Having never been short of an opinion......(!).......I would argue that the best potato chips I have ever tasted anywhere-homemade, in a restaurant or from a store are the Kitch'n Cook'd from the Maui Potato Chips Factory in Maui at 808-877-3652. Their e-mail address is: mauipotatochip@verizon.net. These are the "legendary" Maui potato chips which many people have heard of but have never tasted. They are phenominal. Phenominal!!!! All kinds of imitators have been spawned even a company using a similar name in Virginia and a half dozen California and Hawaiian companies offering feeble versions of them. YOU CAN ORDER FROM THIS PHONE NUMBER AND THEY WILL SHIP THEM TO YOU! Serious.
Expensive as hell! Takes a week or so and some will come broken. But they are the real deal and the best potato chips on earth. Totally different from anything else I have ever tasted from a bag, better than anything I have ever tasted from a skillet. Second best store bought by the way, totally different, are Original Good's from Lancaster which are only available in Lancaster area stores. The best of all the cooked in lard chips. Yes, the Good Potato Chip Co. will ship, too. This is their website http://www.goodschips.com/ Good's is also another company that, having been in business since 1886, has spawned a few imitators. There's at least one more Pennsylvania company known as"Good's" but "Original Good's" is the real deal. There is only one other chip I've had that would compare to Original Good's and that is a "specialty" potato chip made by Gibbles called "Curly Kettle" which is remarkably similar, fried in lard and extra crunchy with the edges curling up. Martin's Pastry Shop (which makes Gibbles, Martin's, Curly Kettle and even more) also makes a unique dark chip fried in lard called Kay and Ray's. All of these are almost impossible to find. Did I mention Zerbe's? Seriously good, too. Still, Kitch'n Cook'd is in a class by itself.

Joe

I have some updated information about Good's Chips. The (not-original) Good's Home Style chips I buy at the Dutch Country Market in Burtonsville (red bad) are in fact made by the same company (Ralph Good, Inc. in Adamstown, PA) as the Original Good's Chips (blue bag). This is fairly recent, the two operations having been merged only last October. They are now produced in the same factory. The difference is that the Original are kettle cooked while the home-style are continuous cooked. The original are cut a bit thicker, and the lard is at a lower temp and as such the chips are cooked longer. Consequently, the kettle cooked come out a bit crisper and more curly. They normally but not always sell for the same price. The potatoes and the lard are the same. The person I spoke to says that, at least as far as he is concerned, which is better is a matter of personal preference--for example, he likes home style and his wife likes original.

FWIW.

In terms of locally available potato chips, what are your favorites?

I tend to gravitate towards the Cape Cod/Route 11/Kettle Chips varieties.

I also really like the Solea (?) brand Olive Oil chips. I can usually only find these at Balduccis and they are very thick cut and very good.

And every now and then, I don't mind a Ruffle or two.

Your favorites? Go-to's?

I like 'em DIRTY.

Utz

Lay's Natural potato chips. Not too thick, not to salty, taste like potatoes.

Tayto

Second the Dirty recommendation. Got a box as a birthday present. I also like Tims' Cascade.

Walker's Smokey Bacon are my favorite, and the Roasted Chicken are not bad either.

Martin's Kettle Cooked. Wee bit of sour cream. Cold beer.

Welcome to my first high school drinking party.

Ahhh, memories. But I still love those damn chips.

i like route 11 -- plain. the flavored versions, not so much.

i agree about the chips from maui, but haven't run into them in a long time. i couldn't find any good chips in honolulu last fall, but a lot of maui pretenders.

Ooh. Chips are my biggest food vice. If left to my own devices (which I should never be), I can plow through an 11-ounce bag in no time flat. (For other chip-obsessed souls, see this chip review site.)

My favorites:

Kettle Chips, nearly all varieties
Dirty Chips
Terra Yukon Gold Salt & Pepper (but not other Terra varieties)
Route 11 (you can get these at Breadline, among other places)

In terms of flavors, I gravitate toward jalapeno or other spicy varieties. On that note, please take care when considering the consumption of Route 11 Mama Zuma's Revenge habanero chips. They hurt.

agreed....WAAAAAY too spicy for me

I love Zapp's Cajun dill chips. The heat builds as you eat them. YUM! They have other flavors to include Creole tomato with Tobasco and crawfish, but the Cajun Dill win my heart. I ask my dad to send some to me when I have a hankerin'. Zapp's is available here but this flavor hasn't made its way up North yet. You can order them online, too.

