Riceworks – Salsa Fresca

Riceworks was one of the brands that was got in on the ground floor when rice chips first became a thing. I remember back in the early 2000’s my first experience with rice chips. As someone who grew up with in a traditional Asian household, you need to understand that rice was already a very big part of my life. Whether it was eating rice in the typical form of steamed or fried, or being used in snacks like mochi or rice crackers, I thought I had seen almost every way the simple staple had been used. Then along comes a Riceworks and a few other brands like Lundberg who introduce this new product called rice chips.

I honestly didn’t know what to make of it at the time. At this point in my snacking career, I was intimately acquainted with rice crackers, and the western take on rice snacks being rice cakes. Just as context, I pretty much all of that stuff so don’t expect me to be the most objective when it comes to rice. Rice and I go way back. I remember unpacking groceries one day and seeing my parents had bought a few bags of this interesting new product. One thing that seemed consistent across the brands was that they all came in a distinct triangle shape, and they all seemed to have whole grains of rice in the chips themselves, which intrigued me. I’ll talk more about it as I try this flavour, but I don’t imagine the formula has changed much when I first tried them in the early 2000s.

So texture is where I feel these bad boys shine. They have a really hearty crunch to them that I wager you won’t find with other chips. The chips feel denser and thicker than your typical tortilla chip. It might be hard to imagine if you haven’t had deep fried rice snacks, but that’s very much the texture I get here. Especially when biting into those whole rice grains trapped within the chips. These have a substantial feel to them, and it doesn’t feel like it would take too many of these to feel satisfied. Compare this to the generic potato chip where none of the chips feels particularly filling or substantial, and you find yourself eating way too many before feeling like you’ve had enough.

The flavour is indeed very tomato-y. The flavour is very strong, but that’s probably because the seasoning is a bit much here. While a tad on the salty side, I think if they toned down the amount of seasoning a bit, this would be quite good. As it is though, it makes me thirsty.

I don’t have much to say in the way of negatives, other than the price. if you’re looking for something to stuff your face with, these aren’t going to get the job down given the size of the bag compared to the price. I’d say they’re roughly 25% – 50% more expensive than your typical big brand of chips by weight. I feel like it’s kind of offset though, but the fact that these things are so tasty and have such a nice, substantial crunch to them. If you don’t mind that premium, then go grab yourself a bag of these. Heck, any flavour will do honestly. Texture should be the main reason you get these chips.