Booty Call! Get Addicted with Pirate’s Booty Snacks

by Susan Davis on 18/06/09 at 8:20 am

Pirate's Booty, Time For A Booty Call

I recently had the opportunity to hold an informal “tasting” of several varieties of Pirate’s Booty snacks.  Manufactured by Robert’s American Gourmet, these all-natural, preservative free, rice-and-corn puffed edibles are light, airy and mostly flavorful, which gives new meaning to the phrase, “guess you can’t eat just one.”

Robert’s American Gourmet is a relatively young company, founded in 1986.  Their very first product was an American vinaigrette salad dressing.   Shortly thereafter, they decided to experiment making a healthy line of all-natural snacks, and hence, Pirate’s Booty was born.  Their ever-evolving line of snack and munchie-type products and flavors are a result of consumer feedback, so they constantly solicit comments from their fans, whom they refer to as “Booty Heads.”

The informal tasting was conducted by dividing six different flavors of Pirate’s Booty into four servings each, which were sampled by four individuals on a Sunday afternoon.  Each flavor was labeled with a number from one to six, and everyone got a score sheet, where they rated the different samples according to taste, texture and crispness on a five-point scale.  The maximum score any flavor could receive was 60, based on four individuals rating the flavors on the five-point scale.  There was also room for comments on the score sheet.

At the end of the tasting, the results were tabulated, and the rankings were matched to the actual Pirate’s Booty flavors.   The numerical results are as follows:

Two of the flavors (Aged White Cheddar and Barbecue) tied as the top flavors, with perfect scores.  Caramel came in a close second.  The other three flavors (Bermuda Onion, Veggie and Sea Salt & Vinegar) followed in descending order.  Here are the comments that were received:

Aged Cheddar Cheese

• Very addictive. ~  Good flavor, comparable to a mainstream snack. ~  I could eat a whole bag at one sitting. ~ What?  There’s only one-ounce in the bag?  ~ Where can I buy these?

Barbecue

• Tastes like barbecue potato chips. ~ Very addictive.  ~ Would be a good, healthy substitute for chips when served with burgers.  ~ Hard to decide which is better, the barbecue flavor or the cheese.

Caramel

• Oh!  These are wonderful.  ~ They taste a little like Cracker-Jacks, but not quite so gooey.  ~ I like the crunch.  ~ Sweet, but not too sweet.

Bermuda Onion

• Not a very distinctive taste.  ~ Are these supposed to be onion?

Veggie

• They’re green, so I guess they’re made from something healthy, but I can’t figure out what the flavor is.  ~ Is there dill in here?  It tastes like a pickle puff.

Sea Salt & Vinegar

• These are nasty.  ~ Sorry , I can’t stand the taste of these.  ~ Not a very good flavor, but the texture and crunch are OK.

The Pirates Booty snacks received mostly positive reviews.  Top flavors were Aged Cheddar Cheese, Barbecue and Caramel, with Bermuda Onion landing squarely in the middle.  The Veggie and Sea Salt & Vinegar flavors were at the bottom, with more negative comments than positive.  It seems that the Veggie Booty could be improved with a more distinct flavor.

On a personal note, I enjoyed the Aged Cheddar Cheese and Caramel flavors the best, with the Barbecue Booty coming in third on my list of favorites.  All are very addictive.  I disliked the Sea Salt & Vinegar flavor, and Veggie and Bermuda Onion were “OK” but nothing special.  Each one-ounce package of  the Booty flavors is 130 calories, except for the Caramel Booty, which comes in a 2.75- ounce package and weighs in at 120 calories per serving.  There is a generous amount of product in the one-ounce packages, so you can confidently eat the entire package without a lot of guilt.

If you’d like to try one of these healthy, light and airy snacks (remember, they are addictive), check out the Pirate’s Booty Web site for a list of locations that sell their products.