Junk Food Nation, I mentioned back when I started my blog that a user had sent me a suggested snack: Herr’s Baby Back Ribs Potato Chips.  For the past two and a half months, I’d been searching for these chips.  No luck.  When you are actually LOOKING FOR a particular junk food, you can’t find it! Where’s the Room of Requirement when you need it?

Then randomly, over the holiday weekend, I was walking through a random grocery store, when all of a sudden:

FOUND!

THE RIB CHIPS!  Tons of these serving size snack bags, lined up in a row, staring back at me!  I felt a rush of energy as I went running towards these chips. I found them I found them! The grocery workers definitely thought I was mental. (PS: notice that right below the potato chips are 100-calorie snacks of some sort.  This grocery had all kinds of weirdness going on).

And then, right next to them, in a much BIGGER bag, were the following:

The Money Shot

Herr’s Baby Back Rib Potato Chips, the granddaddy bag version.  Of course, a bag of them went into my cart.

When I first talked about these chips, I wondered, “Anytime a chip is meat-flavored, I’m in.  I must know – do these chips taste the seasoning/sauce that typically goes on BBQ ribs, or do they actually TASTE like ribs?”

It was time to find out.

Does it matter if they're baby back??

I am curious to know why it was so important to designate these as baby back ribs flavored chips? I understand that in real life, baby back ribs are slightly different than regular ribs…when you’re actually eating the meat.  There is zippy meat in this bag (at least I hope so).

Looking at the bag, I just had to sing, “I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back baby back…chips.”

Sometimes a big picture of ribs is...nauseating. Even for me.

Of course Herr’s is gonna plaster a big ass picture of ribs on the front of the bag!  And let me say, I enjoy the juxtaposition of the picture of ribs being basted…and the words ARTIFICIALLY FLAVORED. MMMMMM…just like mom used to make.

Gold stamp of...Ripples

This gold seal cracked me up.  Usually, even in a fake design sense, when you put a “seal” on a product, its usually sealing a positive attribute regarding the product like, “100% Real Idaho Potatoes” or “Tongue Burning Spicy.”  Here, the seal is “Rippled Potato Chips”… which is…what it is.  Hmm.  Herr’s, you need to find a new design staff.

Something's missing...

You’ll notice there is one glaring thing missing from this list of ingredients: ANY SORT OF MEAT FLAVORING. So I can assume right off the bat, then, that these chips are not meant to taste like ribs themselves, but like the seasoning on ribs.  Color me disappointed.

IS it hard?

I love this description by Ed Herr.  They top the chips with the authentic flavor of ribs?  Well…we’ll see if they succeeded with this, but then Herr’s goes on to say that its hard to find such a great taste outside of a steakhouse.  Really?  These chips are the numero two, if you can’t have steakhouse ribs?  How about… actual meat, anywhere.

Golden barbequed?

Lack of powder

Upon opening the bag, I noticed the conspicuous lack of powdering.  Ribs, in my experience, are FULL of flavor – especially baby back ribs.  And the picture on the bag shows they aren’t trying to replicate dry rub, vinegar based barbeque ribs.  So where’s the sauce, jack?  Where’s the extra deep red powder, the speckles of brown and maroon?  Even if you don’t necessarily need the coloring to make the flavor, why not slap it on there to make my mind feel like I am getting a barbeque sauce-brushed chip?

UP CLOSE, still a lack of powder

I took a large finger-pinch of these chips and crunched.  My in-depth analysis:

1st impression: smokiness, a lot of it.  That’d good – a good rib usually has been slow cooked in a smoker for hours, so I wanted (and received) a decent blast of smokiness.  Liquid smoke flavor turns some people off, but I liek the taste.  It wasn’t overwhelming; just the right amount of smoke.

2nd impression: barbeque flavor – sweet and tangy, no spice.  A pretty decent representation of the slightly sweeter BBQ sauce I am used to having on BBQ ribs.  Strong with the tomato and onion flavor, which was nice.  If I were to imagine a chip dipped in barbeque sauce – this would be it.

Still, the flavoring didn’t last.  As soon as I took a few crunches, it faded quickly.  With no visible coverage of powder, I was unsure how much of this fade was related to insufficient powder vs. a weak layer of powder, etc… but all I knew was that this chip would’ve been much better had the BBQ taste lasted longer than a few seconds.

Moreover, the flavor didn’t renew itself with each chip.  Once my tongue got used to the BBQ flavor, I could taste it less and less with each subsequent chip.  Not great.

3rd impression: no distinct meat flavor. Having just had chocolate covered bacon, I’d just had an experience where I could taste pork in the middle of a conflicting flavor that could’ve hidden it.  Here, no meat flavor. Like previously stated, Herr’s was clearly just trying to replicate the sauce that went on ribs – not the rib flavor itself.

Meat flavored chips are able to be replicated with some success in other countries (the korean Chicken Drumstick chips and the English Walker’s Bacon Chips come to mind).  So why can’t we produce that here in the US?

Anyways, these Back Back Rib Chips did not live up to the hype…or, to be fair, the standards in my head. Sorry, Herr’s.

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Sincerely, Junk Food Guy