Doritos Jacked Ranch Dipped Hot Wings

It's a known fact that I think ranch dressing is pretty delicious.  It's also known that the best dipping sauce for buffalo wings is ranch dressing.  None of these other dressings for me.  It's safe to say that I am both pro ranch dressing, and pro buffalo wings.  Or, in this case, hot wings.  So I was pretty excited when I found these magic chips.  But also wary for, as I've learned, chips rarely taste like the two promised things.  It's one or the other.  How shall these fare?!

But what do they taste like?
Wow.  They actually taste a hell of a lot like ranch dipped hot wings.  They're not quite buffalo wings, because there's no chicken flavor really, but it's pretty close to eating a chip that's been dipped in some sort of strange 'ranch hot wing sauce' mix.  They're also practically neon with flavor - usually a good sign.  For these the flavor isn't super overpowering, but the flavor that lasts is the chemically hot wing taste, when I'd prefer to taste more ranch.  Another thing is that they're strangely thick chips, and way bigger than regular Doritos.  Is that a thing with JACKED chips?  It's a bit strange, since the chip flavor detracts from the ranch/hot wing flavor.  It seems to be a thing, since the bag says that they're 'bigger, bolder, thicker', but I honestly don't feel like that improves them.

The larger than average chips are kinda weird.  There are fewer chips in the bag, but simultaneously more calories than a usual bag of chips.  That's not a problem, but I think these can very easily be overeaten, since you feel like you've only eaten a few chips when really it's double normal size Doritos.  They're not too spicy, but they do have a bit of a kick, which you expect with hot wings sauce.

The flavor overall is nice, but it seems to taste best the first second you try it.  After that it gets pretty chemically.  I think I'd like these better if that first taste stuck.  The first taste is more ranch/wing, but it's very quickly overpowered by the chemical hot wing sauce.  Overall, these do actually have a ranch and hot wing sauce flavor, so props to Doritos for the 'dual flavor' chip, but they're deceptively big and taste pretty chemically the more you eat.  That and the neon seasoning requires extra napkins.

Rating

 

Doritos Tacos

I saw these Taco Doritos and knew I had to try them.  I also didn't buy them when I first saw them and then never saw them again.  Until today!  Glorious today!  In their weird throwback bag and their promise of tasting like a taco... I was smitten.  I'm still not clear on why the bag looks the way it does.  It reminds me of the generic ye olden times chip bags you see in movies.

But what do they taste like?
They pretty much taste like a taco with the flavor of the meat, but no meat.  You know that extra shell you found sitting in the sad pile of beef that tumbled out of the taco?  That's what these chips are.  Luckily for me I like that last weird shell and I like these chips.

They're not taco flavored really.  It's more ground beef and shell and taco seasoning.  It's like half a taco, but missing all the things that truly make it a taco like cheese and sour cream and lettuce and tomatoes.  Actually, the more of them I eat, the less they taste like a taco and they already basically weren't tasting like one to begin with.  Except for the one I just ate that was covered in seasoning... that one tasted like taco spices.  And that's disappointing given how long I'd spent searching for them!

If you're the one who wants your tacos plain then you'll probably like these chips.  Actually, I think most people will like them.  The flavor is pretty mild and it's not overwhelmingly taco-y.  My bet is you won't taste this and say 'my god this tastes like a taco'.  What you will say, probably, is 'wow it tastes like they flavored these chips with a bag of taco seasoning!'

Rating:

Chips of Northern Ireland!

It's time for the first random post!  It's not Tuesday, friends!  But I'm posting!  My friends in Northern Ireland ate a bunch of chips and sent me their thoughts and pictures!  This is sort of half a guest post I guess?  I am jealous because I want to try these strange, nearly mystical flavors.  Especially Flame Grilled Steak holy crap!


The Reviews!
All Tayto chips are immense.  Tayto are the most popular over here.  They always have lots of flavour on them that would melt on the tongue.  And Tayto does lots of what we call normal flavour crisps such as cheese and onion, salt and vinegar, prawn cocktail, roast chicken, and then they do funky shape crisps like Xys and Ozys and Rollers.

And you can only get them over here.  They're even hard to get in England.  Oh and Space Invaders - they're class.  Prawn cocktail has a fishy smell.

 Nik Naks look like twigs.

Gemma's Favorites at the moment:
Rollers, cheese and onion, prawn cocktail, roast chicken, and Space Invaders.

