Enlightened Broad Bean Crisps Review

I try to avoid being really gushy and over-the-top positive about any food that I review, because I feel that, unfortunately, it can come across as being insincere.  It may even cause people to discredit a review entirely, or to "lose trust" in me as a blogger and as someone who regularly reviews food products.

But guys, let me tell you, I honestly 100% no-buts-about-it LOVED these roasted broad bean crisps by Enlightened.

To be totally frank, I wasn't sure about these when they showed up at my door.  Roasted broad beans?  What the heck is that going to taste like?  So I turned the little packages over in my hands, skeptical, and assumed they were going to taste like any other desperate-to-be-healthy snack food... you know the kinds: dry, lacking in flavor, bad texture, etc.

But these?  These didn't suffer from any of those problems.  They are awesome.

Per 1-ounce serving, these crisps have 100 calories and 7 grams of protein.  The ingredients list is nice and short, with real food that you can pronounce.  For each flavor, the broad beans are roasted in sunflower oil, sprinkled with sea salt and then seasoned with some out of this world flavors.  I especially love these for a snack idea for my toddler since I don't have to worry about a bunch of extra junk included in the ingredients.  Short 'n simple is good for me and good for him!

All right, enough jibber jabber, let's get to the tasting...

Sea Salt:  I started with the "safest"  flavor expecting your run-of-the-mill salty crunchy snack, but what I wasn't expecting was an obvious natural sweetness from the broad beans.  It gave the crisps a salty-sweet combination, and I'm obsessed with anything salty-sweet, so these ended up being way more special than I first thought.

Mesquite BBQ:  Once again, the sweetness of the broad beans pairs well with the smoky BBQ coating on the crisps.  The flavor was really strong and these could easily replace a craving for BBQ potato chips, and you certainly won't miss the extra fat and calories.

Garlic & Onion:  Matt and I will eat garlic and onions on anything and everything, the more the better!  This one nails it with a nice balance between the two and it's a big ker-pow of flavor in your mouth.

Sriracha: I was excited about this one since there's always one of those giant bottles of sriracha (anyone else call it Rooster Sauce?) in our pantry.  In this case, I was expecting more heat when I bit into these.  I think perhaps the sweetness of the beans mellows the spice in the sriracha a little too much, or maybe there's just not quite enough sriracha coating to give it a good kick.  They taste great, don't get me wrong, but I was hoping for a little more bite.

Wasabi:  If you're expecting the kind of sinus-clearing experience you get from most commercially available wasabi (which is primarily horseradish and mustard based) then you won't find it here.  Instead, the wasabi crisps have more of the herbal flavor of the real thing but still offering a good spicy kick.  It's a quick heat that hits fast and then quickly tapers off.  Basically, they're way too easy to eat.

Sweet Cinnamon:  I wasn't concerned at all about the sweet versions of the crisps since the beans themselves already have a sweetness to them, so this one, as expected, was amazing.  The cinnamon topping appears to be baked on instead of a dusting, so it won't come off on your hands.  I could have eaten this entire snack-sized bag in one go, which wouldn't be that bad because it's only 100 calories!

Cocoa Dusted:   For those who love chocolate but don't like treats that are overly sweet, these are just delightful!  There's a nice cocoa crunch accentuated by the sweetness of the beans (can I talk more about the natural sweetness of the beans?  Sheesh, broken record here).  They make you feel good when eating them, not gross and sluggish.  I love these, and so does my toddler, who after eating one reached his little hand out and said "More chokkit, please!"

Overall:  Holy heck, these are bangin'.   Trying to pick a favorite would be futile, because they are all good in individual ways.  I promise you this is not one of those blog posts out there just trying to plug a product... these are honestly, honestly delicious and worthy of a purchase.  I'm sad I only had snack pack sizes of all of these because I'm already jonesin' for more.

Visit Enlightened's website for more information about their products as well as a store locator to find out where you can purchase  them.

Oh, and stay tuned, because soon I will also be reviewing Enlightened's line of high protein and low sugar ice cream pints!