The Famous - POPCHIPS

POPCHIPS

Potato chips are deliciously addictive, but also undeniably unhealthy. This is likely the reason behind why many brands have turned to snacks that are popped or puffed as a healthier, lighter alternative. And according to Whole Foods, who named puffed and popped snacks one of 2018's top trends, new technology is behind this shift as well.

"New extrusion methods (ways of processing and combining ingredients), have paved the way for popped cassava chips, puffed pasta bow ties, seaweed fava chips and puffed rice clusters."

Original flavor Popchips

Popchips is a brand of processed potato and corn products marketed as similar to potato chips. They are manufactured by processing potato starch at high pressure and temperature, in a process similar to that used for puffed rice cakes.

The popchips people popped by the New Times office last week and left behind a basket of popchips in all flavors. I'd never had a popchip before -- I'm not much of a bagged-snack sort of guy -- but here are ten quick impressions:

1.The sour cream & onion, and sea salt & vinegar, are the two best flavors; the vinegar chips have an especially fetching tang.

2.A cheddar popchip is to a Cheez Doodle what a sausage patty is to a sausage.

3.Salt & pepper was my third favorite, although for some reason it was the first gone -- and therefore didn't make the team photo.

4.The barbecue popchips would probably be great if you like barbecue chips.

the original potato, either. It tastes too

much like a potato chip that didn't quite come out right. Whereas when

flavors are added, I think of them more as circular potato snacks

rather than as failed chips.