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Product review: Rhythm Superfoods’ kale chips win; sweet potato chips do OK  »

I’m a broken record about my love for bears, but did you know that I also enjoy snacks? I’m talking chips, cookies, and crackers, not so much any sort of healthy food, like fruit (blech) repurposed as snack food. Given the choice, I’ll usually choose the trans fats, the high sugar content, the empty calories.

Rhythm Superfoods provides the best of both worlds: filling my crunchy snacky urge and giving me less gas than Frito-Lay products. Rhythm Superfoods produces raw, gluten-free, vegan, and non-GMO snacks. To me, a person who grew up on Twinkies and Cheeto dust, that’s not exactly promising.

They sent a nice box with a bag each of Zesty Nacho kale chips and Sea Salt sweet potato chips. I popped open the sweet potato chips first. Although the chips were perfectly seasoned, I think the oil-free quality of the chips made them less than crispy. I don’t enjoy a bendy, chewy chip. I need CRUNCH, motherfuckers!

Although the kale chips were rather crumbled from their trip in the box to me, they saved the day. Crunchy with a cheesy flavor from being smothered in nutritional yeast, I ate the entire bag in one sitting (which is only two servings, sadly). Rhythm rekindled my passion for the kale chip, to be honest. And now we are involved in the most sordid of love affairs: snaxploitation.

Product review: Lydia’s Kale Krunchies!  »

Remember that lecture your mom gave you when you were a kid about how it’s better to pour your servings out into a bowl or individually-portioned baggie before chowing down? Your Mom never tried Lydia’s Kale Krunchies.

A food that we don’t bother pouring into a bowl speaks more to its unspeakable goodness rather than, say, our innate inability to wait until we can get to a proper serving vessel. It’s undeniable that kale chips are a messy endeavor; whether baked or dehydrated, the toppings inevitably cascade off the chunks of shriveled greens onto your face, clothing, and sustainably designed floor, and to avoid spillage should probably be served in a sensible bowl.

Lydia’s kale chips defy sensibility—there’s no logical reason why her curly greens doused in a nuts-and-spices purée should taste so out-of-this-world good, but sweet lord they do. While I have enjoyed various versions of kale chips served by friends, ex-lovers, LA’s Flore Vegan, and the cafe at my raw vegan workplace, the Tree of Life in Patagonia, Ariz., and I can honestly say Lydia’s kale chips are hands-down the best chips around.

My favorite blend is Herbs de Provence— the delicate, herb-infused flavor reminds me of  summering in the south of France with my family. That’s right, I’m high class! Now excuse me while I spend 20 minutes scrubbing these kale crumbs from underneath my fingernails. Here’s to low-calorie, ethical, messy cuisine!

This is Vegansaurus raw correspondent Sarah E. Brown’s latest post, originally published here. Read more by Sarah on Vegansaurus, and visit her personal blog, Spiritual Hipsteria. Thanks, Sarah!