Chiplog: Brets Cream cheese and herbs

 Pre-chip: This looks to be the sophisticate's version of the classic sour cream and onion potato chip, and I couldn't be more excited, but also, nothing the "chive" flavouring ingredient I'm concerned if it will trigger my onion sensitivity or not. In the past green chives have not really triggered me like onions do, but then, one rarely ever consumes much chive ever. It's certainly not as common an ingredient as onion. Even if my body doesn't instinctively reject it, I wonder if I'll have a psychosomatic response to an onion-y flavour?

Ingredients: Potatoes, sunflower oil, whey powder, salt, fermented milk powder, lactose, creme fraiche powder, sugar, garlic powder, natural chive flavouring with other natural flavourings (milk), parsley, aromatic harbs extracts (parsley, dill, mint)

First smell: Heavenly. The hint of fermented dairy and the subtle aroma of garlic and chive and the other herbs are even subtler, but it's are jiving so well with the potato-and-oil combo. So inviting.

First taste: Oooh, there's a tartness to the dairy ingredients I really like. The garlic is stronger than the chive that's for sure.

Aftertaste: The garlic lingers as garlic does, but it lingers with that dairy flavour, like a smooth soft cheese sticking to the roof of your mouth a little. Very pleasing.

Mass consumption: Oh yes, this is a mow-down bag of chips for sure. As much as the dairy and garlic are the predominant flavours, the dill and the parsley are both coming through, though juuust slightly. As I plug away, enticed as I am to keep triggering those pleasure receptors repeatedly, I occasionally get a hint of the mint extract. It is the one thing I've noted previously about Bret's chips, each chip isn't seasoned equally. That may be a bad thing for some, but for me, it slows eating a little bit as each chip tastes a little different than the other. For full flavour, I grabbed a handful and ...wow pow! That's a good flavour palette. There's strangely a "freshness" to it, like eating a sprig of parsley or mint leaf with your fully loaded jack-et potato.. I think I would like this even more if those herbs had just a slightly bigger punch though.  The chive is a softer flavour in the onion category and works great. The "cream cheese" is the centrepiece here for sure. I could easily finish this in one sitting. But I do want to have a break just to see if I do react to it in any way at all.

Final thoughts: It really does seem like a hoity-toity low-key sour cream and onion flavour, and while, if I had an actual choice I would go for that fully-potent sour dairy/onion flavour most of the time, but if I didn't want my tastebuds absolutely assailed, this would be the perfect alternative to satisfy the craving.  I wonder if stinky breath will result regardless.

Rating: 8.1

Chiplog: Miss Vickie's Risoranti Series Cacio E Pepe

Pre-chip: I'm not sure if I've ever had authentic Cacio e Pepe pasta, but I love a creamy, buttery noodle with Parm and pepper. My go-to "Cacio e pepe" is taking Annie's Butter and Parmesean Mac and cheese and zhuzhing it up. I'm basically expecting that, but in chip form, which, if so, should be awesome. 

Ingredients: potatoes, vegetable oil, seasoning (maltodextril, buttermilk solids, salt, spices, whey powder, cheese powder, cream powder, natural flavour)

First smell: smells of powdered dairy and pepper, and not too far off from Miss Vickie's Lime and Black Pepper flavoured chips.

First taste: Oh, yeah. Definitely, getting that zing of pepper on side of my tongue, and the whey/cheese/cream powers coat the top of the tongue. I'm definitely getting the cacio e pepe-adjacent flavour 

Aftertaste:The creamy cheesiness lingers while the tingle of pepper haunts the taste buds. Delish.

Mass consumption: It's a pretty rich potato chip, so I may get oversaturated at some point but I'm certainly enjoying them in a very addictive fashion. I can probably keep eating and eating but I know that eating kettle chips, more so than regular chips, tend to unsettle my stomach, so I need to nosh lightly.

Final thoughts:I freaking love it. It's a limited edition flavour so I'm going to have to stock up.

Rating: 8.9

Chiplog: Lay's Cucumber Flavor

 Pre-chip: A couple months ago Toasty and I were on a walkabout in downtown Toronto when he asked to pop into an Asian grocery (or two). While he was looking for a specific bottled sauce, I was transfixed by the variety of potato chip flavours and was perusing to see what might actually be onion-free. I was on a chip-break at the time, so nothing was purchased then, but the kernel was seeded that I would need to go back to such a grocery store and partake in some international flavours.  

