Sankofa Snacks Plantain Chips – 8 Flavors, Vegan & Gluten-Free, Pack of 3

Thin-sliced plantain, hand-cooked in Ghana, in eight flavors - and three of them are named after real West African dishes, so it is worth saying what they actually are before you choose.

Sweet Chili Jollof. Jollof is one of West Africa's best-known one-pot rice dishes. Its roots trace back to the historic Wolof - or Jollof - region of Senegambia, and today Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal each claim it and each cook it their own way. We are not going to settle that argument on a bag of chips. What we have done is follow the pot: tomato, onion, garlic, red and green bell pepper, chili and paprika, the base that gives jollof rice its colour and its warmth.

Sweet & Spicy Kelewele. Kelewele is Ghanaian street food, and the name says what it is - it comes from Ga, the language of Accra, where kele means cut into small pieces and wele means fried. Ripe plantain is cubed, coated in ginger, chili and warm spices such as clove, deep-fried, and sold from roadside pans and night markets in Accra, Kumasi and Cape Coast, usually eaten by hand with roasted peanuts. Our version leans on cloves, chili and paprika over ripe plantain.

Ginger Chicken Yassa. Yassa is Senegalese, not Ghanaian - a Wolof dish most closely associated with the Casamance region of southern Senegal, where chicken or fish is marinated for hours in lemon juice, mustard and a great quantity of onion, then simmered in the caramelised onion-citrus sauce and served over rice. Our chips are made in Ghana; this dish belongs to Senegal, and we would rather be clear about that. Two more things worth stating plainly: there is no chicken in the bag, and ginger is not a traditional yassa ingredient - that part is our own twist on the flavor, not a claim about the dish.

The other five flavors are exactly what they say. Sweet Cinnamon is ripe plantain with nothing on it but ground cinnamon and a little cane sugar - the mildest bag we make. Spicy Sweet Chili is our vinegar-and-paprika gateway heat, and the only flavor in the line that genuinely contains soy. Smoked Chili Beef contains no beef and no animal ingredient of any kind; the name describes the flavor, and the savoury depth comes from natural smoke flavour and a blend of chili peppers. Lightly Salted and Sweet Lightly Salted share a three-ingredient recipe but not the same fruit: we cut the Lightly Salted bag before the plantain sweetens, so it stays starchy and savoury, and the Sweet Lightly Salted bag riper, so the fruit's own caramel note comes through against the salt. They are two separate snacks on purpose.

Every flavor is vegan and gluten-free, both printed on the pack, and every listing is a Pack of 3 individual 50g bags, 150g in total, sealed separately so the rest stays crisp. All eight are made in a facility that also handles nuts and soy, and the Spicy Sweet Chili bag contains soy outright. Eat them straight from the bag, put them out with a dip, or - if you have gone for the Kelewele - alongside roasted peanuts, the way the original is sold on the street.