This was also found at the alternative Shop-Rite supermarket. I kind of resisted buying it at first, since it seemed similar to another product I've been eating for years. But I got it when I saw it was a product of Korea. Or, exotic enough. (Hey, it's hard to come up with a post every week--some of them are going to be more exotic and different than others!) Anyway, I purchased the Gimme premium roasted seaweed wasabi flavor and then the same kind with the sea salt flavor.
As I was eating this I kept being reminded of the other product I'd had dozens of times--the Annie Chun's dried seaweed snacks. I didn't do a post on these since I did a general seaweed post way back on December 12, 2013, which covered some dried seaweed rolls, the seaweed wrapped around various sushi dishes, and moist, vinegary seaweed salad. Well, something kind of funny was afoot. There's an obvious reason why the Gimme seaweed reminded me of Annie Chun's--the Gimme company is owned and run by Annie Chun!
To back up a bit, Annie Chun was born in South Korea, but immigrated to the U.S.--California specifically. In the 1980's and 90's, along with her husband Steve Broad, Chun started marketing various seaweed/seafood products, in a company named after herself. The company did very well. However, in 2009 Chun sold her company to the South Korean-based CJ Foods, who kept her name as a brand. But, apparently Annie wasn't the type to enjoy her retirement, as only a few years later, in 2012, she and Steve started another seaweed-focused company. (If you're wondering about how this happened, legally, the non-competition agreement between CJ Foods and Chun expired after only a short time.) This one was named Gimme Health Foods, LLC. The "Gim" part is because it's the Korean word for dried roasted seaweed, and the "Me" is to complete the slang English shortening of "Give Me," and because Chun's daughter is named Mia. It seems a bit confusing that Annie Chun's new company is directly competing against the "Annie Chun" brand of another company, but that's the situation. Gimme is more focused on just the seaweed, as the name suggests. Their products tout seaweed's health benefits--it has nutrients like iron, fiber, calcium, and beta carotene, plus theirs are organic, and lacking in GMOs and gluten. Reportedly the seaweed is safer than some because it's harvested from the Jangheung Bay area of South Korea, which has no pesticides draining into it. Alternate flavors of their Gimme seaweeds include olive oil, teriyaki, sesame, avocado oil, and sushi nori. Also, evidently people in Korea have been consuming seaweed for over 2000 years.
Gimme premium roasted seaweed, sea salt flavor: The pieces were rectangular in shape, about 8 cm. by 6 cm. (about 3.25 inches by 2.25 inches), paper thin, with a dark green color. Rather oily, too--I needed a napkin. The taste was pretty good. Savory and salty. A decent snack. Not quite as tasty as some dried seaweed snacks I've had, since they were a tad blandish.
Gimme premium roasted seaweed, wasabi flavor: These were the same size, shape, texture, and color as the sea salt kind. The taste was better too, as the wasabi gave these a nice spicy "zing." Definitely a more than decent snack. Also, the entire packages of both kinds were only 50 calories each, so these are a nice choice if you're watching your calories.
I often mention that I'm not sure if I could distinguish between a product and another brand of its same food type in a properly blind taste test. It's never been more true. Even the packaging of the Gimme snacks is identical to the Annie Chun's brand, save for the writing on them. In short, if you like Annie Chun's seaweed snacks, you'll almost certainly like the Gimme ones, also made by Annie Chun. Finally, part of me wishes that Annie Chun sells her Gimme Health Foods company to another business, and then opens up a third firm that also specializes in seaweed a year or two later. And again and again until it becomes a ridiculous, quasi-monopoly on one specific food type.
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