Sub-lime?

Stax 青柠味 Lime Flavor

I found these Chinese Stax chips on a recent trip to Jungle Jim's and thought I'd give them a try. I've tried other chips with lime flavoring before and most of them were pretty decent, so why not?

Silly question.

Ok, right off the bat I saw that the packaging was more like Pringles than the Stax I've seen. Not a  problem and rather trivial, but hey, that's how my brain works. Then I opened up the package and things started to really get weird.

Whaaa?  Why do these chips need a plastic insert when Pringles don't?  Is it some kind of legal thing in China?  Maybe the shipping there is rougher so the chips need more protection?  Huh.

Enough about the packaging.  On to the important stuff!

The chips had a vaguely citrus scent, not too strong and reasonably pleasant, with some slightly odd undertones I couldn't identify.

At this point I was getting the feeling that things were going off the rails, kind of like one of those insurance commercials where the person just stands there in disbelief as their daily life gets more and more surreal.  This was not my typical potato chip experience and I was having trouble making sense of it.

What's next, flavor powder?  Right!  There was a moderate amount of yellow powder on the chips, with a sprinkling of green flecks. Since the chips were the exact same shade of yellow as the powder it was a bit of a challenge to see how much there was. Some of it did come off on my fingers though. They don't leave a permanent stain but these are chips that probably require a napkin. And then ...

Oh God, they're sweet and very un-potato-chip tasting. I struggled to work out exactly what the flavor was. My mind kept going back to the Wyler's powdered lemonade mix we used to take with us on camping trips, but maybe with a little lime jell-o powder mixed in.  I ate several of the chips while trying to nail down exactly what it was, ignoring the screams of my taste buds and the wailing of my standards. But it was no use; I just couldn't get at the buried taste memory.

Then Cindy said it was Froot Loops.  She's right.

Rating: 1/4

Doesn't Stack Up

Lay's Stax Buffalo Wings with Ranch

This was the first time I tried Lay's Stax chips. I like Pringles (much to Cindy's bafflement), and Lay's has done pretty well with other flavors, so I figured these would be worth a try.

I would like to note that I prefer the Pringles packaging. The plastic canister that Stax comes in makes them seem even farther from being actual food. That being said, I didn't take the packaging into account for the rating below. It's all about the actual chips, don't'cha know.

On opening the top of the canister I was greeted by a pretty good buffalo scent. Wait ... having seen actual live buffalo that doesn't sound right. I mean they (the chips, not the buffalo) smelled reasonably like buffalo sauce ... which isn't sauce made by or put on buffalo ... but I think maybe the sauce originated in Buffalo, New York or something.

Anyways, I dumped out a few of the chips and the first thing I noticed is that they're not shaped like Pringles. Stax are curved like they were made on the outside of a cylinder, whereas Pringles are shaped like a hyperbolic paraboloid.

The chips also had a heavy coating of orange-red powder ... but only on one side. I've read that Pringles are also only coated on one side, but somehow this seemed more pronounced. Weird.

As for taste, I got a solid sour cream and ranch flavor and a burst of heat. Surprisingly though there wasn't much in the way of buffalo flavor. I was expecting a bit of vinegar and such that just wasn't there.

Cindy turned up her nose at them.

On the whole, I thought they were ok. However the Pringles Buffalo Ranch is better.

Rating: 3/5