Lay's India's Magic Masala Chips

Brand: Frito Lay
Style: India's Magic Masala
Origin: India
Type: Potato chips
Flavor: Indian sweet and spicy with a kick
Verdict: Approved!





Ah, how I love friends from faraway places.  Well, Pittsburgh isn't really all that exotic, but my friend there has a source for zany snacks and just sent me a huge box of them for the holidays!  Merry Christmas and Happy Channukah to me!

The first selection I tried from the box was one that came most highly reccommended from my friend: Lay's India's Magic Maslala chips.  They taste somewhat like I imagined they would - like Indian food, but they've got a real kick that I wasn't expecting!  The flavor is more complex than a lot of American styles.  First of all, the potato taste is good, strong, and definitely a better quality than American Lay's.  It's emphasized with a thicker, ridged cut, similar to Ruffles.

The spice on it taste very Indian, and I don't have a cultured enough pallette on Indian food to draw comparisons more than that, unfortunately.  I eat it often, but I just get whatever the special is at my local lunch cart and don't really pay attention to what any of it is called.  I can taste a sweet undertone at first (likely from the 'artificial raisin flavoruring substances' toted on the back of the bag), then the spicy and the salty flavors come in.  It has a slow burn, dying down after the initial shock, then sitting at the back of your tongue for a few minutes.  My nose is even running a little after having a handful of these.

The bag says that they'll make my heart go, 'DHAK DHAK!', but I wouldn't necessarily go that far.  They do make my tongue happy, however, and I'd definitely get these again if I saw them at a market here in town.  Approved!

Purchased in Pittsburgh, PA

Bhuja: Cracker Mix

Brand: Bhuja
Style: Cracker Mix
Origin: India
Type: Mix
Flavor: Spicy, exotic, strong cumin and chili balanced by sweetness of raisins
Verdict: Approved


As the Snackmaster, I've tasted many a snack from around the world, and although I love to go through an entire bag of one flavor of treat, I can't deny the lure of a mix. I'm ADD when it comes to many things, and my snacks are no exception. Eating a tasty mix like Bhuja is like Adderall for my mouth.

There are actually four flavors of Bhuja: Original, Cracker, Fruit, and Nut, of which I've tried the Original and the one which is the focus of this post, the Cracker. The mix contains several different shapes of rice crackers, some spicy, some with seaweed, green peas, peanuts, raisins, and two types of multigrain noodles. The noodles are made with yellow peas, rice, potato, tapioca, and sesame seeds, and spiced with chiles, turmeric, cumin, coriander, and paprika. The overarching flavor is definitely the cumin, which gives it an exotic flair.

The whole peas and raisin thing might sound a little weird to some of you novice snackies out there, but it works well. Everything is mildly spiced and the sweetness of the raisins complements that perfectly, keeping the spice at a managable level even for those with sensitive palettes.

The only discernible difference between the Cracker and Original flavors, as far as I can tell, is the addition of the rice crackers, as well as less fat. The Snackmaster definitely approves of this snack!

Purchased at Grocery Outlet, Portland, OR