I have to say that these didn’t really appeal to me all that much when I saw them sitting on Aldi shelves…but when you eat as many chips as I do (sadly), sometimes you just want to try something a little different. And so, while they didn’t look like they would do much for me, I wanted to give them a shot anyway. Hey, worst-case scenario, I was out a dollar and a couple quarters.

The smell certainly delivers on the whole “Cajun and herb” idea…this smells strongly of Cajun spices. However, though the smell hints at a strong, super-spicy taste, the actual flavor is no hotter than your typical barbecue. This will no doubt disappoint those with a taste for really hot peppers, but obviously, they’re just trying to appeal to the mass market, so it makes sense (financially) to cool it down a bit to appeal to as many people as possible.

The taste is very heavy on the paprika. The flavor profile actually reminds me a lot of a barbecue, if you remove any traces of the sweetness that many mass-market BBQ chips have, and replace it with lots of the red powder (curiously, there’s actually brown sugar in the seasoning here also, though I didn’t really catch any on the tongue). I don’t mind the flavor of paprika, but it’s a pretty one-note kind of taste, and I did think these got pretty old fairly quickly. I guess that’s sort of a good thing, as it prevented me from eating too many at once, but these definitely don’t have anything to make them “addicting”.

These are a Special Buy, meaning they’re only available occasionally at different points throughout the year, and once stock is gone, it’s gone until the next time. Even with the potentially long intervals between seeing these offered again, I don’t think I’ll get them the next time they become available, or even the time after that—they’re just not really in my wheelhouse. But at some point down the road, I’m sure I’ll once again get sick of the norms, and give these another chance. They’re not good, not bad…just kind of there.

Overall: 5/10. These aren’t bad, per se, just uninspiring; the main flavor of these consists of paprika, which is a pretty one-note taste. It reminds me of a barbecue chip, minus the brown sugary sweetness that most of those chips have; at least the sweetness counterbalances with the salt and spices in most BBQ chips, giving it at least some slight complexity. These are just pretty boring, and I got tired of the flavor pretty quickly. Value is pretty good, at $1.49 per bag, but even at that price, it’ll be a while before I get these again.