Junk Food Nation, when I was younger, people sent each other greeting cards.  Christmas cards.  Birthday cards.  As a kid, you shook them for money, and as an adult, you proudly displayed them.

Then when I was in college, there was the fad of E-GREETING cards.  I’m embarrassed to admit that I live through the time when there was no internet, and then there was, and e-greeting cards were a big hit.  They were simple flash animations that had a little cartoon of an elf farting or a clown dunking a basketball, and then you’d click to continue and a personalized message would pop up.  They were HUGE.  A friend of mine worked for Blue Mountain, a popular company back then, and there were others – ecards.com, egreetings.com, 123greetings.com.  I may have made those up.  It was something like that.

Actor Sis and I were talking about how, during college or after college, she won some prize which was like a year’s supply of greeting cards and she thought, “Who even uses greeting cards with E-GREETING cards around??? Ugh.  What a horrible prize.”  And that’s hilarious, right? BECAUSE WHO THE HECK USES E-GREETING CARDS NOW?

Man, those came and went FAST.  Now, you slap a quick five word note on Facebook, and you’re DONE.  You don’t even have to remember a person’s birthday – Facebook TELLS YOU when someone’s birthday is.  My buddy Joe once just changed his birthdate on Facebook to a fake date to see how many birthday messages he would receive.  He received a SLEW.  People are brainless.

And it’s because people are brainless that electronic greeting cards are no longer.  Who has time to play a fake game of whacking animated elfs on the head to reveal your Happy Birthday message? Not me.

Tell me in the comments below, Junk Food Nation?  Do YOU remember e-greeting cards? And if so, what was your favorite?

And by the way, LOVE the retweets that are piling in for my Brownie Brittle Contest – keep it up!  Today’s junk food: Plocky’s Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Chips!

All of Plocky’s chips were on display at the Summer Fancy Food Show, where I first tried them.  Plocky’s makes tortilla and hummus chips, salsas, and more.  I remember walking up to this table at the Fancy Food Show and just going to town on these tasty tasty chips. I also remember that the spokesperson was the most insistent person of the show I met.

Me: “Oh nice, hummus chips!  I’ve had these before…great new trend.”

Him: “Did you know we were the first?”

Me: “No, I didn’t, that’s very cool, I…

Him: “WE WERE THE FIRST.”

Me: “…Ok, cool.  Yeah, these are tasty, and…”

Him: “EVERYONE ELSE IS A COPY OF US.”

Me: “…..”

Yep.

Plocky’s chips were recently nominated for Most Innovative New Product at the 2012 Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago.  Nice work, Plocky’s!  They’ve been around since 1988, and they clearly have some pedigree.

Plocky’s Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Chips was a sample I grabbed after that interaction.  At the show, they had TONS of flavors on display.  I wanted to focus on these because I’d had other brands of hummus chips before, and they were ones that had been flavored Roasted Red Pepper as well.  Good place to compare.

I do love the artistry on these Plocky’s Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Chips.  The colors are almost like stained glass.  Very vibrant, which is what you want from a snack marketed as being “from the Earth,” natural, etc.

At six, SIX, calories per chip, these are by far the healthiest things I’ve ever eaten.  Well besides celery.  And water.  And kale.  Decent amount of salt, but I’ll take it for something so low cal.

Plocky’s Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Chips are full of plenty of good stuff – no bad anything.  Is that English? No bad anything?  I need to go back to school.

The concern with something so healthy and natural as these Plocky’s Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Chips is, of course, FLAVOR.  Something can be healthy as can be and taste like dried cardboard.  How would these fare?

Plocky’s Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Chips had plenty of flavor powder and looked like mini Tostitos chips.  They definitely had the consistency of a tortilla chip, making it very different from other tortilla chips I’ve had including Simply 7’s Hummus Chips.  Not better, not worst, just distinctly different.

I crunched on these Plocky’s Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Chips and….well, they were pretty good.  Here’s the breakdown – they crunch and feel EXACTLY like tortilla chips.  So if you’re looking for a lower cal alternative to normal tortilla chips, you could purchase these and never miss a beat.  Moreover, the hummus chip had a really nice flavor to it – slightly hinted of hummus, but more had that round aftertaste like when you eat chickpeas.

The roasted red pepper seasoning?  Decent, but not present enough for my taste.  Don’t get me wrong – this was a generally savory and tasty chip, but nothing about the taste screamed ROASTED RED PEPPER.  I tasted garlic, onion, paprika, and got SOME tang – but when I think roasted red pepper I think of that sweetness that red peppers have blended with smokiness that makes the pepper flavor really stand out.  Didn’t get that hear?

So, my verdict?  These were tasty, but I wouldn’t buy this particular flavor again.  But based on the great quality of the chip itself, I would HAPPILY buy some of their other flavors to try!  I remember trying their lemon herb variety and it was the BOMB.

PURCHASED AT: you can get these at Whole Foods, Wegmans, online – a whole HOST of places

COST: A big bag runs about $3.60 a bag – pretty standard.

Thoughts? Please comment below (I always reply) or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. Also, you can always email me at junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com. Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy