Hardbite Dressed to Dill Carrot Chips
There’s an old saying that anything that isn’t nailed down is fair game to be deep fried. While people like to make fun of certain American geographic areas are guilty of this more so than anyone else, we all think about it. Whenever we eat something and we crave something crunchy, we think “what if this was deep fried?” And don’t pretend like that thought has never crossed your mind. I’m sure at some point in your life, when eating a food whether it was something you liked or were indifferent to, you thought “deep frying this would make it better”. Apparently someone decided to ask that question as it relates to carrots, and here we are today.
Hardbite is a Canadian company that is known for its wide range of chips, and are touted as premium for using quality ingredients and kettle cooking to get that nice crunchy texture we all know and love. They are also premium priced, and tend to be shelved with the higher end snack foods, or the health and wellness section of the snack aisle. I’m not sure if kettle cooking carrots still really qualifies as healthier, but it certainly sounds like an interesting concept to at least give it a chance. Full disclosure – I love carrots. I love eating them raw as a stick alongside a sandwich or burger, or just by itself. I love them in soups, the kind where you boil them for so long they just melt in your mouth, and I even like when they’re cooked in a dish and still retain a little bit of that crunch, though I don’t see them being used that way very often. What I’m trying to get at is, I don’t think there’s a form of carrot that I don’t like. But who knows? Depending on how things go with this product, that may go south.
Apparently Hardbite has come up with different flavours for their line of carrot chips. As I mentioned before, the carrots are sliced and then kettle cooked, similar to how they cook potato chips, in theory at least. I chose this flavour because I love dill. When done right, it can really elevate a dish or snack. Based on what I’m smelling from the bag, they seem to have nailed the dill part.
The chips themselves are a somewhat washed out orange, almost as if you took a bright raw carrot, and cooked it in scalding oil. Imagine that. I also notice that a lot of the chips curl in on themselves. I guess carrots don’t like to stay flat when being fried. Maybe it’s due to the water content in carrots? Just a guess. Presentation wise they kind of remind me of fruit that has been shriveled and dried because it was left out for a little too long.
The texture is interesting, to say the least. It’s kind of what I imagine eating a wilted rose would taste like, if that makes any sense. They aren’t exactly crunchy, but do have a bit of crisp in the start. But once you start chewing, it’s like chewing a really dried out carrot, but one that doesn’t require too much chewing. It’s very foreign, and yet I can’t seem to stop eating. I would say part of it is due to the flavour.
The flavour is first and foremost of dill. I quite like the balance they got, it has the distinct flavour of dill, but it’s not strong enough to completely take away from the flavour of the chip itself. The carrot chip flavour is mostly in the after taste; the dill comes out strong at first, but quickly evaporates to give way to the carrot. The carrot chips have a nice, somewhat subtle sweet taste. If you’ve ever had a carrot, you would know what I’m referring to. I love carrots in general, so I love this. If you don’t, well you probably should have stopped reading a few paragraphs ago.
Somewhat alarming is how much yellow grease these things leave behind. Potato chips don’t seem to leave behind as much grease, but maybe that’s because the chip absorbs most of it anyways. Not a deal breaker by any means, but something to note if you plan on using your hands on these. They can leave quite a few streaks.
I would probably give this another go if it goes on sale. At regular price, it’s a bit too rich for my taste. Definitely an experience I would recommend to others though, assuming you don’t have a fear or irrational hate of carrots. Carrotophobia? But who knows maybe this can help ease you into other forms of well…normal carrots. A gateway if you will. A carrotway.
