Review - Scoville Food Institute Cheddar Habanero Kettle Cooked Potato Chips
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Scoville Food Institute head honcho Jon Whaley, who has a excellent handle on what hot sauces should taste like, is having a go at making spicy potato chips. He was kind enough to mail me a few bags to get my humble opinion. The snack is of the crunchy kettle cooked style, and according to Jon's website are dubbed Cheddar Habanero Kettle Cooked Potato Chips.
Ingredients: Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (Contains One or More of the Following: Canola, Corn, Cottonseed, Safflower, Soybean, or Sunflower), Salt, Whey, Cheddar Cheese (Cultured Milk, Salt, Enzymes), Dextrose, Maltodextrin, Canola Oil, Buttermilk, Onion Powder, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Torula Yeast, Habanero Pepper Powder, Whey Protein Concentrate, Nonfat Dry Milk, Disodium Phosphate, Garlic Powder, Natural Flavors, Spices, Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Color from Extractives of Paprika. Contains: Milk.
First, let's take a gander at the bag. It has the same clinical appearance as the other Scoville Food Institute sauces: stark white with heavy black lines, a periodic table designation of what the primary pepper is (in this instance, "Ha" for Habanero), a heat warning and all the basic knowledge you'd need to quickly identify the product.
The physical size of the bag itself is a hair larger than a "normal" single serving size you would find of most any snack chip in America. Opening the bag, you'll sadly see that the volume inside is mostly air. This per se isn't a knock against SHI specifically but against chip makers everywhere, as they're unwilling to give up the chance for a few more chips breaking (since air is used to cushion the product) instead of giving the customers more of the snack.
Next, let's take one out. Looks good and has been cut moderately thick with little bits of potato skin here and there. In other words, a standard kettle chip. The color of the potato is a light yellow, and this chip - along with most others - have only the lightest coating of the orange dusting. Sorry, I like my chips think n' heavy with whatever seasoning it's supposed to be.
Time to take a bite. The chip had a good texture, perfect crunch and wasn't too oily. What little dusting was on the fried potato slice produced a small zing of a flavor mostly containing cheddar flavor and a dash of spice. Overall it was very smooth and affable. It was nothing out of the world extraordinary or different as it seemed like this was something I'd already eaten before, as if Jon was able to replicate someone else's cheesy chip recipe exactly. Whatever the case was, flavor-wise Cheddar Habanero Kettle Cooked Potato Chips has what it takes to be some good munchies. And after plowing through half the bag in no time flat, it was proving to be additive, too.
Now comes the MAJOR disappointment with this snack item...there is very little heat to speak of. If you take a look at the heat ratings on Scoville Heat Institute's hot sauce bottles, you'll see that the extreme, extract-laden super burners called "Off the Charts" are given the yellow-and-black-striped warning "tape", a "warning" message and the "xxx-hot" rating. These cheddar habanero chips have been given a similar labeling, so I was expecting something fairly tongue-scalding. But after eating a bag of these puppies, they wouldn't even touch medium level.
And, no this is not my acclimated chilehead taste buds speaking here. I gave several people who aren't heat freaks a sample of these chips and none of them thought they were hot and spicy.
Jalapeno-flavored Krunchers and Jalapeno Cheetos possess more capsaicin-injected oomph than SHI's Cheddar Habanero Kettle Cooked Potato Chips. It's ultimately up to SHI what kind of product they sell, and if they want to ship a mildly-warm cheddar potato chip then more power to them. I always tell these specialty manufacturers that if they want to make money, they should concentrate on making a great tasting product (whatever that may be, a sauce, a seasoning, a snack item or whatever) and have it be one that will fly off the shelves in high volume, so if selling milder items would accomplish that then so be it. In this case, if Jon doesn't want to tweak this snack in the area of heat and sell the product as is (and make no mistake about it, there's nothing wrong with doing that as it tastes wonderful), he should change heat level on the bag's label as it is highly misleading.
Overall, I would give Cheddar Habanero Kettle Cooked Potato Chips 3.5 out of 5. If you dig lightly cheesy kettle-cooked chips that aren't weighted down with grease and heavy seasonings, you'll probably like these.
You can get a case of eighteen 2.5 ounce bags for $18.00, plus $12.00 shipping at thescienceofheat.com.
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Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
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