Today's review is for a little known chip brand in the Midwest. Route 11 was available at what we call a "finer foods" store on sale for $1.99. This is my first time hearing of the brand, so this was a must buy on site.
Positives:
Route 11 is in Virginia, so the name is geographically relevant to the manufacturing location. There's a nice sweet smokiness to the barbecue flavoring. The kettle chips are thick, and hold their crunch even after a few days.
Negatives:
There's too much seasoning in the bag. A reach in for the first chip left my scaly, dry white knuckles caked in orange dust. It almost seemed damp in the bag from the seasoning. I don't like the chip bag design. It looks like the CEOs preteen nephew learned Adobe Illustrator and went at it. A few points:
If you're going to use Route 11, don't bastardize the highway sign or the numbering. Why does the Net Weight get its own grey oval? And it's above Kettle Cooked Potato Chips? Maybe it's because they noted they were chips on the shield. There's about 76 different fonts on this bag. Copperplate would have been sufficient for everything. The flames are fine (they are barbecue chips), but the grey dotted lines make no sense. Smoke? Roads? Smoky roads
Questions:
Are there flavor difference between Bar-B-Q, BBQ, Barbecue, and BarBQ? Potato Chip World is on it.
Verdict:
I'd eat these again only if they went on sale. I went out of my way to get these - I mean, they were on the other side of the aisle! It's hard to break routine on a chip run, especially when better barbecue chips exist.