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.
Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!