On and poppin’

Longtime blog readers know that I do not do a lot of product reviews. In fact, in four years of blogging, I’ve reviewed exactly TWO products (seen here). I much prefer to develop meaningful relationships with brands and companies, rather than just slurp up free stuff.

That’s not to say I don’t have opportunities to get swag. I probably turn down 5-10 pitches every single day, which is why I get so snippy about good and bad blog pitches:

• How to Pitch Without Striking Out
• Don’t Pitch Me, Bro
• Finding and Working With Blog Sponsors

So when I get behind a brand and devote my time and valuable blog space to showing some love…you know it’s from the bottom of my heart.

I first “met” popchips at the Fitbloggin’ conference, when I devoured several bags of the delicious nom noms and posed in front of their really cool photo wall:

By the way — it’s only now that I see how many brands I’m loving on in this picture. SurveyMonkey, New Balance, popchips…

(You can see more silliness from Fitbloggin’ attendees at the popchips Facebook page.)

When the company offered to send me a case of chips, including some of their top flavors, I jumped at the chance!

Little did I know that I would actually get to taste very few of the goodies. Because someone — make that, someones — got to most of the bags before I could.

Lucas freaking LOVES these. He likes the salt & pepper variety, especially.

Since I wasn’t spending much time eating the chips, I decided to do some research. I went to the popchips website and Facebook page. I followed their tweets. I checked in on their YouTube page and watched some of their fan videos.

I learned:

• popchips are made by some bizarre science that doesn’t involve frying or baking, but DOES involve heat and pressure*
• popchips are half the fat of regular fried chips
• a bag of popchips is about 100 calories a serving
• there’s no fake stuff — all of the seasonings are natural

*I’m dying to get a tour of the plant to see that science in action

And then, I talked to a couple of the people that work at popchips. That’s right, I harassed them over email until they agreed to talk to me on the phone.

(hi sara! hi katie!)

And y’all…I fell in love.

Popchips is a wee bitty company, with a big mission:

“We think there aren’t enough meals in the day. We think spoiling your dinner is just fine. And if there’s one thing we know as snack fanatics, if it doesn’t taste good, it’s not a snack.

But taste isn’t the only thing we care about. We’re just as concerned about putting good things into our bodies as the next snacker. Maybe even more so. And getting rid of trans fats is just a start. We also think about the other things that give snacking a bad rap — like saturated fats, calories, preservatives, artificial everything. It’s enough to make a snacker get out the chip clip and hold out for dinner.

So what were our options? Not many. In spite of snacks filling an entire grocery store aisle, we realized everything was pretty much either fried (unhealthy) or baked (undelicious). Someone needed to do something on behalf of all snackers. So we thought, who better for the job?

In our pursuit of the snackers’ holy grail, delicious and healthier, we discovered popping. We’re able to simultaneously keep all of the flavor in, while keeping half the fat of fried chips out. Since we do all the popping ourselves, we can make sure of that. Our quality control mantra? If it doesn’t taste good, it’s not a snack, of course.

That’s why we’re so excited about all-natural popchips™ brand chips. We’re not hoarding the bag. We want snackers and snack fanatics alike to share the joy.”

Well, gee. Sound like they might fit right in with me and #Fitblog?

So guess what? I’m now working with popchips to put together some really fun projects that keep YOU in mind…stay tuned for details here on the blog and on the #Fitblog website. Up until now, the only thing popchips has given me is a case of free (disclosure!) chips and a lot of ideas. But I’m really excited to work with them, and hopefully, I’ll hide the next shipment from the little piggies that live with me.

What’s your favorite snack? Do you go for salty or sweet? Crunchy or soft? Chocolate or vanilla?