Binggrae – Smoky Bacon Chips

I will confess that I am not a member of the cult of bacon. Do I enjoy bacon occasionally? Sure. Do I want to try bacon flavoured mints or bacon ice cream? No. I like to think I am more of an tourist of bacon town, and not a resident. As great as bacon is, it’s just very heavy and distinct in flavour that I can’t have too much of it. I know I’ve probably triggered a few residents of bacon town, but I think it’s important I establish my relationship with bacon before I get into this review.

These chips have apparently been around since 1989, so either people really enjoy these, or a majority of people are using it as an ingredient or for some other nefarious reason. Otherwise, how else would it manage to stay on the market for this long? I will take this cautiously as a positive sign, though again, simply a tourist of bacon town.

These look like big slightly yellowish corn chips. They also look very puffy, but big in comparison to what we North American’s have come to know as corn chips. Usually they’re flatter, but more dense, where as this looks like it has a more airy texture. It kind of reminds me a bit of those small Styrofoam packing peanuts. Actually, these look like Styrofoam in general. They technically smell like bacon, but it’s fairly faint and not quite the “in your face” smell that artificial bacon usually has. Also a minor detail I noticed is that each of the chips has a clear marking on them that tells me they were put on a distinct conveyor belt, as I can see the pattern on them.

Much like the smell, the flavour is pretty subtle and mild, and I’d barely consider this a bacon chip. The flavour is definitely that artificial bacon flavour that sticks to your mouth for the whole day. So I guess the only positive here is that it won’t leave much of an aftertaste, if any. If you want to feel like you’re close to bacon, like bacon-adjacent in flavour, then maybe you’ll like these. Otherwise, it really does taste like Styrofoam coated in slightly bacon seasoning. The chips themselves have little to no flavour.

That brings us to texture. They remind me of aerated chips or chips that are puffed up. I hate to keep saying it, but it also reminds me of Styrofoam. Not saying I’ve eaten it (intentionally at least), but I imagine it’s what it would taste like. It’s very light, doesn’t have much crunch and sort of melts away if you leave it on your tongue, similar to shrimp chips. As weird as it sounds, the texture is not a turnoff at all for me. Maybe it’s because I’m used to similar textured snacks.

These are an interesting thing to try, but I can’t say it wowed me or left an impression. Apart from the lingering bacon aftertaste, which seems to happen with any sort of artificial bacon flavour. I would rather have a less strong smelling version of Styrofoam that doesn’t leave a weird lingering aftertaste for hours.