Hardbite – All Dressed

Hardbite is one of those brands that seems to be very deliberate with their flavour choices. They don’t seem to be one of those brands that prioritizes something that’s in vogue or a gimmick over how it actually tastes or whether it will be well received. For that I appreciate them greatly.

This also means that it isn’t hard to work your way through their entire catalogue before running out of new things to try. The good thing though is it gives them time to focus on the flavours they do have, and keep a nice, consistent product that I generally look forward to. It also means that it’s a lot easier for me to keep track of all the products and try flavours I wouldn’t normally, like all dressed.

I usually don’t mess with all dressed flavoured chips because I tend to not like how salty and vinegary it is. I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. All dressed is a combination of a lot of flavours, and this one really got the flavour to my liking – it doesn’t lean in too hard on the salty and briny vinegar flavour, but has a more balanced profile and give the barbeque sauce it’s chance to shine, bringing some of that sweetness forward to deliver a really balanced taste. The best way to describe it is barbeque forward, but vinegar in the back.

I big part of why I even bothered trying this despite my past misgivings about all dressed is because I love the texture of the hard, crunchy chips that Hardbite cranks out. It’s consistently tasty, crunchy, and hard. The kind of crunchy where if you are chewing on these and trying to listen to someone talk, there’s a good chance you won’t hear a thing through all the mastication. I love it, but the downside is if you’re eating while watching something, it can be hard to know what’s going on without subtitles.

Taking it all in, I like this enough that I can look past my general disdain for all dressed to enjoy this chip for both the flavour and especially the texture. The flavour is more of a natural, subtle combination rather than the more in your face profile that I tend to dislike about the flavour usually. I’d even go so far as to say I would consider getting this again, for no other reason than because I enjoy it. That should speak volumes about both this flavour and the brand as a whole. Love it.