Jake eats stuff!!

Doing something a little different for this blog post, in which I try 2 of the 3 new flavors of Lay's chips that they created for their flavor contest.  I'm not exactly a food expert and I'm the pickiest person I know, so for these posts I'm simply going to break them down into 'Smell', 'Taste', and my overall reaction.  Why only 2 of 3?  Well by the time I was finally able to get more than 1 of the flavors, the contest ended.  So at this point they're simply getting rid of excess product for Sriracha and Chicken & Waffle flavored chips and re-releasing Cheesy Garlic Bread at some point in the near future.  Luckily, Cheesy Garlic Bread is the only one I haven't had so I'll deal with it when it's been re-released.  But enough about the winning flavor, on with the two losing flavors!



Flavor #1) - Chicken & Waffles
Chicken and Waffles flavored chips?  That's either pure madness or pure genius.  On the blue bag there is a picture of a Fried Chicken leg and two waffles, drenched in syrup with a slice of butter on top.  Sure those items alone sound good together, but I'm not completely sure how those would translate into a flavor for a potato chip.  Let's see how this goes.

SMELL - Opening the bag and smelling the air that makes up the top half of any bag of chips, at first all I smelled was just the usual stereotypical potato chip smell.  A few more whiffs and I was able to detect a buttery-syrupy smell, so on the onset at least they've succeeded in the 'Waffles' part.  I was not able to smell anything that remotely smelled like chicken.  Perhaps they should've added a certain 11 herbs and spices into these...

TASTE -  A nice crunch to them.  The first chip I had from the bag had some flavoring but not a whole lot.  Since I couldn't get much from that first chip I chowed down on several more.  The 'Chicken' flavor finally decided to show up, though it wasn't much.  Merely tasted like a chicken meat seasoning that's been put onto a potato chip.  Chewing more and more brought out more of a buttery flavor than what the smell implied, with some sweetness from the 'syrup' also showing up.  Despite the flavors, there really isn't much of an after taste.  My mouth just feels like I ate some chips.  No specific flavoring of chips, just plain ol' potato chips.

OVERALL - Perhaps it was because I had low expectations, but overall I didn't think these chips were bad at all.  I mean I wouldn't buy more bags of this particular flavor, but I can see myself finishing up the bag sometime.  It is a different flavored chip than what I'm used to, and I do give Lay's credit for trying, and partially succeeding, at creating a potato chip that tasted like chicken and waffles. 



Flavor #2) - Sriracha

From what I could read from Wikipedia, Sriracha is a hot sauce from Thailand.  At least a hot sauce-flavored chip makes a little bit more sense than a Chicken & Waffles flavored chip.  And there have been other Hot-flavored chips before from other brands, so Sriracha as a flavor doesn't sound too out of the ordinary.  

SMELL -Opening the bag, it definitely had a Hot Barbeque-like smell.  I really don't have much more to add apart from that. 

TASTE - I have not had actual Sriracha, so I can't really compare it to the real thing.  Munching on some chips, it just tastes like a spicier version of a glorified barbeque potato chip.  The heat does linger in the mouth for a little bit.  Some spicy aftertaste as well.

OVERALL - I didn't really have any expectations going into this.  A hot sauce flavored chip.  As long as it's crunchy and as long as there's some heat to them, I'll be fine.  And you know what?  I liked it.  The chips had a good crunch, good flavor, and definitely had some heat to them.  Much better than the Chicken & Waffle flavored chips.  If this was the flavor that had won the contest I'd be perfectly fine with that.  But at the same time there's plenty of other potato chips on the market that already have a spicy flavor to them.  



And like I said earlier, I'll do the Cheesy Garlic Bread flavor when it's been rolled out in stores again.  I might find a few other foods or drinks that I'm willing to try to throw in there as well.  Might get some pictures next time as well.