We’ve got many a food staple in the DimeBrothers households: Tostitos Hint of Lime Chips, Heath Bars, Honey Nut Cheerios, pizza…. Introducing another product that’s knocking on that staple door: Pirate’s Booty Aged White Cheddar.

Pirate Brands offers many snacks. Most packages on their website have a picture of what’s inside the bag so it’s clear what you’re buying. Pirate’s Booty is vague. There’s no picture but there is a small label that says “Rice and Corn Puffs”. So does that mean they’re cheese puffs? Well, the company sells cheese puffs that are called “Smart Puffs.” So what is Pirate’s Booty? Many people on the internet call this subline of snacks “popcorn.” Why? ‘Cause they’re crazy. These are cheese puffs and you cannot convince me otherwise.

And they’re delicious. I’ve only tried the Aged White Cheddar variety, but there are other flavors which I’m sure are equally scrump-diddily-umptious. The website has a store locater and you can even order online.

I didn’t buy the pack I ate - it was a gift - so I can’t really evaluate the price, and I’m not expert at salty snack prices in general. But it’s probably more expensive than I’d want it to be given it’s got a healthy positioning. But the lack of junk in the product is another factor that makes it so amazing (in addition to the taste).

It has no trans fat, no gluten (I guess that’s good), and they don’t mess up the serving size too much. They say there are 4 servings in each 4 oz. bag (ever eat a candy bar which was “2 servings”?!). So the whole bag equates to only 24% of your daily recommended sodium, 32% of your fat, and 8% of your saturated fat (I’m talking about eating the entire bag!). Some might think that’s a lot of fat and sodium, but if your morning meal was Honey Nut Cheerios, and your lunch was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some carrots and animal crackers, you should still have nutritional room left over to eat some chicken wings for dinner (although I haven’t verified how many you could eat).

This brand is new to me, but Pirate’s Booty is liked by 137,328 people on facebook. They’re probably doing something right (Heath bar is liked by less than 2,000). Although IRI data (which publishes data on all sorts of products sold in stores) shows Pirate’s Booty having a 0.07% share of the salted snacks category in 2010. So there’s room to grow.