Wheat Thins Popped Sour Cream and Onion

Why mess with perfection?

The Attraction

Another month and it's another batch of new snacks from the office.One of these are these, Wheat Thins Popped Sour Cream and Onion. Did some say Wheat Thins? I know a little something about Wheat Thins.

The Review:
It's a badly kept secret about my fondness for Wheat Thins snacks, (see here and here), so when I saw these babies sprawled out on the kitchen counter at the office, I was excited yet surprised that I never saw these previously. I was a bit skeptical as many of the "popped" items I've sampled in my day didn't win me over. Can they possibly improve upon the already proven Wheat Thin formula?

I open the bag and go in for the sniff test. There is a hint of the flavor advertised, but subtly so. I then take a peek inside and see what I already imagined; what looks very much like a traditional Wheat Thin, puffed up almost like a pork rind.

Looks like perfectly cut chicharrones!

I stick my hand in the bag and pull out a popped chip. I take a bite and it has that popped characteristic that I was expecting. It's puffed up, but not in that guilty fried-in-oil kind of a way. On the taste-front, it's well, not there, sort of. I have a chips or two and it didn't seem to convey any specific flavor, some were saltier than others, but that happens from time to time with any savory snack, but in this case, some "thins" didn't have any sour cream and onion flavor at all.

The times it did have some, it wasn't all that clear that was the flavor they were going for. That only left me wanting a snack that could provide a more potent flavor. Besides, lovers of sour cream and onion don't enjoy that flavor for all the subtleties it brings; they love it because of the bold and powerful taste it imparts onto your taste buds. That was rather frustrating.

Pleasantly, there was a still a touch of that Wheat Thins sweetness, although I don't now if that is also what dilutes or confuses the taste of the intended savory flavor.

Better, worse or the same?

The Sweet:
Airy crispy crunch with some of that Wheat Thin taste.

The Bitter:
The flavor was not consistent with each chip and when it was, it wasn't convincingly sour cream and onion enough.

Conclusion:
Some things are better off left undone. I usually don't feel that way about well-known snack variations, but this product missed on several levels; the flavor profile of sour cream and onion wasn't obvious or was very faint with many of the chips. In addition, the "popped" variation didn't necessarily add a lot to the snack party. Yes, it was airy and crisp, but I also enjoy the traditional denser version, so on that front, it's a wash.

In the end, Wheat Thins Popped Sour Cream and Onion was better off left on the drawing board. It's one variation that didn't need to see the light of day.

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