Tio Pablo Totopitos - Fiesta product reviews

Mexican dinners are a regular in our house with everyone enjoying the spices and flavours that come with this particular style of dish. We would probably have nachos at least a couple of times in a month and the corn chips are in particular a favourite so when I saw these tortilla chips come up for review I was really excited to have the opportunity to review them. Hearing that they were made with different colours including, yellow, blue, and white was quite intriguing as offers a uniqueness to the product you don't see in other tortilla chips.

When the packet arrived I was quite surprised with just how vibrant those colours were in the chips and thought they looked very beautiful served up in a bowl. The blue chip appeared more grey but using natural colouring you wouldn't be expecting a bright unrealistic colour. The chips are a lot better in quality than a lot of other packaged tortilla chips the chips are sturdy and authentic in their look and feel more similar to those than you would get in an mexican restaurant than a packaged product. You definitely get the feel of home made chips and a superior quality.

The added flavouring from jalapeno and chipotle was great though these things added a great taste to the crisps it wasn't over powering or too spicy providing a good balance so if serving the chips with other ingredients the chips don't add too much extra flavouring but still taste good on their own. I was happy enough to eat them straight from the packet but serving them with some of the tio pablo salsa, melted cheese, and mashed avocado was a real treat, they suit being used with dips as they are a harder texture and don't get soggy so provide the perfect scoop for salsa and guacamole style dips.

While the price point is more than I would normally pay for the size of the packet it is fair and as a treat for a good quality tortilla chip I would certainly buy this product again they are a unique and attractive chip that would look great on a platter when entertaining.

When I saw these pop up to review, I instantly thought of my husband, who loves tortilla chips. The Tio Pablo Tortilla Chips that say they contain a medley of blue, yellow and white masa harina (a kind of dried dough derived from corn) I was intrigued - a blue chip? They also have jalapeno and chipotle as part of the seasoning.

The chips themselves come in a resealable foil bag, which shows their contents. I could immediately see the different colours of the chips, but was a bit disappointed they were quite small, however - good things come in small packages, right? I can assure you that the packet itself seals nicely, and across the week that we ate these, they stayed fresh and crispy. However, there was quite a lot of broken chips at the bottom of the packet.

On to the all important taste. Upon opening these, the kids and the hubby all wanted to try some. I was interested to see how two of my three children reacted, as my son is quite bold and will try almost anything (yet to find that thing though!). They were all intrigued by the colours and wanted to know whether they were different flavours. If they are, we could not tell. All of my taste testers (and myself) liked the chips a lot, but in terms of flavour - there really was not a lot. This is NOT to say that they taste bad - they do not a all - but I was expecting a bit of a kick and there was not any. The chips themselves are really nice and solid - and go beautifully with salsa - they do not break or snap when picking up the salsa from the bowl, and if you do more of a nacho approach, they do not go soggy. Yay!

Personally I would consider buying these again as a treat - but the lack of flavour and the size of the chips along with the price tag would stop me getting these more than every few months. They have a lot of good points though - and if I saw a different flavour would definitely investigate and try them.

Tio Pablo Authentic Tortilla Chips come in a resealable clear bag with the bag foil lined. This allows you to see the medley of blue, yellow and white masa jalapeno and chipotle chips. My initial thought was that the chips themselves were relatively small compared to other 'tortilla' crisps. There were also lots of empty packaging which is one of my pet hates, why not just make the packet smaller? I was also a little disappointed to see so many broken crisps and crumbs at the bottom of the packet.

I have to admit that I have never tried an 'authentic' tortilla chip so I am no expert in the field, however, I did find these tortilla crisps quite bland with little flavouring. I thought there may be some heat with the jalapeno but there was nothing. My youngest daughter who eats anything had one of these and asked what flavour they were. I asked her to tell me what flavour she thought they were and she didn't know, her comments were 'meh'. My hubby liked them but I have yet to find a crisp or tortilla chip that he doesn't like!

I decided to put some melted cheese on them to give them some more flavour which helped but unfortunately I will not be buying these when there are much more flavoursome options available.

