Hardbite – Wild Onion & Yogurt
Hardbite has cemented itself as one of my favourite kettle style chip brands. They refer to their chips as handcrafted style, but I kind of lump that together with kettle style because that’s the closest quick comparison I can give it. Being a Canadian company is just sort of gravy atop the glorious poutine, since we seem to have so little to call our own these days.
Wild onion and yogurt is essentially marketing speak for sour cream and onion. I’m a generally forgiving person but if you think it’s anything other than a fanciful name for the classic flavour, I’m kind of judging you. Regardless, it’s a classic for a reason – sour cream and onion is definitely one of my go to choices when I want to have some potato chips.
The flavour is quite a bit more subtle for someone who is used to very strong (but artificial) sour cream and onion. The flavour of the onion and the sour cream is more natural and doesn’t leave an overly strong or artificial taste in the mouth. The sour cream has a muted but tangy flavour and compliments the green onion quite well, which is also not overpowering and more of an after thought with a slight sweetness chasing it. It gives the chips themselves a chance to shine through with their strong potato flavour. These are what I imagine actual fried and sliced potatoes would taste like, were I to do it myself. Along with the natural tasting seasoning, it almost reminds me of eating potato wedges (that were flattened) that is lightly seasoned with sour cream and onion powder. It all comes together to really feel like a homemade potato chip. They do say that they do small batch cooking, and it definitely has that feel to it.
The texture is what keeps me coming back – these aren’t the thin style of kettle chips. They tend to be a thicker cut on the whole, so that each chip has a nice, thick hearty crunch to it. I find it’s a bit softer than the avocado oil varieties I’ve tried, so these might appeal more to someone who finds those too hard. These overall have enough substance to them that I could see these be served in a restaurant in place of fries. The crunch isn’t the only thing that’s satisfying – some chips you can eat a whole bag and not feel sated, but these ones are better in the sense that you start to feel it after a while so it takes more effort to try finishing the whole thing in one sitting. For me, that’s a good thing.
All I can really say is, these are beautiful and it’s an added bonus that these are a local brand that I can appreciate as a fellow canuck. These are indeed on the pricier end, but I tend to prefer quality over quantity. That being said these often go on sale where I am, so I tend to wait until then. These are definitely good enough to ignore that and just go for it though, so do that.
