The History of American Chip Flavors
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- Опубліковано 13 лип 2024
- The story of chips is the story of America.
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Nothing beats a video talking about the obscure lore of mondane things we see everyday.
*mundane
@@Shatterverse enadnum*
@@Shatterverse woah minor spelling mistake
guess you're new to the channel
@Etterra They can't edit it now otherwise they'll lose the pin.
In the U.K. “Cheese and Onion” is one of the big flavours rather than “Sour Cream and Onion”. The first time I encountered “Sour Cream and Onion” as a flavour was with Pringles who seem to stick to the US model even here in the U.K.
Yup. Here in Denmark, Kims Chips has had Sour Cream and Onions for decades, and we also have Pringles' version.
The uk is salt and vinegar cheese and onion ready salted and prawn cocktail
Iowan here! Cheddar with or without onion is probably the 5th most common flavor in America.
Actually as an American, cheddar and onion/cheddar and sour cream/just cheddar are basically ubiquitous options now here, too. I was kind of surprised he didn’t bring one of those up. Also, he’s Canadian. And if there’s one thing I know about Canada it’s that he NEEDS to do a video on their chip “cannon”. He could then talk about all dressed, pickle, and ketchup. Also, I live in the potato chip belt. I live in the city of chambersburg not far from a place owned by Utz, and the base location for the gibbles brand. I would actually call where I live the German potato band. There’s a big group of Amish and Mennonites around for whom chips are part of the culture. You could even locally have gotten them delivered in big “popcorn” tins. But, specifically why it isn’t limited to chips is because we also live right by the martins plant. They are not just known for chips but a whole smattering of potato bread options.
I knew this as a kid from Father Ted
JJ talks like someone learning and speaking English simultaneously, where ending each sentence brings a sense of pride and accomplishment.
During my stay in Germany, Paprika flavored chips were incredibly popular. I've never seen them in the US, but I hope they eventually make the jump.
They are one of the most common flavours in W-Europe. The two most basic flavours are salt and paprika, but pickles and salt&pepper are also big. Now there are dozens of flavours, but they are more recent and more niche. In the 90s I remember only a few baisc flavours.
I've had paprika chips and they are awesome!
I'm sure lays has paprika flavored chips states side, but do it taste the same? I wouldn't know.
I live in Canada and there's an imported snack store around the corner from my place where I was lucky enough to get my hands on Paprika Pringles. They were heavenly.
Here in Italy the paprika flavored chips are sometimes the only chip along with the plain one.
Tomato flavored chips are also very common.
My grandma told me that when she was young in the 1930s and 1940s, there was a potato chip truck that came around every week. You bought a large tin canister from them the first time, and then every week they'd refill your canister with potato chips for a set price. This was definitely in the Potato Chip Belt, as she grew up in Syracuse, NY. She told me the name of the company, but I can't remember it.
My mom had one of those cans that she turned into a “sit-up-on” in Girls Scout. It was basically a chair with a string for a handle, and you could store all your stuff in it.
Was it Charles Chips? They were founded in Syracuse.
@@lobsterhat6927 I was going to guess Utz but I think that's from PA
I wish they still did this, zero waste!
I grew up in Syracuse in the 70's and 80's; I think that company was Charles' Chips.
Meanwhile in Germany most of your options are basically paprika and sweet paprika (although I have seen them getting a bit better about having more flavors in stores)
Germany's Chip Canon
-Paprika
-Sweet Paprika
-'Not as sweet, but still sweeter than regular' Paprika
Most American supermarkets feature a large variety of flavors of potato chips nowadays (not that the big 4 aren’t still the most popular). I’m surprised that’s not the case in Germany. I remember those flavors from when I was a child and I miss me some Paprika Chipsletten.
Crunchips Wasabi sind die besten Chips.
I’ve seen Käse, Paprika, Sweet Paprika, and Flavorless…
I spend a lot of time in Switzerland and was recently in Germany and must say that German paprika flavor and American bbq flavor are moving toward each other.
in Australia, we have a few chip flavours I would consider the "canon", that actually include all the american ones. the extra ones we have are: honey soy chicken, cheese and onion, and plain chicken. I have no idea where any of these came from, but it's interesting to hear that other countries don't really have these! I would really recommend trying cheese and onion if you have the chance
i think honey soy is more recent one, it wasn't a classic flavour until i think around the mid 2000s and most definitely took over by the 2010s. I personally don't think cheese and onion is popular, it's barely bought and talked about. Chicken on the other hand is a very popular favourite.
Honey soy?? Why?
@@Khorne_of_the_Hill tastes good
I mean the U.S. has some wacky flavors too. Chicken and waffles, dill pickle, biscuits and gravy etc etc.
@@RockinFootball_23 to be fair alot of our 'cultural cannon' only really came about in the last 50 years since we didnt experience the same kind of separation from the uk as america, i mean it took us untill like 1966 to get our own currency
In the UK, the most popular are Ready Salted (Red), Cheese and Onion (Blue) and Salt and Vinegar (Green). Also, there are others such as Pravin Cocktail (Pink) and Roast Chicken (Orange).
That's... an attempt at spelling prawn. There's also often some form of beef, bacon or chilli flavour, they're all quite common.
I'm sure multiple people have already mentioned this, but I do think the whole "Flamin' Hot" flavor has become a recent phenomenon and I think its slowly but surely being introduced into the potato chip canon.
oh really? well it seems to have reached non american markets as its becoming a sensation here in india as well though not has popular as others
Nah it's just a fad because Hot Ones is popular. It'll die out in a few years.
@@HOTD108_ what? Spicy chip flavors aren’t going away
@@HOTD108_ this is one of the subtlest White As Fuck takes i've ever seen
While I think it’s going into chips not potato chips
In Poland “low-class” people are still called onions to this day, and it’s common to call the country “Onionland” as a cheeky remark about Poland’s place in geo- and socio- politics.
In Estonia we call Russians the "onions". It has to do with the fact that near Estonia-Russian border there are a lot of onion farms and since it is near the border there's naturally more Russians. Hence, onions=Russians.
I wonder if there are bad associations with Onions in Russia. My name sounds like Onion in Russian, but a Russian friend said it should sound more like manhole cover. I like onions and don't find manhole covers all that flattering, so I wondered why she insisted on that.
Bro. I fucking love onions they taste so good
@@bobtheduck Luke? Right, "onion" in Russian is more like "Look". And no, there are no bad associations with onions.
Surprisingly though, our "potato belt" is Belarus.
What a shame! Onions are amazing, esp. for a vegetable
Here in California, especially in the southern parts, Mexican populations popularized Chile and lime flavored chips. Not only do we have a lot of Mexican chip brands here, a lot of American chip companies adapted to this and created “Chile and lime” flavors as well as separating them into “lime flavor” and “hot and spicy.” The most obvious and popular one being hot Cheetos and Takis. Doritos has a few of these flavors as well as lays.
Same in Texas
JJ's channel is like a non-stop wikipedia binge. I love it
Oh! im from PA and it’s more common to have chips instead of frech fries on the side of your burger here! I never knew about the “potato chip belt” that’s so interesting lol
In Chicago it is mostly fries, McDonald’s hailing from the state and all, but Billy Goat’s Tavern which was famously associated with the Chicago Cubs 100 year curse is famous for the saying “NO FRY, CHEEP!” Sadly it’s a chain now and all except the original sell fries
as a fellow pennsylvanian i would say this varies where i’m at
It’s probably different from where you are in PA, I’m also from PA born and raised in this state, and I have never had burgers without fries
i live in New York and we eat french fries like normal people
From Ohio. Can also confirm
Mexico's chip cannon is a lovely reflection of its land:
-Salt is the standard
-Lemon (My favorites)
-Adobadas (Mild-spicy)
-And Habanero (Real spicy)
Came here to talk about that and you beat me on it by 1 day hehehe I would like to add jalapeño, cheese, and "michelada" as other common alternatives (although they might not be canon yet)
Personally the Cheeto brand of habanero chips taste like really bad candies, like they're super sweet like a mango then just bitter, no spice whatsoever
@@SilverZeruel michelada? Like the beer mix? God I hate the way it smells
@@_Dat_Edgy_Boi_ yes, they are based on that but they actually taste really good. Here in Mexico we sometimes add the same sauces that we would use in a beer mix, but with chips. Maybe that's why they created this flavor.
Can't find lemon chips around where I live, I'm kind of sad about it.
Why is your chair so bouncy?
Canadian autists are really cool!
exactly
He sits on a yoga ball
@@Marc.1776. Ahh, I was wondering that too! It’s really distracting.
As a girl living in Washington State, I find it interesting how Salt and Vinegar chips originated in the nearby city of Tacoma. That's honestly really cool.
Also, I find it kinda hilarious how a majority of Northern Europeans thought things like onions and potatoes were vile and barbaric, yet thought something that was literally expired alcohol was fancy. Clearly I'm the savage in that case, since I hate the taste of vinegar yet love me some barbecue potato chips. xP
Vinegar is an ingredient or base in a lot of barbeque sauces though
@@charlietian4023 ...
...you win this round, logic. xP
I was literally just wondering where sour cream and onion chips came from because my bf realized they were basically baked potato flavored so thank you for this well-timed video
wow
I'm allergic to them, so thanks for telling me what I'm missing
@@321gofast7 they’re disgusting don’t worry about it
@@321gofast7they’re amazing, ignore the other guy
@@theone7097 Ruffles are the only good sour cream and onion chips
From Canadian in-jokes to hyper reality to types of chip flavours.
This is why we love J.J.
What in jokes?
@@SA3Future watch the video and you’ll know.
I’m surprised Ketchup and all-dressed chips didn’t get mentioned tbh. Maybe he’s hoping to make it a two parter with an “international episode” next week where he brings them up
@@nacricissa Oh yeah I've tried the all dressed up, I think it was the ruffles brand.
I thought we loved him for the luxurious flow
I love history and I love food/snacks. This series is the best ever. Thank you for this J.J.!!
Hi JJ. As a scottish person, it never fails to tickle me the way you pronounce things like 'about' and other words with the 'oot' sound. It's just kinda heartwarming in a horrendous UA-cam wasteland where people be no matter where their from, often use the sickening text-to-speech accents supplied BBY our corporate overlords.
I'm surprised JJ didn't mention the fascinating color association linked to the flavor cannon. His illustrated graphic even captures it. Yellow=plain, brown/orange=BBQ, green=sour cream and onion, light blue=salt and vinegar.
Interesting. In australia, the big company has blue for plain and pink for salt and vinegar
The biggest deviant being Wise, whose Salt & Vinegar chips are a deep maroon.
clover valley salt and vinegar chip bags are interestingly a deep purple
I mean, I think it's fairly trivial except for the salt and vinegar. plain potato chips are yellow. barbecue sauce is brownish red. sour cream and onion dip, while not normally green, often includes green herbs like chives, parsley, dill, or spring onion. salt and vinegar is the only mystery that remains. perhaps it's blue for the sea because of sea salt. perhaps it's just blue because that's the only remaining distinctive primary color from the others. it was probably a branding choice of one of the more popular companies just to make the flavor look distinctive from plain chips since they don't have the visible seasoning on them like BBQ or SC&O.
@@tsawy6 Maybe I’m just unobservant, but I can’t think of any food packaging in the US that uses pink, except for maybe some candies. To the point where thinking about a major chip brand using pink packaging was kinda surprising!
I’m from Ohio and currently live in Pennsylvania and can confirm that we are the chip belt. There are soooooo many regional chip brands in this area. At my local grocery store, the regional brands are actually given more shelf space than the national ones.
ok but utz isn't even GOOD?? I'm from pa lol
oh but I adore cape cod chips! like the baked ones mmmmm
Sooo true!! Also from Ohio and Mumford’s chips are the best!
The Original Hartley's potato chips were amazing back when it was owned locally in Pennsylvania. There still regional but unfortunately when the company was sold the quality went with the original owners.
If you ever come thru St Louis Missouri, make sure to get some Red Hot Riplets. Best spicy chip evah
This is the first video of yours I’ve ever seen and I love the way you present relevant information in an engaging and entertaining way.
Theres something so special about these videos. Thanks for your time JJ
I always considered "cheese" to be a staple chip flavor. There's doritos where that's their main thing, but also cheddar ruffles and cheddar lays. I'm sure most american chip brands have some sort of "cheese" variety
Old Dutch cheddar and sour cream
I don't remember seeing cheese flavored potato chips myself, though I'm not a big chip guy. Just asked my wife and she does remember them, though, so ... yeah, there ya go. They are a thing!
I agree! Cheddar Cheese pringles come to mind as well
@@chloeelkins5599 I saw some Lay's cheddar and jalapeño chips at the store today too. Also you can't forget cheezies, cheetos, and cheddar/white cheddar smartfood popcorn
Yeah, same here. Between Cheetos, Doritos, and cheddar and sour cream Ruffles (my personal favorite chip), as well as flavor varieties of other chips, it's definitely a pretty popular flavor.
This is such a great series. I’m interested in the colour coding of chips. In Australia we have chicken (green) in the mix, alongside plain (blue), and bbq (orange).
And salt and vinegar (pink)
Bra, Salt & Vinager is the best selling flavour at my work (in Australia)
And depending on the brand S&V can also be purple
Here in the UK it’s red for ready salted, green for cheese & onion and blue for salt & vinegar.
That is, of course, unless it’s walkers (which is what we call Lays), in which case the blue and the green switch. No one knows why and a huge number of people remember this change taking place in the late 80’s or early 90’s, despite the company denying this ever happened. Classic Mandela effect, or a very niche conspiracy? Who knows.
@@CEHFitness meanwhile, Lays in Romania have red for salt, green for sour cream&dill, blue for paprika, yellow for cheese, black for barbecue + a few more.
Chip gameplay vs. Chip lore
Amazing analysis as always, JJ! I love the food-culture videos you produce!
No exaggeration, This is one of my favorite series on UA-cam. Not just for this channels but on the platform. So interesting to figure out the origins of the staples in our society that have become so ubiquitous to us that we never really think about them.
Then it is also very interesting to break out of our cultural bubble to see how other people have different set canons around the world.
plus it's amusing hearing him say stuff like 'hoosewives'
In the UK, I'd say the big three are plain, cheese and onion and salt and vinegar, with roast beef and prawn cocktail coming close behind. In recent years, sweet chilli and salt and pepper have started making inroads.
What about ready salted? Its not that different to salt and vinegar but it is still different
@@chargestone96
That is what they mean by plain, crisps are by default salty
Didn’t expect to see you here Jago
@@camatzuma well thats nonsense to me lol, ready salted is sold ascits own flavour and plain/original which you only see in pringles arent salty
In fact the standard is cheese and onion so if you said plain id assume you mean that
@@chargestone96 “the standard is cheese and onion” hahahahaha
The chef was so mad, he accidentally created the best snack in the USA.
I really like the flavor videos you make. Always think about another video you made when I see candy flavors. Thank you for the unique and interesting content 🙂
In Nigeria, we seem to invest in sweet potatoes and cassava chips instead. They're usually salted, but I'd also noticed chili, and "chicken noodle" flavor for the latterm
Chicken noodle flavor sounds cool. I'd be interested in trying that... though I'd have to import them since I'm nowhere near Nigeria.
In sierra leone we eat mostly plantain chips that can be either salty or sweet as well as cassava chips.
@@ct-p6004 You can find sweet potato and plantain chips in the US. They're usually sold as a healthier alternative. They also make sweet potato fries too.
@@incubus_the_man nobody in sl sees them as healthy lol americans are amazing
@@ct-p6004 they have more nutrients than white potatoes
I visited the Caribbean on a cruise and loved going to the grocery stores there. So many crazy flavors I'd never seen before. I thought it was hilarious that what we in the states would call "Ranch" flavor, they called "American" flavor 😅
In the Dominican Republic where I live, a popular flavour is lime. Basically a slightly frutier version of salt and vinegar
Makes me very happy to know that. It's not ranch it's "American" flavor
Here in Texas lime is a popular flavor for hispanics
Westerners living in Japan often complain of the chips here, but I personally find many of them enjoyable. The best sour cream & onion I've had is a Japanese brand, and their local favourites like consommé and seaweed + salt are surprisingly delicious. Consommé has actually taken a place in my top 3 chip flavours along with all dressed (Canada) and sour cream & onion. Also partial to the numerous horseradish-flavoured chips in Japan (marketed as wasabi, but the real stuff is too expensive to use as a chip flavouring).
Funny thing is that in India, the chip flavor we generally call "American" flavor is the sour cream and onion flavor. Even in Indian grocery stores where you'll see the imported chips, you'll see packets labeled "American Onion" or "American Style Cream & Onion"
As a resident in the potato chip belt, a lot of big chip companies come from here such as Utz, Saratoga, and Lays. This area people are loyal to one of the three and will claim one is better over the other. It’s not too cutthroat but grocery stores here has a wider array of chip companies to choose from than other places. Nowadays though all those companies belong to Frito-Lay’s so really the only chip company left here is Lay’s.
