Chicken Skin Paradox

 I have an odd paradox when it comes to eating chicken skin. I know a lot of people out there find that the skin of the chicken they eat is the best part. Honestly, when I eat chicken I'm known to peel the skin off an leave it to the side. When I go out for chicken I often get chicken sandwiches. The paradox however is that I'm actually a big fan of deep fried chicken skin, a treat I was introduced to while I was living in Yangon. So it's totally possible that I could go to a chicken place, peel the chicken skin off my chicken, then dip into a bowl of deep fried chicken skin. It's weird, I know.

Check out my latest chicken skin themed snack review.

Chris, Why Would You Eat That?!! - Hot and Spicy Lay's

 I decided to taste test a flavour of Lays who's name doesn't really make sense, except for the fact that they're really spicy.

What If I Just Stopped Eating Spicy Snacks?

I've mentioned here many times that I'm not a huge spicy food fan. In fact I would describe my spice tolerance and low, only recently getting a little closer to moderate. I've always had mixed feelings about eating spicy snacks. I know that I'm probably not going to enjoy them, but I feel like I would be doing people reading visiting my site a disservice by not reviewing them occasionally. It's a really weird situation, I know I'm not going to like it that much, but I feel like I have to eat it.

Check out my latest spicy review.

Ode to Dill Pickle Flavoured Snacks

 I think we could debate for days, weeks or even years about what the best flavour of potato chips might be. I’m standing firm in salt and vinegar world, but maybe you like barbecue more. Picking a “best” flavour for any snack is impossible, since we all have different tastes. I however want to suggest this question, and maybe even suggest an answer. The question is, what’s the surprisingly greatest flavour of potato chip? I’ll even go one step further and say that this flavour I’m thinking about is the surprisingly greatest flavour for just about any salty snack.

The flavour I’m talking about is dill pickle. Just to make this clear, it’s a flavour that objectively seems a little too weird to work, but surprisingly tastes really good. I also want to make it clear that I’m talking about dill pickle flavoured treats, and not just dill or creamy dill flavoured treats (not that those are bad either).

I don’t know when or where dill pickle flavoured salty snacks came to be, but my memory is of them being a popular flavour of potato chip in the early 80s in Canada. I remember talking to an American friend at the time who thought it was crazy to have a chip that tasted like dill pickle, so I feel like it was a Canadian thing before becoming an American thing, but I could be wrong. It didn’t take long for this flavour to really settle in my area either. It seems like it’s been a regular flavour of chip since it first came out.

The great thing is dill pickle as a flavour seems to have settled in other parts of the world too. With this flavour of potato chip becoming accepted, it also appears that the flavour has moved onto other salty snacks as well. I’ve seen dill pickle sunflower seeds, peanuts and even crackers. I’ve tasted dill pickle versions of many salty snacks and I have to say that for the most part this flavour has never failed. Sure there are better and worse dill pickle snacks, but I think it has more to do with the seasoning quality than the snack it’s paired up with.

There are only a few potato chip flavours that have really moved on successfully into the great snacking world, and dill pickle is one of them. Most of the other flavours have been around for such a long time, but dill pickle is comparatively the new kid on the block. However, what amazes me more is that there are still people out there afraid to try this flavour, or even some people that don’t know it exists. This is why dill pickle is surprisingly the best flavour of chips or any salty snack in the world (emphasis on the word surprisingly).

This then asks the question, would I want dill pickle to become as common as salt and vinegar or barbecue for salty snacks. Part of me enjoys the niche-ness of this treat, but most of me wants the whole world to truly understand how good this flavour can be. Sure there are going to be some people out there who just don’t like it, heck I’m not a huge barbecue fan. I just want everyone to have at least tried it once.

Potato Chips and Candy Critic

I thought I would use today's review to highlight one of the biggest complaints I get about this site. Many people tell me that since I'm writing a site dedicated to reviewing candy, that I should not include potato chips. I will not argue with anyone that potato chips are not candy. The thing is, I just couldn't leave them out. While they're not technically candy themselves, I think we can all agree that they're kind of similar in many ways. In stores the chips and and candy are often close to each other. The times we eat chips and candy are often the same.

Check out my latest potato chip review, and stop complaining that they're not candy.

Should I Even Buy Spicy Snacks?

Probably one of my biggest weaknesses of being a snack/candy critic is the fact that I don't really like spicy foods. I've passed by a few treats in my day just because I thought they'd be too spicy. Honestly, the only reason I ever get spicy treats to review are if they're a gift, if I misread the label, or it has to be so interesting that I'm willing to take the chance. Maybe it's not fair to those candy makers making spicy snacks out there, but I just find it hard to build up the courage to eat spicy treats very often.

Check out my latest spicy review, and remember that I went through a bit of pain to write it.

Kit Kat Bars I Want

 Here's a few Kit Kat bars that really should be around, but for some reason Nestle hasn't made them yet. Maybe they will now.

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A Salty Junk Fud and You Taste Test

 Today I decided to try and figure out what is the best salty snack. I ended up being more confused at the end of it all.

I Ate Something Too Spicy

 I'm never really sure why I eat super spicy foods, I don't really like them, but here we go again.

