A Decent Salty Snack, Green Giant Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips Are A Pleasant Surprise!

The Good: Tastes good, Not entirely unhealthy, Good ingredients
The Bad: Very expensive for a salty snack!
The Basics: A healthier alternative to Doritos, Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips are a snack Green Giant really makes consumers pay for!


The last time my wife and I went to the grocery store together, she and I looked at a bunch of new snacks. She knew I was looking with an eye for enjoyment as well as review and I was instantly intrigued by the Green Giant veggie chips we saw there. They were on sale and there was a coupon on the bag, so I lobbied for a bag. When I picked up the Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips, she made it clear that I was on my own for eating them. However, given how many have disappeared from the bag while I sit here writing this review and the subtle smirk on her face, I think my wife (who is not a fan of Doritos) has been won over by Green Giant Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips.

Basics

Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips, for those who are not familiar with them, are tortilla chips made of garden vegetables, which apparently is red and green bell peppers (they are the only garden vegetables in the ingredients outside whole grain corn). Green Giant has marketed their Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips chip line as an alternative to Doritos for only a few months now. The Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips feature a fairly heavy coating of cheddar cheese-flavored salt on the chips. The chips look like Doritos or other, similar, power-coated chips.

Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips come in various sizes, but always in a bag. The standard size bag that I have found is 5 oz. and for over $4 on its own, that strikes me as very pricey. The chips are triangular and approximately 2 1/16" tall by 3" wide and only about 1/8” thick. Most of them are slightly curved.

Ease Of Preparation

Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips Zesty Cheddar are simple to enjoy; all you need do it open the bag and remove the chips from it! There is no trick to eating Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.

Taste

Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips smell only faintly like cheese when opening the bag. Their aroma is very subtle and not as nostril-opening as, for example, Doritos.

On the taste front, Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips are a pleasant surprise. The chips have a salty and sweet flavor that is festive and inviting. The saltiness dissipates very quickly leaving a vaguely cheddar – slightly sour, cheesy – flavor which is in turn replaced by a sweetness indicative of peppers! These chips have a slightly sweet, peppery aftertaste that is a little dry. The flavor is much closer to the conditioned, processed notion of cheese as opposed to actual cheese, but it is still a fun flavor that is very enjoyable and zesty.

Nutrition

Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips are a surprisingly natural snack, with only one listed preservative: potassium Sorbate. Given that the ingredients are mostly whole grain corn, sunflower oil and dried red and green bell peppers, it is unsurprising how generally good these chips are. These have a shelf life of only a few months, so it's not a great snack to stock up on.

Each one ounce (ten chip) serving of Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips has 140 calories, sixty of which come from fat. There is also a gram of dietary fiber. While there are 7 grams of fat and 2 grams of protein, there are 190 mg of sodium, which represents 8% of one's RDA of sodium. There are a smattering of vitamins and minerals, but nothing significant (which surprised me). There is a dietary note that the Zesty Cheddar includes milk and wheat ingredients, which prevents them from being Vegan compliant or gluten-free.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in their bag, Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips will remain fresh for only a few months (the bag we bought in early February had a June 25 expiration date. I've never had to deal with issues of freshness for my Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips, probably because this was my first bag and they went relatively quickly.

Cleanup is simple as well. Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Because they are rare chip where the flavoring actually stays on the chips, so they do not even mess up one's hands significantly. Simply wash your hands, throw out the bag and cleanup is done!

Overall

Zesty Cheddar Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips are a delightful surprise from Green Giant and if they were just a little healthier and quite a bit less expensive, they would be a much easier-to-recommend snack food!

For other salty snacks, check out my reviews of:
Lays Sour Cream & Onion Potato Chips
Tostitos Scoops!
Snyder’s Of Hanover York Peppermint Pretzel Sandwich Dips

7/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit the Food And Drink Review Index Page for a concise, organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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