Old Dutch potato chips are my favorite. You can't get them here - midwest and Canada only.

Salt & Vinegar and Dill Pickle are my favorite flavours. Most S&V chips are too wimpy for my taste. Lays and Old Dutch both make excellent vinegary chips.

I haven't found too many places to get Dill Pickle chips around here, but the Lays DP chips back in Canada are great. My only issue with Lays chips is that they tend to be a bit on the thin side, and I like a slightly thicker chip. Now if only I could find dill pickle flavoured ruffled chips, then I'd be in heaven!!

My NOLA-raised husband loves Zapp's Cajun Crawtaters. I used to be able to get them at Sutton Place Gourmet, but haven't seen them since the store morphed into Balducci's. Any tips on where to buy them around here will be gratefully accepted. I'd order them, but the very last thing I need in my house is a case of potato chips.

Wegman's has the single-serving bags of Zapp's, but I haven't seen the regular sized ones. They definitely have Crawtators though.

Snyder's of Hanover

I'm not much of a potato chip fan, to be honest, but every time I go to Naan and Beyond, I find myself getting the chips and loving them. Ranging from crunchy to downright chewy, you can tell that they were fried on the premesis, by a real person and not a machine. Pretty spicy, with undercurrents of egg and potato.

I love all the interesting chips available in Canada and one of our first stops is always the 7-11 to see what new itens are available.

Last summer we tried the rotesserie chicken chips. Not a winner...

Jennifer

Mister Bee's Potato Chips made in Parkersburg, WV are my potato chip benchmark. But I'll admit...they're a taste of my childhood and thus all normal parameters of culinary reason are void in this situation.

Wegmans also carry a full line of Route 11 chips. But better yet, their store brand "kettle cooked" line is excellent and very reasonably priced. These are the ones in the brown bags, not the regular ones.

I LOVE Good's Chips....ummmm cooked in lard....so good for my heart.....That and a sweet bologna sandwich, a cold yuengling and my feet in the cool creek....memories....

Charles Chips (which a Google search shows me still exist in some form, but I doubt they're the same) are a fond memory of my youth. I don't know how good they really were, but through the rosy lenses of the intervening decades they were very good indeed. For those unfamiliar with them, they were delivered to your door (from dedicated Charles Chips delivery trucks) the way milk and eggs used to be, in large cylindrical tins.

Another fond memory is the house-made chips at the old Old Ebbitt Grill.

YES!!! I grew up in Northeastern PA and these were the favorite. As a little girl, I adored the cannisters. They made a great drum. (sorry Mom and Dad)

Now when I have chips, I like Dirty Chips, particularly Salt & Pepper and Salt & Vinegar. I used to be crazy about their BBQ, but I think they changed the recipe when it became "Mesquite BBQ." Just wasn't the same for me after that.

Oh, and as a teenager I loved Munchos which don't taste much, if anything, like potato.

Same here - grew up in Philly. They had the tan canister with brown script lettering - that was the chips. The brown canister with the tan lettering was the pretzels, which I also remember fondly.

Though a quick call to my mom confirms that the chips and pretzels really weren't anything special, just the convenience of delivery.

Thanks so much for enlisting your mom in the project of stomping all over my fondest childhood memories.

I grew up in Southern Indiana and remember that Charles Chips were thought of in somewhat reverent tones. I remember the brown cans and the trucks, but can't say I recall ever eating them and thinking of them as special one way or the other.

Apparently they are still available, in the big tin cans. The last mention I found of a delivery truck, tho, was a NYT letter from 1993.

Comparing Dirty's Website to Zapps:

Assortments

Zapp's Products

Dirty's Products

Clearly the assortments are the same, the portal design is the same. Hmmmm.....

Flavors

Zaps flavors

Dirty's Flavors

Both offer a "full bodied" Jalapeno flavor. Both have a Black Pepper & Sea Salt with "the great taste of onion, garlic, and a few other surprises, too"

Seems like there must be a connection between the two. I am a big lover of Zapps but rarely eat them.

Interesting old Mimi Sheraton article on the rise of gourmet chips in the 1980s. If Grandma Utz lard-fried chips are hard to find around here, at least we know it isn't because they didn't try.

