The Good: Tastes good, Not overly unhealthy
The Bad: Not incredibly healthy, Flavor is more of Totino’s pizza rolls, than actual pizza!
The Basics: The Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips are a surprisingly delightful salty snack, that is not salty . . . nor particularly flavored like pepperoni pizza!
This morning, I was in a hurry on my way out of the house. As a result, I did not pack the lunch I ought to have and I grabbed some snacks at the gas station on my way to work. Looking for something inexpensive, I picked up a bag of Totino’s Pepperoni flavored Pizza Chips. It’s not like I was going something inherently unhealthy, either; these chips are multigrain snacks (like Sun Chips, but without being gross or really accenting the healthy nature of them).
And while I might seem to be rating these chips harshly, I actually liked them quite a bit. In fact, all that really brought them down was how they tasted more like Totino’s pizza rolls than actual pizza and that they were not as healthy as I would have liked. That said, these are pretty wonderful multigrain snacks!
Basics
Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips, for those who are not familiar with them, are multigrain chips. General Mills has marketed their Totino’s chip line as an alternative to Sun Chips and they occupy the nebulous border between snack chips and crackers quite nicely. The Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips feature a dusting of pepperoni pizza flavoring that is red and black on the chips. The chips look like a wheat-colored version of tortilla chips and the dusting of flavor is very subtle and light.
Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips come in various sizes, but always in a bag. The standard size bag that I have found is 20 oz. The chips are a somewhat wavy rectangle approximately 1 3/4" by 1 3/4" by up to 1/2" thick at the highest curvature. Most of them are slightly curved.
Ease Of Preparation
Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips are simple to enjoy; all you need do it open the bag and remove the chips from it! There is no trick to eating Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips; they are a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.
Taste
Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips smell exactly like the microwaved pizza rolls that share their name. There is a delightful scent of oregano and pepper. This is a very inviting, warm and salty scent that instantly makes anyone who likes Totino’s pizza rolls salivate!
On the tongue, Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips are an odd balance of tomato, a hint of cheese, and multigrain chip. What struck me immediately about the Pepperoni Pizza Chips were that they were not salty in their flavoring. In fact, in the mouth, these have more in common with an unsalted cracker than a snack chip. The lack of salty flavor is not a detraction with these chips. Instead, it allows them to actually present a flavor. The flavor of cheese comes out as the chip lingers in the mouth. There is an interesting meaty taste/scent that is released as one swallows the chip. On some of the chips, the flavoring is strongly of the tomato sauce – slightly sweet – that probably makes Totino’s pizza rolls so popular with children. While these chips do have some flavor very much like Totino’s pizza rolls, the multigrain chip flavor – very dry and wheaty – effectively competes with the pizza roll flavor. Neither flavor is particularly like actual pizza.
The Pepperoni Pizza Chips do not leave a strong aftertaste in the mouth.
Nutrition
Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips are actually not as bad on the health scale as most salty snacks are. Given that the ingredients are led by whole grain corn flour, sunflower oil and whole oat flour, it might surprise salty snack eaters to learn how generally good these chips are. These have a shelf life of at least half a year – the bag I bought this morning would have expired on October 29, 2012, had I not eaten it before that! - so it's not a bad snack to stock up on.
Each one ounce serving of Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips has 140 calories, fifty of which come from fat. There are also 2 grams of dietary fiber. While there are 6 grams of fat and 2 grams of protein, there is a disturbing 310 mg of sodium, which represents 13% of one's RDA of sodium (these chips don’t taste like it, though!). There are a smattering of vitamins and minerals, but nothing significant. There is a dietary note that the Pepperoni Pizza Chips includes wheat and milk ingredients, which prevents them from being Vegan compliant or Gluten-free.
Storage/Clean-up
Kept in their bag, Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips will remain fresh for a while and as long as the bag is resealed, one suspects they will last for a few weeks before getting stale. I've never had to deal with issues of freshness for my Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips.
Cleanup is simple as well. Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips are a dry food and thus leave no mess behind. Because they are weakly powdered with flavor, so they do not even mess up one's hands significantly. Simply wash your hands, throw out the bag and cleanup is done!
Overall
Totino’s Pepperoni Pizza Chips are a good snack that is not all it could be for people looking for a healthy snack or something that is truly pizza flavored, but they are surprisingly enjoyable!
For other salty snack food, check out my reviews of:
Orville Redenbacher's Butter Gourmet Popcorn
Cheez-It Cheddar Jack Snack Crackers
Planters Flavor Grove Jalapeno Pistachios
5.5/10
For other food and drink reviews, please click here to visit my index page!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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