Deep River Snacks Sweet Maui Onion

Of all the Deep River snacks chips I've tried I think my hopes are highest for these.  Will they live up expectations?  Who knows!  I'm not sure where the Maui factors in, but I like onions and I like... sweet?  I dunno, but I'm intrigued all the same.

The chips themselves are pretty generic.  They look like kettle cooked chips that have a flavor.  They smell kinda onion-y, but nothing too overpowering.

But what do they taste like?
They're salty, a little bit onion-y and almost kinda sweet at the same time.  And hey!  They're pretty damn good!  And, unlike the BBQ chips I tried, it's a fairly unique flavor!  I'm not sure if it's just my bag, but the chips are also absolutely covered in seasoning which is a bonus on my book.  It's a bit like they're covered in onion salt.  It also works really well with the kettle cooked-ness of these chips.  They're really crunchy in a good way, thanks to the kettle cooking.

A lot of onion chips have a really strong onion flavor that can be kinda gross after awhile, but that doesn't happen with these.  The salt, onion and sweetness all balance really well.  I ate the entire bag and would happily have eaten more if I'd had any.  I almost would have liked the flavor to be a bit stronger.  For all the seasonings they were covered with they were pretty mild considering.

These chips probably taste even more delicious because I ate them after watching the Men's Individual Sabre during the Olympics where Hungary won the gold and I was super excited!

Rating:

Deep River Snacks Mesquite BBQ

These are definitely the most normal of the Deep River chips graciously provided by my mom.  But, since Deep River is a brand I don't see most places, I figure they still qualify.  Let's see how they do!

What I've noticed about Deep River chips is they don't seem to smell like their flavor.  These maybe, maybe have a hint of BBQ flavor, but they mostly smell like kettle cooked chips.

But how do they taste?
They taste like BBQ!  I'm not really surprised by that of course, but it's good that they taste like what I'd expect them to taste like.  Interestingly, the BBQ flavor doesn't last very long and I start tasting the flavor of the base kettle cooked chips more.  That's a big change from the painful Aged Cheddar and Horseradish and Zesty Jalapeno chips where it hurt to even eat them.  These are much much sweeter in comparison - I actually like my BBQ chips to have a bit more of a kick, but I'll take these over mouth burning pain any day.  I'd prefer to have the BBQ taste last longer before tasting the chip flavor I think.  These are pretty standard as far as BBQ chips go.

If you're in the market for some really delicious BBQ chips you could do better than these, but you could do worse, too.  The chips are a pretty greasy and the BBQ seasoning has a tendency to get everywhere (as all BBQ chips seem to).  Some of the chips are practically orange with flavoring and others don't seem to have much, but the flavor is consistent either way.  These are the first Deep River chips I've eaten happily and without a constant mouth burn.  It's a refreshing change!

Rating:

Deep River Snacks New York Spicy Dill Pickle

Now these Deep River chips I'm looking forward to trying.  I'm wary of the 'spicy' in the title, but I've been trying to find new pickle chips for ages (ever since the amazing Intense Pickle Doritos I tried in Montreal).  Could it be that I've finally found a replacement pickle chip?  These even have 'New York' in the title... will it also taste like NY somehow?  I'm intrigued.

These smell pretty pickle-y so I'm feeling pretty confident they'll actually taste like what they're supposed to.  I'm just not sure how the 'spicy' is going to factor in at this point.  It also looks like they're covered in little dill nibblies and a healthy coating of flavor.  We shall see.

But what do they taste like?
Kinda strange.  At first I tasted mostly salt, then a hint of pickle, and then spiciness.  Deep River snacks seem to enjoy making my mouth burn.  Another weird thing that I don't know quite how to describe is that the flavors are very strong, but don't necessarily seem like they're coming from the chip.  It's very odd.  I eat a chip and then the chip is sort of boring tasting, but there's all sorts of salt and pickle flavors and then the roof of my mouth is burning.  Looking at the chips, they seem to be covered in seasoning.  I guess it's possible that the minute I eat them, all the seasoning falls off, leaving a plain chip and all the other flavors everywhere else.  The 'dill' in the dill pickle is also pretty intense... I taste much more dill than pickle in that brief moment when I actually taste it, before the spice starts up.  And, a less than even flavor coating leaves some chips ridiculous salty which is unpleasant.

The problem I've had with the spicy Deep River flavors so far is that they focus too much on the spice.  Pickles shouldn't be this spicy.  I really only taste the dill pickle flavor for the first few seconds and then it's just spicy.  I would much rather taste the pickle flavor rather than the spice.  Also, where is the 'New York' in all of this??  It's like Deep River decided 'New Yorkers like pickles... we should name our pickle chips 'New York' so they buy them... genius plan!'  False.  There is nothing 'New York' about these chips.

These are better than the Aged Cheddar and Horseradish and the Zesty Jalapeno, but they're still not good is the problem.  The search continues for a pickle chip I can easily find in the US.

Rating

Deep River Snacks Zesty Jalapeno

More Deep River chips courtesy of my mom who spotted them and snagged them for me.  Today's chip is the Zesty Jalapeno flavor.  I've never tried Jalapeno chips before (zesty or otherwise) so it'll be an interesting experience.  I like spice if it's the right spice - flavorful, not just painful.

They don't smell like anything much, but as I've learned, that doesn't always mean much.  They seem almost a sickly green color and have weird brown speckles on them.  Excellent!

But what do they taste like?
It just tastes like spicy nothingness.  Ow.  Nothing that burns my mouth.  Ow.  These are definitely spicy, but they don't have any sort of flavor at the same time.  It's very disconcerting!   And it's burning my mouth still.  I only tried one chip to start and there's still spicy pain everywhere.  I wish I had more to describe about these, but the only defining feature at the moment is that they 'are quite spicy'.

I keep eating them in the hopes that I'll taste something else, but these is really nothing to these other than that they are extremely spicy.  I can't keep eating these - they're burning my mouth and it's the kind of burn that will probably last for a bit, too.  It's like Deep River decided 'Jalapenos are spicy... ok that's thinking enough - put these into production!' because it is just spice.

I'm not sure what other Zesty Jalapeno chips taste like, but if they're anything like this then I'm pretty disappointed.  These were definitely not the chips for me, though I do like the kettle cooked crunchiness that Deep River has going on.

Rating:

Deep River Snacks Aged Cheddar and Horseradish

My mom found these (and a bunch of other strange Deep River flavors) and picked me up a couple of the weirdest ones!  Thanks, mom!  These aged cheddar and horseradish definitely make my list of 'strange chips'.  The bag is a bright orange and I was actually pretty sure they were sweet potato chips at first glance.

I'm not much of a fan of horseradish, but I do love cheddar so let's see how this goes.  I've also never seen it as a chip combo before, though I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.  They don't smell like much of anything - I was expecting a really potent smell so that's a surprise right there.

But what do they taste like?
Oh!  These... these taste like horseradish.  There's a powerful 'horseradish' taste right off the bat and hardly any cheddar.  It's a very strange sensation - the horseradish flavor overpowers everything with a taste that is distinctly 'horseradish-y' and a spicy burn to match, but then it kind of goes away completely and I'm left with some mouth burn and nothing much else.  It's strange because the chips themselves feel like they're covered in cheddar flavor, but none of it comes out in the bite.  I think the horseradish completely over powers the cheddar; if it's there I've no hope of tasting it.

These chips are definitely a kick in the mouth.  Geez!  Happily, the spiciness doesn't last too long so my mouth has stopped burning which is a plus.  I'm also not sure why aged cheddar and horseradish is a flavor of chips.  Cheddar by itself, sure, but combined with horseradish?  Why?

Hopefully the rest of the Deep River chips are more delightful than this!  I won't be finishing this bag - they just aren't appealing at all.  If you like horseradish, though, give them a shot.  You'll certainly be tasting it every mouthful and may well enjoy them.

Rating: