Okay, tonight I'm on a roll...One of my all-time favorite sweet pickles are the Premium Selection Snackers Hot & Sweet pickles. They sell at Kroger stores exclusively for about $3.49, as the Premium Selection brand is a premium Kroger brand of foods. My wife and I have been pretty happy with Premium Selection brand items...they're as good or better than national brands, and often have flavors or combinations that you can't otherwise get.
In short, they are a crinkle-cut bread'n'butter pickle with a kick. As you can see at the bottom of the photo, the "kick" is accomplished by putting some Thai- or Chinese- style hot peppers into the pickles at brine time. DO NOT eat these things unless you really like hot stuff...they are wicked-hot!
Also from the photo, you can see they have generous amounts of minced onion, garlic and mustard seed in the jar, making these pickles a very flavorful variety. I've even found myself fishing out and eating the mixture with a fork after the pickles are gone its so yummy.
The pickles themselves are a very nice bread'n'butter sweet pickle. Not too vinegary, not terribly sweet, but a nice balance of the two. As with many bread'n'butter varieties, these have a high crunch factor...probably a 9 out of 10 on the Crunch-O-Meter. The cucumbers themselves are proper pickle-sized cukes, so they're not too mature and retain that crunch and firmness that makes this pickle distinctive.
The heat level of these isn't what I'd consider "mild", but neither is it "hot". Its in that nice spot where you can enjoy a little kick with your pickle and have to eat quite a few before it starts to accumulate to uncomfortable levels. The combination of the bread'n'butter flavor with some hotness makes these my favorite condiment to put on a cold (leftover) meatloaf sandwich. They really compliment the flavor of the meatloaf.
I've had other hot'n'sweet bread'n'butter pickles, but I really like these because they're nicely balanced between the vinegar, sweet and hot flavors. The crunch is perfect and they're not too expensive and readily available.
I love pickle and this one here seems so good. The spices and slight sweetness must have made it even better. Wish I could eat these in a nice cheesy burger right now.
ReplyDeletePickes are to be eaten with all the meals in mos of the asian countries especially in mine. The sweet and sour taste just increase your epitite.
ReplyDeleteI'd say your review is spot on. I love these pickle chips. I just ran into them a month ago and bought them as they were on sale. They are now one of my favorite condiments. You're also right about the red chili peppers in the bottle, they're wickedly hot.
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