Ah we must be getting close to Thanksgiving time, these just popped up on the shelf again. They’ve been making a yearly appearance (along with all the pumpkin stuff) about the middle of October. Every time I wanted to do a real review of them, either my kids ate the whole bag before I could do it a proper review or the season was gone and they were off the shelf. But not this year, I finally snagged a bag and sat down and did a semi-serious review.

Clearly, Trader Joe’s is trying to emulate Lay’s potato chips and who are we to say that Lay’s isn’t making these for Trader Joe’s? Trader Joe’s does have it’s own raft of wacky potato chip flavors so why not these? It says right on the bag “all the flavors of Thanksgiving in a potato chip”. All of course, except actual Turkey flavorings, which are not in there. People swear they taste turkey but I

think what they are tasting is everything else and projecting that turkey flavor into their minds.

A careful review of the ingredients does show lots of flavors you associate with Thanksgiving, like onion, sage and pepper and garlic and I think Trader Joe’s has done a great job of bringing it all together. When I first opened the bag, I got a heady whiff of the melenage of flavors you think of when you sit down to the Thanksgiving table. Black pepper, celery, sage, thyme, salt, garlic, etc.. I was already transported to my family’s Thanksgiving table of years past. The chips look like any of the normal kettle chips you find everywhere. That just means they are thicker and are fried a bit longer. Try tasting the crisp skin of a turkey right out of the oven and I bet it tastes very similar to a kettle chips. Both are kind of fried. Add in the spices and herbs and you have an instant Thanksgiving snack in one bag. I can already see a plethora of uses for these. Forget putting in the herbs in your stuffing, just smash a bunch of these and stick it in your stuffing. Why not? You could crush these up and sprinkle them all over a bunch of stuff. Maybe you should just forget about serving stuffing and just serve these chips instead. They are that good! I’ll be eating these as much as I can during the holidays until the elves carry them away to hide for another year.

INGREDIENTS: POTATOES, SUNFLOWER OIL AND/OR SAFFLOWER OIL, TURKEY & STUFFING SEASONING (TAPIOCA MALTODEXTRIN, SALT, ONION POWDER, YEAST EXTRACT, RICE FLOUR, CANE SUGAR, MOLASSES, NATURAL FLAVOR, BLACK PEPPER, TORULA YEAST, LACTIC ACID, CITRIC ACID, TURMERIC EXTRACT, CELERY, PARSLEY, SAGE, THYME).

NUTRITION FACTS:

Servings per container 7 | Serving size about 8 chips (28g/1oz) | Amount per serving: Calories 140

Total Fat 7g (11% DV), Saturated Fat 0.5g (3% DV), Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 0mg (0% DV), Sodium 130mg (5% DV), Total Carbohydrate 17g (6% DV), Dietary Fiber less than 1g (2% DV), Total Sugars 0g, Protein 2g, Vitamin A (0% DV), Calcium (0% DV), Iron (2% DV), Vitamin C (4% DV).

The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.