This explains the ridiculous price of snack food. Next to no competition. The snack industry is a monopoly.
There's probably enough to say about potato chip flavours to warrant a second video, since the cravings for more and more flavours continues to evolve. Ketchup, All Dressed, Dill Pickle, Ranch, Nacho Cheese, and more are somewhat common now, and companies try to introduce new flavours every year. I've even seen attempts to make 'chips' from other dried veggies, and not just root vegetables either.
Hey, I have an idea for a video. My wife is French and she finds the idea of American Prom and Homecoming so weird. Do you think you could do a deep dive into why these dances have such a cultural significance?
The French comic artist Quentin Zuttion has Instagram content about American prom because he is really interested too! I wonder what about prom culture captivates our French neighbors so much ☺️
@@gabriellastauffer tbh I'm on their side (I'm American,) I never went to my prom and I don't regret it (even now, I'm 36) I've never understood the hype behind it.
A friend of mine was hosting a student from France this year and she was absolutely devastated that the prom in our tiny Arkansas town was nothing like the magical, party fantasy she’d seen in movies!
They are weird
They stem from the old debutante culture of the southern US.
I'm from Greece and one of the most popular flavours is oregano. We generally use oregano much and put it everywhere, so it makes sense.
Oh that's a great idea! Oregano and Thyme are so amazing. I love Greek cuisine.
Yeah as a Greek myself I agree they must be the second most popular flavor. Salt oregano BBQ and most probably plain with olive oil are the big players. I think oregano must be the most original
Oooh oregano chips sound really good, when I visit Greece this summer I’ll be sure to try them!
As a greek I thought this was generally a popular flavor, damn.
Living in Cyprus at the moment. Love oregano chips and starting to like the ones with feta flavor :) but every time i visit my home country (Lithuania) i feast on the ones with dills, and can't get enough of chips with spicy tomato flavor!!!
Small mistake, the etymology of vinegar goes even further back to Roman times. It is almost identical to the French term but in Latin
Speaking as an American, the way you address America is so perfectly accurate and hilarious with just a twinge of sadness.
I’d love to see one of these on soda flavors. Like; cola, root beer, ginger ale. Roots and ginger seem like weird flavors and i don’t even know what ‘cola’ is
Cola, also known as Kola, is a type of nut from West Africa which contains caffeine, and is used in the region for the types of things caffeine is generally used for, and is what gives cola drinks their flavor beyond just the sugar and carbonic acid. The name Coca-Cola originates from the Coca leaf, used to make cocaine, and the Kola nut. The "root" in root beer actually refers to the sassafras root, which was originally used to make root beer, but artificial flavoring was used after sassafras root was found to contain carcinogens. Root beer and ginger ale were both originally created via fermentation, and were thought to be healthier than local waters for that fact, and also for the medicinal properties of their contents. This fermentation is why they are called ale and beer, and they did actually contain some alcohol, though not very much. Both sassafras and ginger were used for herbal remedies for various ailments, and some people still drink ginger ale when they're sick today
cola nut
@@cstockman3461 thank you!
Cola/orange/lemon & lime + honorary member lemon too (e.g. Coke or Pepsi/Fanta/Sprite or 7 Up + Fanta Lemon. Also in Ireland we have Club Orange and Club Lemon in addition to the corresponding Fantas, plus Club Rock Shandy which is the two mixed together. There are also still-common drinks with rarer flavours, like Cidona (apple), Lilt (pineapple/grapefruit, i.e. tropical), Tanora (only found in Cork, tangerine))
What about dandelion & burdock?
As a Pennsylvanian myself, I can confirm how insanely popular potato chips (and pretzels) are, with big names like Herr's, Utz, and Snyders all major regional players in the snack aisle. Kettle chips are the latest craze these days too!
Living In SE Michigan I never realized that our isles are filled with tons of different brands of chips like you. cool seeing this video highlight something about my region I didn’t know was a thing!
“Kettle chips are the latest craze these days too!”
Did you write this comment 10 years ago?
utz honey bbq >
I would not ever eat Utz potato chips or any Utz brand corn based foods. This includes "tato skins" which are made of corn with a little bit of potato starch in them
I’m from Ohio and Herrs is one of my absolute favorites! Thank you to the Pennsylvanians for those!!
Amazing video, subscribed!
Yea instantly subbed. You make very good videos sir
When I was a child in England in the early 1950s, crisps (potato chips) were unsalted. There was a small blue twist of paper holding salt in each bag so you could salt the crisps to your own taste.
And that's why what amerixans call American 'plain chips' is called Ready Salted here
They were called Salt and shake werent they. Lol I'm 19 but lived with my grandparents who had these crisps
The salt would stick to the chips?
@@Akane1313 Yes. Although some of the salt inevitably ended up at the bottom of the bag
My grandmother likes these.
I love how you present the most “boring” or “mundane” topics, but they’re actually full of really interesting history, we’ve just accepted them as being so boring and mundane since it’s such a part of the American culture.
>american
>culture
I think the lesson here is to not label any topic as mundane or boring. All it needs is the right presentation and the right teacher. And JJ definitely is that!
"Boring" was my nickname in highschool.
Every time he says "about" 😂😂😂
Barbecue, salt and vinegar, sour cream and onion, and plain (meaning salted) are the Mt Rushmore of chip flavors. Absolute bangers
In India the chip cannon is: magic masala (mixed spices), Spanish tomato tango (tomato and pepper), salted, and American style sour cream and onion. Nowadays, I see more Chile limón too, but Indian people love Spanish and Mexican inspired flavors, so lays may lean into the same type of flavors for both regions
This is true, and the hilarious part is that you can't get Spanish Tomato Tango in Spain.
