Recently I was making my weekly sojourn to the grocery store in order to find (A) food to eat for the week, and (B) to try and find the three new flavors of M&M’s so I can vote as to out of Honey Nut, Coffee Nut, and Chili Nut (You know my vote is for Chili) which is the best. Sadly I did not find any new M&M flavors, but I did notice some snazzy new chips that caught my eye with their come-hither-ness and was drawn to them. While I might not have found any Honey, Coffee, or Chili, I instead came home with Nacho Chipotle, Jalapeno Lime, and Bacon Habanero.
Late July Organic Snacks is a little organic snack food company out of Boston Massachusetts, which if you are not in the know is pretty local to the Nachonomics Headquarters. While they are typically known as purveyors of fine snacks heavy with such things as flax, chia, brown rice, millet, quinoa, and amaranth, they also make chips made out of things regular people may have heard of, like their new line of “Clasico” tortilla chips. Inspired by the flavors of their favorite taco trucks, these are the flavors they created:
JALAPENO LIME:
What we have here (Other than an organic, non-GMO stone ground yellow corn, kosher, gluten-free, vegan chips of course) are basically your typical lime chips, but thankfully not overly limey in the sickly way that sometimes regular lime flavored chips are. You then cut that with a hint of spicy jalapeno and you have these bad boys. Pretty tasty? Yes. Mind blowing new flavor my lips have never before experienced? No. I’d definitely get these over any other kind of lime chips I’ve had before, but perhaps not over another type of regular chip in general as the jalapeno doesn’t stick out quite enough to really bring the spice. Send these back to Arrakis as the spice is not flowing enough here.
NACHO CHIPOTLE:
Sadly kind of the mehest of the three. I give them credit for going with Nacho CHIPOTLE over the typical Nacho CHEESE, but after having these it makes me feel like there is a reason people go with nacho cheese as a flavor rather than nacho chipotle. Your tongue really craves the former and is very confused when it encounters the latter. What it reminds me most of is when you the get popcorn with the powdered cheese dust on it at one of your fancier movie theaters, which seems strange until you remember that popcorn and tortilla chips are just different forms of the same plant, you know, corn. It also has a kind of funky aftertaste as well, which is probably the chipotle that you’re not expecting despite the name. If you get a 2 bag for $5 deal like I did with these, give this one a pass.
BACON HABANERO:
So if I got a 2 bags for $5 deal (Which I did) and you can see three bags of chips in the above picture, I bet you’re wondering what my duplicate bag was. Surprise surprise, of course it was the Bacon Habanero flavor. Did I roll the dice by picking two of these, knowing full well that I might be in for a Nacho Chipotle scenario times two? You betcha, but it fortunately totally paid off. Sure, everything is bacon bacon bacon these day and if it was just that I think these would be pretty unremarkable, but then you add that Habanero element and bring in a sweet little something special. These chips give you sweet, salty, and umami on the taste spectrum (Thankfully neglecting the sour and bitterness for the full BUSSS award) and that trifecta is what seals the deal. You get hit with the bacon, and just as it starts to build to what could be an overly bacon flavor, the sweet habanero cuts in and levels it off for a delicious treat. DELICIOUS I SAY!
Did I make the right choice with just coming home with these rather than driving around to various other grocery/convenience stores and gas stations trying to locate new M&M’s? I believe that I did, and unless you’re really in a chocolate mood I’m sure if you chose these over some mass produced sugar balls you would agree as well. Will they replace Santitas as the official chip of Nachonomics? Unlikely, as sometimes you just need a regular unflavored chip, but I can see a collaboration with these local chips sometime in the future. Huh Late July, help a local brother in nachos out with some chips? Hopefully officially? How about it?
