Do you guys try the flavors that Frito-Lay has been doing with their chips during the last few years? They introduce a few flavors, you try them out, and go vote for your favorite, and then they keep that one going forward as a permanent flavor.
Lately they’ve added
Fried Green Tomato (Ruffled)
Everything Bagel w/ cream cheese (Kettle Cooked)
Crispy Taco (regular lays)
Me and a co-worker were at Subway today for lunch, so we tried a bag of the first two entries and shared.
I gotta say, that was completely underwhelming. The Ruffled chips just tasted like super salty Ruffles, not fried green tomatoes. And the Kettle Cooked chips just tasted like Salt & Pepper Kettle Cooked chips.
This is the first time in the flavor chip contest that the chips haven’t tasted like the flavor promised in the title.
I’m told the “masala” flavored Lays potato chips they sell in India are very good, but I haven’t seen them in the states.
As far as kettle-cooked goes, why should that be a particularly good thing, anyway? Aren’t most potato chips fried? Frying in a vat, a kettle, or a tiny individually wrapped potato-chip-shaped sachet should be pretty much the same thing, shouldn’t it?
Never got the kettle thing. The chips seem to be overly hard and shatter like glass. I like a chip thin and crisp. I was raised on Wise but I enjoy Lays as well. Herr’s makes a good ketchup chip. Of course Salt and vinegar Wise are life.
It’s not the kettle, per se. Rather, it’s the lower heat and longer cooking time that results from cooking a large batch at once. Vat chips are basically passed through in a continuous stream of hot oil that cooks the chips faster, on a per chip basis, compared to kettle (e.g., batch).
The texture difference between kettle and non-kettle is pretty apparent—it isn’t just a fancy name.
I tried the wasabi flavored Doritos. My son wouldn’t touch them. My wife and daughter both thought they were weird, and I agree but somehow these weird chips work for me. I did notice that they weren’t exactly flying off the store shelves, so they’ll likely disappear for good.
Yeah, whenever I go into Sam’s Club, I always see a full display of Wasabi Doritos untouched by customers. I’ve been very curious about trying them, but with a size that big, that would be too unhealthy. I guess I need to find one at a convenience store or Subway.
Ha, that’s exactly where I got mine. They’ll probably mark down the last crate to get rid of them and then they’ll be gone for good. So if you want to try them, give it a shot while you can. Just use self control and only eat a few at a time :-)
However, I have tried the Taco and Fried Green Tomato chips mentioned upthread. I agree the FGTs basically just tasted like generically savory chips, but. . .
Half of this is exactly correct; the flavor accuracy of the taco chips is fucking uncanny. So much so they actually made me feel a little sick for reasons I cannot explain.
