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When designers sit down and try to come up with a concept for new products or improvement to products, ideally they are looking for a solution to an existing problem. I am really not sure what the problem @bluebird_nz is trying to solve here. Perhaps numerous focus groups and surveys revealed that people love potato chips, but feel that current potato chips on the market just don’t look enough like rugby balls. Or wicker baskets. Or breakfast cereal.
Alright you all see it — this sh1t looks like giant Chex cereal. And fair enough, there is Chex made from rice, corn and wheat, but so far no one has been bold (or crazy) enough to make Chex from potatoes.
However, I got some bad news for the brilliant minds that came up with this sh1t – Chex has already had a foothold in the snack market won by introducing ‘Chex Mix’ back around 1952. Pretty much just a recipe with various types of Chex, nuts and crackers mixed together and lightly baked, similar in concept to a bhuja mix. Chex mix has become so popular that there are like 13 commercially produced flavours. That is how to market a product.
Digression has always been a strong tradition on this account, but perhaps that is enough about the fascinating world of Chex. I am hoping that it will be even more fascinating to eat what sits here in front of me in the form of Bluebird’s new Poppables.
First up, I can confirm that one can, indeed, ‘pop’ this sh1t into one’s mouth, making the claim of it being poppable, true enough.
They taste nice enough, lighter than a potato chip with a ‘puffed’ type of texture, the chilli and sour cream flavouring was adequate, but on the lighter side too which actually fit quite well with the Poppables theme. I am assuming that to twist the potatoes into these unholy shapes, potato reconstituting techniques were used and I kind of get more of a Pringles vibe from the taste of the actual potato rather than a chip.
Pretty good tho. I declare this sh1t: worth trying. I would totally eat them again.
Poppable? Yes, that chex out – 7/10
