HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPY FRIDAY, Junk Food Nation.  As we wrap up this week, I’m in a good mood.  The Brownie Brittle contest has had an amazing turnout (home stretch over the weekend, keep those re-tweets going), and I got a few new T-shirts (modeled one over on the Junk Food Guy Facebook Page).

People sometimes ask what *I* read, so today I wanted to mention some of the blogs in my blog roll.  What’s a blog roll?  It’s the other blogs I have listed at the bottom over every page – fellow food/snack/junk food review blogs that I check out myself.  Some of them I interact with on Twitter, some helped me get started, and some are just plain awesome.  And of course, some are all three 😉

Rodzilla Reviews and Foodette Reviews were some of the first people to reach out and show me how this whole blogging and tweeting thing was done.  I can’t thank them enough for all the critiques and support they’ve given.  The Impulsive Buy, Grub Grade, and Food Junk were blogs that inspired me – their consistency was my paradigm. Crazy Food Dude is my boy, and he knows more about yogurt and snack bars than anyone I know.  Option Pitch and Waffle Crisp – that dude writes from the heart and knows his eats. Pretty soon, I stumbled upon the world of ice cream reviews, where the grand-daddy, On Second Scoop, and some great contenders, The Ice Cream Informant and The College Gourmand, came on the radar.  Chip Review, Dave’s Cupboard, and Fat Guy Food Blog always manage to find items I can’t find ANYWHERE.  Jim’s Chocolate Mission became my UK go-to, and my newest friend, Armenian Fungus Cake, is a great resource for around-the-world-oddities in snacking.

So check ’em out!  You can always come here, scroll down, and see what they’re pimping in my blog roll.

Today’s junk food:  Simple 7 Black Pepper Pomegranate Chips & White Cheddar Pomegranate Chips!

Simple 7 Black Pepper Pomegranate Chips, White Cheddar Pomegranate Chips: The Money Shot

My friends over at Simply 7 sent me a box ol box of some of their newest product, and these two bags were among them.  Simple 7 Black Pepper Pomegranate Chips and White Cheddar Pomegranate Chips are part of Simply 7’s new line of Pomegranate Chips.  That’s right – CHIPS MADE OF POMEGRANATE.  Word.

I reviewed their Sea Salt Pom Chips a while back – I wasn’t a HUGE fan, but I’m willing to keep an open mind.  I LOVE Simply 7’s Lentil and Hummus line of chips, so the Pom Chips were a little weird to me.  Maybe some flavoring would help.

First up: Simple 7 Black Pepper Pomegranate Chips!

Simple 7 Black Pepper Pomegranate Chips: The Money Shot

Simple 7 Black Pepper Pomegranate Chips: Nicely displayed pictures of black pepper corns and pomegranates.  Still, pink chips?

Simple 7 Black Pepper Pomegranate Chips: Super healthy – less than 5 cal per chip

Simple 7 Black Pepper Pomegranate Chips: All vegan, all the time.

Simple 7 Black Pepper Pomegranate Chips: No smell of black pepper upon opening the bag.  Just a faintly sweet smell

Simple 7 Black Pepper Pomegranate Chips: Look closely – COVERED IN BLACK PEPPER

Simple 7 Black Pepper Pomegranate Chips, in my opinion, were WAAAAY better than just the plain Sea Salt variety.  The Sea Salt Pom Chips has this weird waxy sweet fruity aftertaste that I couldn’t get out of my head.  Here, the simple addition of black pepper made all the difference.

The crispy and crunchy starchy chip was still light, airy, and easy to chew.  The flavor of the “dough” or whatever you want to call it, was slightly sweet – reminded me sort of a kettle corn type chip.  But the slightly savory taste of black pepper makes this chip go from weird to tasty.  I know that sounds harsh and not like a compliment, but it is and I’m being honest.  It tipped the slightly too sweet back to center, and made this snack sort of along the lines of a peppery sweet potato chip…if it was made of pom.

Here’s the key though – by itself, one chip doesn’t have a huge black pepper taste.  But as I ate chip after chip, the black pepper taste grew until some chips smacked me in the face with black pepper flavor.  These are NOT like general Salt n Pepper Chips – these are JUST black pepper chips.  So plan accordingly.

Round 2: Simple 7 White Cheddar Pomegranate Chips!

Simple 7 White Cheddar Pomegranate Chips: The Money Shot

Simple 7 White Cheddar Pomegranate Chips: Love that chunk of cheese in the corner!

Simple 7 White Cheddar Pomegranate Chips: also really healthy for you.

Simple 7 White Cheddar Pomegranate Chips: HMMMMM  can something have cheese and still be vegan? Does anyone know?

Simple 7 White Cheddar Pomegranate Chips: Powdered in white

Simple 7 White Cheddar Pomegranate Chips: Each groove was embedded with cheddar cheese

Simple 7 White Cheddar Pomegranate Chips were also WAAAAY better than the plain Pom Chips.  I’m sorry Simply 7 – it’s an awkward position for me to be ripping one of your chips while praising another, but it’s true – I thought these chips were pretty good.

Like the black pepper chips above, the addition of a greater savory flavor than salt really turned the corner for these chips.  While the plain sea salt chips were just a little too much on the sweet side, the addition of a decently flavored white cheddar powder made all the difference.  Here, the sweetness of the chip and the cheese sort of go together well.  I’ve never understood how people can eat cheddar cheese on apple pie, but I can understand the fruit/cheese combo here.  The sweet sort of supports the sharpness of the cheese flavor while the creaminess helps blend all the flavors together.  Really interesting.

All in all, these new Pom chips were GREAT.   Nice job, Simply 7!  And thanks!

PURCHASED AT: sent to me for free, but click here to search for a store that carries these chips

COST: see above 🙂

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