Lay's Chicken & Waffles

In the same grouping as Lay's Cheesy Garlic Bread, we have these... Lay's Chicken & Waffles.  I don't want to speak poorly of them before trying them, as I do enjoy chicken and waffles... sometimes even chicken and waffles combined, but... in a chip?  What?  But... why?  Do people really enjoy them so much that this was a top three front-runner for the new flavor?

 Also, given my experience with multi-flavor chips only really having one main flavor, I'm unsure if I'll taste chicken or waffle or some magical combination of the two.  Who can say?  I can because I'm about to try them.

But what do they taste like?
They taste a lot like how they smell which is 'syrup-y'.  Not much chicken or waffle in fact.  It's mostly syrup that I'm tasting.  And... I guess, to be fair, if you're eating chicken and waffles and you put maple syrup on them then that's pretty much all you're going to taste.  But... if you advertise chicken and waffles then I kinda expect to at least taste some chicken or waffles and not just the topping.  I think the big problem is that they're thinking too big.  Make one flavor really good - not this weird mix of two flavors that completely fails at tasting like either.

There's something little bit... smokey... about them, which I guess could be argued as the 'chicken' flavor, but I don't think it really qualifies.  I had chicken chips in Australia and those often tasted like chicken - with this I don't get much chicken flavor at all.  These really mostly taste like syrup and it's a little disappointing.  I was promised several flavors, and I'm just not seeing it.

There's something weird about eating syrup flavored potato chips that I don't think requires a repeat.  These are a novelty, sure, but nothing more.  I certainly hope they don't win the flavor war, or, if they do, are branded just as syrup chips because that's what they are.  The hunt continues for the Sriracha flavored chips, but until then, the Cheesy Garlic Bread is the winner, even though they weren't all that great either.  Still... these aren't awful, they're just very syrup-y.

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Lay's Cheesy Garlic Bread

So Lay's is doing this promotion I guess where they have three new chip flavors: Chicken and Waffles, Cheesy Garlic Bread and Sriracha.  We, the American people, get to decide which is chosen!  These are Cheesy Garlic Bread and I'm excited.  I love a good garlic bread, especially the cheesy sort.

But... the smell isn't particularly cheesy or garlic bread-y.  They smell more like plain chips than anything, and there are no seasoning nibblies on it.  This isn't super promising.

But what do they taste like?
Garlic-y.  Actually... these are pretty good.  They don't do the cheesy part well, but they do the base garlic bread part well I think.  I'm actually pretty impressed that they taste like garlic bread, and not just garlic.  But, the problem is that they rarely taste like garlic bread.  Maybe it's the lack of seasonings that keeps these from having a stronger flavor, which is disappointing because the flavor that's there is tasty.  This tastes a bit butter-y, too.  Yummy!  There's now a stronger flavor of buttery bread than garlic and cheese.

Buuuut, the big problem is that the flavor just isn't that strong.  I'd imagine that with the Chicken and Waffles chips I'll appreciate a lack of flavor, but cheesy garlic bread is delicious!  Why hide this flavor with potato chip flavor?

Bottom line?  These are pretty good, but they just don't pack much of a punch for me.  What I'd like to see is actual, powerful garlic bread flavor.  That sounds delicious!  I want this chip flavor times three or four.  And maybe some actual cheese taste, too.  That'd be nice.

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Lays Garden Tomato & Basil

I've seen these around enough that I'm not sure they're 'strange' anymore, but I can only find them at a few places (Duane Reade being one of them) and I've never tried them so I pronounce them: 'strange chips'.  And now I shall eat them!  I'm not sure how the 'garden' bit factors in... perhaps these are certified organic?

But what do they taste like?
Tastes tomato-y and basil-y, but not super strongly of either.  There's a satisfying tomato taste at the first bite, and then the basil follows, but it disappears pretty quickly after that.  Where do you go, flavor?  Has someone stolen you?  For the most part these taste a bit like they have tomato paste on them... not quite tomatoes, but something a bit chemically.  This works well for me as I love the taste of tomato paste, but it's perhaps misleading from the bag.  I am not tasting garden fresh tomatoes, Lay's!

Are they bad?  No, certainly not.  Are they good?  Yeah, they're pretty good.  Would I seek them out again?  Ehhhh - if it was the choice between that and plain Lay's then sure.  If I had other options?  Probably not.  They taste kinda like a tomato-y BBQ chip almost, but the regular Lay's BBQ chips are better... stronger.  These are pretty mild, and if you like tomato or basil I suspect you'll like these.  If you're looking for something that will punch you in the face with flavors then you'll probably do better elsewhere.

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Walkers Tomato Ketchup

I've found that I kinda like ketchup flavored chips so I'm pretty excited for these.  They certainly smell ketchup-y.  I'm a bit confused by the added 'tomato' in the title... what other sort of ketchup would it be?  I'm quite sure I don't know.

Bag is pretty basic and pink-ish which I guess stands for... ketchup?

But what do they taste like?
Wow salty.  Not in a bad way, but surprising.  They're salty and have the tanginess of ketchup without all of the tomato flavor.  It's an odd mix.  It tastes a bit like what I'd imagine the clear stuff that sometimes comes out of the ketchup bottle would taste like.  They're also a bit deceptive, as they don't look particularly ketchup-y, but, in fact, they are!  Mysterious.

Tangy is definitely the word I'd use to describe these.  I happen to like tangy, so I like these just fine, but I can see someone expecting a more traditional 'ketchup' flavor being confused.  Do I like 'em?  Sure!  They're ketchup chips and those are neat.  I don't remember much about the Lays version, but I'd be interested in comparing the two.  Which ketchup chip is supreme!?  Who knows?!

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