Lay’s Is Bringing The Smoke With Its New Flavor

Barbecue season is NOT. OVER. YET. Don’t let the naysayers tell you otherwise! Don’t let all these brands distract you with their pumpkin spice products! It’s still alive and kicking, and there’s fire in the ol’ grill yet. Just a few days ago, in fact, we were offering up tips and tricks for your Labor Day BBQ – and now, we’re offering up a new chip flavor that if you so choose, can sit alongside your burgers and hot dogs. 

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Okay, WE’RE not offering it up; Lay’s is. But you know what we mean. Lay’s has a new flavor, and we’d like to bring it to your attention – even if it leaves a lot to be desired for some people. 

Lay’s Barbecue Brisket Flavored Chips

A couple of days ago, good old @candyhunting on Instagram revealed that Lay’s has just released a new Barbecue Brisket flavor, and so far, they’ve shown up in Target and Kroger. The idea here, of course, is that these chips have a beefier, smokier, deeper note than the other barbecue flavors in Lay’s lineup…of which there are several. As @candyhunting points out, Lay’s already has Barbecue, Honey Barbecue, Sweet Southern Heat Barbecue, and Wavy Hickory Barbecue sitting on supermarket shelves – so these chips would have to be pretty good to beat them. 

And do they? Reader, it’s a mixed picture. Shortly after this new flavor dropped in stores, a Reddit thread popped up with the ominous title “Limited Edition Lays: BBQ Brisket – STAY AWAY!” Obviously we’re going to have to jump in there and see what this person made of them, and do say they didn’t like them is an understatement. “This might be the worst flavor they’ve ever come up with- so bad that I seriously wondered if I got a spoiled batch or was being pranked,” the Redditor said. “How it passed any internal reviews is beyond me, it tastes nothing like any brisket I’ve ever had. The BBQ flavor is unbalanced, oversweetened, and lacking in any depth.”

Yikes…

Yikes indeed. Now, in the interests of balance, other people have said that they like the flavor, and pointed out that while it’s not exactly truly brisket-y, that’s not really a huge problem. Who’d have thought BBQ chips would be so divisive in the year of our lord 2026? If you want to try them, these are limited-edition (we’re sure the people who hated them will be breathing a sigh of relief at that one), so give them a whirl before they’re gone. If you’re not totally put off, that is.