When I was in Nepal the chip flavor, "Americanized Sour Cream and Onion" was super popular. I saw people eating them all the time and I can honestly say they were better than actual Sour Cream and Onion chips from America. It makes me wonder what the difference is though 🤔
At some of the Indian grocery stores in the US you have Lay's American Style Cream & Onion. Once we did a side by side taste test with US Lay's Sour Cream & Onion. We liked the Lay's American Style better than the standard US one. I don't recall what the differences are... may need to do repeat this again!
@@AquarianDragon out of curiosity i looked at the ingredients for both. they're pretty different, one thing that stands out is that the "americanized" versions have real sugar and the american ones have maltodextrin.
@@olivecooke5657 the american style chips do taste sweeter from what I remember...
interesting... mexican nacho flavor doritos are also better than americas, more jalapeno flavor.
Probably msg.
Watching this while started to get hungry has made me hungrier. I'm going to have some of the barbecue flavored Pringles I have in my house. LOL.
This was a super fun and informative video. It's fascinating to hear such a vibrant history of a food item so common to us!
10:55 - "Like Barbecue sauce! That stuff goes with anything."
Can confirm, I once put BBQ sauce over spaghetti (instead of pasta sauce), NO regrets.
Here in Poland i would describe that flavours:
- paprika/bell pepper - red
- green onion - green
- fromage/white cheese - blue
- plain - yellow
Those colors are typed from memory and should be actual colors from Lays
Naturally we have other tastes like BBQ/ribs, kebab, wasabi, cheese and onion...
I would also add ketchup and cheese&onion
@@justlyssa6837 i think the ketchup flavour is more for stuff like cheetos than potato chips, but yes cheese-onion is like the most common flavour and I think more popular that just onion
Fromage is cream cheese with herbs
In all my years of living in NY I've never experienced any sort of potato chip pride. If anything, the most popular non-huge corporation brand here is Cape Cod potato chips.
owned by the Campbell Soup Company. Big Soup has you in their pocket, my friend.
Hey good to see you here Atlas Pro. Love your videos!
I agree there isn't much potato chip pride in my experience in NY. I wonder if there's more in Albany but I've lived in the central and finger lakes regions. Cape Cod are my personal favorites as well.
I do notice that visiting my family that lives in PA there's potato chips at most casual meals so maybe there's something there
It’s not supposed to be pride, just a lot of chip eating
@@JJMcCullough ahh yes that makes sense. Every event I attend has chips. My family went through 2 family sized bags a week. Chips are everywhere. I've never lived long term outside the chip belt but I'm wondering now if that would be something I notice when I move elsewhere.
@@christianhowles I'm in NC and there's still a lot of chips here...chips are like the default snack food.
In Chile we have
-Salt
-Jamón Serrano
-Onion
-Pizza (just some brands)
-Cheese (also just some brands)
Jamón Serrano sounds really good.
I’m a-boot thrilled with you video essay!
This video is fascinating. I initially wasn’t excited about the topic, and only clicked on it bc I like J.J.’s videos, but as I watched it I completely did a 180. I really enjoyed the exploration of Americana that has shaped the US and then exported across the world. Really enjoyed the video! Would love to see more!
Thank you my friend. I like this video a lot.
I live in Latvia and we love potatoes a lot, so, naturally, we love potato chips. Nowadays, you can find all the American chip flavors in stores, but even now they're not as popular as some other flavors. I'd say the most popular and widely liked chip flavors in Latvia are dill, sour cream & onion, cheese, and tomato. This is probably due to the fact that we mostly buy and eat chips from our own Latvian brand "Ādažu čipsi", I'm pretty sure they were the first ones to start selling tomato, dill, and cheese flavored chips over here. Nowadays they have many different and interesting flavors (like pickles, chimichurri, shashlik & roasted onion, horseradish, creamy mushroom sauce, and thyme, rosemary & pink pepper), but the 4 classic ones (dill, sour cream & onion, cheese, and tomato) are still the most popular and a staple at every party.
Regarding the BBQ flavor - I think bacon is more popular here, without going to the store and checking I can only remember one brand that makes BBQ chips, but at least 3 that make bacon flavored ones.
Also, I saw another comment about this, the color coding of chips seems interesting. Over here, sour cream & onion is in a purple packet, but I'm sure the color differs in other countries.
I lived in Latvia for 5 months and I was extremely surprised by the popularity of dill in foods! I actually never heard of dill before I went to Latvia (I'm from Mexico) and seeing dill-flavored chips was impressing (maybe foreigners think the same about mexican "guacamole and cilantro" chips).
Btw Adažu krejums & sipoli are great! much better that the American equivalent.
@@DanielEsparza37 we do love dill a lot :D as a foreigner, guacamole and cilantro chips do sound weird (and interesting!), but i'd love to try them someday. and omg! it's great to hear praise for Ādažu čipsi, especially for their sour cream and onion chips because those are probably my favorite chips ever, i'm glad to see foreigners enjoy them too :)
Dill chips sound like a dream come true!
fellow latvian i see
Бекон, краб, сметана и лук, сыр - основные вкусы по всему бывшему СССР, по крайней мере по моему опыту.
i am from the potato chip belt. My grandfather will keep at least 4 different party sized bags of potato chips in his house at all times. If my family is out of chips, we will make a trip to the grocery store to get more as soon as possible. I once ate a sour cream and onion flavored potato chip donut. Cape cod and Goods are the best brands of potato chips. We love our potato chips.
I learned significantly more than I expected to for a chip video. Thank you and thumbs up.
In Mexico we kinda have a canon for chips too and never noticed:
- Salty.
- Adobadas (like tomato and spices, maybe even like those exotic ketchup chips but never tasted them).
- Jalapeño (not so hot).
