While replenishing my supply of Laphroaig at Trader Joe’s (their price is $8 less than Bevmo, FYI) I noticed a bag of “pumpkin tortilla chips.” Now, tortilla chips are not something you normally associate with Halloween, but surely pumpkin chips are suitably evocative of the holiday. Besides, I’m forever looking for a new excuse to pound a bag of chips. So I tossed a bag into my cart with the Laphroaig, transacted business with a bored cashier sporting eyebrow rings purple hair, and went home to conduct my taste test.
- Packaging. In a word, I’d call the packaging unimaginative. It’s a bag of pumpkin chips, so they show a picture of a bunch of chips, and put the word “pumpkin” prominently at the top. That’s kind of it. To be fair, Trader Joe’s may not be going for the Halloween vibe. But surely that’s an obvious oversight when you’re taking a common staple and turning it into something pumpkin-related. In October. Overall, I have to say this packaging is neither fun nor Halloween-y. I can’t give it any points. 0 points.
2. Appearance of the Treat. The contents of the bag have the shape of classic tortilla chips, probably because they’re essentially classic tortilla chips. They do have a somewhat ochre cast to them, but it’s not distinctive enough to really shout pumpkin. TJ’s missed an obvious opportunity to shape these chips like pumpkins. Or to dye them a true pumpkin-orange color. Or to dip each one in chocolate and drizzle it with orange and black icing. My point is that these are just chips. There’s nothing especially festive about them for the Halloween season. (My wife points out that this hasn’t prevented me from consuming the entire bag, however.) Anyway, as a Halloween treat, these lack pizzazz. No points.
3. Taste. When you eat your first Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Tortilla Chip, you notice that there’s something a little unusual about the taste of these chips. You eat a few more, and conclude that you don’t really like them that much. And then you finish the bag. At least, this is what happened to me.
But there are several aspects to the favor profile worth mentioning. The foundation for the taste is Basic Tortilla Chip. But there’s less salt than you’d normally taste in, say, Doritos. This is a huge loss, because, as far as I’m concerned, tortilla chips are little more than a crunchy delivery system for salt. Then there’s the “pumpkin” aspect to these chips. Despite what’s implied on the bag, these are not “pumpkin” chips, but rather they are corn tortilla chips with a little bit of pumpkin puree added. There’s so little you can barely taste it. What you can taste are trace amounts of nutmeg and cinnamon they’ve added to the recipe. But they detract from, rather than complement, the basic tortilla chip taste.
At the end of the day, there’s only two things wrong with these chips: (1) the recipe, and (2) the way the recipe is executed. Other than that, it’s a brilliant snack sensation. No points.
4. Value. This seven-ounce bag cost $1.99. That’s about the going price for, say, Doritos. So I’ll give it 2 points. But it’s wise to remember that getting a good price on something you don’t want isn’t a bargain.
Steve’s Spooktoberfest Score: 2 out of 12 points, which makes it a nasty TRICK. Don’t fall for the hype! (If you can call that anodyne, boring bag “hype.”)
Chasing Phantoms 