Live G Free Sweet Chili Brown Rice Crisps- Aldi - Cherry Hill, NJ
Aldi's Live G Free line has significantly expanded, and even though I know a lot of food bloggers out there hate this "trend," there are a lot of people who benefit from these affordable gluten free food options. For the record, I can process gluten, but I have a few family members who can't due to celiac's disease, so finding food items that we can enjoy together is pretty nice. The gluten free pizza I reviewed was easily the worst pizza I've ever had, but I still have high hopes for these chips.
All of the G-free items have a sky-blue gradient in the background and the same layout. We have the airy-backdrop, a image of the food itself, a ribbon-banner, and a solid colored box at the bottom. It doesn't matter if the food item is bagged, boxed, or frozen, they all have this format with very little variation making them easy to spot. Looking at the design elements, the weakest part is the logo itself. If you cover it up with your hand I think the design looks significantly stronger, but still, for a house branded specialty item, this is pretty nice.
I opened of the bag, and the crisps inside smell exactly like you'd expect. I can smell brown rice and sweet chili sauce.
For the record, I freaking love sweet chili sauce! I buy the huge bottles at the Asian food market and put it on everything! Lately it's become pretty popular in American fast food, with places like Wendy's and Papa John's releasing sweet chili themed items, but I honestly haven't been a fan of that application. All these junk food places are doing is literally dumping this sauce onto their pre-exsisting products and charging a premium for it. I can buy a huge bottle of this stuff at the Asian Food Market for three bucks, and sweet-chili-fy everything I want. Why should I pay them money to do that for me? Could I just pour this sauce on crisps? Yes, but they'd be really messy and soggy. These chips use a dry-seasoning, which is something I couldn't make myself, so I'll happily pay for that.
Enough talk, time for the taste test! I took a bite, and the texture of these crisps was very similar to a veggie chip. They were brittle, and a bit on the thin-side, but the flavoring was spot-on! The powdery coating starts out very sweet with a gradually spicy buildup, but after a few chips the chili sauce really shines. If you've never had sweet chili sauce, it tastes similar to the sweet red sauce that comes with fried wontons at most American-Chinese food restaurants. Chili sauce is sweet and red in color, but there are bits of garlic and pepper mixed in giving it a deliciously addictive spicy quality. These chips have all of that favoring, plus a thin and crispy crunch. I love it!
I really like these a lot, and I would easily buy this again for myself. The crispiness satisfies my snack cravings and the flavoring is something that I can't recreate at home. (At least not yet.) If you like sweet and spicy flavorings, this is a great item to try regardless of it's gluten-status.
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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Are these considered peanut free as well?
ReplyDeleteAre these considered peanut free as well?
ReplyDeleteI didn't see anything on the bag saying if it was peanut safe, so just in case I wouldn't consume them. You might want to contact the company to be 100% sure though.
DeleteI bought these yesterday and they are awesome, everyone I work with wants them now after trying them
ReplyDeleteThey're so good! I gotta say, the G-Free line snack food line has far exceeded my expectations. (Their G-Free frozen pizza? Not so much.)
DeleteSoak a kitchen paper towel in water and brown sugar...add some salt and pepper, stick in an oven to dry it out and ..Hey you got this!
ReplyDelete