In
April I wrote about Shufersal’s Reduced Fat Potato Chips that I thought were
going to be a permanent product and not just a special Pesach product. Well soon
after Pesach those potato chips were no longer available. And although I was told,
by a Shufersal customer service representative, that those Reduced Fat Potato
Chips were part of the permanent line I could not find them in any Shufersal I
checked, until this week that is.
Turns
out Shufersal re-launched the Reduced Fat Potato Chips this month. They are now officially a product that will be constantly available. I easily found
them in the first store I checked. I also noticed that they now come in
two flavors. Not just the “plain-salt” flavor one I bought Pesach time, but also in a
Chili flavored one .
If you’ve been
reading my blog for a while (firstly thanks that’s really sweet of you:) but
more to the point) you may know by now that my “go to” salty snack is pretzels.
This week being Pesach, pretzels are not an option. When I read about Shufersal’s
Reduced Fat Potato Chips I thought Pesach would be the perfect time to try
them. So I picked up a bag one day as I was doing a pre-Holiday supermarket
shopping run and I saved them to try after Pesach began. That’s why you are only
getting this review now and not before the Holiday, but these are not a
strictly Pesach product they should be on the shelf throughout the year.
I like but don’t
love regular potato chips. I don’t find them crunchy enough and they are
usually to oily for me. That all changed when a few months back a friend
randomly mentioned how much she liked Kettle Cooked Reduced Fat Potato Chips.
Somehow I had never tried Kettle Cooked potato chips. I checked the local supermarkets but didn’t
find any. Finally I found a Herr's brand bag at a 24 hour convenience store that has
lots of imported goods. Yes it was WAY over
priced but that’s what you get for shopping at a 24 hour convenience store. I couldn’t resist so I got a bag. I
was not sorry I bought them, I really enjoyed how overly crunchy they were and
how much less oil they had in them but the price prevented me from buying them
on a regular basis.
Back in July I told
you about Chef Eyal Shani teaming up with Elite's Tapuchips to create a
"chef series" line of potato chips. Their first two flavors were
Sour-Cream & Wild Mushrooms and Balsamic Vinegar & Onion Jam. I wasn’t
ultra impressed with either of those flavors but when I saw the new flavor;
Sweet Chili, it seemed more like a potato chip flavor I would enjoy. I like
sweet chili sauce on roasted and fried potatoes. I even read on Cook Kosher.com
that her favorite dip for potato levivot is Thai
Sweet Chili
sauce. In my mind potatoes and sweet chili sauce are "old friends" so
I was willing to give Chef Eyal Shani and Tapuchips another chance to win me
over with this new potato chip.
Tapuchips
latest addition is a Ketchup flavored Tapuchips Kids potato snack.
Tapuchips
Kids is a puffed baked snack made of potatoes that is meant to "melt in
your kids mouth" in the way that cheese doodles "melt" in your
mouth.
The other
Tapuchips Kids products seem to be very good sellers. They even won a Productof the Year Awards two years running, so it makes sense for Elite to add to
this line of snacks.
Ketchup
flavor is a very logical choice, given that many kids love ketchup so much. I
know some kids (of all ages) who would eat almost anything you put on their
plate as long as it's drenched in ketchup.
Tapuchips Elite has joined in the recent trend I mentioned in my reviews of Tzabar & Chef Raffi Cohen's Potato Saladand Tivoll & Chef Erez Komrovsky's Eggplant or Zucchini "Burger" , where big companies team up with local successful chefs to develop a product that will be mass produced yet still have an element of that chef's "special touch". Tapuchips chose to team up with Chef Eyal Shani and together they have come up with a "Chef Series" of potato chips.
I can't help but wonder if they intentionally waited to "début" these potato chips to coincide with the start of the second season of the highly rated and extremely popular "Master Chef Israel" TV show staring Chef Eyal Shani, among others.
Master Chef Israel's Judges - including Chef Eyal Shani
Regardless this "Chef Series" line of potato chips did seem to get quite a bit of attention. I read a few on line reviews and even saw a segment on Channel 10's "לילה כלכלי" (Layla Calcaly) show where they did a taste test with random shoppers in a mall. I have to say most of the "reviews" were negative, which made me apprehensive about trying them, but something about Chef Eyal Shani's "quirkier" and unique personality intrigued me and I decided to try it anyway.
I'm not sure how much of Chef Eyal Shani's personality you can pick up from the commercial that's running on TV for these chips, but here it is for those of you that want a small "taste".
The 2 flavors in this Tapuchips "Chef's Series" are Sour-Cream & Wild Mushrooms and Balsamic Vinegar & Onion Jam
Sour Cream & Wild Mushroom Tapuchips When I first opened the bag, I thought the chips had a nice shape and size. I liked that they were very crispy and crunchy, but after eating a few I actually tasted the mushrooms and I gotta say it was "kinda funky" and not in a good way. I really didn't enjoy the flavor, and the aftertaste it left was even worse. After one or two chips I had no interest in putting another Sour Cream & Wild Mushroom chip in my mouth. Bottom Line: I agree with the other reviews I saw. These Sour Cream & Wild Mushroom Tapuchips were not at all enjoyable to me. Unless you like exceptionally unique & different flavors or have an extreme fondness for mushrooms, I would tell you to "skip this chip"!
Balsamic Vinegar & Onion Jam
These chips on the other hand were not awful. They too were crispy & crunch and had the same large size and wavy shape that the Sour Cream & Wild Mushroom chips had.
As soon as I opened the bag I was hit with a whiff of balsamic vinegar which I'd say was the dominant flavor as a whole. I didn’t really taste the onion per say but, the chips did have a bit of a spicy kick to them; I'm just not convinced it came from onions.
תפוציפס סדרת השף אייל שני
Bottom Line: Although these Balsamic Vinegar & Onion Jam Tapuchips are far from the best potato chip I have ever tasted, and personally I don’t think I'll ever buy them again, I have to say that they weren't "all that bad". I expected them to be horrible and they weren't. It's very likely that people who enjoy Salt & Vinegar chips would like these Balsamic Vinegar & Onion Jam chips as a change of flavor from time to time.
60 gram bag - 4.49NIS
Kosher Parve Rabbinate Netevot
Disclaimer: All items were purchased by me. No one is paying me for this review. All opinions are my own.
