Snack #165- Hot Mate Assorted Rice Crackers

Hot Mate Assorted Rice Crackers

These rice crackers are a spicy take on the standard mix comprising ridged and smooth rice crackers, seaweed covered rice crackers, and wasabi peas.  Surprisingly, the spiciest snack in the bunch is the seaweed coated rice cracker; either something in the seaweed or underneath is has a strong kick of horseradish.  The wasabi peas are understandably also pretty sharp in horseradish seasoning.  The rest of the rice crackers have some spicy chili seasoning which coats the tongue but isn’t particularly burny in the rest of the mouth.  Overall these snacks are crunchy, salty, and tasty though the spice quotient could be higher.  They are definitely the winner out of our haul from the Asian variety store and certainly worth snacking on.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 5/10 (averaged across all snacks in the mix)

Bottom Line: Moderately spicy but very tasty rice cracker mix.

Buy them here:

Shirakiku - Hot Mate Assorted Rice Crackers 16 Oz.

Snack #164- Calbee Hot & Spicy Potato Chips

Calbee Hot & Spicy Potato Chips

We were wary after tasting the last Asian snack and when we first tried this snack one of the raters got a very soggy, mushy potato chip and we almost threw in the towel right there.  But the rest of the bag seems to be light and moderately crispy though I think the heavy amount of seasoning definitely soaked into the chips and killed some of the original crunch over time.  The flavoring mix tasted a lot like a pretty standard barbeque seasoning but was really muddled with the number of spices added to the mix and the addition of soy sauce on top of everything.  Seasoned with curry powder, paprika, cayenne, black pepper, nutmeg, and soy sauce?  It was overkill and didn’t create a delicious chip.  It also did not create a spicy chip- these were just basically a poorly conceived Asian twist on a barbeque chip. 

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 1/10

Bottom Line: Boring barbeque flavors.

Buy them here: 

Calbee Potato Chips Hot & Spicy, 2.8-Ounce Units (Pack of 12)

Snack #163- Orion Ball Hot Flavored

Orion Ball Hot Flavored

We almost couldn’t eat these because the bag smells so much like fish when opened.  The ingredients include sliced cuttlefish and shrimp so we were expecting some fishy notes but the smell almost prevented us from even trying them.  We did each manage to try one ball but that was enough.  They don’t taste overtly fishy upon chewing; instead you get a mushy, sweet peanut flavor with an actual peanut in the center.  Then as you are chewing the peanut the spice flavors and fish flavors come through.  The fish flavor isn’t rancid but it isn’t particularly pleasant either though I know many Asian cultures enjoy fish flavored snacks.  Our American palates just don’t seem to appreciate a dried fish snack in the same way though so we were not big fans of this snack.  Also in my opinion the salty fish flavor and the sweet peanut flavor clashed.  The spice flavor was pretty tame and got lost in all the other flavors but was a pretty standard hot sauce flavor and not very spicy.  Overall the squishiness of the snack and the overdone mix of flavors made this snack pretty gross.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 2.5/10

Bottom Line: Squishy peanut ball with real fish added!

Snack # 162 - Germack Cajun Chili Pepper Castachio Nuts

First of all, I love a good pun, so this snack really had me at "castachio." In case you didn't guess, it's a blend of pistachio's and cashews, which as far as I can tell is about the fanciest blend a person can buy. And these are delish! Sadly, not particularly spicy though. They really have a nice smokey flavor, probably from the paprika I saw in the ingredients. But there wasn't any heat from the chili pepper. Occasionally I got a glimmer of spice, but for the most part just smokey cajun flavor.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 1/10

Bottom Line: a fancy, smokey, tasty treat

Buy them here:
Germack Cajun Chili Pepper Castachio, 6-Ounce Pouches (Pack of 4)

Snack #161 - Planters White Hot Wasabi Peanuts

The first thing I noticed when I opened the bag was that the peanuts were absolutely coated with Wasabi powder. So I expected a VERY spicy snack. Not so. The powder was hot enough to burn the bejeeeesus out of my lips and face and anywhere else outside my mouth that it touched, but the taste was totally lacking. It burned the moment it hit my mouth, and then proceeded to taste like nothing besides a peanut. I thought maybe if I kept eating them, the heat would build up, but it never did. And instead I just ended up with a stomach ache.

Bottom Line: buy those green Wasabi peanuts instead (Wasabi Peanuts)

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: .5/10

Buy them here:
Planters Wasabi Peanuts

Snack #160- Doritos Tapatío Tortilla Chips

Doritos Tapatío Tortilla Chips

These Doritos, the final snack in our free sample trilogy, have a nacho cheese base and then a hot sauce flavoring added.  These snacks have by far the most interesting and straight up delicious flavor out of the three Tapatío snacks that we reviewed.  The cheese flavor is prominent and tastes like melted cheddar cheese on nachos and the hot sauce flavor is a nice complement to the creamy cheese flavor.  These chips really taste like nachos covered in hot salsa and although the spiciness of the hot sauce is somewhat dulled by the cheese they still manage to be pretty hot.  Also the nice thing about these chips is the heat is more of a tongue burn and stays in the mouth so the flavors of the chip and the hot sauce meld better than the other two varieties. These are the most well-rounded and by far the most crave-worthy snack of the bunch.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 6/10

Bottom Line: Cheesy nacho goodness with a tasty hot sauce kick

And a big thanks to Frito-Lay for helping us taste their new hot sauce flavor creations!  

Snack #159- Fritos Tapatío Flavored Corn Snacks

Fritos Tapatío Flavored Corn Snacks

This is the second free snack sample sent to us by the nice people at Frito-Lay.  These Fritos are a super curly variety with a basic hot sauce flavoring.  They are light flaky corn chips but denser than the standard Frito because of the extra curliness.  The flavor on these isn’t as complex as the Ruffles and doesn’t quite taste like hot sauce but more like straight pepper heat.  They really taste mostly like a normal Frito until you swallow and then it feels like you just swallowed a pile of dried pepper seeds and has the same face-warming burn as the other Tapatío snacks.  It does allow you to really taste the corn flavor of the Fritos which is nice but the heat is dry and not as pleasant as it could be.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 6/10

Bottom Line: Standard Fritos with a burny finish.