What is it?
These kettle cooked potato chips are made using 100 percent almond oil and seasoned with wood-smoked sea salt. To be honest, I didn’t know there was almond oil. Although, now that I think about it, I guess there would be since there’s peanut oil. Wait. Is there a cashew oil? Googling…yes. How about Brazilian nut oil? Googling…yup.
How is it?
I’ve had sea salt and I’ve had meats that were wood-smoked, but I’ve never had wood-smoked sea salt. Oddly, the crunchy snack smells and tastes like barbecue potato chips, but not as bold as any brand’s barbecue chips. They’re like barbecue lite. Along with the sea salt, they’re also seasoned with onion and garlic powder (common barbecue chip ingredients), which explains the flavor.
But here’s the 10,000 potato question: Does it taste like almonds?
No. Either the smoked salt is hiding the flavor better than I hide Easter eggs (which is out of sight and out of reach) or there’s no almond flavor at all.
Is there anything else I need to know?
They have the same hearty crunch as regular Kettle Brand chips that use safflower and/or sunflower and/or canola oil. But there are fewer chips in the bag (4.2 ounces) than regular Kettle Brand potato chips (5 ounces).
Also, I wondered what benefits there are to frying in almond oil. I searched “benefits of almond oil” on Google and got a bunch of results regarding its use on hair and skin from websites that are trying to sell almond oil hair and skin products.
But I imagine for inside the body, almond oil provides the same nutrient as actual almonds do. And that’s vitamin E. But the nutrition facts don’t have it listed. The nutrition facts do show that they have less fat than regular Kettle Brand chips (7 grams vs. 9 grams of total fat and 0.5 grams of saturated fat vs 1 gram of saturated fat).
Conclusion:
As someone who enjoys barbecue potato chips, I like the flavor of these, even though it’s not what I expected. If I want barbecue chips, I’ll buy barbecue chips, not these.
Purchased Price: $3.79
Size: 4.2 oz. bag
Purchased at: Whole Foods
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 oz.) 140 calories, 7 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of saturated fat, 9 grams of trans fat, 2 grams of polyunsaturated fat, 4.5 grams of monounsaturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 0 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.