tips on chip taxonomy + revealing my biases

well, i sure ate a lot of chips this week with my friend josephine. despite being a bit of a goth, she is really a good sport, about chips and all other subjects. anyway, this week we ate a lot of herr's cheese curls, which brings me to the subject that i have been dreading: i have a preference in crunchy bagged snacks.

photo courtesy of my friends at the nytimes

let's talk about the varieties:

• chips
• potato chip
• seasoning
• plain / salted / classic
• specialty potato
• specialty preparation (this includes "kettle" varieties
• corn chip
• seasoning
• plain corn / salted
• extruded & puffy varieties
• straight up puffy
• corn - think jax or herr's puffed cheese curls
• potato - i don't know what this is but i am sure it is out there
• other flours (dry powdered apple? yes i can review my favorite product made with apple flour some time)
• puffy yet crunchy
• corn - this is where i would put classic cheetos

potato chips:

i have a strong preference for traditional chips, over puffy crisps/snacks. i think my absolute favorite is a potato chip. i really do like classic salted potato chips for an everyday scenario, and my favorite brands are lays's classic and utz salted classic. in flavored or seasoned potato chips, i really liked those cheddar and sour cream ruffles i had a few weeks ago. i keep thinking of them. i also do like a few chips made with specialty potatoes. cape cod potato chips used to have excellent russet potato chips (just salted), and now they have wonderful yukon gold potato chips.

corn chips:

in the corn chip category, i like seasoned and nonseasoned chips equally. if i am just snacking (as opposed to making nachos or utilizing chips for dipping), i really do prefer doritos spicy nacho. the doritos tacos locos were very delicious, so that might be my runner up. if i am going beyond a simple bowl of corn chips, i like using doritos in nachos, but for plain corn chips, i really like bearitos corn chips in blue corn and tostitos corn chips in restaurant style though they have been registering a bit lip-chappy on my salt scale lately. 

extruded snacks:

puffed bagged snacks are not usually my first choice, but if i am eating them i like classic cheetos, which are puffy yet crunchy. the only straight up puffy variety i like is jax, i find that other varieties tend to be digested by salivary amylase a few seconds too soon for me, and i don't really like that. jax seem to have a good crunch factor despite their puffiness. sometimes i get apple sticks from trader joe's and i like those a lot because i love chips but i am getting maybe 1/8 of a serving of an apple.

photo courtesy of my friends at trader joe's

tacos locos doritos & the search for do us a flavor lays

last week i was on the hunt for the new flavors of lays -- i polled everyone on philadelphia yelp to see where i can get my hands on those chips. the flavors are chicken and waffles, sriracha, and cheesy garlic bread. i walked twenty blocks in a downpour to check out a superfresh and a walgreens that reportedly had the chips. they did not.
eventually i was complaining to my sister about it, and she bought me some in upstate NY at hannaford's, but i am still on the hunt in philadelphia. alison says the sriracha ones are good, my mom says the cheesy garlic bread chips were a good flavor but kind of weird/alarming on a chip. she is not as adventurous in her chip consumption, so take that with a grain of salt if you are a chip connoisseur.

when i went to wawa to look for these chips, i came across a pleasant surprise, the super meta branded doritos tacos locos CHIPS. obviously i have enjoyed the doritos tacos locos TACOS at taco bell -- i am a big taco bell lover and a big doritos lover, so i have enjoyed the doritos taco shells on a number of occasions. i find them a bit powdery and not that flavorful, but i am looking fwd to trying the cooler ranch ones.

anyway, because of all that i didn't have super high expectations for these chips, though they were in a two-flavors-one-bag, which is a marketing trick i enjoy.

the chips ended up being excellent! i enjoyed them with a wawa chai tea for lunch in the sunny plaza at school. i think the combo of nacho cheese (typically too cheesy/not spicy enough for me, my default is spicy nacho doritos) and taco chips was an excellent balance, and these chips really impressed me.

4.5-5/5

welcome

Welcome to my little chip of the 'net. I have noticed that I have a growing love for novelty chip varietals, and I thought I should probably blog about it. I hope to be posting reviews and experiences of the novelty chips I indulge in.

Novelty chips I have tried:

• Herr's Loaded Baked Potato 5/5 stars
• Ruffles Ultimate, classic flavor 3/5 stars
• Doritos Stacked, enchilada supreme 4/5 stars
• Doritos Jacked, smoky chipotle 3.5/5 stars
• Doritos, classic formulation taco flavor 3.5/5 stars
• Doritos Dinamita, chile limon 5/5 stars
• Doritos Dinamita, nacho picoso 3.5/5 stars 
• Lays, classic formulation Spicy Ketchup flavor 4/5 stars for execution but 3/5 out of personal preference