Do you remember Hain Carrot Chips? I do. I remember going to the Bagel Bakery in Pacific Grove, CA with my mom and ordering a toasted garlic bagel with cream cheese, a Martinelli’s apple juice, and a bag of Hain Carrot Chips. We just called them carrot chips, but now I have to specify “Hain”, because the world now thinks “carrot chips” are slices of carrots that have been baked.
Let me set the record straight, this post is not about carrot slivers, carrot slices, carrot sticks, or raw carrots. We’re talking about the best snack chip ever made! Chips made from stone ground corn, carrot juice, whole wheat, and little bits of real carrot peppered throughout. Salted, slightly sweet chips that you could get, almost exclusively, at “health food stores”.
Strange, but delicious
When I was fortunate enough that my mom had purchased a bag of Hain Carrot Chips, and doubly fortunate that we didn’t eat the whole bag before nightfall, Mom would send some with me for school lunch. On the schoolyard, friends would notice the familiar shape. It was something like a wide, flatter Frito shape, but orange. The orange is what people caused them to inquire, “What kind of chips are those?”
“Carrot chips” I’d reply, to a range of responses from “gross” to “weird”. Kids being kids, no one ever went, “Interesting, I’d like to try one if I may”. Instead, I’d offer them one or two, probably mostly to defend my pride and justify my food choice.
And while everybody at first judged my carrot chips to be bizarre, everyone was a convert after first taste. Even as an adult, when I’d chance upon Hain Carrot Chips at a Grocery Outlet or Whole Foods Market, I’d get the same bewildered initial response from adults, followed by exclamations of delight.
Only a memory
Hain Carrot Chips were so good, I never thought I would not have them as a purchasing option. But like PB Max, Frito-Lay Salsa Fries, and the Half-Life video game series before them, they were eventually discontinued.. It seems that the more I like a product, the higher the chances are that the product will be discontinued. Since I liked Carrot Chips very much, I’m convinced that I am the reason why they are no longer for sale. I can’t give a hard date, but it seems they were doomed by the Hain Celestial Group around 2013.
I didn’t even get to say goodbye. Had I known that my last carrot chips purchase was my last carrot chips purchase, I would have bought every package left in the store and had a proper sendoff. But as with many other things we place value on, you never know when you might never see them again. Cherish every moment with those you love and the foods you enjoy. 😀
Maybe there is hope…
Wonderful foods have been discontinued and brought back before. When I was 11 or 12, Twix came in three flavors, Caramel (the current standard Twix), Fudge, and Peanut Butter. Peanut Butter Twix were my favorite so of course they were discontinued, along with Fudge. Caramel were delicious also, but somehow they persisted through present day. But a strange and awesome thing happened several years ago, Peanut Butter Twix came back. Of course Mars, Inc. told everyone it was “new” Peanut Butter Twix, when it was really just the return of the king that they had ousted many years prior.
With this bit of hope I appeal to any of you that share a fondness for Hain Carrot Chips. Maybe, together we can convince Hain Celestial Group to release “new” Carrot Chips. The beauty of technology is that it gives so many people a voice. Through social media, we can reach out to Hain and ask for Carrot Chips to be put back on store shelves and in our mouths.
Hain Twitter: https://twitter.com/haincelestial
Hain facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HainCelestialUS
If you contact them, maybe you could send them this post, so they know that you are not alone. There are many of us who don’t accept Sweet Potato Chips as an alternative to Carrot Chips.
If you remember Carrot Chips, leave a comment. We can bond over our lost love of tasty carrot/corn snacks.
I definitely remember these, and I just had a weird pregnancy-related craving for them. I’m SOOO sad they’re not available anymore!!!!
I get completely non-pregnancy related cravings for them all the time. I share in your sadness. Congratulations on your expecting! You can tell your child of the legend of the Carrot Chip, from before their time. 🙂
i go into stores and ask if they have heard of them and remind them of stores that carried them before and get that ‘weird’ look..
I adored them and have before found recipes and lost them.. so what I am putting forth is that Whole Foods now carries a tri-color tortilla chip that includes carrot flavor.. possibly we can bug them into making a totally carrot variety?
they are the Whole Foods 365 brand. Ingredients are stone ground white corn, corn or sunflower seed oil, tomato, garlic, onion, carrot, spinach and beet powder, parsley, sea salt, trace of lime. totally healthy and easy to pick out the carrot flavored ones – so let’s continue writing on Hain’s FB page and also add it to Whole Foods page – they are vegan non gmo no sugars
Thank you for the suggestion. We have a Whole Foods in the area. I will make an effort to grab a bag of these. It would be funny to tell them to keep their other veggies, we want carrots!! 🙂
My sisters and I grew up on Carrot Chips. It was a tradition that every Sunday after church, we would stop by the health food store across the street and get a bag of carrot chips and nectarine flavored soda. I cannot tell you how much we LOVED both of those snacks. I wish I had known back in 2013 that they would be phased out. You would have probably run into my sisters and I in your mad dash for these tasty treats. 🙂
I loved reading your story and hearing about your tradition. Thank you for sharing this!
Today I got a bag of beet crackers at trader joes (not be to be confused with their bag of dried beet chips). They taste and felt in my mouth just like Hains Carrot Chips. Which is why I started googling to see if they are still made. I don’t think I’ve had them since about 1983. I had just about the only mom who shopped at the only tiny heath food store in suburban NY. Anyway maybe they are Hains since trader joes gets private labels f major companies.
I too love these chips and life has never been the same. Goodbye cruel world!
It saddens me to think that my daughter may never experience them. 🙁
I believe this is the first reply I’ve ever written online.
I loved, loved these carrot chips. I found my first bag in a little health food store in Malibu. It was love at first bite.
I remember the texture, the flavor and the crunch of that chip. Nothing has ever come close, and I’ve tried every carrot chip out there, only to miss Hain Carrot Chips all the more.
Today I went to Whole Foods and passed a small section with some odd bags of gourmet veggie chips and the memory and fierce of my beloved Hain Carrot chips came soaring back.
This is not the first time I’ve craved and prayed for the ONLY smack chip that ever really mattered to reappear, and it won’t be the last.
Has anyone written the company to ask if they’d share the recipe? I’m not the worlds best in the kitchen but I’d go to any lengths to have these in my life again.
Hi, Stacy. Thanks for taking the time to reach out. There have been a very small handful of people that have found this post and shared a few words in remembrance of our beloved carrot chips. As far as the recipe is concerned, the last time I corresponded with Hain Celestial Group, they claimed that they still make these carrot chips. At first, I thought they were just unavailable in my region, but as I dug more into the topic, I found them unavailable for purchase anywhere. If the company doesn’t even know they no longer sell the product, they are unlikely to share the recipe. That said, if you manage to reverse engineer them, you’ll have my order.
YES, PLEASE bring back Hain Carrot Chips!!! Jill, Annapolis, Maryland
I LOVED these too. You describe them perfectly in your piece. Somehow both savory and sweet with an earthy carroty taste! I hope they bring them back. Long live Hain Carrot Chips!
❤️
I would like to have them back too!