Hello, and welcome to Snack Roundup! On our search for new and interesting snacks, we’ll be looking at what the rest of Asia can offer our taste buds in terms of snack supremacy! Will any of today’s offerings be worthwhile enough to make it onto your favorites list? Let’s find out!
First up, we have Tea Candy.
Hailing from Indonesia, these individually wrapped hard candies made with real tea extract promise to deliver the refreshing taste of iced tea to your taste buds.
And deliver, they do! The minute you pop one of these little gems of delight into your mouth, it’ll be assaulted by the sweet and herbaceous flavor of iced tea. While the intense tea flavor might not be for everyone, there’s no denying you’ll get exactly what you paid for. Those sweet and herby notes stick around until the last minute and beyond, leaving you reaching for another piece just to recapture the flavor. They’re honestly so good, it makes me wonder if I shouldn’t pop a few in the fridge and see if I can replicate the flavor of a nice, cold glass of iced tea.
Next in our line-up comes Purple Sweet Potato Chips with Butter.
Purple potatoes & yams are found all over Asia, so it’s no surprise to see them show up in chip form. But will these chips, produced in Thailand, stand up to Japan’s popular Honey Butter flavored chips?
Honestly, I’d say Honey Butter chips aren’t in any danger of losing their title just yet. While their thickness makes them more portable than any mass produced chip, and their all natural look just screams “healthy food choice,” sugar is added along with the butter glazing each chip, so the flavor remains heavily on the sweet side. It’d be nice if a little more salt was added to balance out the sweet flavor, as well as letting the natural flavor of the purple sweet potato shine through, as it can only be faintly detected at the beginning and end of each chip. Other than that, these potato chips still remain an addictive treat.
Thailand manages to make up our third, fourth, and fifth entries on this list by providing a trio of Thai-centric flavors.
These flavors include Sweet Basil, a 2 for 1 special in Grilled Prawn & Seafood Sauce flavor, and adding more flavor to our lives by making a chip flavor out of a regional snack: Miengkam Krobros. How will these flavors stack up to the other snacks presented so far? Let’s find out!
First up, Sweet Basil chips. I was all for this flavor, remembering the flavor of Thai basil from eating it in pho and other Thai dishes. Opening up the bag even helped that along, perfuming the air with the sweet and savory scent of herbs. Sadly, it was not to be. I enjoyed the sweet tang of Thai basil and then mid-chew—POW! A sudden surge of spice was there to bring the pain. What was once so delicious was now a fiery inferno, and I mourned for the fleeting taste of sweet basil. If you’re looking for a chip that tastes like sweet basil, this is not your chip. If you’re looking for a chip that packs a punch and keeps hitting long after it’s over, then this is your chip, or try J-List’s Death Mix Rice Cracker Collection.
Next, Grilled Prawn & Seafood Sauce chips. You’re actually getting two different flavors of chips in this bag if you haven’t noticed. But no worries, both flavors taste as good together as they do apart. Even from the moment I opened the bag, I knew I was in for something special. It smelt exactly like going to my favorite seafood place and getting a hot plate of my favorites put in front of me. The taste? Even better. This chip tastes exactly like a grilled prawn, with the smoky taste of the grill with a nice burst of salt to finish it off. In contrast, the Seafood Sauce chip is much lighter in flavor, with tangy and citrusy notes similar to lemon or lime. This makes it so the chips work perfectly together, with the Seafood Sauce chip working to elevate the flavor of the Grilled Prawn chip and giving the combination a light, clean finish on the palate. Now, full disclosure: I don’t like wavy chips. Never have. However, these Grilled Prawn & Seafood Sauce flavored chips have converted me for life. Now if all wavy chips would taste this good.
Lastly, we have Miengkam Krobros flavored chips. Miengkam Krobros is a traditional snack from Southeast Asia made by taking various ingredients (shallots, dried shrimp, chilies, ginger, lime, roasted coconut, etc.) drizzling flavored palm syrup on top, and then wrapping everything up in the leaves of the chaphlu plant. That’s a pretty tall order for a potato chip. And since I didn’t get a read on the chip’s flavor when I opened the bag, I was worried about how these would stack up. I shouldn’t have. These chips are intense and refreshing, hitting you with ginger and lime flavor from the first bite. And even though the intensity fades away quickly, the experience alone will have you reaching for another in no time. I would definitely consider mixing these chips with dried shrimp or salted nuts just to see how they manage to round out the flavor profile.
For our last entry, we move so far out of Asia we end up right back to the United States. Now while our next snack contender isn’t actually produced in Asia, it’s both so strange and so familiar that it gets an honorable mention in my book. This snack? Fruit Flavored Beef Jerky.
Now it gets an honorable mention because the texture is similar to Chinese pork floss, but unfortunately, it’s a dud in all other categories. It manages to be tough even with the pork floss like texture, has no real flavor other than the powdered fruit punch laced in every bite, and even the fruit punch flavor is dull and synthetic. If you really want beef jerky and fruit punch as a combo, you’re better off eating them separately.
So what do you think? Could these snacks vie with Calbee and KitKats for snack supremacy? Have you found something new you want to try? Comment below or join us on Twitter to talk about your favorite snacks, new snacks you’ve found, or the worst snack you’ve ever had.
