If you are like millions of other Americans when you were a child you ate bags of Dorito chips. We would ride our bikes to the grocery store a couple of miles away and get cans of Coke and a bag of Taco Flavor Doritos. Mexican food was not on every street corner where I grew up on the East Coast like it is now. Sure there was Taco Bell and mom made those crispy Old El Paso taco kits you got at Safeway but that was the extent of our exposure to real Mexican food. Until I moved to the west coast as an adult did I really understand how interesting and diverse it can be.
Trader Joe’s has had a long tradition of tortilla chips. I’ve been feeding my kids these chips for many years. It started with the Trader Joe’s Corn Dippers and moved up to the regular corn chips as they got older and now my kids eat bags of corn chips. So, we always seem to have some around the house in our “snack drawer”.
I was interested in these chips because who wouldn’t want to save a step and just eat chips and not dig out the salsa? (I’m joking, of course) Here we have a solution to a problem we didn’t even know existed!
Honestly, with this whole potato chip fad where they come up with the most disgusting flavors (fried chicken and waffles?!??!), this is actually a step in the right direction. Not so crazy flavors.
Trader Joe’s doesn’t actually put “salsa verde” on the chips, what they are doing is spraying “salsa verde seasonings” on the chips. You read it right on the ingredients. It’s a pretty standard chili powder mix, except that it’s green chilis and not red.
Opening the bag releases an aroma that I have not smelled, well since I opened a bag of Doritos. I thought I was smelling plain ole Doritos for a second, except when you look at them they are greenish.
For the ultimate taste test, I gave them to my hungry teenagers and they snarfed them down in one quick sitting. I also tasted a few of them. Again, they taste very similar to Doritos. That same chili powder flavor. Which I don’t mind, but with the green coloring, I kind of expected something a little different but it’s OK, they are pretty good if pedestrian.
If you like your Mexican styled corn chips flavored like Doritos, then these might be your ticket to chips and salsa nirvana. I found them to be a bit boring and very similar to Dorito’s regular flavored chips for my taste. I will award them 7 Bells!
Ingredients
WHITE CORN FLOUR, SUNFLOWER OIL (SUNFLOWER, SAFFLOWER, CANOLA, AND/OR CORN OIL), SALSA VERDE SEASONING (SALT, CHILI PEPPERS, DEXTROSE, TOMATO POWDER, CITRIC ACID [ACIDULANT], MALTODEXTRIN, YEAST EXTRACT, GARLIC POWDER, ONION POWDER, SUGAR, VINEGAR POWDER [MALTODEXTRIN, DISTILLED VINEGAR], TOMATILLO POWDER, GREEN BELL PEPPER POWDER, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, DRIED PARSLEY, LIME JUICE SOLIDS, NATURAL FLAVORS), CILANTRO FLAKES, SPINACH POWDER, TRACE OF LIME.
- MAY CONTAIN MILK, SOY, AND SESAME.