- Hot chips (Maybe habanero or a mix of chilli. Very hot).
- Cheese (like cheddar I think).
And maybe lemon with some chilli but I’m not so sure
he's Canadian ketchup chips are not exotic at all to him lol
Doritos incógnita are some of the best ones Mexico has got. Tbh I trust any Mexican chip flavor
Limón in Spanish can also be lime in English, and lime and chili is another popular flavor here. Also becoming popular are guacamole flavor chips. However, some of them aren't very good, and seem like they're basically just green food coloring.
@@skamiikaze I trust Mexican food in general. Such a great balance between umami, spice, sweetness and acidity/"brightness"
@@TheUltimateHum true, I think that most of my tastes come from Mexican food. I love spicy stuff and I love acidic / salty stuff
Here in India, the potato chip canon is a bit different. Here, the standard flavours are salted (almost always in yellow coloured packets), sour cream and onion (sometimes the name "American" added in front of the name and always in green coloured packets), being the same, while the other two flavours are tomato (Lay's markets it under the name "Spanish tomato tango", almost always red coloured packets) and masala (the word literally means spice/ spice blend, Lay's markets it under the name "India's magic masala", and almost always blue coloured packets).
I go to the Indian grocery store in my home town here in USA just to get some magic masala chips and a thumbs up. I have never been to India but thank you all
@@fritzyberger pleasure to know that you like 'em. Would definitely enjoy when you visit our country.
2:28 as an Irish person, I felt this
9:23 now it makes sense why the McDonald Brothers' first restaurant in the 40s was a drive-in specializing in BBQ. It was simply what the people wanted back then!
Pittsburgher here. Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York are considered the “Snack Belt” as this is where most of the dry, salted snack companies (Snyder’s etc.) are based. It’s less a potato chip domination, and more a preoccupation with dry, salty snacks. Pretzels are big here (the dry hard kind) as well.
As a 21st century European, the fact that potatoes and onions (aka "two of the closest things I think of that make life meaningful" ;p) were once scorned and frowned upon by my continent's elites, baffles me. I've heard that this is the case (at least in Britain) for quite a number of fancy food items. Monk fish and turbots were considered peasant fare due to the arbitrarily "ugly" appearance of those particular species, whereas these days that kind of seafood fetches premium prices in the kind of establishments with reputations to uphold.
Also, being the common English lout that I am, I can confirm that fish and chips drenched in salt and vinegar makes life worth living... :3
I honestly think english canadians are super racist and ignorant towards language education and usually likes to bully bilingual people
No one asked drown in that vinegar rot tooth brit
Lobster used to be seen as a pretty low form of food in the US IIRC. When available it would be used in prison food before it caught on as a more fancy dish.
@@williamapple7705 I'm trying to imagine prisoners these days getting anything remotely adjacent in the gastronomic stakes to lobster. Those horrible red and white fish sticks, maybe?
This was well researched, interesting, and educational. The trifecta.
4:12 The song choice for the factory part was genius
Hi J.J. I use to be a chip potato agronomist in western New York and can attest to the pride and economic importance of NY potato chips.
It's actually pretty cool how we grow specific potatoes and conduct specific lab tests to optimize chip quality in our potatoes. I even did a term paper in University focusing on potato fry quality and breed selection.
Really interesting! Buffalo has a big presence in this comment section
I honestly think english canadians are super racist and ignorant towards language education and usually likes to bully bilingual people
dang jobs are so specialized
I really appreciate that even though you’re Canadian you’re giving me such in depth knowledge about my own American culture, thank you
Lol, "American culture"
@@haylinpm8973 Woah, we got a badass over here
@@geozop Uhhh, what?
@@haylinpm8973 It's a meme
@@geozop Yeah I know dude but it doesn't quite fit here
I adore your videos! I particularly adore the way you say ‘about’. I’m from Winnipeg originally, but your way of saying that word is even more “Canadian” than my family in the middle of nowhere. It’s so comforting! Sorry for my lame, sappy comment. Actually, I’m not sorry. Love it!
So there's also regional chips too like Zapps being popular in the South especially Louisiana
My personal favorite are Golden Flake "sweet heat" BBQ chips.
in portugal, we have this chip flavor called "camponesa", which literally means peasant. it's this garlic, tomato, onion, bellpepper flavor. it's honestly my favorite type of chip. it's sorta like the pizza pringles but even better. i believe they're made by lay's, which is the most popular chip brand here, alongside ruffles, both owned by pepsi.
but i'd say the most common and popular chip flavor is presunto, which is sorta like ham, i think americans use the italian name prosciutto
Thank you for sharing this! I'm in the US (Texas which borders Mexico) and recently went through a drive thru restaurant called Chicken Camponesa. Their specialty was a certain flavoring on their chicken, with a camponesa sauce. I assumed it was Mexican, but maybe not. The flavor tasted very much how you described!
Definitly the major staples of Portuguese potato chip culture are presunto, Camponesas, ketchup, and a variation of the plain one that are "fried in olive oil" (that taste almost the same as plain ones). Digo isto por experiencia própria.
I'm portuguese, I can confirm this comment and the second comment too. Camponesa chips are probably my favourite (they're by Lay's too)
I’m Peruvian and we often pride ourselves for having the “largest variety of potatoes” so of course “native” potatoes chips are part of the canon, and actually my brother was telling me the other day that Inka chips, the brand that is known for making the native variety of chips, is actually surpassing Lays in sales by a lot so other chip brands that market themselves as “native” or “authentically Peruvian” are popping up
And I’m sure that if other Peruvians see this comment they will get what I’m referring to just by saying it’s the purple potato chips
Also there have been many, many experiments of making traditional dishes as chip flavors “a thing” with varying degrees of success
@@cristinabottger1509 Are there chips made from different kind of potatoes? I'd love to try how different they are.