I've always been able to find them easily in DC. They're one of my favorites, with a kind of porky, funky overtone. Best enjoyed in small quantities!

I remember when Charles Chips were delivered to your home!! Oh to find fresh milk in glass and a big tin of chips on my doorstep again

My best friend's family used to get them delivered when I was a kid, and all I really remember about them was the distinctive can and the delivery. I'd never heard of potato chips being delivered before. It was exotic. I have very vague memories of the milk box we had for getting milk deliveries when I was very young, but I can't remember getting any other food delivered.

In addition to the Charles Chips, my family use to get Schwan's ice cream delivered when I was but a wee lad.

Schwan's still delivers extensively in the DC area.

Intrigued by this and similar comments, I picked up a small bag of Grandma Utz chips last night. (They were certainly easy for me to find -- CVS had 'em.) I am normally a big fan of thick, kettle-style chips. But I really did not like the Grandma Utz chips at all. I found the "porky, funky overtone" you mention to be an overwhelming taste of pork fat. I have no problem with frying things in lard, but this was like eating lard seasoned with a bit of potato and salt. I can't recall the last time I had such a negative reaction to that most holy of snack foods, The Potato Chip.

When I first started at this job, I went to fetch lunch one day for the office. My boss asked for "real" chips--not that weird diet stuff that I had gotten for a meeting a few weeks earlier (I think they were Sunchips.) I spent 10 minutes finding the highest fat content chips they had--Grandma Utz's with lard.

He hated them.

Sigh....

For years after that (and it will be 16 years in May that I've worked here...) he muttered about those Grandma Utz chips. Too greasy...

Jennifer

My wife, bless her soul, has given me a one-year membership in Anchor O'Reilly's Chip of the Month Club for my birthday. Six different chips per month for a year, in reasonably big bags (4 to 8 ounces). The makers are mostly regional, some locally familiar, others not.

In about a year, I should be fully transformed into a potato chip.

Ballreichs

I'm a huge fan of Pringles...their quality control is a bit lacking, some batches have lots of sprayed on flavoring, some don't...but in general I like the Salt and Vinegar and Jalapeno.

I also love Cheetos.

I have also noticed that the quality of Doritos has gone way down hill. I suspect that they reformulated the product (probably over trans fats) and now they leave a cardboard like after taste. To the point that I won't eat them anymore.

Utz salt and vinegar are generally good as well.

The waffle cut chips at PX are also rather addictive.

I am not a huge chip fan, but my standard has always been Dieffenbach's Chips, made in my hometown of Womelsdorf, PA. On Tuesday or Wednesday's they cooked with the "bad" potatoes - the ones with the higher sugar content that resulted in the delicious dark brown "seconds". We would take our tin can and get the chips directly from the conveyor belt. My parents still buy at the factory, but I do not think you can go to the conveyor belt anymore.

Well, can't speak for Xochitl in Japan, but in South Africa, meat flavors abound--boerewors (lean, beef sausage), roast lamb, grilled lamb, roast chicken, all with supporting spices. The roast lamb and grilled lamb taste substantially different, with the grilled lamb taking on a noticeable, sweet, grilled lamb fat note. Yum.

Oh man, Zapp's Spicy Cajun Crawtator flavored chips from Louisiana. Haven't had them in years but can still taste em... Cooked in peanut oil, though.

Try your closest World Market---they often have Zapp's, including the Crawtator.

I have to say Balducci's sells probably the best potato chips I've had from a bag: Tyrell's. I've tried both the sweet red pepper and the sea salt & pepper varieties and loved both. Like all things at Balducci's, though, they're expensive--over $4 for a little more than 5 oz. But they're damn good for my tastes.

Pax
Brian

Try the aged cheddar and chive ones, they are fantastic.

The chip of my childhood. Dad still always has them in the house. I get the 5 lb box whenever we are back in Ohio. Too bad the Yoder's dips don't transport as well.

http://www.ballreich.com/

Perhaps for the next picnic we should have a potato chip tasting. Of the decent chips made in PA like Utz and Snyder's of Hanover/Berlin, etc., I'd likely contribute Middleswarth chips from Middleburg, PA. Two categories -- one for basic chips like plain and barbecue and one for specialty flavors like those mentioned in this thread.

-Camille

World Market in Germantown has had Tyrell's, four different flavours, the last few times I've been in there. Last time I bought a case.

No, no, don't thank me, just pick me up some too, ok?