Take a stroll down the snacks and chips aisle of your favorite supermarket and it will become immediately evident how many choices you have these days. From potato chips to tortilla chips (to Fritos and Doritos and much, much more) you could argue that it’s a saturated market. If you’re going to come out with something new, it had better be something pretty special.
When Way Better Snacks (which sent us gratis samples to review) launched a line of gluten-free chips made with organic, non-GMO corn and a variety of sprouted grains and seeds, they did just that. This was not your average chip.
For starters, the chips are based on organic, non-GMO corn, a big plus in today’s era, when consumers (ourselves included) are more concerned than ever about pesticides and GMOs in our food.
Second, these babies are packed with things you don’t normally find in chips: sprouted grains and seeds. We’re talking organic sprouted quinoa, flax, chia, daikon radish, and broccoli. Sprouted seeds have all sorts of positive nutritional qualities (I won’t belabor the details here, but that may be a good topic for a future blog post). You can see all the different seeds in the chips, and if you look closely, you can even see the (very small) sprouts on some of them.
Thirdly, any additional ingredients in a particular flavor are similarly simple and familiar: black beans, sweet potato, pure sea salt, you get the idea. And, the the chips are GFCO-certified.
So what did we think of their six flavors? Here’s our assessment:
Simply So Sweet Chili
A touch spicy. Tastes similar to a Dorito (in a good way). Bold flavor with a good kick. A little tang from vinegar.
No Salt Naked Blues
An organic blue corn chip with no salt whatsoever. For folks watching their sodium intake, a great choice. For us, needs a touch of salt to brighten it up.
Simply Unbeatable Blues
Basically the No Salt Naked Blues, but with salt. Just what the taste buds ordered.
Simply Sweeet Potato
Sweet potato flavor clearly comes through. Very nice.
Simply Beyond Black Bean
Subtle black bean flavor. Good.
Simply Sunny Multi-grain
Your standard yellow corn chip. Well done.
Overall, it’s a winning lineup.
We give Way Better Snacks high marks for their line of chips. We love the flavors, love the ingredients. A sure sign of approval of a product is if a reviewer would spend his or her money on a product. With Way Better Snacks, we would (and do). To co-opt the “Most Interesting Man in the World” meme, we don’t always have chips in our pantry, but when we do, there’s a good chance they’re Way Better chips. Our only regret is that our local supermarket doesn’t carry the full line of flavors.
–Pete
Images courtesy Way Better Snacks.