Best national brand potato chip

Local and "speciality" brands (like Dirty Chips and Route 66) seem to be a category of their own.
What are your picks for the best national potato chip? Regular or ripples.....
Lays? Utz? Wise? Snyders? Herr's? I'm sure there are others but those are all I can think of.

Personally I love Herr's. Not every supermarket has them.

Original Ruffles. Yum yum.

Zapps has recently shown up at my local deli in Connecticut . . . if its a national brand now, then its the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!

Yippee!! Jay's potato chips are in Big Lots in NC!! Unfortunately not the regular BBQ (only the super Hot and regular plain ripple), but it's a start!

Vegas, I'm with you - I'm totally addicted to Zapp's Cajun Crawtators and so glad to hear they've gotten as far as Conn.

definately Cape Cod Potato Chips...not sure if they are a local brand or not....nice and crunchy

Zapp's is very good. I get there here in NJ at one store. UTZ is excellant as well.

You must try Tyrrells chips, imported from England and now available in most Whole Foods as well as many supermarket chains around the country.

Herr's are mainly mid altantic. Utz has a little more area but I don't think either are national. That really doesn't leave that many brands to choose from. Kettle type chips.

Charle's chips, IMHO, hands down the best.

Cape Cod by far the best of the national brands

Anything made by Frito-Lay (never had Cape Code and Snyder is WAYYYY too salty and hard for me).

Regular chip--- Lay's
Kettle Chip --- Zapp's and Cape Cod are both good.

I love Utz too, but they aren't national. You can't get them everywhere.

Gibbles. That was easy.

If it IS a national brand, I vote for Wise...

utz is everywhere around here, they pretty good. i like cape cod and krunchers, i'm hooked on the krunchers mesquite barbecue. not a big fan of ripple chips...i just had some bachmans yesterday for 1st time in 5 years, i thought they fell off the map but i saw em at a pizza shop and they were kinda weak...i think i only used to like em cuz i'd be eating em with a onion cheese steak from super sub which used to be good and now sukks.

quote:

Originally posted by thegman

Gibbles. That was easy.

oh how do I miss Gibbles !!!!!

Other than Lays and maybe a handful of others I have a feeling that most potato chips are regional. I have yet to see Gibbles or Utz here in Denver.

But the chip I miss the most is Virginia's Route 11 chips. Very good even though it seems whenever a store carries them, out of the blue they stop.

quote:

Originally posted by frogger67

Local and "speciality" brands (like Dirty Chips and Route 66) seem to be a category of their own.
What are your picks for the best national potato chip? Regular or ripples.....
Lays? Utz? Wise? Snyders? Herr's? I'm sure there are others but those are all I can think of.

Personally I love Herr's. Not every supermarket has them.

Original RRRRRRuffles with rrrrridges

I like the new Lays Kettle Cooked.
I also like Dirty Chips Honey mustard flavor.

Recently we bought some Archer Farms Sea Salt Olive Oil chips at Target and I like them. They're thick chips (but not kettle style) with noticeable potato flavor, and aren't too salty or greasy. The ingredients are russet potatoes, olive oil and safflower or sunflower oil, and sea salt.

Brad

UTZ everytime...

Kettle chips.

Zapps is the best.

Most of the brands mentioned are not available in the NorthWest. I personally vote for Lays Kettle. Regular not rippled. The flavored ones tend to taste artificial to me.

P.S.

Have a friend who is an insider at Frito-Lay. He explained some chips disappear from the shelves due to two reasons.

First if the route driver slacks and is not aggressive for the floor or shelf space. They need to get in friendly with the receiving clerk and store manager. It takes a high energy person with great customer service and sale skills to keep their products on the shelf.

Second is obvious, lack of sales. Every inch in retail must produce to be kept in stock. Some companies send vendors into the store and hand out samples, some do not. Depends on the size and income level of the company.

Laura