{"id":957,"date":"2026-05-27T17:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T17:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=957"},"modified":"2026-05-27T17:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T17:43:15","slug":"a-potato-chip-taste-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=957","title":{"rendered":"A Potato Chip Taste Test"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"Casey<\/p>\n

We take potatoes<\/a> very<\/em> seriously here at Cup of Jo, so we enlisted Casey Elsass<\/a> \u2014 recipe developer and food writer extraordinaire \u2014 to help us find the best potato chips out there. Casey has worked on over 20 cookbooks, and when it comes to party snacks, no one does it better (this is the man behind Mosaic Jell-O<\/a> and hot-fudge gifts<\/a>). With his finely tuned palate, he set out to rank five grocery-store chip brands. And the winner surprised us all\u2026<\/p>\n

\"potato<\/p>\n

The Contenders:<\/strong>
Five widely available potato-chip brands \u2014 original salted flavor only. I also nixed ridged chips or any specialty varieties. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Methodology:<\/strong>
As with our last taste test<\/a>, I set out blind samples, each numbered and coded to a key that I kept to myself. Sliced cucumber and plain sparkling water were available for palate-cleansing between tastes. In addition to ranking the samples, I asked Casey to weigh in on saltiness, crunch, and potato flavor. <\/p>\n

The Duds
5th Place: Utz<\/a>
4th Place: Zapp\u2019s<\/a><\/strong>
We\u2019ll start with the bad news: Both Utz and Zapp\u2019s were total flops. \u201cUtz has potato flavor and nothing else,\u201d Casey said. \u201cNot much salt, and it\u2019s pretty dry \u2014 like a potato cracker.\u201d The Zapp\u2019s chips were deemed very stale-tasting, even from a freshly opened bag. \u201cThey taste like they\u2019ve been sitting out,\u201d said Casey. \u201cAlso, for me, they\u2019re too crunchy.\u201d The good news for both these brands is that we all love them for their other work: Zapp\u2019s Voodoo chips<\/a> are one-of-a-kind, and no one does pretzels<\/a> like Utz. We\u2019ll let them stick to that, and leave the potato-chip business to our top three, which are\u2026<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Saltiest
3rd Place: Wise<\/a><\/strong>
This one seemed a little too salty on first bite: \u201cMy dream chip is salty, but salt should be a secondary flavor. With this one, it\u2019s immediate.\u201d But the Wise chips grew on Casey (and on me \u2014 though I kept my thoughts to myself during the proceedings!). It was the one he kept coming back to reconsider and was a strong contender for second place. Until\u2026<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Silver Medalist
2nd Place: Boulder Canyon<\/a><\/strong>
Who knew?! These chips have been around for 30 years, but are still comparative newbies in the century-old American potato-chip industry. \u201cMmm!\u201d Casey said, visibly surprised when he first tried them. \u201cThis one\u2019s very light \u2014 crispy, but in a snappy way. And it has a good balance of potato and salt.\u201d These chips were so good that Casey very nearly gave Boulder the crown. He did a palate cleanse, then a side-by-side comparison with his other top pick, just to be sure. And in the end, although Boulder chips were excellent, the winner, no question, was\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Slam-Dunk Favorite
1st Place: Lay\u2019s<\/a><\/strong>
\u201cYes, this is it,\u201d Casey said. \u201cThey have perfect crunch, and the flavor progression is ideal: oil, potato, salt. They look so light that you expect them to be too airy, but the crispiness is spot on.\u201d After sampling them, Casey suspected they might be Lay\u2019s, specifically because<\/em> of that subtle perfection. \u201cIf you\u2019ve ever been to Italy, the big thing there is \u2018aperitivo,\u2019 a before-dinner ritual, where you have your spritz and some little snacks. And I\u2019m almost positive that everyone in Italy is serving Lay\u2019s.\u201d While I cannot confirm Casey\u2019s Aperitivo Theory, I believe it. I always thought of Lay\u2019s as oil-heavy, but this test proved me wrong (as our colleague Alison put it, \u201cIt\u2019s shocking how much better these are than the others\u201d). On overall satisfaction, Lay\u2019s were \u2014\u00a0to the official and<\/em> unofficial testers \u2014 the stand-out favorite. When the taste test was over, we sat around in the garden and finished the whole bag.<\/p>\n

\"Casey<\/p>\n

Thank you so much for your expertise, Casey<\/a>! So, friends, do you agree with these findings? And what snack, dessert, or ingredient shall we put to the test next?<\/strong><\/p>\n

P.S. Many more taste tests<\/a>, and THE best summer dessert to bring over<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(Thank you to Alison<\/a> for letting us use your garden!)<\/p>\n

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36<\/span> COMMENTS<\/p>\n

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