The only real time I buy tortilla type corn chips is when we are having Nachos for tea; such a quick and easy meal for busy families! I was curious to try these Tio Pablo Authentic Tortilla Chips as they had different coloured chips which I had never seen before and wondered how they would taste.

The packet was see through on one side and resealable which was really handy as I was able to try some and keep for later to save their freshness. The chips had three different colours; blue, yellow and white and after some sampling, I really couldn't really decide if the all the colours had different tastes, however I did strike a few hotter ones which I guess were the Jalapeno ones. The chips were thick and crunchy and I decided they were much too good for nachos, much better suited as an accompaniment on an antipasto type platter with dips and hummus.

I had some friends over for the weekend and served these chips on a platter with salsa, cheeses, hummus and a variety of meats. They were a real hit with my guests, they liked how the colours added interest to the platter and all asked where I got them from, I searched Tio Pablo website and I was pleased to inform them that they were available at Countdown, which is a real plus!

Overall these Tortilla chips, while a little more expensive that most corn chips on the market, are a high quality product, well packaged and readily available at a big supermarket chain. For these reasons, I would certainly buy again.

We live very busy lives and are always running from activity to activity, so dinner is usually something fast and hopefully yummy. Mexican and Italian meals are perfect for these. My original plan for these chips was to have with nachos - so was a little disappointed at the packet size. We would need to buy at least two packets in order to satisfy the four of us. So looking at the price of this bag is rather scary so realistically can not see me purchasing these for purpose of nachos again.

The bag is rather nice and it is rather satisfying seeing the products. My daughter picked up the bag and said 'look there are moldy black chips' which freaked my out, until I read a 'medley of blue, yellow and white Masa Jalapeno and Chilpotle'. Personally, can't say the chips are blue more like a brown. I opened the bag really easily and nice to see it has a self sealing top to it. I took a few out and reminds me of the corn chips ate in Mexico while waiting for my meals. The rest of the family thought they were rather plain but I found they had a bit of heat to them.

I had made nachos for dinner to try with the Tio Pablo Salsa Vaquera. My original plan was to give everyone these chips but as the packet size was only 230g I brought different variety for rest of family and I used these for myself. I did also scatter some on there plate so they could try also. I loved my nachos and found these chips really solid and could scoop the mince and salsa up with them. Where as, my husband does think the chips are a little on the small side and complained did not hold enough salsa - guess depends on the individual! All and all I think it made a really good meal. I was impressed.

Although, as have stated the price is a little scary I still think I would buy these again and probably hide from the family. I liked the memories they brought up and along with the salsa will make for a great snack when girls are in bed and hubby has nerd night so home alone. The chip is lightly salted and is rather plain but it is a true mexican chip and one I adore especially when the heat slowly explodes in your mouth.

I take one good look at the photo attached to the product listing above, and I can't help but think that the delivery driver was less than careful with my package as--while the packet was unopened--you could clearly see that the size of the tortilla chips in my packet was less than half the size pictured. Something heavy and solid must have come into contact with my pack, as I was left with less than 20 tortilla chips that were full size.

I mention this because the chips are actually surprisingly solid themselves. Stronger than Doritos, even the old CC's and Aztec Corn chips pale in comparison to the strength of these chips. I'm explaining all of this because I don't want to mark the product down because of the size of it, when that may not have actually been a factor. If you intend to purchase these, just ensure you take care when handling the pack. I could potentially chalk the situation up to one of the things I hate about potato chips; when 3/4 of the pack is air. No matter how many times you buy them, you are always let down by how few chips are actually in the pack. This isn't the case here. The pack is full, and the front is transparent so you can visibly see what is in the pack.

But let's talk about the actual product. I've already mentioned that these are a very strong and solid variety of chip. Quite consistent in texture, they are flat without any real lumps, bumps, or spotty colours. The colours themselves are very vibrant blue, yellow, and white, and look gorgeous. The strength does make these an ideal chip for dipping (with the full-size chips at least).

