A stark contrast to the previous Carolina Reaper. This is obviously sweet yet also cheesy, which is a very enjoyable combination. In Australia, sweet cheesy chips are a rarity and a great novelty for fans of honey or non-spicy chips. These are again like cheesy puff products, but compared to the supermarket brands like Cheetos, I have found these have a less sharp edge to them, which I think I sometimes experience with those mainstream offerings. So yeah, this is nice too, but I’d probably stick with the spicy one.
Look, I’ll be honest with you: when I first saw “Honey Cheese” on the packet, I thought someone at Herr’s had finally lost the plot. Honey and cheese? Together? In a curl? It sounds like something you’d come up with after a few too many beers at a barbecue. But here’s the thing about Herr’s—they’re not afraid to get weird, and more often than not, that weirdness pays off.
These curls are sweet, no question about it. The honey hits you first, and it’s not that fake, cloying sweetness you get from some chips that taste like they’ve been dunked in corn syrup. It’s more subtle than that, more natural. Then the cheese comes through—not aggressively sharp like some cheddar-flavoured snacks that assault your taste buds, but more mellow and rounded. It’s like they’ve somehow managed to make honey and cheese have a civil conversation on your tongue instead of a full-blown argument.
The texture is classic cheese curl territory. Light, airy, melt-in-your-mouth stuff that leaves that telltale orange dust on your fingers (you know the one—the dust you’ll inevitably wipe on your jeans when no one’s looking). They’re not as hard or crunchy as, say, a regular potato chip. These are gentle, almost delicate, which suits the flavour profile perfectly.
What strikes me most is how inoffensive they are. And I don’t mean that as a backhanded compliment. In a world where every snack food seems to be competing for who can blast your face off with the most extreme flavour, there’s something genuinely refreshing about a chip that’s just… nice. Pleasant. Easy to eat. The sort of thing you could polish off while watching telly without your mouth feeling like it’s been through a war.
For Australian snack enthusiasts, these are definitely worth tracking down. We don’t really do sweet-and-savoury cheese combos here the way the Americans do, so there’s a novelty factor at play. They’d be brilliant for parties, especially if you’ve got mates who tap out at anything spicier than tomato sauce. Kids would probably go mental for them too.
That said, if you’re only going to try one variety from Herr’s, I’d still point you toward the Carolina Reaper curls. Those have more personality, more punch, more of that “I can’t believe I’m eating this” factor that makes trying imported snacks exciting in the first place. The Honey Cheese curls are good—really good, even—but they’re the sensible choice. The safe bet. The one you’d bring to your nan’s birthday party.
But sometimes sensible is exactly what you need. Sometimes you don’t want your snack to fight back. And for those moments, these honey cheese curls are absolutely spot on.
Rating: 7.5/10
Available from select import stores and online retailers. Expect to pay around $8-10 for a bag, which is standard for imported American snacks in Australia.
