The History of American Chip Flavors 

Nothing beats a video talking about the obscure lore of mondane things we see everyday.

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)

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Why is your chair so bouncy?

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! 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

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.

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

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.

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.

JJ's channel is like a non-stop wikipedia binge. I love it

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 RU-vid wasteland where people be no matter where their from, often use the sickening text-to-speech accents supplied BBY our corporate overlords.

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

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.

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

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).

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

From Canadian in-jokes to hyper reality to types of chip flavours. This is why we love J.J.

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.

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.

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

No exaggeration, This is one of my favorite series on RU-vid. 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.

Theres something so special about these videos. Thanks for your time JJ

I love history and I love food/snacks. This series is the best ever. Thank you for this J.J.!!

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?

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.

I've always loved "sour cream" and "onion" flavored pringles even though I'm not a big fan of real sour cream and 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.

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.

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 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 🙂

Amazing analysis as always, JJ! I love the food-culture videos you produce!

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.

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).

Small mistake, the etymology of vinegar goes even further back to Roman times. It is almost identical to the French term but in Latin

JJ talks like someone learning and speaking English simultaneously, where ending each sentence brings a sense of pride and accomplishment.

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.

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!

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.

Speaking as an American, the way you address America is so perfectly accurate and hilarious with just a twinge of sadness.

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!

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

One of the most insightful channels I've come across in a very long time.

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.

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.

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

In Chile we have -Salt -Jamón Serrano -Onion -Pizza (just some brands) -Cheese (also just some brands)

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!

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

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 😅

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.

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.

Socio-cultural food focused anthropology, I love it! Keep up the good work!

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

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 Japan, potato chip flavors are mostly one of the following: • Lightly salted • Nori seaweed and salt • Consommé • Cheese and/or pizza, sometimes

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 🤔

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

Amazing video, subscribed!

The chef was so mad, he accidentally created the best snack in the USA.

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.

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

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

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!

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.

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.

I'm in the UK, and over here the big three are ready salted (so called cos they used to come unsalted with a salt sachet you could add yourself), cheese and onion and salt and vinegar. There's also the honourable mention of prawn cocktail as a fourth if you're feeling fancy.

You have such a skill for looking very deeply into something taken for granted and seen as normal.

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.

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

Sour cream is a fantastic base for a potato chip dip. In Sweden next to the potato chips they sell flavour packets containing a mix of various spices that are made to be mixed with sour cream to make a dip. You can easily make your own spice mixtures if you want to try your hand at making your own "Swedish" dip at home. Simply mix some onion powder into your sourcream for a regular sour cream and onion dip. You can also add things like paprika powder, habanero, chilli powder etc for some extra flavour and spice. You can basically experiment with whatever spices you have at home.

I never really thought about potato chips being like a big thing within the north east, but now that you mention it we have many local potato chip brands that you can't get outside the north east. Some are so big they make more than just potato chips too, but still small enough companies that they are regional. I think part of it is probably the big sandwich culture there is in the north east and the deli culture that comes with that, perhaps also the fact that chips go good with a packed lunch which many in the rust belt(western PA and Ohio)would have been consuming every day when going to work at the factories, hard to say though. May also just be geographic proximity to the place where they originated, the same way that buffalo style chicken wings are in particular quite popular in the north east and eastern mid west. Hard to say really though. I would also say Sour Cream and Onion Cheddar is making its way to the US staple flavors of chips, still has a decade or two to really get over the hump but pretty much any function I go to that has chips at this point has them there, and they are p popular at grocery stores in my area as well.

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

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.

From singapore we do have a whole bunch of random ones, and kettle chips tend to give a lot of curious variety. What seems to be a staple here between a majority of chip brands here is regular, sourcream n onion, bbq, cheese, seaweed, and variations of "spicy", some using chilli, others using more localised hots like curries, mala, tomyam... these tend to be a bit less common. Salt and vinegar is definitely seen here and there but seems to be rare.

Every time he says "about" 😂😂😂

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

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.

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.

Here in the UK, we have a pretty set "big 3": ready salted, cheese and onion, and salt and vinegar, being seen in typically red, blue/yellow, and green/blue packaging respectively. We do also have some other big flavours like prawn cocktail (pink), beef (brown), roast chicken (golden-y beige) or worcestershire sauce (purple/orange). In puffy corn snacks we tend to see standard cheese and spicy flavours, but also pickled onion as a pretty popular flavour, moreso on corn snacks than potato ones.

Yes, as a Thai, I can confirm that every other week or even a few days, there’d be a new Lays flavor on the shelves. Some of the ones worth mentioning are Durian and Tom Yum Kung, they’re not bad to be honest.

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.

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.

Idk y I love watching these videos where a Canadian teaches me about my own country

In Ukraine, where I lived until recently, they have alot of strange chips. (they also have weird flavored peanuts). I've never tried the shrimp flavor, but the chicken flavor feels like you're eating chicken broth bouillon cubes. And these are name brand chips that I know from America.

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

Here in Argentina Lay's never had a consistent line of flavors for their potato chips, there were some but after visiting the supermarket I noticed ketchup flavored Lay's, sour cream and onion just like in the U.S, jamón serrano (which is inspired by a particular Spanish ham) and Asaso (which is our equivalent to BBQ). I also remember during the 2000s there were a line of Lay's with "Mediterranean" inspired flavors, I don't know if it was because lots of Argentineans have Italian heritage

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!

I really appreciate that even though you’re Canadian you’re giving me such in depth knowledge about my own American culture, thank you

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?

I’m from Australia all the flavours you covered in depth here are also common but we also regularly have limited time experimental flavours like garlic bread, chilli and lime etc which occasionally become standard. We’ve also got twistys which are kinda like cheetos but not. And I’m not sure if this is common anywhere else but we have pepper flavoured chips for some reason still they taste good so it doesn’t matter too much.

In New Zealand we have plain, salt and vinegar, sour cream and chives, and chicken. Chicken chips are by far the best, and is really good in a marmite sandwich to add crunch. We also have a very similar dip called "Kiwi Dip" which is a packet of onion soup mix, a tin of reduced cream, and a dash of malt vinegar. It's still pushed hard today, you find the soup and reduced cream right next to the chips at the supermarket.

Surprised you didn't touch on Canadian chip flavours at all, especially considering that our "canon" of chip flavours is arguably one of the only cultural differences and certainly one of the most discussed. Essentially the Canadian chip canon is the same as the American one with the addition of "all dressed," ketchup and dill pickle flavours, by the way.

I wonder if Jalapeno chips will ever reach this American cultural canon status. The first Jalapeno chips I ever ate were from the brand Ms. Vickie's, but they've quickly gained popularity with other brands. I know Kettle makes a great Jalapeno chip. I bet it has something to do with the recent American obsession with spice

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.

I love how different the main four are. Plain is just that, but a little bit of salt goes great with the fried potato flavor. Sour cream & onion has a great balance of being a light flavor but still having quite a bit of taste. Barbecue is sweet, just a little spicy, it’s quite savory. Salt & vinegar is very flavorful, it really hits ya but once you’re used to it they can be quite good.