Friday 6 April 2007

Old Dutch Ariba Tortilla Chips Buffalo Wings

Ay Carumba!


There is quite the wave of chicken wing chips on the market these days, and I say, good show! I was at the grocery store buying food for a Student Cooking Seminar I teach in the residence and saw the Old Dutch Ariba Tortilla Chips Buffalo Wings. The first thing I want to say about these chips: is that long name really necessary?




The next thing that slightly confused me was the melting pot of cultures on the front of the package. Clearly these are supposed to be a Mexican style chip, that has a Buffalo New York flavour added to them. I get a little confused as I would never associate a gecko with Buffalo wings, but I would with tortilla chips. So if these two icons can work together, why can't American immigration?






Unlike the Blair's chips, this bag appeared to be more full in the bag - less air. I liked how on the back of the package they highlight their foil in advertising these chips!


The NEW SCORE (modified for chips)

STYLE: tortilla style chips (like Doritos)
SAUCES(flavours): Buffalo Wing (all that I saw available)
SIZE: medium bag of chips, 300g bag
HEAT: 1/10
CRISPINESS: hard crunch (it is a tortilla chip)
PRICE: $2.89 at No Frills





The flavour of the chips really aren't Buffalo Wing at all. That's not to say these chips aren't tasty, but there is no Frank's hot sauce or butter flavour to them. In fact, if I wasn't mistaken, its the same recipe for Dorito's Bold BBQ & Sweet Chili Heat combined. It seems they were simply riding the chicken wing chip craze and this was the best they could come up with - another chip rip-off with a name change.

Now I'm not very familiar with Old Dutch chips - never seem to have them when I was a kid. What is really interesting about this, after a little wikipedia research that I found out that Old Dutch acquired Humpty Dumpty chips in a 2006 $26.7 million takeover bid. And so far, my favourite chicken wing flavour chips is Humpty Dumpty - so why couldn't they get this flavour right?


There is no heat to these chips - there is a flavour tingle, but that is the same with any chip of this sort. The texture of these triangular treats is crunchy - but not hard. I enjoyed putting a chip on my tongue and just letting the taste permeate my mouth.



Old Dutch Ariba Tortilla Chips Buffalo Wings (new longest name ever) are, as a tortilla chip, very tasty. But when it comes to being Buffalo Wing flavoured, its asta la vista, baby.

FINAL SCORE: enjoy these Dorito knock offs, but no Wing fix here.

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