I have to say that the Lay's classic flavored chips in Peru are seemingly more burnt and burnt tasting than the ones I've had in the U.S. and other parts of the world.
Inka chips are just great, way better flavor that what lays offer
Canada here! those four are equally as popular but with a fifth choice of ketchup chips! I hate them, but all the vending machines in highschool and college had them so I guess someone's gotta enjoy them.
13:02 as a brit I think I just died a little when this man called fish and chips deep fried fish with French fries
In Sweden the most traditional flavours are: Salted (yellow), Sourcream and Onion (blue), Dill (green) and "Grillchips" (orange).
"Grillchips" are more or less onion flavour.
Grill chips är inte lök liknande
Dill is an excellent potato chip flavor
@@Dummkopf420 Estrella beskriver bokstavligen att de är "med smak av lök"
I live within 30 minutes of Saratoga, and there is a lot of regional pride that comes with the invention of potato chips, with local restaurants selling expensive chips with long winded stories on the back.
Lived all over Saratoga county, settled in Charlton, I can confirm this.
I loooove this man, he’s so smart and it’s so cute how he “hovers” while he talks, I am completely amused
In Japan, potato chip flavors are mostly one of the following:
• Lightly salted
• Nori seaweed and salt
• Consommé
• Cheese and/or pizza, sometimes
Socio-cultural food focused anthropology, I love it! Keep up the good work!
As an Anthropology major who took as many Anthropology of Food classes as I could before graduating.
I'm a big fan of JJ and more so when he explores food of the US and the World at Large!
I was a member of the United States Air Force in the '90s and I was stationed in the UK where I was introduced to vinegar and salt on French fries. I enjoyed it so much that I have actually made my own french fries and then put salt and vinegar on them. And I started eating salt and vinegar chips as a result of my time in the uk. For some reason I had never seen salt and vinegar chips before joining the Air Force. Maybe my parents just didn't like them?
@@josephbowman1092 yup, vinegar on fries is very common in New England
Not sure why it’s not more common. However, I know national burger places like Five Guys stock malt vinegar next to their ketchup as condiments
Salt and vinegar on chips isn't common in America? Wierddd...
Idk y I love watching these videos where a Canadian teaches me about my own country
This guy is def a character that exaggerates a Canadian accent😂
I never knew about the “potato chip belt” but it seems to fit most of Pennsylvania. I’m from central PA and can name at least 7 chip companies and/or factories local to my area. I also always hear people commenting or arguing about which chip brands or flavors they are most loyal to.
Iirc Pennsylvania is even referred to as the chip or snack state sometimes with how many different snacks and chips are made there
Eastern PA here, can confirm. What I find find is that i'm not loyal toa particular brand, but some brands flavors are better than others.
I honestly think english canadians are super racist and ignorant towards language education and usually likes to bully bilingual people
huh i always just buy from the northwestern brands here like tim's cascade snacks
Yep, there's Utz, Herr's, Snyder (not to be confused with Snyder's, the pretzel guys), and Wise just off the top of my head and I'm not even from there. Utz would probably be most familiar to people outside the region; they definitely have a presence as far as Georgia given that a reference appeared in a Homestar Runner cartoon.
Here in nothern Italy (and probably the centre and south too) THE potato chips company is San Carlo. The most basic flavours I can think of are:
1) plain (called classiche)
2) crinkled plain (rustiche)
3) tomato/ketchup
4) paprika
Cheese flavor is popular too but it's more commonly associated with maize based chips. In particular, there's a brand called Fonzies that's very iconic.
Fun fact: when I visited Sardinia (an island region in Italy) I discovered that chips made of carasau bread are very popular, if not more popular than regular potato chips
I think an interesting follow up to this video would be one on the American Corn Chip Flavor Canon. Corn chips, aka tortilla chips, are made from corn flour rather than sliced potatoes, and the flavors I would consider the canonical flavors in America would be plain, nacho cheese, and cool ranch. I think the origins of those chip flavors were pretty similar the origin of BBQ and SC&O flavored potato chips: they started as popular dipping sauces for the chips that companies then decided to bake directly into the chip itself. What's interesting is that the most popular dipping sauce for corn chips, salsa, has yet to be made into an actual chip flavor.
The Taki flavors would also be up there
Heyo, Pennsylvania resident here. The thing about the potato chip ring is completely true. Chips are sold in stores, schools, vending machines, literally everywhere. I eat potato chips every day. I never really thought about how common they were compared to other places until watching this video.
Very interesting that pepper flavoured chips aren't such a big thing in the US. They're the most basic flavour in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, often branded as 'Hungarian' flavour.
Hungarian!?
I'm really confused about (bell)pepper chips... I don't think I've seen any and we have loads of chips in the Baltics!
I grew up on cheese ones but dill, sourcream and onion were the big two from what I recall. There's a lot of tomatoey ones nowadays, which for the life of me I can't understand
Yeah, moved to germany recently and “ungarisch” or just “paprika” is all I can find
@@JJMcCullough I know this one! ….kinda. My (also Canadian) mom has 2 kinds of paprika in her cupboard. Sweet Paprika, and Hungarian Paprika. I’m guessing this bell-pepper based spice has some form of relevance in the Hungarian culture? Maybe it grows well in their climate?
@@JJMcCullough Exactly, they're a staple, every German supermarket has them.
I told a Hungarian friend once and she wasn't too happy of her country being reduced to paprika (and goulash) all the time, but that's the way cultural stereotypes work.
Here in Australia our potato chip flavour canon matches pretty closely with America's. The big four here are salted ("original"), salt and vinegar, BBQ and Chicken (which is meant to be the flavour of the seasonings you put on roast chicken).