Ciara's Favorites at the moment:
Flame grilled steak, paprika, smoky bacon, Wotsits and Skips.
Flame grilled steak is legit the best flavour ever.  Your mouth feels overloaded with flavour.  Your lips would burn with it.

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Ok!  It's me again!  Dudes - I want to try all of these chips!  Why do we not have easy access to such awesome flavors?!  I wish I'd been doing this blog a few years ago when I was in Northern Ireland and Australia - both those places have crazy chips.  I can't really provide a rating for these (though I assume it would vary from chip to chip - awesome sounding flavors aren't always awesome tasting), but someday I'll go back there and try them all.  Also Nik Naks totally look like Cheetos.

Tune in on Tuesday at our regular time for the next post!

Zapp's Voodoo New Orleans Kettle Style

So I had dinner with some friends at Bourbon Street and saw Zapp's Voodoo Gumbo chips on the menu.  I was intrigued and super awkwardly asked what they were and what Voodoo meant.  The waiter had no idea why they were Voodoo and maybe hated that I asked about something as simple as chips.  I'll have you know, sir, chips are serious business.  I still don't know why, but that's ok!  In the end, since they came in a bag (which seems kind of weird as an appetizer, but whatever, it worked for me), I decided to get them.

The bag itself is covered in... voodoo dolls I guess?  Oh yeah - on closer inspection they are definitely voodoo dolls.  Will I be cursed after eating these?  It also doesn't say Gumbo anywhere on it so I'm forced to assume this is a random bag of Voodoo chips and not Gumbo flavored, as I had hoped.

But what do they taste like?
They taste... geez what the heck do these taste like?  They're good!  Surprisingly so!  Not too greasy which gets points in my book.  There's kind of a vinegar kick to them and then other seasonings as well.  After the first bit of flavor it calms down and there's sort of a sweetness to it.  Almost like a sweet salt and vinegar chip?  But there's also a little BBQ flavor in there as well.  Like a salt and vinegar sweet meat chip?  That... that sounds horribly unappealing I realize, but it actually tastes pretty damn good.

There are a lot of flavors in every bite, but it works well together.  And it doesn't really stick around except for a mild aftertaste that goes away with some water.  One problem - I ate nearly half the bag trying to figure out what the heck the flavor was (hell - I'm still trying to identify some flavoring goodness) so it didn't leave me very many to just enjoy.  As I ate more, that first hit of vinegar flavor mellowed and the rest of the bag tasted pretty sweet.  The last bits tasted a little burnt, but I think that's because it was mostly left over edge chips pieces that had broken off.

I'd definitely get these again I think.  It's like salt and vinegar with a twist!  Also, props to Zapp's because I really wasn't sure what to expect.  Something delicious?  Something horrible?  They delivered a mighty fine chip here, though the flavor doesn't last super long.  I'd be interested to try other Zapp's brands, but I've never seen them anywhere else other than this restaurant.  I guess I'll have to go back to Bourbon Street and have delicious food.  What a hardship!

Rating:

Lay's Classic BLT

I was drawn to these Lay's Classic BLT chips because the bag was slightly larger than usual and it was a weird brown color.  Also, it had a sandwich on the front.  I love bacon so I was hoping that these would mostly just be 'bacon' flavored rather than 'sandwich' flavored which the Classic BLT name implies.

 

For such a large bag it wasn't particularly full which was disappointing.  I also was not hit in the face with a bacon smell which was a sign of things to come.  The chips themselves look like they're covered in all sorts of flavors and were remarkably intact considering they spent a lot of time in my bag.

But what do they taste like?
Not like a BLT - classic or otherwise.  They don't even taste like bacon, or lettuce, or tomato.  I think the downfall of these chips is that they actually tried to make them taste like the sandwich with the bread included and sometimes a hint of mayo.  They're pretty salty and whatever the flavor is, it gets stronger as you chew.  It's sort of a generic, but mild, 'salty meat' flavor.  Maybe it was the green seasoning on the chips, but they tasted sort of like sour cream and onion chips (though these were slightly meatier).  Eating a single chip doesn't really taste like much and eating a handful is mostly just salt.  Not too much grease at first, but it gets greasier as you go somehow.

Overall they were pretty disappointing.  I never expected them to taste like a BLT, but I did expect them to at least try to get it to taste like a BLT or bacon, lettuce and tomato.   They're not bad chips.  The flavor wasn't unappealing, but it definitely wasn't BLT flavored.  If you're looking for BLT flavored chips then unfortunately your search continues.  If you're looking for generic and kind of weird tasting chips then you could probably pick up a bag of these.

Rating: