Lay's Doritos Cool Ranch Flavored Potato Chips

A co-worker brought a bag of these to the break room table...

It was as if Lay's put the Cool Ranch flavor onto a potato chip but didn’t attempt to duplicate the Dorito flavor. I happened to have a snack sized bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and I decided to taste them side by side. Of course, the Doritos won. Doritos have a smoky corn flavor (being corn chips), with a hint of spiciness that is a satisfying flavor pairing with cool ranch. The potato chips are okay with cool ranch, but I have a problem with Lay's calling these Doritos flavored. They're just decent, cool ranch flavored chips. 

These get two potatoes out of four. I could eat them again, but they are not something I'd buy.

Lay's Chestnut Flavored Potato Chips

 A co-worker brought these to the break room table...

These are Lay's from China! And they're delicious. The chestnut flavor is more sweet than salty or savory. But the sweet, slightly savory flavor matches nicely with the crispness of the Lay's. I don't know why it works, but it does. That being said, Its not a flavor that matches with food well, in my opinion, so these chips are a great novelty, but I wouldn't buy them as a snack chip. 

I give these three potato out of four.

Turkey & Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips

During Thanksgiving, Trader Joe's provided its loving customers with a special treat: Turkey and Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips: "All the flavors of Thanksgiving in each potato chip." I get very excited at the prospect of entree flavored chips such as 7-11's Big Bite Hot Dog Potato Chips or Lay's Classic BLT, but this bag of chips promised me the flavors of a Thanksgiving dinner! Move over Willy Wonka!

I brought these to a Friendsgiving potluck for my food-loving friends to taste with me and although no one thought they were awful, I was only one having a hard time eating just one. I closed the bag so I would have room to enjoy all the amazing food my friends made, but took the chips home, where I ate them by myself over the next few days, along with leftovers.
The back of the bag says "first you taste the turkey, then comes the stuffing, and if you close your eyes, you'll swear you can taste the creamy gravy, too."  My experience was slightly different. There is a distinct flavor of poultry, sage, celery and onion. They taste like I took a forkful of turkey and stuffing and popped it right into my mouth. No gravy, but I also didn't close my eyes while tasting them! As far as mouthfeel goes, they are a light kettle-style chip and therefore did not tear up my mouth and they also did not leave an oily feel nor a bad aftertaste.

Trader Joe's has successfully bagged the "traditional American Thanksgiving meal," although, and I am grateful, they did not try to squeeze dessert in on this chip!
Flavor: accurate
Texture: kettle style
Rating: Three Potato. I can't eat these all the time, but they're a great treat and worth buying one bag of during the holiday season.

P.S.
Two Thanksgivings ago, I found Boulder Canyon Brand's Turkey and Gravy and Pumpkin Pie Kettle Cooked Potato Chips (two separate chips). As you can see on the left, there was a time period I was not posting any blogs and I wasn't really doing a good job at chip tasting, either. I let those chips expire in my snack cabinet and I'm ashamed of wasting food, and more importantly of wasting possibly delicious chips. I'll keep an eye out for Boulder Canyon for next holiday season.

7 Select Brand Spicy Guacamole Thin Tortilla Chips

The bag says “thin tortilla chips,” which is accurate. They are light and crispy and a nice texture for snacking. No jaw-shaking crunch or mouth-slicing shards of hard tortilla chips. 

The first thing that hits you is the spice. These are spicy, so those with a low tolerance for the heat, should avoid them, but the acclimated will think it nothing. When you start chewing and moving the chip bolus around you get a creamy nuttiness that I assume is supposed to be avocado. Then the smokiness comes in and brings it all full circle: a smoky, creamy spice. I wasn’t able to taste any tomato, although there’s tomato paste in the ingredients. But I think the sour cream, onions and garlic that really come through. There’s no avocado listed in the ingredients! 

Overall, these are good. I would eat them, again. I would serve them at a party. I will probably use them in my taco salad recipe. I give them three potatoes. 

My best friend bought these for me from 7-11, where they continue to offer interesting and often good flavors under their own brand. 

Herr's Pizza Flavored Potato Chips

This video was a long time in the making and I'm really happy with it. My parents, the two other crazy people you'll hear in this recording, are the ones who got me into tasting stuff. They always have new snack products around the kitchen to try and we always experiment when we go out to eat or to events. Both of them are great with words and fantastic at storytelling, so I thought they'd make excellent potato chip testers. This slideshow proves that I am correct, again!

                                                                                                 

Kettle Brand Krinkle Cut Potato Chips Buffalo Bleu

During a random stop at an AmPm on the way to a wedding, I picked up a bag of Kettle Brand Krinkle Cut Potato Chips Buffalo Bleu. I thought I had tried every flavor of Kettle Brand, but I couldn't remember what the deal was with Buffalo Bleu. So I decided to buy them. Why not!
Yum! After three weeks of not-so-great chipping, these were a wonderful surprise. My only experience with buffalo flavor is with the chicken wings. I didn't really have that flavor come through. It was more like a mild spicy yummily buffered by bleu cheese. I checked the ingredients and they include “bleu cheese flavor,” which, not surprisingly, is made from real bleu cheese! Ha! I thought that was funny.

So, back to the wedding. I know you're asking: “why are you stopping at convenient stores before a wedding and buying crunchy chips to leave a trail of crumbs on the front of your dress. ” Well, maybe you're not that curious, but I'd like to explain. We got there an hour and an half before the wedding was set to start and we were all hungry. And the wedding started about 45 late, so we had our convenient store snacks plus hors d'oeuvres! These get 3 out of 4 potatoes.