I love dip. Not the creepy chaw kind that you can buy and spit out, like chewing tobacco. No, I love party dips. Most people flock to the buffalo dip Erik and I make it for potlucks. I love ordering guacamole on a burger. Whenever I go to a restaurant that makes a specialty dip, I order it. Hell, sometimes I even break down and just buy dip because I feel lazy.
In any case, rarely do you find a chip that actually tastes like the dip it's trying to emulate. The last one I can remember was when Doritos made a guacamole flavor, and that was awesome. Now Lay's has a pepper relish potato chip and it even comes with a recipe on the back for making your own pepper relish. Huh. I saw this and I cocked my head a little. Pepper relish with pepper relish chips. It's the meta-snack to end all meta-snacks, isn't it now? It's pretty damned strange, but comparing the ingredients in the chips with the recipe, it looks like they're about the same.
So popping it open, you quickly realize that this isn't going to be a hot pepper chip, like a salsa. It's definitely more of a sweet pepper relish, like something you'd spoon onto a hot dog. Perhaps a sauerkraut flavor. If you don't like vinegar, don't eat these chips. There's a definite tang to them, but the overwhelming flavor is honestly that of the peppers. It's a very fresh tasting chip, more of a vegetable chip than a potato chip, and I thought that with all the acidic flavors- the peppers, the onion, the vinegar- it needed a creaminess, like a cheese or sour cream, to balance it out. The sugar helped soothe it, but it might be too tangy and sweet for some.
I was honestly surprised at how accurate the flavor was, and it was very refreshing to have something that didn't taste so artificial. Once the flavor died a little in my mouth, the potato taste crept out a little more. As for the chip itself, it seemed like there weren't very many chips in the bag, but the thinness of the chips was deceiving and I found myself crunching through them easily. There were more than I thought. And they were light and seemed to be a lot less greasy than the regular Lay's.
If anyone living outside the East Coast tries the other flavors of the Lay's natural line, would they mind sending me a bag? I'd be more than happy to send you a bag of these pepper relish Lay's in return! I know there are other flavors, but I can't get some of them.
Labels: 4, chips, snack
So popping it open, you quickly realize that this isn't going to be a hot pepper chip, like a salsa. It's definitely more of a sweet pepper relish, like something you'd spoon onto a hot dog. Perhaps a sauerkraut flavor. If you don't like vinegar, don't eat these chips. There's a definite tang to them, but the overwhelming flavor is honestly that of the peppers. It's a very fresh tasting chip, more of a vegetable chip than a potato chip, and I thought that with all the acidic flavors- the peppers, the onion, the vinegar- it needed a creaminess, like a cheese or sour cream, to balance it out. The sugar helped soothe it, but it might be too tangy and sweet for some.
I was honestly surprised at how accurate the flavor was, and it was very refreshing to have something that didn't taste so artificial. Once the flavor died a little in my mouth, the potato taste crept out a little more. As for the chip itself, it seemed like there weren't very many chips in the bag, but the thinness of the chips was deceiving and I found myself crunching through them easily. There were more than I thought. And they were light and seemed to be a lot less greasy than the regular Lay's.