The first day of summer is upon us! You know what that means? You’re going to get invited to a shit-ton of BBQs soon… fun!
But, oh no. Now you have to bring something, and making decisions is extremely overwhelming to you. Fret not, socially awkward humans. Junk Banter is here to help. Here’s a list of appropriate items, culminating with your new best friend:
1) Anything with bacon. (Great)
2) Potato Salad that you made yourself. (Good)
3) Potato Salad that you bought from the store. (Lazy)
4) Potato Chips that you bought from the store. (Lazy, Cheap)
5) Lay’s Creamy Bacon Potato Salad Chips (Perfect!)
Lay’s Creamy Bacon Potato Salad Chips
Yes, the brand new Lay’s Creamy Bacon Potato Salad Chips combines everything you’d want complementing the burgers and dogs at a backyard barbecue: bacon, potato salad, and chips. Just like your decision to bring these chips to the barbecue, Lay’s took the easy road when they designed this flavor. Potato salad is, after all, potatoes. But that’s not to say these can’t be amazing. A wise man once said: Potato salad is the shit, yo. A wiser man added bacon to it.
Lay’s Creamy Bacon Potato Salad Chips are made with something that Lay’s calls “potato salad seasoning.” I should just stop there because that’s hilarious, but Lay’s does break it down further to include ingredients such as sour cream, cheddar cheese, onion & garlic powder, mustard seed oil, and “natural bacon type flavor.” Riddle me this: How could something be natural but also come with a qualifier such as “type?”
Oh, just tried one… I see now. It’s kind of bacon, but not really. “Bacon type” indeed. Hell, it’s not really potato salad, either. “Potato salad” type?
Let’s discuss similarities. First, potatoes. Duh. Next, sour cream is a close enough approximation to mayonnaise and I’m personally relieved that they went with the former. Mayo grosses me out, but I can get down with sour cream. Unfortunately, the swap to sour cream means that Lay’s Creamy Bacon Potato Salad Chips are awfully similar to sour cream & onion chips. Except there’s a smack of bacon type to separate these chips from the classic sour cream & onion, but bacon type tastes a lot like bacon bits. Cheap and lazy.
Now for the differences: many. You’ll taste plenty of onion powder in the seasoning blend, but onion powder doesn’t carry the same flavor as the chopped onions you’d taste in a potato salad. There’s also some prominent garlic, but most potato salad recipes don’t contain much, if any, garlic. The seasoning also includes cheddar cheese, which is noticeable but not aggressive. None of this reminds me of potato salad. The biggest thing I think is missing is the fresh, chopped celery that gives a classic potato salad recipe it’s signature fresh flavor.
While Lay’s Creamy Bacon Potato Salad isn’t true to its name, it’s hard to really hate on these chips too much. If you like sour cream & onion chips and you want bacon with everything, these will still satisfy you. But for me? I snacked on more than a few handfuls, felt they were a little too familiar, and didn’t feel like wasting any more calories on them (I’m running low). I have no plans to repurchase these. Maybe if they named them “Loaded Mashed Potatoes” I wouldn’t have been so disappointed. But they’re not, and I am.
In summary, you should have just bought a potato salad you lazy bastard.
Cheap Rating: 7 out of 10
Lazy Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Overall Rating: 6.5 out of 10
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