Ahoy, me maties. What’s shakin?
I just tried my first Pirate Brands product ever.
After passing on “Pirate’s Booty” for years, I finally decided to indulge in their Bountiful Banana and “Potatarr” Crisps.
I’ve never found pirates all that interesting. I’ve grown tired of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I’ve always held an admittedly unfair loathing of the Pittsburgh Pirates. (Go Mets!) Whenever I hear the word, I picture Jerry Seinfeld in a puffy shirt whimpering, “But I don’t wanna be a pirate!”
All of those might’ve subconsciously played a role into why I’ve never purchased Pirate Brands snacks. Or maybe my brain just didn’t like the idea of eating “Booty”?
But there is one sure-fire way to get my money, no ifs, ands, or booties, and that’s to release a snack using the one ingredient that has a gravitational pull on me – banana.
I’ll try any snack you wanna throw at me if banana is a featured ingredient. I would’ve walked the plank or fought the fabled Kraken to try a bag of banana and potato crisps. Those are things pirates do, right?
Yarrrr, these crisps be delicious. Ah geez, they got me talking like em now.
The aroma coming out of the bag after I opened it was heavenly. It smelled exactly like dried banana chips.
The crisps look and crunch exactly like Lay’s Baked. I know a lot of people don’t love those, but I’m a weirdo who actually prefers baked crisps over fried chips. I can demolish a bag with no problem, and like Lay’s Baked, these went down very easy.
Each potato crisp has a powdery coating that starts with sweet banana flavor, but evolves into a subtle salty banana. Shiver me timbers! (I’ll stop now.) I immediately started tipping the bag back and drinking multiple crisps at a time.
When I ate it that way (in the comfort of my own home, thank you), I realized there was a small flavor inconsistency. Some of the crisps had an overbearing sweetness that made them taste synthetic.
Luckily, that momentary disappointment soon faded. The sweetness didn’t last long enough for it to become a real problem. As I chewed, the potato took over and these basically became standard baked crisps. The starchiness of the potato crisp neutralized the sweetness, so I got banana on the nose, and potato on the finish. Not only that, a few minutes after putting the bag down, I was left with a very pleasant banana aftertaste.
So, to recap, the taste profile actually goes from banana to potato and then back to banana! Magic.
You’re probably wondering about the dried banana chips shown on the bag. Whoever the tallyman is, he or she needs to be fired, because I counted less than five. So they weren’t exactly “bountiful” as promised.
I wanted to cry about false advertising, but in the end I really didn’t care. The banana flavor on the crisp was the same as the dried banana chip. I tasted no difference at all when I mixed the two.
I ended up loving these. And I think I like pirates now.
(Nutrition Facts – 1 ounce – 120 calories, 30 calories from fat, 3.5 grams of fat, 30 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein..)
Purchased Price: $3.99
Size: 4 oz bag
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 9 out of 10
Pros: I just love bananas. Good crunch. Nice baked flavor. Delicious mix of salty and sweet. A reasonably healthy snack. “The Puffy Shirt” episode of Seinfeld. Ate the entire bag in one sitting.
Cons: The word “booty.” Some crisps briefly tasted synthetic. Lack of dried banana chips. Who is the tallyman? Ate the entire bag in one sitting.
I absolutely MUST have these! Like you, I love all things banana and I’m always watching for this flavor in Oreos, cereal, yogurt, etc. But what I don’t like is FAKE banana flavor. You know what I’m talking about! Think Runts, Now and Laters, Laffy Taffy etc. There is absolutely nothing redeeming in these or that even comes close to a real banana. So I’m happy that there’s no mention of anything like that in your review of these chips which I hope I can find soon!
And here I thought that we would have to wait for another Minions movie to get more banana products!
Dislike the Pirates? They practically gave you Neil Walker (leading league in HRs) for a mediocre-at-best starter who barely cracked your postseason roster. You shut your mouth.
Can’t argue that. Plus I love Dilson. Niese is a dog, enjoy him…
Ooooh…forgot about that. Dammit. At least you’re still paying Bonilla, suckers!
But I don’t wanna look like a pirate!
I once spent three days one summer in a pirate Halloween costume for some forgotten reason. I took the shoelaces out of my shoes because I thought that looked more like a pirate. Hey, I was 8 years old.
I don’t think I’ve tried the Pirate’s Booty line but the same company makes Tings, which are really nice if you have a Cheetos craving but really shouldn’t be eating dairy and also are chained to a computer (Cheetos are terrible computer food). Tings are thick little sticks made from corn, nutritional yeast (from whence comes both the cheesy taste and the yellow color built into the dough), oil, and salt. Great computer food because the cheesy taste is not an add-on that will turn everything you touch bright orange.
I love baked chips, dislike fried. These sounds awesome; think I’ll try my first pirates booty product too! Thanks!
You actually DID review these! Thanks 🙂
Had the apple & potatarrs just now as a snacky side with lunch. I never buy junk food chips but these were on sale at my Grocery Outlet so for something different I tried them. Glad I did. I very strongly dislike the way regular potato chips leave you all greasy and are so salty your lips get chapped. These are pleasantly not greasy, not over salted, have that dried potato slurry crunch of a Pringle. The apple flavor is bright on the palate, but softens to allow the potato flavor to come through on the finish. The apple chips are few but good subtle flavor. I only ate a handful but I wanted to eat another hand full. I think I could have and not felt guilty about it. I was searching to see if I could find it online that they were gluten free since the package does not state it. I work at a gluten-free food company and if these were gf then I could keep them in my desk as snacks – we cannot bring gluten containing foods into the facility. The ingredient deck looks gf to me but there could be some hiding in “natural flavors”. I say “THUMBS UP” – give them a try.