Not what I expected

No, not what I expected at all. In fact, there’s a couple different aspects to this. The primary one, of course, is that I did not expect the extra crunchy grilled eel with Japanese sauce to be my favorite of this recent tasting.

The other unexpected thing is the sheer volume of new flavors that have come out this year. I noticed all these in September and October, when I returned to Thailand after a couple international trips.

“Only five flavors,” you might say, “that’s not so many.” But you will, perhaps, take note of the recent lacuna of new posts on this site, for which I have a very good reason.¹ What you may not be aware of is the many flavors that came before these. The ketchup. The mayonnaise. The miso butter. The Stranger Things flavor. There had been a steady release of new flavors this year, so to see the Chuka Wakame seaweed salad flavor, and the grilled eel, and the chili crab, and the sour twist, and the seafood twist, one after another, was a bit disconcerting.

So on to the review.

Sour twist is described well by the packaging. A little spicy, plenty of citrus. This is one I’d have once.

Chili crab is ok. I’d rather have the real dish. This is a chip I’d have once.

The chuka wakame salad flavor was a bold choice from the food scientists but I didn’t find it to taste of much of anything. Also one that I’d have once.

Then the surprise, the Max Xtra Crunchy grilled unagi. I generally don’t like the Xtra Crunchy line—the chips are a bit more processed than I’d like. But the flavor of this one was quite good. I wouldn’t have been able to place it, had there not been an eel on the package. I had it once. I might have it again to see if my initial review holds up.

The biggest disappointment for me was the seafood twist. I thought this one had the most attractive bag out of these recent ones. And it had potential. But I found the seafood flavors were overpowered by the lime and a surprising amount of spice. In short, I found this seaweed twist to be more similar to the sour twist flavor than I wished.