What did surprise me was the lack of flavour. If this was a Gordon Ramsay show, he'd likely be up in arms asking where the f-ing seasoning was because they are bland. I was surprised as chipotle and jalapeno are supposedly major ingredients in the flavouring and yet I can barely discern any difference in the flavour between the three varieties in the pack. The yellow did seem to have the strongest sense of flavour but it was still incredibly subtle.

On the upside, this means they work with any use for tortilla chips that you can think of. They hold their shape well in nachos, they don't overpower the flavours of any dips that you use them with, and they can add a good crunch to salads if you happen to get a pack that has been given a whack. Also on the upside, the pack is a foil one, that has a good quality resealable strip so you don't have to use them all at once.

My daughter and I took one look at the tortilla chips and all ideas we had for serving them nacho-style went out the window. They were a little small to be buried under a quantity of meat and other goodies, so we decided instead to serve them as tapas. In any case, the different colours made the tortilla chips very attractive to look at, so it would have been a shame to cover them.

She had a variety of suitable items in her fridge, and I had brought some with me, so we combined forces and asked the children to create an interesting mix for lunch. This was a great way to occupy them during the school holidays; they both love cooking, so they had great fun doing this, choosing a variety of little dishes to display the foods, and organising the adults to eat them once they were done! We ended up with a selection of olives, sour cream, refried beans (served cold), tapenade, grated cheese, sundried tomato strips, guacamole, salsa, capsicum, and a home-made dip consisting of mashed butter beans mixed with truffle infused oil and pulverised garlic - which was more than enough variety to please everyone.

Before we started combining the chips with other ingredients, we all tried three of each colour. Despite the assurance on the packaging that they contained jalapeno, chipotle and chilli, we found that they were not at all spicy. Even Mr Nine, aka Mr Fussy, had no difficulty at all eating them. Although we could taste the spices, they were very mild indeed; certainly not strong enough to dissuade any but the most sensitive critic. Mr Nine even said he would like the flavours to be a little more obvious.

The resealable bag got the thumbs up from all of us. It is strong with a really good seal, and would no doubt keep any unused product perfectly crisp for some time after opening. Not that there was a chance that any would be left; the four of us ate the lot, having first put some aside for my son-in-law in case he missed out. One side of the packet is transparent so the contents are on display; another selling point as the various colours are eye-catching and would entice people to buy.

I can see this being useful at a party when a centrepiece is required. The colours stand out - especially the blue variety, which is quite unique! The corn chips hold their shape well when used to scoop up various dips and small items like the tomato strips, whereas potato chips can disintegrate under pressure and lead to an unwelcome mess on the floor or - even worse - on your clothing. They are reasonably costly, but are a lot more filling (and a healthier option!) than potato chips so fewer are needed. All in all, a great idea for a festive occasion.

I used to be a huge nachos snob - I knew what I liked and if it wasn't what was served to me, I knew exactly what was wrong. One restaurant ended up giving me free-range in THEIR kitchen when I came to dine, because the owner wanted me to teach him my recipe and kept trying to spy on me making it with his gear. So, in my time I have tried many a corn chip... or so I thought.

To see this bag is to go "Whoa!" at the array of colours inside. Think all corn chips are either golden or tan? Nope, they come in quite the array of colours and this bag has a few. The bag has a ziplock seal on it, so if you don't use all of the chips in one sitting you can seal it up to keep them fresh for a little while longer. It was also good to see, on the front label, that these are gluten-free, as all true corn chips should be.

Trying these three chips left me feeling a bit confused. Claiming to have jalapeno and chipotle in them left me expecting more spiciness than I got when I popped the chips in my mouth. They weren't bland, but they lacked the expected flavour PUNCH that traditional Mexican food has. When eaten with the Tio Pablo Salsa Vaquera there was plenty of flavour to satisfy me, but it didn't come from these chips.

To see if I could coax a bit of extra flavour out of these, I made my own salsa with fresh vine-ripened tomatoes, avocado, red, brown and spring onion, garlic, chilli, pepper and pink rock salt, with a squeeze of lemon juice and a dash of sweet chilli sauce to act more as a binding agent than anything else. This is a home-grown recipe that has served me well over the years, and it works whether you dice it all so fine it's almost a puree, or cut it rough and chunky for that rustic appeal. It's also a taste profile I can mentally 'subtract' from what's going on with my taste buds to see what else is in there. That's when I finally started to detect some smokey chipotle notes hiding in the back.

