Angie’s BOOMCHICKAPOP – Sweet Chili Puffs
I’ve had a couple of Angie’s products at this point, and lemme tell you, that nice old lady sure knows how to do popcorn and popcorn adjacent snacks. I mean, technically her company has been sold and is now owned by Conagra, but let’s just go with the veil of small business owner for now.
The brand started off with popcorn, and while I did enjoy those, it was actually the puffs that made me a fan. Maybe it’s an amalgamation of a few factors like Cheetos getting cheaper and feeling less substantial then it already did, but the formula for puffs is a tough one to get right, and easy to mess up. Angie has proven she can do it well, and is also not afraid to branch out into various flavours, unlike Cheetos.
A departure from the usual cheesy flavours most of us have been conditioned to expect with corn puffs, is a sweet chili variety. While I have long touted myself as a spice wimp, I still like to try out mass market products that have heat. The main reason is I don’t typically fear for my butthole with these products because the heat level is largely over hyped and it generally isn’t too bad. The other reason is for science – I don’t mind heat if it’s accompanied by some good flavour. Too many times there are flavours that are just hot and spicy, but taste like nothing or worse yet, taste awful. I’m looking at you Flamin’ Hots.
These are very light and very airy. The type of airy that for most of these I just let them melt on my tongue and I don’t have to do very much chewing. As it turns out this is also the ideal way to experience the flavours. Having said that, puffs are one of those snacks I have an irrational desire to chew regardless of how poofy and puffy it is. I take comfort in knowing that while it might be a little weird, it’s still not as weird as people who try to bite into hard candies immediately. That or jawbreakers. It’s like they know it’s hard and difficult and do it just to prove something.
The flavour is an almost tomato soup like one, that has a quality of strong umami couple with sweet, and the distinct heat from the chili seasoning. The heat builds to a medium, but never get overpowering or overbearing and has just enough to remind me it’s chili but not enough to stop me from going in for more. Fans of tomato as a flavour will certainly enjoy this one. While it is very tomato forward, it has a nice sweetness to it that when combined with the heat makes this a very moreish flavour where you want to keep eating it. The spice is never significant enough that the heat will stop you, or at least it didn’t for me.
This is another hit from Angie and I cannot recommend these enough. Especially to my tomato fans, this one was basically made for us. Go out and try a bag if you’re looking to up your puffs game.
