kettle chips

Mention Kettle Brand potato chips around our office — or better yet, deliver a box to our desks — and our ears perk up and mouths begin to water just like Pavlov's famous dogs. True to form, an ineffable itch to tear open a bag overcame us on first sight of the Kettle Brand-emblazoned package, hoping that we had on our hands another Zesty Ranch, Spicy Thai, or Cheddar Beer. While their latest flavors — Maple Bacon and Sweet & Salty — won't be on store shelves till early Summer, keep reading for a first look at their latest flavors, and to find out if they're worth adding to your cart.

From left to right: Kettle Brand Sweet & Salty and Kettle Brand Maple Bacon

Kettle Brand Sweet & Salty Potato Chips

If simplicity is your style, you're in luck: Kettle Brand's Sweet & Salty offering keeps to its titular promise with crisp chips that taste just as advertised — sweet and salty, and not much else. Akin to kettle corn, these snappy snacks pleased those looking for a simple yet satisfying bite, though the majority of our trusty crew of tasters felt they were a little too one-note, even calling them bland, too sweet, and just plain "not tasty enough."

Keep reading to find out how maple bacon translates to chip form, and for our overall thoughts.

The kettle chips market is certainly tough to crack, thanks to Kettle Brand's overarching dominance (we're pretty smitten with the brand's Spicy Thai and Cheddar Beer varieties). Nonetheless, we were excited to sample two flavors from a new contender. While the novel flavor combinations may have drawn us in (Tuscan Style Garlic and Herbs and Sicilian Style Asiago and Tomato) we were most intrigued by the choice of frying oil in Olive Coast kettle cooked potato chips. Keeping with their Mediterranean flavor theme, these snacks are made with olive oil, rather than the more common sunflower and safflower oils.

See whether olive-oil-fried kettle chips are worth the hype when you read more.

Happy Monday! If you need an excuse to indulge at the beginning of the week, consider this: it's National Potato Chip Day! Obviously, there is no other way to celebrate than to break open a bag of your favorites.

On my end, I'll be busting out Kettle Chips Zesty Ranch Krinkle Cut Potato Chips. They're perhaps the best chips I've ever had. What takes your top pick for potato chip?

Fact: Team Yum loves Kettle Chips. From jalapeño to cheddar and sour cream to Fully Loaded Baked Potato, we've never met one we didn't like. But just the other day, we discovered one that was good enough to be the end-all, be-all of all potato chips in this world. The best Kettle Chips we've ever had, right this way . . .

From Jalapeño to Fully Loaded Baked Potato to Curry Ketchup, I've pretty much never met a Kettle Chip I didn't like. And now, I can add yet another flavor to my list: Krinkle Cut Cheddar & Sour Cream.

Since Cheddar and Sour Cream isn't exactly original — I've loved the Ruffles version since I was a little kid — Kettle had to find another edge. It comes in the form of texture, with a blaring crunch that truly outdoes any other ridge chip. The sound of each bite, it seems, reverberates throughout the walls of the office.

I wish it had a heavier sour cream taste, but the cheddar flavor earns points for being prominent without seeming artificial. Have you tried this new item? What do you think: is it the best Kettle flavor to date?

PartySugar and I love our Kettle Chips, from Jalapeño to Death Valley Chipotle. So when the company put us up to the Create-a-Chip Challenge, we took it head on, creating flavors like curry ketchup and fully loaded baked potato and uploading them onto the company's online recipe gallery. Perhaps Kettle took some of our ideas to heart, because its newest flavor and the winner of the challenge is — you saw this one coming — Fully Loaded Baked Potato. See what we thought of it when you read more.