DJ & A Snacks

Update Review, 2024

I had previously tried just one product from DJ&A (crispy shiitake mushroom chips), and really quite liked them, as you can read in my original review below.  Thus, when I visited Australia again this past year, I sought out more of their extensive product line of veggie chips.  And by extensive, I mean it - in the crispy veggies category alone, they offer 45 products (!), which includes no fewer than 8 different mushroom chips (they come in different flavors, like smoked chilli & garlic or "gravy", and with different types of mushrooms like oyster or nameko), all your classics like kale chips, green beans, and so many fun sounding ones like several flavors of cassava chips, assorted mixes, and even pickle flavored cucumber chips, although I didn't see those around in stores.

I find myself strangely drawn to these products, and tend to enjoy them quite a bit. Strong flavors, great textures, and I'd love to try more items!

Lightly Cooked & Seasoned Beetroot Slices.

"Lightly cooked and seasoned, it makes a great snack pack for both kids and adults. Made with dried vegetables with no added MSG and no artificial flavours or colours."

The next item I tried was the beetroot slices.  Because, Australia.  They love their beetroot.  

The chips were a vibrant dark red color.  Assorted sizes.  They were slightly thicker than average potato chips, giving them a great crunch level.  More starchy in some ways than potato chips too.  The seasoning was light, but really upped the savory flavors, with a bit of yeast extract along with sea salt and "spices".  

Basically, just quite satisfying to munch on as a snack.  I bet they'd be kinda great on top of a burger (if you are already bought into putting slices of beetroot on your burger, Aussie-style).  I suspect they'd be wonderful dipped in a yogurt based dip. 

I enjoyed these quite a bit, and found them more versatile than the intensely flavorful mushroom crisps.   ****.

Crispy Broccoli Florets.

"We all know that broccoli is great for lunch and dinner, but why not try some during snack time? The DJ&A Crispy Broccoli Florets are lightly cooked using a process called vacuum cooking. This process uses less oil to cook the broccoli at low temperatures in order to preserve its natural taste. They are also lightly seasoned without the use of MSG or preservatives."

The broccoli reminded me a lot of the others - very crispy, amazing crunch factor, all various sizes.  There were some seriously big florets in there, along with some tiny bits.  Really great form factor and eating experience just due to how crispy they were.  And the taste?  Um, yup, that's broccoli.  Super concentrated broccoli flavor, not dull at all.  A bit of savory seasoning (onion/garlic/salt/pepper).

I really did like these, although you very much need to be in the mood for broccoli.  I never tried it, but I think they'd probably work great dipped in ranch, just like you would with fresh raw broccoli, or even in a bean dip or something.  Lower **** due to just really needing to want broccoli to like these, but they were great when I did.

Original Review, May 2019

DJ&A is an Australian snack foods manufacturer, that I discovered while in my favorite city, Sydney.  I'm always eager to try more crunchy snack foods, particularly unique ones, and the DJ&A line is particularly interesting, and quite appealing.

"We love to share our passion for quality food and beverages that the whole family can enjoy."

Unlike most snacks I go for, these are actually healthy offerings, not your standard chips.  They are all natural, have no added MSG, no GMOs, no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, etc.  And yet, yes they are intersting.

DJ&A has many product lines, based around fruits and vegetables.  On the fruit side, there are dried fruit (far more interesting than it sounds, as they have very unique fruits, like rockmelon!) and crispy fruit options (again, with fun fruits, like dragon fruit, rambutan, mangosteen ...), plus a variety of coconut based products (ranging from coconut water to coconut sugar).  On the veggie side, there are veggie crisps (including interesting mixes like the "Wok Veggie Mix" with a bunch of veggies you normally see in stir fries, like broccoli, bell peppers, green beans, and even whole garlic cloves), an entire product line just for kale chips, crispy legumes and other proteins (branded as "Nature's Protein"), and, the offerings I went for, "Crispy Vegetables".

Shiitake Mushroom Crisps.

The crispy vegetables are not your standard chips.  They aren't fried.  Well, they aren't deep fried.  Instead, they are vacuum cooked, which seems similar to dehydrating (low temperature cooking), but it does use some oil.  They are light and crispy, yet, pack a ton of vegetable into them.

"One 30g portion of DJ&A Shiitake Mushroom Chips is made up of around 85g of raw mushrooms, making them nutrient dense."

Yes, this small bag of mushroom crisps was 85grams of mushrooms!  The bag is designed as a single serving, but it did have a resealable top, good if you didn't just want to feast on a huge quantity of mushrooms.

When I went to look these up, I discovered that they are carried at Costco (you know, the land of glorious muffins), which is where most of their fans come from, but also on Amazon (although $$$), so, easily acquired outside of Australia.

Shiitake Mushroom Crisps.

"DJ&A Shiitake Mushroom Chips is a healthy snack made with mushrooms that are actually crunchy!"

I ... was not expecting the mushroom crisps to look like, well mushrooms?  I thought they'd be sliced.  But no, they were whole mushrooms mostly (some chunks).  Stems, caps, all attached.

They were crazy crispy.  Light and airy ... but not exactly.  They were light, but they had meat behind them, if that makes sense.  The light crispy nature was fascinating, as my brain certainly didn't expect a full size mushroom to eat like that.

The mushrooms themselves didn't taste like much in particular.  They'd be quite bland if they weren't seasoned.  But seasoned they were.  I'm not entirely sure what they were coated in, "spices" is what the label said, but they were certainly salted, I think peppered, and seemed to at least have onion and garlic perhaps?  They were very well coated.  The seasoning, much like the texture, was just quite fascinating.

I enjoyed eating these, at first just out of fascination.  Once the initial novelty wore off I stepped back to think about how they'd best be consumed, as actually eating an entire bag full in a sitting (even if it is listed as one serving) I think would get kinda old fast.  They didn't really seem appropriate for dipping in things either.  I tossed a few into a salad and that was quite successful - just like croutons, so much crunch, but, vegetables!  ****.

I'd get these again, and would love to try more of the product line - I imagine the broccoli florets would be a quite similar, and fascinating, experience.