Lady Kent and I perused the local Nations shop just the other day and their (potato) chip selection did leave a little to be desired, as did the English ingredients sticker ("edible flavourings" doesn't actually tell me what's in it). I only wound up with one bag, being Lay's Cucumber Flavor [sic] (Lady Kent picked up a bag of Brets salt and vinegar, which only had a small sampling of and forgot to review).

Am I excited for cucumber potato chips? I'm excited for any new flavour of chip, but only tepidly anticipating cucumber. I don't associate "cucumber" with "snacking", and I honestly can't single out what cucumber flavouring should taste like. Guess I'm about to find out...

Ingredients: Potato, Vegetable Oil, Cucumber Flavor (with Flavor!), TBHQ(?)

First smell: Well, I guess whatever that smell is, it's cucumber.  Now that I think of it, I have had cucumber water more than a few times so maybe I do know what cucumber flavour is?  It's not an off-putting smell, but I'm also not terribly drawn into it.  It's not enticing me in the slightest.

First taste: There's a potency to the cucumber flavour that I wasn't expecting. It's almost sour, but not quite. There's almost three phases to the flavour...first a bite on the middle of the tongue that I don't like, then an acceptable, almost refreshing cucumber flavour on the side of the tongue, and then sort of a slightly salty nothingness.

Aftertaste: Four phases, actually... strangely, there's like a mild honey sweetness that lingers. How is that possible?

Mass consumption: I am eating these chip-by-chip, which is rare for me. I usually eat chips in clusters, a pinch of chips between the thumb and index finger.  Here it seems like too much to go at quickly, and that initial recoil I have each time doesn't scream at me to repeat it. Yet, I don't recall my mouth ever salivating this much after eating a chip. My mouth is just watering. I'm glad this is only a 70g bag and not something larger, as I'm not actually sure if I can finish this... [timestamp 7:46]. I finished it in 

Final thoughts: I imagine "cucumber flavouring" is an acquired taste, like watermelon flavouring or banana flavouring...flavours that don't totally resemble the thing they're trying to resemble because they're a more potent facsimile of it. I have not yet acquired this taste, and while chips are chips, and I'm willing to almost power through any flavour to get that starchy-oily-salty goodness, this one's a rough one for me. I kind of like it less the more I eat it in fact.

Rating: 3.3

Chiplog: Bret's Aligot

Pre-chip: I don't know what "Aligot" is, but I gather from the package that it's, like, fondue cheese? Ok, quick search finds that Aligot is a fondue-like dish made from cheese blended into mashed potatoes from the L'Aubrac region in the south of France. I love mashed potatoes, and I love cheese, so I need to try Aligot at some point. But for now, le chipsier francais will have to do

Ingredients:Potatoes, sunflower oil, processed cheese powder, whey powder, natural flavourings (milk), salt, garlic, cream powder.

First smell:Even without sticking my nose into the bag, the aroma is punching me in the nose with delight. It's a sharp cheese smell that is unlike any Cheeto or Dorito out there. Super appealing but also intense.

First taste:This is perhaps the strongest flavour on a Brets chip I've ever had. Cheese and garlic in an intense combat in my mouth, powerful and pleasing. The sharpness of the cheese is like a bold white cheddar chip or popcorn flavour dialed up a couple notches without the side of manufactured flavour boosters or, as is so common, onion.

Aftertaste: The garlic lingers as garlic is want to do, but the desire for salted starchy cheesiness is what triggers the brain for more.

Mass consumption: At first I thought this would be too powerful a cheese flavour to want to eat too much of, but no, it's surprisingly easy to return back for more and more. I've already eaten three handfuls before I wrote these meager few paragraphs. This bag is going to go down real fast and real easy. 

Final thoughts: After repeatedly dipping into the bag, my oily powdered fingers mucking up my keyboard real good, I realized this flavour was triggering a familiar sensation, a sort of nostalgia tug. Growing up in Northwestern Ontario, our preferred brand of chips was a regional company called Old Dutch (who have since expanded nationally). They had a chip called "Onion and Garlic" which, to this day, is the only onion and garlic chip I think I've ever seen. Despite not having onion in the ingredients, the potency of the garlic and the creamy cheesiness for some reason (I guess "garlic") is creating that same sensation. Delicious onion-free chip plus nostalgia trip, oh yeah!  If ever I want a cheesy chip, this will definitely be a go-to (if it sticks around).

