Review: Saffron Road Bombay Spice Crunchy Chickpeas

One of the benefits of writing a highly respected blog (I say that dripping with sarcasm) is that publicity agents from food manufacturers contact you from time to time offering you free products.  It's nice because often times the products you get contacted about is stuff that you would NEVER think to buy and that's definitely the case with the subject of this review with this bag of Saffron Road Bombay Spice Crunchy Chickpeas.  Chickpeas have never really been my thing as I find them to be particularly boring, so that's why I'd have never bought these, but I do love free products, so it's worth a shot.  The resealable bag is 6.0 ounces and contains six servings at one ounce per piece.  Yep, I'm a math genius.  Each serving is 120 calories and is fairly high in protein for a snack at six grams of protein per serving.  These chickpeas are gluten free and also Certified Halal (something I had no prior knowledge of, so I've linked it for those who don't know what that means either).  The front of the bag also had a temperature scale to indicate spice and this one was classified as "Hot", so I had to prepare myself for an adventure.

Although I've never been particularly fond of them, I do know what a chickpea looks like, so I was not surprised by what I found after I dipped my hand into the bag.  There were the size of small marbles and again that was not surprising.  The defining characteristic of these chickpeas though is the seasoning that coated them.  It was a powdering mix of paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, bean powder, tumeric and other "spices" that Saffron Road wanted to keep hidden.  They had that strong smell of paprika, which is something that I particularly enjoy, so it turned a boring food like chickpeas into something that I was interested in eating.  Had I not already noticed the temperature scale on the front of the bag, I would have known that I was in for a hot food adventure based on that smell alone, because these were pretty potent.

After I threw the first few chickpeas into my mouth, I began to wonder if my nose (and the bag) deceived me because I didn't think these were that hot or spicy at all.  After a few seconds of lingering though...well, let's just say that I rushed for the water.  I have a very high tolerance for spicy food and I can't say that these were overly spicy, but they certainly did have some kick in them.  The chickpeas themselves were very crunchy, although it wasn't a solid crunch like a peanut but instead a hollow crunch, but they were essentially boring and just a vehicle for delivering the potent spice.  The paprika brought a bit of that smoked flavor to each chickpea, but if I had to guess, I would say one of the secretive "spices" included a bit of cumin as I tasted a very faint trace of it.  Not only did I need a drink because of the spice themselves, but the powdery coating also included a solid amount of salt as well, so that upped my thirst level.

Buy It or Fly By It?  I've got to say that this was an interesting snack and one that I enjoyed since it is not something I would typically purchase, so this gets a BUY IT rating.  Like I mentioned, it's got some kick to it, so if you enjoy that, give these a try but make sure that you have a drink nearby.  If you can't deal with spice, don't even give these a shot because they will burn out your mouth and depending on your tolerance level, might even drive you to tears.  That is never a good thing.

BUY IT!!