Thursday, January 11, 2007
Maud Borup Potato ChipsI’ve often said that you can cover garbage in chocolate and sell it as a delicacy. And we do, you can find chocolate-covered candied orange peels and even dead bugs. (I’m rather fond of the former, not so much with the latter.) Of course potato chips are hardly garbage, they’re wonderful, wonderful things. I don’t eat them much any longer but I do admit that I miss them. But since my life is all about candy now, something had to go. When I saw these in the 75% off post-holiday clearance section at Target I figured this was my opportunity to have some chips! Let me start by saying it’s more chocolate than chip. Each chip is quite heavy but still bears the unmistakable shape and ripple of a potato chip. They even smell a bit of potato chips. The coating on them smells sweet but not very chocolatey, it smells more like coconut and caramelized sugars. Some of the chips are stuck together, but hey, that happens in bags of chips anyway. There is an unmistakable crunch at the center and a nice hit of salt and an immediate potato chip flavor there. But something is off about the chocolate. It felt greasy. It didn’t so much as melt as just slide around in my mouth. At first I didn’t know if it was because the chips imparted that but after looking at the ingredients I realized that it’s not chocolate. Maud Borup’s recipe for milk chocolate goes something like this
So, I guess that’s why they’re called “Milk Chocolate Dipped” in quotes. When in reality it’s just the milk chocolate part that should be in quotes. I’m quite sure the dipped part is accurate. But real milk chocolate, at least in the United States must contain chocolate liquor (the slurry made from grinding up cacao until it’s a smooth paste that is often separated into cocoa powder and cocoa butter). Just putting in the cocoa powder does not make it chocolate. It makes it chocolatish or chocolate-flavored. The fat in chocolate should be cocoa butter ... not palm kernel and partially hydrogenated palm oils. (For the record, the partially hydrogenated amount must have been small since the trans fat content was marked as zero on the label, but who knows if the small print is accurate if they’ve already duped me with the milk chocolate claim.) Anyway, I really wanted to like these because I am a huge fan of chocolate dipping, including savory items like pretzels. But the greasy texture of the not-chocolate coating and the weird buzzing feeling that the chips left in my mouth (I don’t know what that was ... maybe there were some traces of walnuts in there) just makes me wanna chuck these out the window. I’m really glad they were only two bucks and I didn’t pay the original $8 for them because then I would need to sweep up some glass. (I’ve had other candies from the overlord company that owns Maud Borup and found them quite tasty, so I’m not going to write the company off completely, though I may email the company about my displeasure.)
POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:53 am |
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Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.
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That is very sad of them to tease us with fake chocolate like that. I love chocolate covered chips and pretzles. I’m a sucker for the chocolate & salt combo. We’ve started putting chips and pretzles out with the chocolate fondue. Yum.
ew. how sad and disappointing.
I love chocolate covered chips too
This is probably cruel of me, but I find it terribly amusing that they used real vanilla and not real chocolate. Not as amusing that you had to put it in your mouth.
Hello again! Like the picture showed, that I linked my comment to, about a week ago, I work in retail and our ‘non-chocolate’ chocolate items are now labeled “Dark Compound” on the shipping lables when we get them. Dark compound can mean sooooooo many things! lol
Best wishes,
Michael
The first time I had chocolate covered potato chips was in Daytona Beach at Angell & Phelps. They were delicious and I’m hooked. If you’d like to try them out here’s the link to the bagged chocolate page: http://www.angellandphelps.com/bagged_chocolates.htm
They come both in milk and semisweet dark chocolates.
WOW… I shouldn’t be surprised, but really, I am. That explains some awful tasting easter candy / valentines day candy / chocolate coins / whatever I’ve had in the past that is sooo not chocolate! Thanks for the insightful and humerous note!!
I wonder if they come in barbecue. Maybe there’ll be pork rinds next year. You know what would be good? Chocolate covered Funyuns!
I don’t think this idea sounds good, though pretzels are fantastic.
I also don’t understand hydrogenating coconut oil. It’s solid at room temp and melts at just over body temp. Made excellent popcorn until trans fats were forced in their place, because coconut was considered too unhealthy. Cynical hindsight is 20/20.
Ooh, you have to try the Royce chocolate potato chips from Japan. They are great. Too bad this one wasn’t.
I reviewed their chocolate-dipped candy canes and found the same thing - not real chocolate, greasy feel, strange addition of real vanilla to cheapo fake chocolate. They charge an awful lot of money for cheap candy.
Rebecca
They have chocolate covered potato chips at the confectionary in seattle, i’m going to get them and have a little comparison, i think they were dark
g - I love the savory stuff with chocolate, I’m thinking maybe I should do some Rocky Road with salty pretzels.
Pam - I was sad ... but I guess I got what I paid for.
Business for sale - nice to hear that, I hope this isn’t the business you’re selling.
Michael -mmmm, nothing gets my mouth watering like the words “dark compound” ... oh, wait, that sounds more like something from an episode of 24.
Star - haha - I like how their pushing them for Football Parites (I’d be much more interested in going over to a friend’s house to watch football if they had chocolate covered chips!)
Rachael - for a while I thought maybe when covering chips they HAD to put mockolate on there or else the chip would get soggy ... that’s obviously not true. They’re just cheap or lazy or something.
Dave - I think those Trader Joe’s Chili Lime Tortilla Chips would be pretty good in dark chocolate. Or maybe not.
Kat - okay, I looked up Royce and it’s now been added to my list of obsessions!
Rebecca - dang - I found your review. At least you got a nice jar. My tin has a dent in the back of it.
kayla - I think I’d prefer dark as well.
My brother-in-law, a chocolatier, makes chocolate and peanut butter covered ruffled potato chips for family and friends. He calls them “angel wings” and for good reason besides the shape. They’re heavenly.
Please see my review.
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