Takis – Outlaw Spicy BBQ
Here in the frigid North, Takis are a recent phenomenon. Their marketing is definitely interesting. They bank really hard on the contrarian nature of humans, telling us NOT to eat Takis in the hopes that the inner rebel in us will say, “hey, don’t tell me what to do!” and immediately going to do the exact opposite. Who knew spite could be an effective marketing campaign?
Also, they have some very…colourful marketing. I can’t imagine what eating a blue taki would be like. Actually, scratch that. Eating anything that unnaturally blue feels odd and potentially toxic to me. I mean, isn’t that why antifreeze and coolant coloured the way it is? To warn us not to drink or consume it? Odd how the smell is almost sickly sweet though….Moving on to more important, less hazardous things…
As far as barbecue flavours go in North America, they tend not to be spicy, but rather sweet and savoury. At least when it comes to chips. There’s obviously spicy varieties, but they are typically a separate flavour altogether, because the flavour profile of barbecue is popular, but the heat perhaps not as much. One things for sure, they all smell the same to me. This has a sweet, smoky smell to it, and based on that alone is quite promising.
These are spicy, but to me it’s not in the good way. They smell like your typical BBQ flavour, but that’s as far as the similarities go. The actual taste is very mild and muted. If I had to describe the taste, it would be spicy burning at the forefront, and BBQ flavour somewhere in the back. It’s almost like they just created a flavour that burns and is spicy, and decided at the last minute to throw in BBQ for marketing purposes. The smell is there, but the flavour is not.
The spice hits you right away, and it’s the kind that builds up very quickly. After a small handful I actually started tearing up and could feel a little sweat building on the forehead. Obviously I’ve mentioned that I’m a wimp when it comes to spicy, but this is a matter of principle rather than spice itself. I am all for spice if it enhances or has a flavour or purpose. In this case, the spice adds heat only; there’s virtually no flavour that comes with it. There have been very few instances in my life where I could see the need for spice only, without the flavour to accompany it. That’s kind of a deal breaker for me.
The texture is what redeems this. I typically enjoy tortilla chips more than potato chips because they usually have a thicker, crunchier texture. That already puts this ahead of most snacks, but then you roll the tortilla before frying it, and somehow that makes it all the more crunchier and texturally superior. With this kind of texture, it almost doesn’t matter what the flavour is, given how quickly I’m scoffing them down. Almost. Unfortunately this is one of those rare cases where I can’t get past the flavour despite how good the texture is. I’ve tried a lot of flavours for Takis, but this is the only one so far that I can’t seem to get behind. I can’t even enjoy the texture of these without the flavour, because the spice builds up so quickly that it becomes unbearable for me after just a few.
Sadly, I’m not much on spicy for the sake of spicy. If there was a better, stronger flavour of BBQ, I could forgive it. Oddly enough, Takis are usually very salty and this one just kind of tasted like nothing but spicy tongue burning. If the burning sensation is your thing, by all means try this out. But if you are like me and prefer flavour to accompany the spice, then try one of their other flavours instead. I see this flavour as the black sheep of the family.
