We got our Kettle Chips Fire and Spice assortment today.

Orange Ginger Wasabi

Tasted like passover. Despite all the mentioned ingredients, the most prominent taste was horseradish. If they’d named it horseradish, it probably would have worked better. This was the most surprising and unusual flavor.

Mango Chili

I thought it tasted mostly like ketchup, with a some extra citrus notes afterwards. Still, this might be my favorite of the bunch.

Salsa Fresca

First taste was astronaut salsa. Freeze-dried tomatoes or something. Definitely my least favorite. Bleh.

Death Valley Chipotle

Tasted like off-the-shelf chili powder. That’s not a good thing. Yes there was a nice lingering heat, but key flavors were just salt, oregano and dried red pepper. No, mostly just salt. This might be the most disappointing flavor of the bunch.

Wicked hot sauce

Nothing special, seems like something I’d had before. Kind of a yawner.

Consensus: no home runs this year. The names of the flavors were consistently better than the flavors themselves. If I had to pick one to sell, I’d probably go with the Death Valley Chipotle, with Mango Chili second. Chipotle wasn’t my favorite, but it was unusual for a chip flavor and the name resonates well.

This promotion itself was brilliant. Everyone in the office was excited to try the new flavors, the packaging was well thought out and the whole experience is an example of what smart, creative branding can accomplish.