Bad Monkey – BBQ Ribs Popcorn
Bad Monkey is a brand that hails from Montreal and one that I found out about only a few years back. They have an interesting array of flavours, and for the most part none of the ones I’ve tried have let me down, so I am cautiously optimistic we can keep that streak going. This flavour though, is a bit out there admittedly, and I’m not sure how the ribs comes into play, but we’ll find out soon enough.
As with their other flavours, these are kosher, vegan and nut free. At this point nothing would surprise me, as I’ve had dairy free cheese flavours that taste pretty good, so I’m optimistic about this one. Also the concept of a rib or meat flavour being vegan is both strange and exciting for me. I’m curious to see how this plays out.
There’s also a suggestion to try heating them up for 5 minutes at 250. This helps to soften then up and make them more tender, but that’s also too much works so I’m going into it as is. Maybe at some point I might try this out, but if I wanted to spend more than 2 minutes making popcorn, I wouldn’t be going with the packaged stuff.
One thing that I noticed, and not sure if it’s just this bag or it’s a prevalent thing, but the coating is a tad uneven. Some pieces have very little coating and just a hint of sweetness, while others are quite caked with seasoning. While not a deal breaker, it does make each handful a bit of a crap shoot on how strong the flavour is. Speaking of which, this is your standard BBQ flavour, similar to what you would find on a potato chip. It’s got a salty, sweet and smoky flavour to it. It really reminds me of the generic store bought BBQ sauce we find everywhere here in our neck of the woods. It errs on the side of salty more than sweet, so keep that in mind. I don’t know that I get the ribs at any point, but it does have a somewhat savoury flavour which some may consider meaty, so I’ll let them have it.
The texture is quite fluffy and most of the pieces have a nice rounded shape that has the perfect mouth feel, with minimal kernel shells to lodge themselves in your throat. You can’t escape the kernel shrapnel, but at least with this one it’s manageable. I recall that they use a different breed of corn that gives it the more rounded shape.
Overall it’s a decent flavour, and if you like BBQ flavoured anything, you’ll probably enjoy this. The texture was good, the flavour was pleasant, so I’d say overall it’s a winner. Bonus points for pulling off a meat based flavour while being vegan. Well done.
