Snack #50: Snyder's of Hanover Hot Buffalo Wing

I really hoped that the Hot Chicks Eatin' Spicy Chips could celebrate their 50th snack tested with a truly excellent hot snack...unfortunately it was not to be. Instead I got some lackluster pretzel crumbles from Snyders. Instead of HOT wing, I got mild wing, which really translated to ketchup and vinegar flavor with no real heat at all. The pretzels are nice and crunchy which I learned last time I tested a Snyder's product, but this time there was no tastiness to back it up.

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

Bottom Line: Very salty, not very delicious.

Snack #49: Pringles Select Jalapeño Ranch

From the new line of "luxury" Pringles potato chips comes the jalapeño ranch flavor, and over all, these were pretty tasty chips....top of the line luxury chips as they advertise them, perhaps not, but enjoyable nonetheless. Despite their unassuming white color, these bad boys packed a little punch. After a few there was a definite heat building in the back of my throat. Additionally, the ranch half of the flavor description nicely balanced the jalapeño heat with a creamy flavor with good garlic and onion flavor.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 3/10

Bottom Line: No need for milk, but nice jalapeno ranch flavor.

Snack #48: Hot Potatoes' Spicy Bloody Mary Potato Chips

I had high hopes for these chips. Clever packaging, interesting flavor idea, but ultimately was a little disappointed. Instead of a spicy kick of Bloody Mary as promised, I got little more than a smoky tomato flavor with little or no discernible heat. In fact, I was pretty grossed out by the flavor at first. It grew on me after a while, but I really had to work at it. The same company had other flavors like Margarita which, while not spicy, sounded exciting, but after the Bloody Mary debacle, I think I'll hold off on testing those out.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 0/10

Bottom Line: If you're looking for a Bloody Mary drink one and eat a bag of chips later.

Snack #47: Boulder Canyon Jalapeño Cheddar Potato Chips

First impression: the bag is more than half empty. And while I appreciate that this left a lot of the chips intact, it also meant there weren't very many of them to start with. Onto the flavor... While ostensibly jalapeño flavored, they smelled and tasted overwhelmingly of bacon. Tasty, but not the spicy, cheesy taste I was hoping for. After a while they did build a slight heat in the back of my throat, but nothing too exciting. And as I've come to except and love from kettle cooked chips, these chips had a nice crunch to them.

***I'm sure you're wondering what these chips look like...none of the usual up-close snapshots? As it turns out, spicy chips are a thing to be guarded, and before I could snap a photo, an unnamed chip thief finished the bag...

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

Bottom Line: Very crunchy, bacon flavored chip

Snack #45- Rumba Maní Japonés Picante (Spicy Japanese Peanuts)

Rumba Maní Japonés Picante (Spicy Japanese Peanuts)

So these snacks are peanuts with a hard coating of something brown and presumably Japanese flavored. Upon first eating them, they tasted like peanut coated peanuts, and it was hard to distinguish any real flavoring in the coating. But, as one astute rater discovered, when they are sucked on before being chewed, it is possible to find the spicy flavor. It is spiciness without much flavor, though. And the heat starts coming in and seems as if it will continue to get very hot, but then fades back out after a few seconds. The ingredients say they have soy sauce in them, so maybe they are just coated in some crispy, somewhat sugary coating and then dipped in soy sauce at the very end. They are sweet and salty at the same time, it may even be that the coating is a mixture of sugar and soy sauce as they are both in the ingredients. These snacks were made in Costa Rica, which provides more support for the lack of true spicy snacks in Central America. Overall I have been fairly disappointed by most snacks’ claims to be hot, it is still fun to test them but they don’t compete with the caliber of snacks I am used to testing. Hopefully if I do some traveling around Costa Rica I can search for spicier snacks.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 0/10 (1/10 if sucked on)
Bottom Line: Sugar and soy sauce covered peanuts. Subtle flavors.

Snack #46- Jack’s Bolitas Vaqueras (Spicy Cheese Balls)

Jack’s Bolitas Vaqueras (Spicy Cheese Balls)

These snacks taste weird and are weird in concept as well. They are large cheese balls, too large to be effectively seasoned from the outside. The inner portion of the cheese ball is very disappointing because it has a stale, Styrofoam taste and texture. It actually really feels like you are eating Styrofoam when you bite into the center of them. The minimal flavor on the outside is not even reminiscent of barbeque, ketchup, or cheese, which are the three main flavor components claimed in the ingredients. They are NOT spicy. No inkling of spice or heat or anything remotely similar. They don’t really taste good at all…just like old cheese puffs with all the seasoning licked off. So far it seems that Costa Rica will not be a great location for the continuation of the spicy snackz tradition. L.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 0/10
Bottom Line: Someone colored Styrofoam balls orange and put them in this package. Lies lies lies.

Snack #44- Diana Maíz Chino Picante (Spicy Chinese Corn)

Diana Maíz Chino Picante (Spicy Chinese Corn)

These snacks are very confusing. The title of spicy Chinese corn would indicate some sort of Asian seasoning or maybe some soy sauce, but none of that is to be found in the ingredients. The bag also says that they are flavored with barbecue and chile picante, so that would seem like they should be more barbeque than oriental in flavor. We decided to call them weird, yummy, nasty snacks. They are like little mini cheese curls, with a nice light crispy texture that cakes into your teeth when you eat them. They are spicier than the other two Diana snacks we tested, they build up a little more when a few are eaten. The flavor overall is sweet tomato barbeque, a combination of tomato powder and sweet red pepper flavors. The flavor can be a little sickeningly sweet if really focused on, but they are fairly pleasant to snack on, especially because of their convenient small size, which is unusual for a puffed corn snack.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 1/10
Bottom Line: Sweet barbeque fluffy little corn snacks