Robot Claw

That giant stash of Salt & Vinegar chips in our house ain’t eating itself, so let’s dive right back in for some more reviews!

‘Good & Gather’ is Target‘s store brand and these chips were easily the worst we’ve tasted so far. The potatoes used had imperfections, and too many of the chips were overcooked or just burned. The vinegar taste was acidic instead of sweet, and the aftertaste was unpleasant. Compared to the vast amount of other options, these just aren’t worth your time. These barely deserve the lowest end of the rating scale: C.

We tasted a Price Chopper type last time, and it eked out a lowest rating. By comparison their kettle chip offering was better, but still several rungs below the quality kettle chip offerings. While the chips were acceptable, the salt and vinegar taste was so understated it hardly seemed worth eating these. A low R rating.

Utz is a chip maker from here in the Northeast, and I’ve always found their chips to be distinctly average. Their Salt’n Vinegar chips started off unremarkably, although I find the chips a bit too thin and greasy. But the vinegar was sweet and subdued and they became moorish quickly. Unfortunately it wasn’t until I’d shoveled too many down my gulliver that some sort of time-release flavour bomb triggered and I was soon sweating like a gibbon! In summary: a too-plain chip with a too-intense flavour for me, and not something I’d choose again. Another solid R.

It hasn’t taken us long to realize that kettle chips are most often superior to normal ones, and it’s not surprising that most of the higher ratings are kettle types. So perhaps it’s fitting that a brand named Kettle would produce such a fine example! The chips have a delicious potato taste, and are crunchy without being oily. But the vinegar taste (the ingredients list ‘distilled white vinegar’) is unique and quite sublime and gave me nostalgic memories of the taste of fish’n’chips in my youth. A wonderful chip and an easy SR!

Hal’s chips were weirdly cooked – they were almost insubstantial, more like extrusions than sliced potatoes. This made them extremely easy to eat quickly, which is dangerous since the vinegar is strong and the strength seems to increase exponentially as you eat more. It was so strong in fact I couldn’t finish the somewhat small bag! These are for the true vinegar aficionado, and while they were too powerful for me I recognize their quality as I score them SR.

There was nothing notable about Miss Vickie’s – no weird ingredients or surprising taste – but that’s ok since they were just a very high quality chip. Delightful and well cooked kettle chips seasoned with almost-too-strong vinegar made for a bag that was easy to eat and didn’t outstay its welcome. A textbook definition of what this blog series is all about, and an easy SR.

Lays had the highest rated chips in the first review post, only those were kettle chips and here we have their normal type. As befits the world leaders of chippery, these are an extremely high quality product no doubt engineered by teams of scientists to be superior in almost every way. I’d rate them well up there on the SR scale. Surely they’re at the pinnacle of a non-kettle chip?

Zapp’s is a brand that originated in the south, but now is part of the Utz company. I picked up this bag of ‘New Orleans Kettle Style’ chips when we were in NYC and we ate them over lunch one day. Holy smokes they were good! The chips were thicker than the average kettle chip and cooked perfectly, and the vinegar taste was strong but not overwhelmingly so. It was also sweet and very moorish. These are some of the very best we’ve tasted so far, and makes me wonder why the other Utz ones are so average. An easy SSR!

I picked up the bag of Uncle Ray’s chips at our local train station and I reckon the Bible verse on the back is no accident since these chips were close to heavenly! Notably not kettle chips, their perfectly light and delicious, with super-sweet vinegar that can be eaten to excess without fear of ‘chip sweats’! I devoured this bag like a beast, and I reckon it’s unlikely I’ll ever taste a better non-kettle example. Undoubtedly an SSR.

Another nine types tasted and reviewed! There may have even been one or two others, only Covid has laid us both low this past week. No worries, we’ve still got a mighty stash to get through, so this is hardly the last in this series. Will anything surpass Lays kettle from last time? I wonder…