Rating; 8.8

Chiplog - Brets Porcini Mushroom

In recent years I have developed an intolerance to onions, consuming which in its various forms can lead to becoming violently ill at worst, and feeling hours of upper gastro-intestinal discomfort at best. Most flavoured chips (and most flavoured anything in North America) wind up having onion or onion powder as a cheap source of easy power-flavour, which leaves me on the outside looking in wanting flavour for myself but finding very little. Chiplog is my hunt for yummy chips that I can actually eat.

Preamblin': I discovered Brets French chips about two years ago at a local bodega (we don't have real "bodegas" in Toronto, but it sounds fancier than "fruit and vegetable store") and instantly fell in love. Despite a bag of Brets being about double the price of, say, a bag of Lays for about half the volume, I was just so golddang excited to have a whole new array of flavoured chips that I could actually consume.

I wrote about those on my mostly abandoned Instagram account (which I'll maybe collect into a supplement Chiplog post here) and absolutely loved logging my chiply adventures. Unfortunately, said Bodega stopped carrying Le Chipsier Francais, and I was very, very sad. Life has literally not been the same since (I'll have to write an entry about the most disgusting chip I've ever eaten).

Lo and behold I was walking past the very same bodega this Saturday, looking wistfully in the doorway, thinking of fonder times, when I spied, just inside the doorway, the STACK OF BOXES with the Brets chips logo on the side. I handed the dog leash off to my wife without a word and charged inside, ready and eager to get some of my favourite chips of all time back into my gullet....

only to discover....

these are ALL NEW FLAVOURS. None of my favourites from before. No Chip Sauce or anise-flavoured chips for me. No, now I had to go through about a dozen flavour varieties and determine which were onion-free and ready for my consumption.  About half proved safe for eating which meant I had decisions to make. I said "only two" but wound up getting three with nothing but utter glee filling my soul for the day. A new flavour adventure awaits!

 Pre-chip: The first chip I'm going with out of this selection is the one that fills me with the most trepidation, mainly because the worst chip experience I've ever had still lingers large in my subconscious and I was similarly excited about eating that chip. Also, I don't really like mushrooms. It's mostly a texture thing, which should not be a problem here...but what do mushrooms actually taste like?  

Why would I buy a mushroom flavoured chip if I don't like mushrooms? Because it's a flavoured chip I *can* actually eat without bad things happening (potentially).
Why would I choose it as my first? Just to get it out of the way in case I don't like it. That way if I don't like it I still have two other flavours I can dive into. Plus, Lady Kent loves mushrooms so perhaps she will like them even if I don't.

Ingredients: Potatoes (France), sunflower oil, salt, natural porcini mushroom flavouring with other natural flavourings, carob powder, dried garlic, powdered porcini mushrooms.

First smell:I was bracing myself for a powerful scent, but mostly it's the aroma of potatoes with a hint of oil, but strangely not sunflower that I'm smelling, but olive. For some reason the sunflower/porcini mix creates a sort of olive scent.

First Taste: Like all Brets chips, the flavour palette is a subtle one that takes a moment to kick in. Unlike American chips which seems intent on overloading your taste buds Brets always wants you to discover the flavour. First taste is, well, it's chips! Yay! Fucking love chips. And it's certainly not a flavour I'm rejecting at all. I don't really know "mushroom" flavour, but if this is it, it's gentle and pleasant ("earthy" as Lady Kent chimed in) and then the garlic finds you, but again, not overwhelmingly so.

Aftertaste: It's the garlic that lingers the most, and that's more than mighty fine.

Mass Consumption: Two chips in rapid succession and yes, I'm ready to consume. The "mushroom" element is coming more to the forefont and it's really is quite enjoyable, which is a definite surprise for this guy who really doesn't like mushrooms. Will this whole 125g bag get eaten tonight? Possibly, but maybe only if Lady Kent helps. A dozen chips down and the flavour is both benefiting from a cumulating effect of mushroom powder in my mouth, but also overwhelming me only in that it's a flavour I'm not fully accustomed to.

Final Thoughts:Oh, we're back! Back into Brets and I'm beside myself. Consistency from chip to chip is pretty erratic here. One chip very garlic heavy, the next really hitting that porcini, the next a dose of saltiness, but that makes the flavour adventure more adventuresome, and kind of encourages me to shovel three or four in my mouth in quick succession to rediscover the flavours. This would never be a staple chip for me, but I could definitely see having a craving for them, or even, when just wanting something different, reaching for a bag. More than anything though, it's really making me want to discover more chip flavours. (So I like it but I'm also ready to move on?)

Rating:6.9/10