Quator Crisps

As you know, I love snacks.  I'm an avid snacker, and always love trying new munchies.  Which lead me to Quator Crisps.

"A new world of snacking."

Quator Crisps are a brand of chips made with non-traditional bases, such as yuca and dosa.  The tag line promises to revolutionize my snacking world.  I was definitely interested!  If it matters to you, their products are also all gluten-free and vegan.

 

The company is local to the San Francisco bay area, based in Novato, CA, and you can find them in higher end stores around town.  I found them at Napa Farms Market in the SFO airport a while back, and have been seeking them out again (without success) since.  Simply put, I adored them.

Yuca Chips

"Thinly sliced pieces of Yūca root, fried in organic canola oil. Product is clean, crisp, tasty and true to its South American origin. All natural, gluten-free, vegan."

Yuca chips are available in a variety of savory favors: "Tuscan Truffle", Sharp Cheddar, "de provence shallot", and "Everything", along with sweet and savory crossovers "Maple Bourbon" and "Sweet Korean BBQ".  I was interested in them all, but the airport store only had 3 kinds.  I, um, got them all.

Maple Bourbon.

"Flavored with maple syrup aged in bourbon barrels, these sophisticated chips will satisfying the most adventurous taste buds."

The first flavor I went for was the sweetest sounding of the bunch: maple bourbon.  I think you can see here how I felt about them.  Yes, about 4 minutes before this photo was taken, the bag was full.  No, it is not designed to be a single serving.  Oops.  These were delicious.  I had no restraint, and I regret nothing (well, besides only having one bag).

Where to even start about why these were amazing.  First, the base.  I love yuca, and the slightly starchier nature of it is considerably more compelling to me than potatoes.  I also really liked how they were thicker than standard potato chips, and the thickness varied, some only 2-3 times thicker than a basic Lays chip, others easily double that.  The pieces were different shapes and sizes, which resulted in different textures, and made eating them actually an interesting journey. They were definitely fried, and greasy, but not in a gross way.

And then, the flavor.  Wow.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, I think from the name, "maple bourbon", I just thought they'd be a bit sweet, but, "sophisticated" as they describe really is correct.  I understood why the flavor was so complex once I looked at the ingredients: seasoned with maple syrup, cane juice, and light brown sugar for the sweetness, and paprika, cherrywood smoked sea salt, onion, garlic, chipotle pepper, cumin, turmeric, black pepper, and lemon zest for savory sophistication. There was a TON going on, but it worked, in harmony.  They were lightly sweet, very savory, and tasted kinda like just a really, really grown up barbecue chip.  With a better base, and more complex flavor.  Sophisticated, indeed.

I found these incredibly hard to put down and stop devouring.  I wanted to save some for another serving, and it really was a fairly large bag, but, the combination of sweet and salty and savory and great textures ... I was incapable of stopping.  I adored these, and would get again in a heartbeat.

Perfect *****.

Sweet Korean BBQ.

"Flavored with sweet and savory Korean barbeque marinade spices, these chips will satisfying the most adventurous taste buds."  

The next flavor I grabbed was the sweet Korean bbq, which I thought might be a bit like the maple bourbon, given that those had tasted kinda barbeque-esque to me.  These chips had a pretty different blend of spices though: paprika, chili pepper, smoked sea salt, garlic powder, onion powder, dehydrated vegetables, and ... Stevia.

The form factor was again great.  Some thicker than others, all had such a great crunch and starchy nature to them.  Top notch yuca chip base, no question.

The flavor didn't remind me of Korean bbq really, but they were fairly flavorful in a complex way, and slightly sweet.  No odd flavor from the Stevia.  More mild overall than I was expecting though. The maple bourbon were considerably better, but if I hadn't had those before, I'd think these were great, unique chips.  ****.

de provence shallot

"Flavored with herbs from the French countryside and sweet shallots, these chips will satisfying the most adventurous taste buds."  

After the ridiculous success of the maple bourbon flavor, and enjoyment of the Sweet Korean bbq, I was actually scared to try my last flavor.  I didn't think they'd possibly be even in the same ballpark as good.  Plus, this flavor was a bit of a random grab on my part, as I'm not normally that excited about very savory flavors.

The name of these chips is a bit funny, as it leaves out the "herbs" part, just, "de provence shallot".  Also amusing is that the ingredients are just the yucca, oil, salt, and herbes de provence, no additional shallot.

Anyway.  These chips had the same wonderful form factor as the others, both thin and thick starchy yuca chips that I adored.  I just truly love the eating experience of them.  The seasoning on these was considerably more mild, just some light herbs and salt.  They were good, and tasted fairly sophisticated, like I should be pairing them with caviar or something, rather than my salad and cole slaw lunch.  

The least interesting of all the flavors for me, but definitely unique, and I just love the yuca base so much.  ****.