Sun Chips – Garden Salsa
Garden salsa is a somewhat new flavour. My term of new here is somewhat loose because beyond the original flavours of french onion and harvest cheddar, everything is new to me. This particular flavour is describe as tomato with hints of jalapeno. Straight forward right?
These visually appear very similar to harvest cheddar, but they smell…very wheaty. The salsa smell is surprisingly overpowered by that wheat smell. The flavour is mostly the wheat sun chip base as well, but the seasoning is strong enough to deliver some additional flavour. It has a nice mild salsa flavour with strong notes of tomato and onion, with ever so slight heat to it. Not enough to build up to anything meaningful, but enough to tap you and the shoulder and let you know it came to the party on time. Back to the topic of the chip though, the flavour of the chip is very distinct and even with the seasoning being what it is, the chip’s own flavour shines through. It has a sweet, almost shredded wheat flavour to it with notes of corn. I can’t speak for others but I can imagine this might be a love or hate it flavour. For me it’s a love situation.
The texture is the signature fried wheat and corn chip that we have come to know and love. The thing that some people may find off putting is also what I happen to like – that grainy, slightly gritty finish that the chips have also happens to be what gives it that multigrain texture and mouthfeel. While they still have the nice snap and crisp that other chips have, they have what can only be described as fiber or grains, similar to the difference between white bread and multigrain. Given how popular Sun Chips are though, I can only imagine there are many others like me who actually enjoy it. By no means would I consider these healthier than the potato or corn alternatives though.
At the end of the day, all Sun Chips have a strong underlying, unavoidable flavour that comes from the ingredients used to make the chip. If you don’t like that, no amount or variety of seasoning will change that. Thankfully if you like it, this flavour does a good job of accentuating that, and complimenting it. Ergo, this is a flavour win and I would get this again. Whether it’s this flavour or another will depend on my mood, but this would make it into the regular rotation for sure.
