taste test: "natural & cool" potato chips

Remember how I said in my last post (yesterday) that I would try to post once a week? Here I am, going above and beyond already :)

I first had the idea for this post the other day. Ben and I were in the little open market near our apartment, picking up some potatoes and Coke zero (which is becoming surprisingly common here), when we saw that the guy at the dry snacks stand in the market was carrying Lay's potato chips. Lay's are pretty common in supermarkets around here, but this was the first time we had seen them in our local neighborhood open market, so we decided to get some.

There was only one bag out on display. When we asked the snack guy for a second bag (they come mainly in little snack-sized bags--or at least what we consider snack-sized in the U.S.), he gave us one bag of regular Lay's, and one bag of . . . get this . . . blueberry flavored Lay's.

We quickly rejected the blueberry flavored bag in favor of something a bit more . . . um . . . familiar, but after we left the market, I got to thinking: Could those blueberry potato chips possibly be tasty? Maybe it could be a blog-worthy experience to test it out.

Turns out the blueberry flavored chips are part of Lay's "Natural & Cool" line of potato chips, although I can assure you there is very little that is "natural" about them. After surveying the available flavors in this line at the supermarket last night, I decided it was time for a taste test, so here goes:

Blueberry: These chips are, as I'm sure you can imagine, really terrible. Or at least to my very American potato chip palate they are. As soon as I opened the bag, I got a full, hearty whiff of blueberry, an aroma I associate with muffins, pancakes, smoothies, or pie--dense, hearty, calorie-rich sweet treats. I definitely do not associate that aroma with potato chips. The chips definitely taste of blueberry--or at least artificial blueberry flavoring. In fact, the flavor is so overpowering, it's kind of like eating a chunk of blueberry flavoring, if that kind if thing even exists. I usually like sweet and salty tastes together, but apparently that preference does not extend to salty potato and sweet bluebery. I'd give these a big double thumbs down.

Cucumber: I had really high hopes for these chips. I can see how cucumber flavor and salty potato chip could go together really well, the cool, freshness of the cucumber balancing the crispy chip. Maybe someone else might enjoy these, but I, unfortunately, did not. They just tasted so . . . um . . . well . . . cucumber-y. I mean, like really strong cucumber. Is cucumber a strong flavor? I don't think of it that way, but in these chips, it really, really is. If I want to eat something "natural and cool" that tastes so strongly of cucumber, I'll probably opt for a natural, cool cucumber. I couldn't stomach more than a couple of these.

Last, but not least, Cherry Tomato: These chips taste like ketchup, which might sound like a bad thing, but after the blueberry and cucumber experience, it was really a welcome flavor. I know that some of you out there (ahem, Jen K) really love ketchup, so this might be the chip for you. It was definitely the most palatable of the three, but I have to say, I'd pick BBQ flavor, or Sour Cream & Onion, or just plain Lay's any day of the week over ketchup-flavor. On the other hand, maybe I just haven't grown fully accustomed to it yet. As I've been typing this entry, I find myself going back to those cherry tomato chips. Like they are calling my name. Like...mmm...like I really could grow to like them. I'll have to finish the rest of the bag to find out.

I wish I could post a couple pictures of the chips, so you could see as well as read about them. I wish even more that I could post the pictures of Ben trying the blueberry and cucumber flavors (he was not pleased). Unfortunately, my camera is on the fritz right now--a situation I hope will soon be remedied.

Anyway, that's it for the "natural & cool" line. My advice: stick with the original. But don't give up hope on a new Lay's flavor sensation. Turns out Lay's has a line of international flavors here, too, including French Chicken and Italian Red Meat. I'll let you know when I round up the guts to give those a go.

apology

Sorry for my long absence from this blog. We are back to school in the Billing-Cartwright household, in the middle of our second week of classes for the semester. The whole back-to-the-grind thing has been keeping us hopping. I'm firmly entrenched in coursework, and Ben is keeping very busy between the classes he's teaching, and the progress he's making toward preparing for his comps. Unfortunately, all of this busy-ness hasn't left a lot of time for either blogging, or doing things worth blogging about.

In my last post, I wrote about my spring semester placement exam score. I was really happy to have done so well on the test, but my high score left me with a dilemma: what level of class should I actually enroll in? After much thought, perusal of textbooks, and discussion with my teacher from last semester, I finally decided to enroll in the Intermediate 2 class. That's three levels higher than the class I was in last semester, but two levels lower than the class I tested into. Right in the middle sounded just about right.

However, I'm finding that this level is more than challenging. In fact, I'm struggling to keep up on the work right now. We have one or two quizzes almost daily, and I have to work pretty hard to learn the new material for those quizzes and simultaneously make sense of the vocabulary I should have learned before entering this level. This all adds up to me spending 5 or more hours outside of class every day, just trying to study sufficiently and get my homework done. Between 4 hours of class every day and 5+ hours of study, there isn't a whole lot of time for doing much of anything else. Unfortunately, it also doesn't leave me with a lot of brain power to think of anything to write or say when a few moments of free time arise.

So, all of this is to say I may not be such a frequent poster on my blog this semester. I'll try to put something up once a week, but if I miss a week, don't worry. It doesn't necessarily mean any catastrophe has occurred--well, no catastrophe other than me being buried up to my neck in Chinese textbooks, anyway.