Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Drizzled Plantain Chips

Plantains are a starchy tropical fruit in the banana family. They most likely originated in Southeast Asia, and today they grow in tropical regions around the Equator. They’re common in parts of Africa, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.

Plantains are bigger than bananas and have a thicker skin. They can be eaten when they’re green and unripe, or when they’re ripe. Green plantains are firm and starchy, and they have a more neutral flavor that lacks sweetness. Plantains turn yellow and then black as they ripen, and they turn sweet. Because plantains have different flavors when unripe versus ripe, they can be used in both savory and sweet dishes. They can be steamed, fried, boiled, mashed, roasted, or made into soup or stew.

I recently tried fried plantains from a local West African restaurant. They’re often compared to potatoes, especially when you’re cooking with green or unripe plantains, and the fried plantains I had reminded me of fried potatoes. They had a mild flavor that made them a nice accompaniment to the rest of my meal.

While browsing the aisles recently at Trader Joe’s, which is a cousin to Aldi, I found some dark chocolate drizzled plantain chips sprinkled with sea salt that looked intriguing. I’ve been trying to reduce my sugar intake lately, and with 4 grams of added sugars per serving, these looked like a way to indulge a sweet tooth without as much sugar as a traditional dessert.

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Drizzled Plantain Chips cost $2.99 for a 6-ounce package at the time of writing. That’s about 50 cents per ounce. With about six 1/2-cup servings per package, that also comes out to about 50 cents per serving.

If you’re looking out for allergens, these contain milk and soy. They may contain traces of egg, wheat, peanut, almond, cashew, coconut, and pecan. These are kosher certified.

Ingredients are plantain chips (plantains, sunflower oil, sea salt), dark chocolate (sugar, unsweetened chocolate processed with alkali, cocoa butter, milk fat, soy lecithin [emulsifier], natural vanilla flavor), and sea salt.

One 1/2-cup serving has 150 calories, 8 grams of total fat (10% DV), 2 grams of saturated fat (10% DV), 150 mg of sodium (7% DV), 19 grams of total carbohydrates (7% DV), 1 gram of dietary fiber (4% DV), 4 grams of total sugars, 4 grams of added sugars (8% DV), and less than 1 gram of protein.

These were interesting to try. The plantain chips themselves have a mild potato chip-like flavor, although they’re not quite as crispy as some potato chips. They’re also more thickly cut than most potato chips. The dark chocolate drizzle coats one side of each chip, and the chocolate was a bit melty on my fingers, so keeping a napkin on hand is a good idea. The flavor combination of potato-like plantain chips and semi-sweet dark chocolate — with just a hint of salt — is very unique.

These are a mix of savory and sweet and are not easy to quantify. If you like plantains, you’ll probably like these. If you’re not accustomed to eating this tropical food, these might be more of an acquired taste, especially when they’re covered in chocolate like these are. I love trying different types of food, and particularly foods that are popular in other parts of the world, so I’m glad I tried these.

The Verdict:

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Drizzled Plantain Chips feature crisp plantain chips coated on one side with semi-sweet dark chocolate and just a bit of sea salt. The plantain chips have a neutral, mild flavor similar to a potato, while the chocolate adds a hint of sweetness. These are one of the more unique snacks we’ve found at Trader Joe’s.