Which Potato Chip is best?

Potato chips! 

The lord of all snacks!  “Want me to bring some chips?” <- Most likely that person is bringing potato chips.  They are ubiquitous with snacking. As they should be. They are delicious!

But have you been snacking on a sub-par chip?  Well we’re here to help! No special flavors, this taste test is all about sliced potatoes, cooked in oil, with salt – the original potato chip.  (We make sure our taste tests our blind and fair. To see how we run each test, click here.)

For this Food Showdown, Jill went to 3 grocery stores and even hit up the dollar store to purchase not 6… not 7… but EIGHT types of potato chips. And none of these were kettle or wavy or baked. Just plain old potato chips.

The brands included were:

Safeway Select

Home Style Select (Dollar Tree brand)

Lay’s

Lay’s Deli Style

Simply Lay’s

O Organics

Great Value (Walmart)

Clover Club

This was a huge showdown and taught us the lesson that when you get past 6 options it becomes overwhelming. Plus eating upwards of 5 chips from each bowl gets to be a lot of chips and makes the corner of your mouth start to hurt from all the salt.  We drank so much water.

So which potato chip won?

As you might have guessed (or as their marketer’s would hope you would’ve guessed), first place was Lay’s!  Just the good ol’ plain Lay’s. Going in, two of our panelists said Lay’s Deli was their favorite, and thought Lay’s was Lay’s Deli. They were so sure. So if you haven’t had Lay’s for a while, maybe you should give them a second chance.

Official standings are:

(parenthesis are the price per ounce)

1 – Lay’s (31)

2 – Lay’s Deli (45)

Tie for 3rd

3 – Safeway Select (19) and Home Style Select (17)

4 – O Organics (60)

5 – Simply Lay’s (35)

6 – Great Value (23)

7 – Clover Club (30)

This was a fun showdown and we really enjoyed ranking them.  Because who doesn’t like eating a bunch of chips? I will highlight that if you were going to hold a party and wanted it to save a dollar, the Dollar Tree’s brand (Home Style Select) is your way to go.  It tied for third place, and was the cheapest. (Ironically it tied in third with the second cheapest, Safeway Select.) So remove the branding, just pour them in a bowl, and watch your guests unknowingly enjoy!

I hope you learned from our potato chip taste test. Go forth and snack with the knowledge you have gained here today!  😛