Jagabee – Royal Purple Potato Sticks
Jagabee is a product line by Calbee that creates what is essentially a dehydrated french fry. It looks like a french fry, kind of smells like one, but texturally it’s very different. It’s been a popular product line since I was but a wee lad, so that should tell you how long it’s been around. I tend not to get it too often due to how pricey it is, but sometimes you just got to splurge. And with the packaging and marketing around this one, you definitely feel a little fancier in the checkout aisle with this in your cart.
The big bag here has 5 mini pouches inside. Each pouch has a decent amount of potato sticks in them, though truthfully a person my size would need at least two in one sitting to feel anywhere near tickled, appetite wise.
The texture is best thought of as a freeze dried potato. More accurately, a freeze dried french fry. Not only does the shape look similar to a french fry, but the texture sort of reminds me of one. Well, not quite like a fresh one, but of one that you dehydrated. Let me explain – the outside is crispy but also firm, borderline hard. The inside however has a starchy texture that is reminiscent of a french fry, but again, dehydrated. It straddles the line between double fried french fries, and a kettle chip. The best of both worlds, you might say.
The flavour is basically a simple, straight forward french fry with salt. It’s basically just a french fry that has been converted to a potato stick snack that has a long shelf life. It has all the salty, potato flavours that a very basic and simple potato chip and french fry would have. The only thing missing is the really oily feeling that a stale french fry would have, and replaces it with the qualities of a typical potato chip.
Beyond the gimmick of purple potatoes, there’s not much here that sets it apart from the regular Jagabee sticks. Now having said that, the regular ones are a pretty tasty snack and so as a standalone snack I would get these again. I just wouldn’t particularly pick these over non-purple potato sticks if they came at a better value whether its quantity or price. But again, these are good and I would consume them any time you offered them to me.
