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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Barcel Chipotles Chipotle & Cheese

I saw these chips in several different stores, in equally battered bags, before finally finding a not destroyed bag in Brooklyn.  Am I excited to try these?  Not... particularly.  The cheese appears to be Swiss, which I'm not a huge fan of, and the chipotle part of it seems to just be a wrinkly pepper.  Awesome.  BUT!  I am trying these chips for SCIENCE!  Not to enjoy them!  Okay... sometimes to enjoy them.

These are corn chips, which I only realized when I dumped them onto the plate.  It says on the bag, but I apparently chose to ignore it.  I'm unsure why they're corn chips, or if it will make for a better experience.  I suppose we shall see.  Some of the chips are covered in the seasoning, while others seem to be a bit skimpy.  As far as the smell... have you had Japanese seaweed salad?  They smell kinda like that.  Promising!

But what do they taste like?
Very corn chip-y.  Then there's the painful spice, but it's more of a spicy salsa burn, rather than just pain (which I've found in other chips).  On the first bite I actually taste a slight hint of the cheese and it actually tastes a little like Swiss.   Well done, bag designer.  You know... weirdly, and despite making my eyes water a little, I kinda like these.  Yeah, they're painful, but the flavor is kinda working for me.  There's sort of a... smoothness, that I expect is the 'cheese' part and then a pretty strong spice kick that's the chipotle.  But it's more than just spice - it's spice with flavor.  Weirdly, the first flavor I taste each bite is a bit like what it smells like which is still that strange seaweed salad flavor.  Not super appealing, but it gets better from there.

Also, they're kinda shaped like apostrophes, so that's fun!  I do, in fact, think the corn chip helps these out.  There's something nice about the solid chip with all this spiciness, instead of something flimsy.  I wasn't kidding about my eyes watering, by the way.  They totally are.  And yet... I keep eating these because, pain aside, they actually taste pretty good.  I don't think I'd get them often, as they are kinda really hurting my mouth, but I'd eat them again, assuming I had some tissues handy.

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