Sizzling Artificial Squid Flavor
Ranking: B-
A pretty good chip. No real squid flavor, just a kind of seasoned salt with funk flavor. It has some heat-spice (I guess that’s ‘sizzling’).
Straight up potato chip (instead of thick ridged) would have worked better.
Pepper and Artificial Fried Chicken flavor
Ranking: B
A perfectly fine chip. Not much pepper. Definitely some fried chicken savoriness. These Deep Ridged chips come across as a little thick/stale.
Italian Red Meat Flavor
Rank: B-
Pretty good, basic chip. Definitely tomato flavor, not too sweet. Not getting the ‘red meat’-ness, no real umami.
Seaweed flavor
(should say nori flavor)
Ranking: B+
This is a good, simple, tasty chip. My son used to inhale seaweed snacks, and I suspect it was a little like this. A little sweet, a little salt, and that good seaweed-y umami funk. Very satisfying.
Marinated Mustard Cookie Flavor
Ranking: C-
The flavor must be a poor translation. I honestly don’t know what it’s going for. It’s a mild, salty chip. Little potato essence. No mustard heat. Kinda mattered stuffing. Not actively BAD, just very much not good.
Roasted Chicken Wing Flavor
Ranking: B-
These deep ridge chips start at a deficit, as they come across as slightly stale and cakey.
The flavor is pretty good, sweet, roasty, and chicken-y (like chicken in a biscuit). Kinda like bbq.
Spanish ham flavor
Ranking: A-
This is a surprisingly good Pringles-style chip. There’s a legit ‘porkiness’ that you don’t expect. A kind of meaty funk. A touch of sweetness, but mostly subtle umami.
I love that the first ingredient is “potato snowflake powder.”
Hot and Spicy Braised Duck Tongue Flavor
Ranking: B+
Like an elevated barbecue chip. Sweet, salty, umami, and definitely with some spicy heat. Tastes like the sauce you’d got on a braised duck or mu shu pork. Definitely one of the better chips I’ve had recently.
#AsianLaysRankings
Lay’s Big Wave Potato Chips
Tomato flavor
Ranking: C-
Brings sweet tomato flavor. A bit one note. Docked because the ‘big wave’ chip is a little cakey, almost stale, not the right ‘crisp’ I seek from a chip.
Lay’s Chili Potato Chips (Spicy Crayfish flavor)
Rating: B-
A pretty good Pringles-style chip. Definitely some of that crayfish sweetness and fishiness. Very little
spiciness/chiliness. Decent salt. Some umami.
Sweet & Spicy Fried Chicken
Rating: C+
An okay chip. Too sweet (barbecue, tomato sweetness.). A little spicy. Has that ‘breading’ quality. Wouldn’t go back.
Black Pepper Rib Eye Steak Flavor
Rating: B
Surprisingly steak-y flavor, even that kind of buttery fattiness that good steak has. Marked down because it’s a bit too sweet, and not enough salt.
Pepper and Artificial Fried Chicken
B+ (would have been A-, but the bag is skimpy!)
The best new chip I’ve had in a while. Sweet smoky ‘chicken in a biscuit’ type flavor. Satisfying flavor, satisfying crunch (deep ridged!).
Finger Licking Braised Pork Flavor
S-Tier Rating: B+
I’ve never had Pringles-style Asian Lays. I couldn’t resist the name.
Sweet, porky, slight funk undertone. Actually does the mouth-coating you’d expect from the name. Would eat again!
Taro Chips (sea salt and black pepper flavor)
Rank: C (on S-tier scale)
A bland chip. You’re chewing lightly salted starch. Misses that sweetness you want in a taro chip, and it also feels a little stale.
Today's Flavor: Fried Crab Flavor
A big old "meh." I mean, I see what's implied by the 'fried crab' descriptor, but it doesn't come through all that strongly in the chip. I was considering how it compared to just, like, a plain potato chip, and I think I would prefer a plain potato chip more. It's not bad, just dull. So...
Ranking: C (C- to be specific)
Today’s Flavor: Roasted Garlic Oyster Flavor
Garlic. Garlic, garlic, garlic. That’s what you’re getting with this chip. There is a super subtle oyster undercurrent, slight funkiness, but really, this is a garlic potato chip.
Ranking: C (C+ maybe, but I don’t really want to have these again.)
Today's Flavor: Roasted Ribs
Maybe it was because I was having these with a delicious Sichuan Hot Chicken sandwich from OK's Deli, but these chips had very little flavor. Drab barbecue. No oomph.
Ranking: C
Yesterday's Flavor: Smoked Pork Ribs Flavor
(forgot to log this yesterday)
It's... barbecue. Like, a barbecue chip, though neither as sweet or spicy. Does have a subtle pork flavor that lingers and builds.
It's fine!
Ranking: B
Today's Flavor: Creamy Lobster Flavor
A curious chip. While it doesn't strictly taste like creamy lobster, it gives the impression of lobster (or at least some shellfish) and butter (like 'butter' flavored oil you'd get on movie popcorn). It's also sweet and even a little citrus-bright.
This is less of a flavor than it is a suggestion of a flavor.
Ranking: B. Maybe B- because this bag has so few actual chips in them.