We also have sour cream and onion, but it's not quite as popular as those four. Other popular flavours are cheese and chives, and honey soy chicken, which most manufacturers have a variation of. There has also been a push by some companies to make lime and cracked pepper a staple flavour for some reason.
And, yes, we have had Vegemite flavour in the past. They weren't great though.
I would argue that sour cream and onion is only big for Pringles in Oz (or at least Victoria) . Cheese and onion would be 5th place. Your Big 4 are spot on.
Sour cream and chives is my favourite. But I prefer Grainwaves over potato chips
I was shocked when learning that chicken flavoured chips were basically just not a thing in places outside Australia. Seemed like easily the most popular flavour growing up. Like chicken salt always struck me as a niche Aussie thing but chicken flavour chips just seemed like they should be everywhere.....
Bro is the most Canadian Canadian I have ever heard
This video was much more comprehensive than I expected. It was really facinating. In Norway we use bell pepper chips a lot. Bbq and salt and vinagre are not commonly used. There is a lot of experimentation from some companies, so we do have a lot of flavors, but it depends on the brand.
Being from India chips have been an essential part of my youth. the most of the chips found here are the lays ones but other Indian chips brands are also popular like uncle chips and Kurkure.
also, the most popular flavour here would be the sour cream and onion ones which are labeled as 'American cream and onion' on the pack also the Indian spiced chips are also quite popular
The Lays magic masala is the only flavour I ever buy
I would love to try a masala flavored one! Saw it once in Canada and still regret not getting it.
@@ScorpiotideOne my friends got those and they are fantastic
@@Sixtixx Salt, Magic Masala supremacy
Yellow Blue Lays🛐🛐🛐
I would love to try the masala ones! I've seen cucumber and squid flavours at the Asian supermarkets near me, which is more of an East Asian one, but none of the south Asian supermarkets I've gone to have chips :(
The first time I traveled to the US (from Australia) I was shocked, SHOCKED they didn’t have chicken flavoured things. Every brand of chips in Australia has chicken flavour. We also have a thing called chicken salt and we put it on fries. It’s so good.
Other standard flavours in Australia are:
Salt/Plain
BBQ
Salt and Vinegar
Sour Cream and Chive
Cheese and Onion
There's "Chicken in a Biskit" crackers here, at least.
@@cableshaft I love those!
Roast chicken is a pretty common flavor in Canada
Brazil has grilled chicken flavor. Also grilled "BBQ beef", which is not like bbq sauce, but the actual meat flavor
We do have chicken flavored chips, but you are right that they aren't as popular here. Tbf, it isn't really chicken flavor anyways.
So here in Slovakia we get chips flavours like:
- salt (of course)
- sour cream and onions
- paprika (seems to be popular in western and central europe)
- cheese
- bacon (which is my favourite)
- ketchup (I k ow that this one is really popular in Canada as well)
- and some of the more out there are chilli, wasabi or even pork or steak flavour.
Saratoga is about 30 minutes from me. As a New Yorker, i can attest that we eat a whole bunch
The fact that he jumps from Baudrillard to chips is so absurd that I love it
Here in the UK our standard crisps are Ready Salted (our version of original/plain), Cheese and Onion, and Salt and Vinegar. Sour Cream and Onion is associated specifically with Pringles. Other popular flavours include roast chicken (my personal favourite), prawn cocktail, smoky bacon, and Worcestershire sauce.
Here in Ireland it's literally the same except the warcistershire sauce
I'd also like to add that out of those the biggest one for a 4th main flavour is probably smoky bacon as it's the one you'll be most likely to see in a those 24 pack multi-flavour bags. Also Ready salted is red. Smoky bacon is purple, cheese and onion is blue and sal and vinegar is green. Tho those last 2 do change in quite alot of brands
Cheese and onion sounds gross. Does it taste good?
@@TreefuckTunes In Scotland it was always Navy Blue = plain, Sky Blue = Salt and Vinegar, Green = Cheese and Onion and every single company followed the pattern. Then fucking Walkers shows up and fucks up the colour and now plain crisps are always red but most non-Walker brands still use light blue for Salt and Vinegar and green for Cheese and onion.
Green for Salt and Vinegar is fucking weird.
I should also add that Walkers are fucking disgusting. They are ridiculously undercooked resulting in literally no flavour other than from the seasoning which is both lacking in quantity and pretty poor on taste. Also Walkers gained their market share by pioneering the "multipack but the bags are all smaller" method of hoodwinking people. Its a shame it worked. BOYCOTT WALKERS.
@@RedPanda450 it tastes beautiful
In Spain we recently got all of these four flavors of Pringles, but some good ol' flavor is Country (not in the sense of american country, just traditional food). They're a mix of bell pepper, onion and tomato flavoring, and some paprika too if I'm not wrong. I think they're also popular in Italy and Portugal but I'm not sure. We also have olive oil chips, (obviously).
And finally something really Spanish and not just Mediterranean is wheat bark snacks. They're not frites but are often thought of as such. I haven't been able to find them in other languages and only in Spain, and not in the Americas. They're sometimes marketed as faux pork rinds (which we also eat, a lot, but that's not exclusive to us). Lay's's are called Boca Bits if you wanna search them, tho they're not always as aerated as theirs.
Edit: I've also seen import Tikka Masala rice pringles. They're uncannily delicious
Great vid! As an American, any time I've travelled to another country, one of the things I've always done is sampled different flavors of potato chips/crisps. Since my first visit to the UK in the late 90's, I still regularly import Walkers Chicken & Thyme crisps and lament that I can't get a similar flavor at home. I especially miss the chardonnay flavoured crisps from a co-op in Scotland I once sampled. My visit to Australia was great... the vegemite crisps by Smiths, not so much.
I think you'd also love prawn cocktail mate, it's a similar meaty flavor but it has a lot more tang to it 👍