Siete – Lime Grain Free Tortilla Chips

Every once in a while I see something that seems odd and borderline oxymoron in nature. Like meatless hot dogs, or gluten free cookies. Add to the list, grain free tortilla chips. When I think of tortillas, I think of corn, but also flour. When I think of flour, I think grains and gluten. These are marketed as having neither of those, as well as being dairy free which I just took to be pretty self evident.

These smell really nice – they don’t smell any different from grain inclusive tortilla chips, so going off smell alone you wouldn’t know. The lime is also quite strong of a smell, which is not a bad thing. When I think of lime tortilla chips it’s usually quite mild and not very strong. Hence why a lot of brands call it a “hint of lime”. In this case it smells like a fistful of it.

As I put the first one in my mouth I could instantly tell something was off. Normally when I eat a tortilla chip, there’s a distinct hard texture to it. These aren’t quite soft, but seem airier in a way that reminds me of shrimp chips, or popped chips. Something about it makes me question whether these would be structurally sound enough to hold it’s own while dipping chips. While the texture is different than what I expected, something about it works really well with the flavour. In my mind there are two types of tortilla chips – one’s that are meant for nachos or dipping into salsa, and those that are meant for snacking on their own. These fall squarely in the latter only because structural integrity is severely lacking and you will end up with a bowl of salsa with fragile chunks of chip shrapnel everywhere. A disaster waiting to happen.

The flavour is fantastic. It has a really good zesty, lime flavour to it that isn’t just a hint, it’s a squeeze as advertised. The lime with the decent saltiness gives it a nice, addictive flavour. As a snacking chip, these are great since they definitely don’t have the texture to hold up as a dipping chip. I do wonder however, if these would be good with a salsa or queso. I guess we’ll never know for sure since I would need a fork and spoon to test it out, and that goes against the spirit of it all.

All in all these are quite tasty and surprised me. My only gripe is it isn’t crunchy or thick enough to meet my preference, but the flavour more than makes up for it. In a vacuum I think the combination works quite well and I find myself snacking on these quite quickly. Just do yourself a favour and don’t try dipping this into anything. You’ll only set yourself up for disappointment.