Hippeas – Vegan Chickpea Puffs White Cheddar

There are some food trends I find way too gimmicky that they border on annoying to me. Whether it’s excessive or over the top ideas and obnoxious marketing, some products make it difficult for even an opened minded, regular consumer like me to give a chance. Thankfully there’s a wide range of products that fall within the spectrum that ranges from that far end to “must try”. This one is somewhere in the middle based on first assessment, but I won’t know for sure until I try it.

You can tell just by visual inspection and smell that these aren’t you typical cheese puffs, but I think that’s alright. They have an almost sweet bean like smell to them. It’s hard to describe, but if you smell it you will notice it’s got a sort of pea or bean quality to the aroma. As with many vegan cheddar flavours, it’s mostly an amalgam of onion and garlic powder and some yeast extract.

The texture is very different from what the appearance might lead you to believe. Many cheese puffs tend to be very airy and melt as they sit on your tongue. These one’s don’t quite have that same quality and require you to chew. Likely a side effect of using something like chickpea flour to make these. The overall mouthfeel is much more gritty, and while it sort of melts away as you chew on them, it does also leave behind more “dust’ afterward, for lack of a better term. It leaves it in this weird middle ground where it’s not quite crunchy, but not quite airy either. It’s a bit jarring at first but once you get into the rhythm of it it’s pretty solid. Reminds me more of onion rings than cheese puffs though.

The flavour is somewhat mild at first, and the tastes almost have a warm up period where it takes some time before you get the full experience. The most distinct flavour is the onion powder, and I honestly feel like these make a better sour cream and onion flavour than they do cheddar. I actually find the flavour enjoyable, but if you are looking for a cheddar substitute, this may disappoint you. If you are looking for onion though, this fits the bill.

I feel like if they marketed this more as an onion ring that’s vegan, this would be more true to the actual product. Then again, I imagine onion rings aren’t nearly as popular as cheese puffs, so maybe this is for the best. Either way I wouldn’t mind trying the other flavours out, but the texture is definitely not for everyone.