Snack Review: Michael Season’s Honey-Chipotle Baked Multigrain Chips

An unexpected package arrived for me yesterday. Unfortunately, by the time I reached my apartment complex, the office had been closed for hours. Inaudibly cursing L.A. traffic, I headed home for the evening, hoping the package would contain a shipment of delicious, or at least borderline-edible snacks for me to review. Based on the info provided by our lovely editor Caitlin, I was expecting either ice cream or chips and crackers from a small artisan company.

What I found upon retrieving my booty this morning was indeed Snackerrific-related. It consisted of chips from a small purveyor of high-quality snacks, but not the chips I’d been anticipating. Observing the postage, I noted my parcel came courtesy of Michael Season’s, a brand with which this site and its reviewers have an intimate familiarity.

I’m sure opinions vary from snacker to snacker, but I’ve grown quite fond of Michael Season’s all-natural twists on salty snacking favorites. The brand’s wholesome, healthy image is nearly sufficient to reassure me I’m treating my body as a temple while I inhale a half-bag of their cheese curls. So although I would have liked to try something new and adventurous, I was grateful for the opportunity to visit a not-so-old favorite.

As it turned out, the product I was sent was a new flavor, and a slightly adventurous one at that - it was their Honey-Chipotle Baked Multigrain Chips. I’d sampled the Original and Cheddar varieties of the chips, and adored them. Although their texture struck me as a little bit off at first, it grew on me. I came to prefer the Baked Multigrain Chips to the better-known snack they were inspired by, Sun Chips.

Withdrawing my first few chips from the bag, I noticed that either Season’s has redesigned its chips for aerodynamic advantage, or this variety is unique. The Honey-Chipotle chips are about half the size of the Original and Cheddar-flavored varieties I sampled a few months ago. I noticed the chips looked, and felt, less airy than their predecessors; denser. As might be expected from chips claiming a “Honey-Chipotle” flavor, each multigrain morsel was coated with a light reddish dusting reminiscent of a standard barbecue potato chip.

Well-prepared barbecue, as in ribs and smoked brisket, is among my favorite foods on the planet. My favorite barbecue sauces are well-balanced between sweet and spicy tones, making Honey-Chipotle, as a flavor, quite appealing. However, I fail to see the appeal in barbecue-flavored potato (or, for that matter, multigrain) chips. My palate perceives barbecue-flavored chips as tasting of neither meat nor sauce; more like artificial smoke with a bit of vinegar and spice. In general, for me, barbecue chips are tolerable - but given the choice I’d prefer cheese, ranch, original - just about any other flavor, really.

I was curious as to how the seemingly denser texture of the chips would alter their mouthfeel. I popped a piece-o-multigrain into my mouth. Biting in, I found it was harder than the varieties I’d tried before. The chip is notably crispier than its predecessors - I’d compare its texture to kettle chips - but just as thick.

Surprisingly, I found the flavor of the chips to be different from, and preferable to, the flavor of typical barbecue chips. The chipotle flavor is assertive, but not overpowering - less spicy than barbecue chips I’ve tried before. Although I’m a fan of super-spicy snacks, the restraint shown here makes it easier to enjoy the simple - and delicious - flavor of the underlying multigrain base.

None of the vinegar-y tang that I’ve come to expect from barbecue chips emerges here. There’s a smokiness, but it seems genuinely attributable to the smoked chipotle peppers used in the making of the chips, rather than the addition of liquid smoke. Oddly, although “Honey-” is the first half of the flavor name, I detect no honey flavor in Michael Season’s latest flavor of Baked Multigrain Chips. There isn’t much sweetness to the chips at all, actually. A more accurate name for the flavor might be “Spicy Chipotle”.

I have yet to taste a product from Michael Season’s which I don’t like, and I like all of the company’s flavors of Baked Multigrain Chips. That being said, where I simply find the Cheddar variety outstanding, and love the Original, I merely like these. The flavor, while a step above that of a typical barbecue chip, is still not among my favorites. I also prefer the lighter texture of the other styles. Still, Michael Season’s puts an incredible amount of effort into every one of its snacks, and few snackers who try these will be disappointed.

• Michael Season’s Website

Buy Michael Season’s Products Online:

• at Amazon.com

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