03 January 2012

Lemon Tea/Blueberry/Cucumber Potato Crisps

Here's something that people who blog about food probably haven't encountered before, and something one can only obtain via connections. No, not some review from a 5-star restaurant (with over 9000 reservations and counting). Not truffle-and-caviar-and-saffron-and-OhMyGoshDon'tForgetTheGoldLeaf-pasta. I'm talking about interestingly-flavoured potato crisps/chips! My uncle bought these for me and they got transported to the U.S by my dad when he went to China. I kind of want to go to China (haven't been in 5 years), or at least, Hong Kong, mainly for the food. Actually, I'm not really sure that I'd feel that comfortable going to China, and I suppose going to London would be cooler since I've never been. Anyway, here are 5 different flavours, spelled with American English, made by the Lay's company, and sold only in China (as far as I know).
1. Little Tomato Flavor
2. Tomato Flavor
3. Lemon Tea Flavor
4. Breezy Blueberry Flavor
5. Green Cucumber Flavor

 The "Cool & Refreshing" flavours (all of them, except for "Tomato Flavor") definitely have some menthol in it, even though the ingredients don't say that.
 Little Tomato Flavor... was slightly tomato-y and sweet. A lot of menthol, so it's slightly overwhelming.
Tomato Flavor tasted more like tomato, was slightly savory (a bit sweet), and had a toasted taste. Much more preferable than the Little Tomato Flavor because it's less sweet and lacks menthol.

 The Lemon Tea canister didn't smell like tea (or anything, really), and had a faint tea/bittery taste. It was sweet, and while chewing, tasted a bit like a light lemon candy that I've had at some point in the past, but I can't figure out what it is. There's a tiny hint of menthol, which is alright.

 The Breezy Blueberry canister smelled slightly sweet, but after licking off the flavouring, the chip was definitely plain potato -- so in theory, I could make vanilla potato crisps if I sprinkled vanilla sugar onto plain potato crisps. This flavouring was salty and sweet (you could see the grains), and tasted like VERY artificial blueberry flavour (the kind in low-quality/unhealthy/electric-blue-coloured blueberry yoghurt, cereal, and granola bars). The menthol is way too overpowering. I don't particularly like this combination.
My favourite flavour was Green Cucumber! The canister SMELLED JUST LIKE CUCUMBER. My first reaction to licking the seasoning was, "Wow, nori." (did you know that I LOVE nori?) The cucumber taste is a little less pronounced, as is the menthol. It's savoury, delicious, and after chewing many crisps, this whole product started tasting a little bit like butter cookies (Not sure why, or whether it's just this flavour).

Also, note that the canisters are much smaller than American stack chip containers...each crisp was about 5 x 7 cm (well, most of them were crushed due to travelling).

Other seasonings on corn or potato chips that I'd want to try (that may/may not exist) include:
1. Pudding
2. Peanut Butter
3. Avocado
4. Marshmallow
5. Noodle
6. Spaghetti Sauce
7. Whole-Wheat Bread

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