Nothing is more fun than a potato chip that sets out to taste like a different food altogether. The best snack food we tasted in all of 2023 was a bag of Lay’s Wavy potato chips that successfully channeled all the flavors of a Cuban sandwich—for real, you really could taste ham, mustard, pickles, and even Swiss cheese. Pretty amazing stuff. But snack brands don’t always nail the alchemy required to condense the many components of a particular dish into a flavor powder for a chip. Still, we were excited to try Trader Joe’s Pizza Party Potato Chips, which promise to taste like a “pizza party in a bag,” complete with cheese, garlic, pizza sauce, and pepperoni. Do they really bring the pizza vibes? We tasted them to find out.
If you like pizza-flavored snacks—Pepperoni Pizza Combos, Pizza Pringles—you’re gonna like these. They have that distinct “pizza-flavored snack” thing going on. The flavor powder on these kettle chips tastes mostly like pizza sauce—you get lots of tangy tomato and some oregano, too. And you might get a hint of cheesy flavor if you really search for it. What makes these Trader Joe’s potato chips better than other pizza-flavored chips is the chips themselves. They’re super crunchy and oily and flavorful—the good, greasy chips really contribute to the overall pizza-ish experience. Sporked editor-in-chief Justine Sterling said that they have “a real frozen pizza crust flavor and quality” thanks to the nature of the kettle chips. I don’t think everyone will love these, but they’re fun enough to munch on while you watch a bad movie and guzzle a two liter of Coke on a Friday night.
Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks.
Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown.
What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction.
Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home.
Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!
Gwynedd Stuart
Jordan Myrick
Ariana Losch
Jessica Block
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!