Review: Cavalcade of Canadian Chips

In the spirit of cross border cooperation, my fellow So Good writer, Andy, and I have shipped a few items back and forth in order to sample some things that aren’t available in our respective countries. The other day, I was thrilled to receive my selection of four chip varieties that I felt would give me a good sampling of different flavors. My choices:

Moroccan Spice
Canadian Burger
Smokin Stampede BBQ
Jalapeno Popper

I popped open the Moroccan spice first and the smell was exceptional: strong smells of Moroccan food– very encouraging. But the flavor was unfortunately a bit underwhelming compared to the smell. Not bad, just not the punch of flavor I was expecting. I was able to clearly discern cardamom among the salt and potato flavors you expect from a chip, so that was quite impressive. After the first few chips I forgot the smell from the bag and really enjoyed the chip by itself.

Next up was the Canadian burger flavor. I don’t know what makes a Canadian burgers so different. I assume it is the beef itself, but who knows? Any time I get to Canada I try to track down a Harvey’s– for research purposes, of course. I opened the bag and the smell was mostly cheese. The taste, on the other hand, was all burger. It really had it all: smoke, grease, beef, cheese, mustard, and ketchup. I didn’t get Canadian bacon flavor at all, but I didn’t miss it. I have no idea what flavorings they use in these things but it is pure magic. Or perhaps pure cancer. Who cares? It is awesomely delicious.

I went to the Smokin Stampede BBQ next. I have had many many BBQ chips over the years, so I didn’t have huge expectations of these. I felt they would be a good baseline chip to compare US and Canadian varieties. The smell and flavor were just what you would expect: good solid BBQ. A little sweeter than I might like, but it finished with a good heat level so it was redeemed.

Lastly it was on to the Jalapeno Popper. I had to get Jalapeno chips as a tribute to Ricky. (NSFW language, it’s the Trailer Park Boys, what do you expect?)

The smell was spot-on. It was a very clear jalapeno smell with a hint of cheese, just like you would hope for if someone put a plate of poppers down in front of you. The flavor was not quite as perfect. It was mostly cheese, though it had the ideal heat level to simulate a jalapeno pepper. All of the grassy jalapeno notes from the scent were missing in the flavor. Kind of disappointing, but still a good chip.

All in all, I was very pleased with my haul of Canadian chips. The Canadian Burger was, hands-down, my favorite. I’m going to be really sad when they are gone. The Moroccan spice was fun as well. The BBQ and Jalapeno were good, quality chips, but nothing I need to try to import again. Many thanks to Andy for sending these my way.