Old Candy Critic Articles - Chip Off

I've decided to take down several old articles from the candycritic.org and re-post them here on the Candy Critic blog.  This week I'm looking at plain old potato chips.

So many companies make the same flavours of potato chips, and I never feel ripped off about this. Certain brands excel at certain flavours, I’ll always go for the Mrs. Vickie’s "Sea Salt and Vinegar", and Lays used to make the best "Au Gratin" flavour ever. What I really want to know is: who makes the best chips; not the best flavour, but the best chips?

The plan is simple - go regular or go home. I just wanted to say that so it would appeal to the sporting demographic who might read this. This is my plan: I’m going to put plain chip against plain chip in an all-out battle, to once and for all answer the question that has plagued mankind since I thought of this…

Who makes the best plain chip?

Humpty Dumpty
Ripples

For some reason, when I think of Humpty Dumpty I think of splattered egg. I should read fewer fairtales and think more snacks. I can’t explain the appeal of ripple chips. I guess they just feel good on the tongue. It’s like a getting a massage inside your mouth without doing anything obscene. If I were craving salt I may have been disappointed in these, but I am a big potato fan; I actually enjoy the taste of potato. I’ve been known to eat a plain baked potato for fun. These chips have that potato-like taste, and that’s good because I’m hoping they’re made from potatoes.

Lays
Classic

I see Lays has decided that plain isn’t good enough for them, they have to be “classic”. Well la-di-dah, I say! These chips are super thin. It's kind of cool because with all the oil they soak up, some of them are almost transparent. They’re a little saltier than some chips, but not too bad. If you’re craving salt and still like the flavour of potato (read above) then you’re in good shape with these. I also find that these chips are a little more blemished than others. I personally like the blemishes because it keeps the chips looking like real potatoes, but some may be grossed out by this.

Maple Leaf

Regular

I figure I had to buy these because I’m Canadian and these seemed to be a very “Canadian” themed bag of chips. This batch may have been overcooked or something, the first one I ate (really brown and spotty) seems to be affecting the rest of the bag. They say "regular" and they mean it. I barely taste any salt at all. The other problem is that the burned flavour really overpowers the potato taste, and either the whole bag tastes burnt or the first chip ruined it for the rest of them. Let me try some more…

The burnt flavour is gone and after carefully choosing a few chips that looked good I notice that the potato flavour is really low. In fact I think it's more oil flavour than potato or salt, and I’m not really cool with that.

CC