Overall, these are great chips, don't get me wrong. They are sturdy enough to scoop up salsa without snapping, but brittle enough to break apart easily as you chew. The texture is second to none, being out front of the supermarket pack and racing alongside the hand-crafted offerings I recall from my time visiting Mexico. That's quite some achievement really. But would I buy them again? Personally, no. My reasons are quite subjective though, so maybe a better question to ask is "would I recommend these to someone else?" which has a resounding YES from me.

Corn chips are something that my household tends to buy quite a lot when out grocery shopping, most of the time these are purchased to make into one of our favourite meals, nachos but we also buy them as a handy snack to have on hand, as they are one of my partners favourites and compared to the ammount of product you get in a bag of ordinary chips, corn chips tend to always have more! I have started seeing the Tio Pablo branded corn chips at my local New World recently, and although I have stopped to check them out several times, mainly due to the array of colours in each pack they hadn't made it into my trolley unfortunately as sometimes when you have a favourite brand it's hard to choose another, so when given the opportunity to review them I was happy to do so.

Obviously the first thing which captured my attention was the beautiful array of yellow, orange and purple (blue) chips in each pack, it was a beautiful medley and I loved how such a product could help to brighten up any meal, the chips also seemed to have a good ammount of flavouring/seasoning on them which is always important. The packaging itself I loved, and I have to say it is one of the best packages I've seen for a bag of chips a beautiful silver foiled back, with a clear see-through front perfect for seeing through and knowing what the product actually is like, but wait there's more the bag also stands upright and has a resealable strip what more could you ask for! I love the Aztec design to the label and how it states the different flavours in the bag Masa, Jalapeno and Chipotle.

I couldn't wait to dig into the chips nor could Miss 6, though I was a little worried about how hot they may be. Miss 6 and I each to a chip of each colour and gave each one a try, luckily we decided that they weren't too spicy, however, we did feel that perhaps the blue chips were perhaps a little hotter than the others. The chips were quite hard I felt compared to other corn chips, but had a nice crunch to them and were nice and mild in flavour, they were also relatively small in size. Miss 6 tended to really like them and grabbed a handful to pop into her recently cleaned lunchbox for school the next day with a scoop of cheesy dip.

With the remainder of the bag I decided to make nachos for dinner, the chips were placed beneath some mince and topped with cheese and sour cream. Sadly my partner and I both agreed that these were not the best chips for nachos due to there small size and also super crispy texture which made them not the best for scooping up the mince. So while these are nice enough they are not likely to be something we purchase a lot of especially as they are more expensive than our usual brand and also as they didn't suit our purpose to well.

I'm going to lead with. I love tortilla chips. Especially plain salted ones. You can keep you salsa, jalepano, and cheesey flavored chips. Just give me plain please. I've actually found it quite difficult to find plain salted tortilla chips in New Zealand. I only knew of one brand that came out recently with salted tortilla chips and they are Mexicano. Before I was buying the natural and they just weren't satisfying. But I recently found the "lightly salted" chip and they've filled that need.

I just tried Tio Pablo chip first by itself and with a new brand of salsa I'm testing out. In fact I'm crunching away as I type. It's good. I like the multi-colored chips within the bag. Gives it a festive feel that suits the name "Fiesta Totopitos". They are lightly flavored which I like tremendously. I was skeptical that the jalapeno and chilpotle seasoning would be too spicy for me. Nope, they have a very mild zing to them that any kid or adult, who is sensitive to spice, can enjoy. Moving on to the best part is the satisfying crunch. It has this dense authentic feel to it that you don't get with overly processed products.

All in all these are definitely a chip I will come back to. I do have nachos from time to time. Although these aren't a good scooping chip, I believe crunched up into smaller pieces they will work in nachos if you eat them with a fork or maybe a spoon. ;)