I was out looking for a cheap snack at Big Lots, and saw a bag of flavored potato sticks for a dollar. I am a huge fan of Aldi’s Deutsche Kuche branded potato sticks, which proved to me that they can have flavor and not be boring, so I was actually looking forward to enjoying a more standard chip flavor, ported over to the little sticks.

There’s a lot of seasoning throughout the bag, which also happens to be its biggest fault: These things are WAY too salty. To the extent that a mere 1 oz. serving (in a 4.5 oz. bag) is 20% of your daily recommended sodium intake. Now, of course, you have to factor in that an ounce of potato sticks go much farther than an ounce of, say, potato chips (where a couple of chips would basically be a serving), but that’s still a lot within a relatively small serving size.

The flipside to this is that the overly sodiumized taste is also a plus: They were so salty, I couldn’t even eat more than an ounce if I really wanted to. There is a barbecue flavor in there somewhere, because you can taste it in the background, but the rest is just so overwhelming that going through a bag of these just simply isn’t enjoyable. But I’m a weirdo, and sometimes simply just want something to shove in my mouth at infrequent intervals while, say, watching a movie, and so these weren’t as repulsive to me as they probably should have been.

At the same time, however, they simply aren’t very good. A quick scan of the ingredients list reveals a barbecue seasoning that’s great on paper (complete with sugar, paprika, and onion and garlic powders), and if they would cut back a bit on the salt (listed fairly high on the list as both an ingredient in the potato sticks themselves, and again pretty high as an ingredient in the barbecue seasoning), I could see these being a tasty little snack.

But just a small handful makes me feel like I’m going to succumb to high blood pressure at any moment, and that’s not usually a positive trait in any food. If you’re in the mood for a decent, budget-friendly snack, and have a ridiculously high tolerance for sodium, these could fit the bill. But if you require some actual flavor in it, too, then keep on looking.

Overall: 4.5/10. Overly, overly salty. As in, that’s just about all you can taste, with some slight barbecue flavor sneaking up, briefly, in the background. Still, the $1 asking price (for a 4.5 oz. bag) makes them more attractive than they should be, and they do make perfect little snacks for the monthly occasions when I crave something with a little bit of crunch. On the upside, the extreme saltiness also forces me to put them away after only a couple small handfuls. Even with these pluses, it will be a long time before I get these again, if I ever do.