Casa Bonita – Tajin Chips

Casa Bonita is a fairly young brand, being established in Toronto at the relatively modern age of 2016. In human years, it would just be in elementary school, worrying about things like grades, cooties and other gross things that girls can infect you with. As with humans this age, it’s not yet at that awkward phase of going through puberty and is still young, impressionable and excited to explore the world. The only real difference is companies this young are eager to impress, and they usually try to still bring their A game. They aren’t old enough to be checked out or trying to phone it in just yet.

I don’t know what Tajin mix is exactly, but I imagine it’s a common enough spice mix that it gets some marketing space on the packaging. As much of a spice wimp as I am, I love to explore new chips so ideally these won’t make me regret that curiosity. The bag isn’t resealable, but it comes in a bag that usually is, so I guess they aren’t expecting me to have to reseal these. That’s usually a good sign, right?

I’m not too sure what cantina style means, but I can tell you these are solid. Both in terms of taste and texture. Let’s start with taste first – these are marketed as using Tajin spice and lime. Tajin is a seasoning mix made from chili peppers, lime and salt. The spice level isn’t really there, and it’s near nonexistent. What it does do is provide a very nice saltiness to it with a good amount of zest from the lime. It’s really quite addictive while still not being too strong or overpowering. The flavour is making me consider tracking down a bottle of this Tajin to try out on it’s own.

The texture is also quite solid in the sense that these have a nice hearty crunch to them. These are basically tortillas cut into the shape of triangles and then fried, giving them a nice sturdiness to them that equates to excellent crunch. To put it another way, these a strong enough foundation I think, to be used as a base for nachos. Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure cantina style is just another way to say restaurant style. In which case, restaurant style is my favourite style given its superior structural integrity.

All in all, I’d say today was a good day – I’ve discovered another option when it comes to solid, no nonsense tortilla chips that I may or may not use in nachos, and I may or may not eat without salsa or dips. I would get these again, and am definitely contemplating their other flavours of chips.