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Santa Has Got A Brand New Bag... of Potato Chips

Crunchy Potato Chips
by candycritic

 I wonder if Santa's bag has bags of potato chips in it?

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Chips, Chips, Chips All Week

I've decided to have yet another review-a-thon and it's going to be all about chips. All this week I'll be posting all kinds of bonus potato chip reviews for you to enjoy. When I was a kid growing up in Canada, I was always intrigued by the sheer number of different flavoured potato chips were available. Now as an adult seeing the world, I'm even more impressed. Of all of the snacking categories, I really feel like the chip manufacturers have been on the ball creating amazing flavours to choose from. Sure some of them are better than others, but you have to give them credit for trying just about anything.

Check out the first flavour of this week's potato chip review-a-thon.

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I Don't Like Barbecue

I don't mind the real thing, pork and beef slow cooked over a barbecue pit, but I've never been able to really enjoy barbecue flavoured snacks. I think it has something to do with fake smoke flavouring. I don't mind if something has a real smoky flavour, but that liquid smoke (or any fake smoke) flavour just doesn't cut it for me. In my time as the Candy Critic I've attempt to train myself to appreciated certain flavours like licorice and marshmallows, but I feel like barbeque chips might be one that I just don't bother trying to appreciate. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything just because I don't really dig fake smoke flavouring.

Check out the full review of these barbecue chips, and find out why they didn't do that badly.

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Weird Shapes Sometimes Mean Science

Whenever I see a really strange snack or candy that has a very peculiar shape that doesn't represent anything in particular, my first assumption is that science invented that snack. In some cases it could be an artistic decision, but even artists do a lot of research when it comes to designing things like snacks. These new Lay's Layers are the perfect example of a snack that's so weird, the only reason I figure they would make them is because someone did some kind of research to study the perfect shape for a crunchy snack. If this isn't true, I beg of those at Fritos-Lay's, please explain this weird shaped snack to me.

Check out the full review of this very strange salty snack.

You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter if you want a photo of how weird this snack is.

If you like weird things, check out my fun book called Treats and Beasts.

When Vegetables Collide

When I come across a snack like these Lay's cucumber potato chips, I wonder. I wonder if snack companies come up with their ideas on paper, or in the kitchen. I wonder if someone writes down all of the weird ideas they can think of when it comes to flavour combinations, or if a food professional taste tests millions of ideas only choosing their favourite. I feel like the creative team at companies like Lays might be made up of more writers than cooks. It's not that I didn't like these chips, it just doesn't seem like something a sane person would develop in a kitchen.

Check out why these chips are so weird by reading my latest review.

Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with all my fun adventures.

If you want to check out my Patreon you'll get all kinds of bonus stuff too.

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When Company Mascots Don't Make Sense

I really wonder how this got beyond the ideas round.

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Chips Are So Amazing

I could watch the Wondastic Tech videos all day long, this just makes me want to crunch down on a potato chip so badly.

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Time To Check Off A Few Classics

I've decided that this week I'm going to have a review-a-thon. Normally I post a new review once a week, however during review-a-thons I tend to review more treats in a week. Most of the time the review-a-thons have a theme and this week is no exception. This week I'm going to look at classic flavours of Lay's potato chips that I probably already should have reviewed but haven't. I'm always surprised at some of the classic treats that I've not reviewed yet, and this week's assortment of potato chips is a great example. After all I've tasted more than 30 different flavours of Lay's potato chips already.  I'm starting off with the official classic Lay's flavour, and later in the week I'm going to review BBQ and ketchup flavoured chips as well.

Click here to check out the first very classic variety of Lay's potato chips.

Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with this week's review-a-thon.

You can also follow me on Patreon for some extra stuff.

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Crunch Into Some Fashion

Crunchy Potato Chips T-Shirt
by candycritic

I think a lot about potato chips, it's nice to have a t-shirt that explains what's on my mind.

Check out some more of my snack and candy merch at my Zazzle store.

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When Snack Companies Meet

When snack companies work together it seems very polarizing. I feel like these snack combinations either fail miserably or succeed beyond any expectations. I think it all depends on the amount of thought put into these snack combinations. The first step is that the combination has to make sense. The second is that they don't necessarily give what makes them best as an individual snack. Instead these snacks have to give what makes best for the combination. I often find that flavours and textures can clash rather than work together. This is all to say that this is truly a meeting of snacks that truly makes sense, and both contribute the perfect elements to each other.

Click here to find out how Smartfood and Lay's potato chips work together.

Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Also check out my Patreon for all kinds of extra stuff.

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Don't Forget To Get Some Snack Facts, It'll Help You Learn About Potato Chips.

Just letting you all know that the latest issue of Snack Facts is here. In this issue we follow our heroes Sir Francis Sweetums and his companion Barbara (the sugar glider) as they learn all about the potato chip. This issue features an brilliant cover by the amazingly talented fine artist (who knew we'd get a fine artist doing us a favour, I mean the guys shown in galleries and stuff) Michael William Benton. 

Make sure to pick up this (or any other issues) here.

Also, if you follow us on Patreon (depending on the tier) you'll get a free subscription.

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