The Good: Tastes good, Not unhealthy
The Bad: Not as richly cheesy as I would hope, Comparatively expensive
The Basics: Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos are a good snack, but not the best representation of pepper jack I would have hoped for.
It has been a while since I tried to stretch my reviewing muscles in the area of snack food reviews. But recently, my wife and I purchased a bag of Tostitos Hint Of Pepper Jack chips and I thought it was a good time to start stretching in that way again. I have fond memories of Tostitos Hint Of Lime chips, so I was eager to try a cheese-based flavor. Unfortunately, the Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos were exceptionally inconsistent and nowhere near as robust as I had hoped they might be.
Basics
Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos, for those who are not familiar with them, are tortilla chips. Frito-Lay has marketed their Tostitos chip line as an alternative to Doritos for over a decade now and in the last several years, they have started adding flavors to them. The Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos feature a dusting of pepperjack-flavored salt on the chips. The chips look like regular tortilla, white corn, chips and the dusting of flavor is almost invisible. That makes it very different from Doritos, which are colored and obviously flavored.
Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos come in various sizes, but always in a bag. The standard size bag that I have found is 13 oz. The chips are triangular and approximately 2 3/4" by 3" by 4 1/4". Most of them are slightly curved.
Ease Of Preparation
Tostitos Hint Of Pepper Jack are simple to enjoy; all you need do it open the bag and remove the chips from it! There is no trick to eating Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.
Taste
Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos smell slightly spicy when opening the bag. If the bag is even a little warm when it is opened, the smell of corn overwhelms the faint pepper aroma. These chips smell like corn chips and pepper, but the longer they remain out in a bowl, the more the begin to smell simply like corn chips.
Taste is where the Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos truly become a mixed bag. None of the chips taste overly like Pepper Jack cheese. At best, the chips have a kick of pepper followed by a slightly sweet, salty onion flavor that is reminiscent of onion salt and pepper. This interpretation of Pepper Jack cheese is weak and not at all cheesy. It is, however, better than the alternative flavor.
On about half the chips in the Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos bag, there is no flavor. Instead, the chips taste like utterly generic corn chips and that is a big letdown. Those who want cheesy do not even get a hint of pepper or cheese on about half the chips, making one wonder why they would shell out for the flavor!
Nutrition
Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos are a surprisingly natural snack, with no preservatives. Given that the ingredients are mostly whole corn, vegetable oil and maltodextrin, it might surprise salty snack eaters to learn how generally good these chips are. These have a shelf life of approximately one year, so it's not a bad snack to stock up on.
Each one ounce serving of Tostitos Hint Of Pepper Jack has 140 calories, sixty of which come from fat. There are also 2 grams of dietary fiber. While there are 7 grams of fat and 2 grams of protein, there is only 140 mg of sodium, which represents 6% of one's RDA of sodium. There are a smattering of vitamins and minerals, but nothing significant. There is a dietary note that the Hint Of Pepper Jack includes milk ingredients, which prevents them from being Vegan compliant at the very least.
Storage/Clean-up
Kept in their bag, Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos will remain fresh for a year and as long as the bag is resealed, one suspects they will last for a few weeks before getting stale. I've never had to deal with issues of freshness for my Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos.
Cleanup is simple as well. Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Because they are weakly salted and flavored, they do not even mess up one's hands significantly. Simply wash your hands, throw out the bag and cleanup is done!
Overall
Hint Of Pepper Jack Tostitos are a fair snack that is a bit of a letdown for those who like actual cheese flavors for their snacks. Instead, the Hint Of Pepper Jack chips are only vaguely like the cheese they claim to be on about half the chips. That makes them impossible to recommend and I suspect most of mine will be eaten with a cheese sauce as opposed to hoping I get lucky and eat a flavorful chip.
For other foods, check out my reviews of:
Cherry Craisins
Kraft Deluxe Bacon Cheddar Cheese
Idahoan Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
4/10
For other food and drink reviews, please click here to visit my index page!
© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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