually get stuck with something that's not properly cooked or completely overcooked, often with bones in, and then the alleged chef expects you to eat it outside. Which often involves beating off a swarm of wasps. Why do people do this? It's a mystery to me.

And yes, I am aware that it's probably just me. But are you allergic to wasp stings?

Anyway, Popchips have quite a light crunch. There's quite a lot of flavour dust (a lot of paprika in the colour by the looks of things). I think I can taste the yeast extract and the garlic powder, maybe even the tomato powder listed in the ingredients. These chips wouldn't be bad at all if it wasn't for the extra smoke flavour which I assume comes from oak smoked sea salt (which sounds rather posh don't you think?).

I'd be interested to try a different flavour. I have seen Popchips vans driving around locally so perhaps I can source one of the other flavours sometime soon.

This was the final choice from my birthday present from the Family Vegetarian and the Graffiti Artist.