Recently my husband has been bringing home giant bags of Stacy's Simply Naked Pita Chips every time he visits Costco. And, he's gotten my daughter semi-addicted to these tasty, dual-layer chips. On Superbowl Sunday, Dad and daughter were scooping up guacamole with Stacy's chips; on Falafel night they were rafts for Hummus. When you see the word naked on the bag, a consumer might expect these baked chips to be figure-friendly and lower in fat than regular chips or crackers, and generally good for you (like baked Lays potato chips, for example). So, how do these pita chips stack up with other snacks?

Taste and Texture: A single Stacy's pita chip is about the size of a large postage-stamp. What makes it different from your average chip or cracker is the pita chip's depth ~ its stacked  construction is twice as thick as, say, a Ruffles.  Bite into a pita chip and you'll notice an extremely satisfying crunch and substantial mouthful. Just like with Cap'n Crunch, you can hear this chip crackling and crunching with every chew. Sea-salt is lightly sprinkled on each pita piece, and is neither too little nor too much. Eating a naked pita chip provides a bread or cracker taste ~ but also the filling, oily taste of fat lurking in these pita chips.  

Dipping Potential: Stacy's pita chips taste great on their own, but they are also good with hearty dips like hummus or babaghanoush. These chips are solidly built and won't fall apart when subjected to the most unctuous topping. However, I'm not so happy at the number of broken chips you find in a bag ~ well over half the pieces are fragments of their original dimension. 

Compared to Other Snacks: Here's where the math doesn't lie about naked chips. My handy chip graph compares a one-ounce serving of Stacy's with competitive snacks:

Sourdough Nibblers ~ 120 calories ~ 0 grams fat
Chex Mix ~ 120 calories ~ 3 grams fat
Stacy's Pita Chips ~ 130 calories ~ 5 grams fat
Wavy Lays ~ 150 calories ~ 10 grams fat

Thus, a serving of Stacy's Naked Pita Chips has about half the fat of Lays potato chips, and only 20 calories less. Unlike some sugary snacks, I do feel the six-chip serving is filling. It has slightly more calories than the pretzels, but at 5 grams of fat isn't a "low-fat" snack.

My final verdict is: Yes, these are tasty pita chips, but I prefer baking my own with considerably less fat. They just taste too rich for me. Most pita breads are made with little or no fat, so when I bake them into chips I just brush or spray a little olive oil and sprinkle spices on top. I prefer my homemade ones, but if you ask my daughter about Stacy's chips, she says she could eat thousands of them!

While Stacy's chips aren't lean-n-mean, at 491 words, my review makes the cut!
    

Recommended: Yes