Snack #43- Diana Elotitos (Cheese and Hot Sauce Flavored Fried Corn)

Diana Elotitos (Cheese and Hot Sauce Flavored Fried Corn)

These snacks are like corn nuts, and they are SUPER crunchy. Pretty much the most appetizing part of them is the super hard texture, although some testers thought they might break teeth on them. They don’t have a lot of flavor, it is pretty hard to discern the flavor of the cheese or the hot sauce. They also claim to have tomato, onion, garlic, and hot chili pepper flavorings but those are not very apparent either. They also don’t have much heat at all, although when about 10 or so are eaten there is mild heat felt in the back of the throat. They just taste slightly sweet, slightly spicy, and slightly like hot sauce. But the subtle flavoring and hard crunch is pretty fun for a snack overall. Some of the testers love it and some are turned off by how hard they are.

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

Bottom Line: Very hard, very crunchy, mild flavor and basically no spice.

Snack #42- Diana Jalapeños Tortillas Chips

Diana Jalapeños Tortillas Chips

These tortilla chips taste like a combination between unseasoned tortilla chips and Doritos. They have a pretty natural tasting cheddar flavor as well as a very distinguishable jalapeño flavor. They are very crunchy for tortilla chips, a little thicker than typical North American ones, a hearty yellow tortilla chip. The flavor overall is very pleasing, but there is one distinct problem with these chips: they are not spicy at all. There is just no heat to the jalapeno flavor, which is disappointing for a spicy snack blog. But they are still pretty delicious, the flavoring is lighter than chips like Doritos but they can still be eaten alone as a flavorful snack without a dip. The Diana brand is made in El Salvador so it will be interesting to if spicy snacks from different areas of Central America have different heat levels or typical spice ingredients.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 0/10
Bottom Line: Tasty cheddar jalapeño tortilla chips but absolutely no heat.

Snack #41- Jack’s Twisters Fiery Hot Cheez Curls

Jack’s Twisters Fiery Hot Cheez Curls

So I have moved on from Ann Arbor and decided to take the plunge and move to Costa Rica for a year. I will be studying capuchin monkeys in a dry jungle in the Guanacaste region but on my days off I plan to scour the local supermarkets and pulperias. So here is my first entry from Central America, and hopefully we can expand the Spicy Snackz fanbase into the rest of the Americas! These snacks are labeled as “cheez curls pepper and cheese”, and that is pretty much what they taste like. They look a lot like Cheetos and also taste similar, but not as cheesy. In general they have less flavoring on the outside and therefore don’t make your hands as orange as Cheetos do. They taste somewhat cheesy and somewhat peppery, but neither flavor is very strong. The ingredients include cayenne pepper, which is pretty much what the pepper flavor is like. There is a cumulative heat when a few are eaten, which builds up in the back of the throat. Overall, not as spicy as I expected from Central America, but they are a Costa Rica company and Costa Rica seems to be less interested in spicy foods than other countries around here. And in a side note, the house cat here seems to enjoy them as well.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 3/10
Bottom Line: Light, crunchy Cheeto-like pepper-flavored crunchies

PS Check out the Spicy Caption Contest below!

Hot and Spicy Caption Contest!

WIN a party pack of our favorite gourmet spicy chips!

To Enter:

• Come up with a funny caption for this extra spicy cartoon and leave it as a comment for this post. The Hot Chicks will review them all and pick our favorite.

Bonus Prize:

• Bloggers - Blog about this contest and leave us the link on your comment, or add us to your sidebar and let us know it's there to be eligible.
• Non Bloggers (or bloggers) subscribe to our mailing list/RSS feed.
• Contest ends July 30, 2008.

Good luck spicy fans!!

Snack #40- New York Style Pita Chips Spicy Three Pepper

New York Style Pita Chips Spicy Three Pepper

If you like pepper, and you like refried beans, then you will like these pita chips. They basically taste like spicy refried beans, which makes sense because they actually have pinto beans in the spice mix. They are moderately spicy, with a spice that hits you in the beginning and stays in your mouth for a little while after you eat them. The heat also builds up and overall the flavor is pretty strong. They actually have a fairly bean-y flavor, which seems like it could compliment hummus well. It's a pretty unusual taste, similar to the other pita chips tested, but unlike all the potato chip flavors tested. They are similar to a pita chip, fairly thick and crunchy, but actually they seem to be more like a cracker than actually made of pita bread. The flavor of the pita, if it exists, is overwhelmed by the other spices.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 5.5/10

Bottom Line: Tasty southwestern spices in a crunchy baked chip

Snack #39- Andy Capp's Hot Fries

Andy Capp's Hot Fries

These chips are a light and crispy potato and corn snack. They don't taste spicy when first eaten, but they definitely have a cumulative heat that begins building after about 6 or 8 fries are eaten. Personally, I don't love these snacks because the flavors and colors are a little artificial, but other tasters enjoy them a lot and eat them quickly to build the heat in their throat. They don't have a strong flavor overall, after looking at the ingredients there are subtle hints of mustard and tomato, which appear to be some of the main spice components. They don't really taste like paprika, which is the spice listed on the back. They are slightly sweet but not really with any barbeque flavor.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 3/10 (after eating a handful)

Bottom Line: Crispy sticks of subtle heat.

Snack #38- Eden Wasabi Chips

Eden Wasabi Chips

Well, these are technically potato chips but they are very light and crispy, almost like a rice snack instead of potato. The wasabi flavor hits your mouth right away, sending a little burny sensation up your nose and down your throat. Beyond the initial sting, however, they don’t maintain a lot of heat, which seems to be a characteristic of wasabi flavorings. By the time you have swallowed the chip the wasabi flavor is gone. They basically taste like wasabi and soy sauce in a salty crisp. The essence of the many vegetable flavors is present but no real vegetable flavor can be detected.

Rating on the Spice-O-Meter: 3/10 (strong initial spice but weak overall)
Bottom Line: All in all, very light and crispy with subtle flavor.