Someone is about to win a million dollars for coming up with a new Lay’s potato chip flavor. You know what, let me go ahead and repeat that: Someone is about to win a million dollars for coming up with a new Lay’s flavor. Like, excuse me? Where was I when Lay’s Do Us a Flavor contest came out? Asleep? In a taste test-induced food coma? Playing my four-hundredth hour of Baldur’s Gate? (Any of those options could be true, honestly.)
Well, it’s too little, too late for us at Sporked. The three Lay’s Do Us a Flavor winners were picked, and their fun new chip concepts have been created and released to the world. The least we can do now is give you our opinion on them. That’s what we do, after all. It’s our lane and we’re sticking to it. Let’s take a look at these new Lay’s chip flavors: Lay’s Korean-Style Fried Chicken, Lay’s Bacon Grilled Cheese, and Lay’s Valentina & Lime. (Warning: Brutal honesty ahead.)
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Pros: This new Lay’s flavor comes from Neelia Lynn, who was inspired by her family’s time in South Korea. I’ll say this much: It’s nice to have a Korean flavored-snack that isn’t purely gojuchang. (A recent trend in the snack aisle that I’m not mad about—but let’s diversify our Korean flavor profiles a bit, shall we?) I can appreciate what the flavor scientists behind this concept were going for: if you search for it, you can kinda-sorta-maybe taste a slightly sweet and savory seasoning that resembles the breading of Korean fried chicken. The wavy potato chip also serves the concept well—you feel like you’re eating something that sizzled on a grill.
Cons: Give me grease. Give me sweet and salty umami goodness. For god’s sake, give me fried chicken. This flavor is a mere shadow of what it could be. Also, it has a slightly burnt aftertaste that really detracts from any noticeable chicken flavor. I like the concept, but it doesn’t quite hit the mark.
Pros: Bacon Grilled Cheese, a perfectly fine but not incredibly inspired flavor concept (sorry, Paula George from Oklahoma), at the very least delivers on tasting like something. That’s the power of cheese, I guess. (The bar is low here, people.) The smoky bacon doesn’t taste too fake, either, which can be difficult to pull off.
Cons: This flavor was very divisive in the office. Personally, I find it unoffensive. It has the vague essence of french fries loaded with bacon and American cheese. But plenty of people tried this new Lay’s flavor and made faces of immediate displeasure. I really think it depends on your tolerance for processed cheese and artificial smoke. My biggest gripe is that I wish it had a toasted bread thing going for it. They kept the flavor pretty simple and pared back…and they still didn’t make it taste very good, to be honest.
Pros: This flavor was submitted by Araceli Huerta and is based on her favorite childhood snack: Lay’s potato chips tossed with Valentina hot sauce and fresh lime. That sounds f*cking incredible, and I absolutely want to try it for myself…which is something that the flavor scientists behind this project probably didn’t do. Just a hunch, really. I know I’m still in the pros column, so let me say this: the Valentina flavor, when you get it, is pretty spot-on. That much they got right. And the concept is easily my favorite among the new Lay’s flavors.
Cons: I really think if these were slightly more vinegary, with a stronger touch of lime, we’d really be in business. They could definitely be spicier, too. More acid, zest, and overall flavor dust would really pack a better punch. As it stands, these are just kind of boring. But I still think the concept is the best of the bunch and deserves a second chance, which is why I’m giving it my endorsement. I just wish it was a little punchier.
Ariana Losch is a Sporked contributor, webcomic writer, java junkie, and bad TV enthusiast. She only ever feels at peace laying out on a beach like a kebab, roasting in the sun; sadly, she can never move back to Florida, her home state, because there simply isn’t enough good Mediterranean food. You can find her overstaying her welcome at just about every LA coffee shop, working on a screenplay and avoiding all eye contact. (She is embarrassed to be there, please leave her alone.)
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