Lay's Arabia Chili

BLURGH.
I just ate this bag... nay, a single chip from this bag. It's pretty fowl. I had a friend over who reads my blog (Hi Malyssa!) and we dared to try this flavor. Thought the worst part would be the spice... boy, were we wrong. You open the bag and the smell is indescribable. Maybe like milk left out over night in an old leather bag. It was just BAD. We couldnt figure the smell out, but presumed it wouldnt impact the taste. How this bag could take on a taste so foul, I will never know. It tasted like the smell. Whatever that was. Followed by a tiny, itty bitty, bite of spice. Then... the creepy unknown flavor amplifies... and it sits in your mouth... for what feels like forever. The chip is very similar to the US Lays in texture; its quite flaky and thin. But you can't focus on the chip with a flavor so disturbing.

Do not ever, ever, eat this bag of chips. Do you understand?

This has been a Public Service Announcement, brought to you by your friends at The Chip Report.

Gotta Get At This: Lay's Chile Mediterraneas Sabor Pebre

Here's a new flavor out of Chile that looks yummmm. It's part of Chile's Mediterraneas line. My understanding of Spanish translates that to Mediterranean. However I'm not sure that the flavors in this collection are what I would necessarily think of when composing a Mediterranean collection. They've got Serrano Ham, Oregano, Tomato Basil, and now this new flavor Pebre.
Pebre is a salsa like sauce from Chile; Wikipedia describes it as "a condiment made of (cilantro), chopped onion, olive oil, garlic and ground or pureed spicy aji (peruvian) peppers." They also note it goes great on barbecued meats.
Considering the sauce is typical of Chilean cuisine, and Lay's was just promoting it as the must have snack on September 18th (Chilean Independence day) I really don't understand how it fits into the Mediterranean line. But the collection seems to be quite popular there, so I don't think it really matters. 
What matters is that if you are visiting Chile anytime soon, and you love new flavors, check this one out :)

Walkers UK Smoky Bacon

Mmm. Bacon.
Bacon is by far one of my favorite flavors of chips. This bag is serious happiness. You pop it open and it smells like rich, fatty, luscious BACON! The taste is really pork-y. Having tasted Bacon in England, I know that their bacon retains a more authentic pork taste... this bag emulates that earthy, pork belly, style bacon. The label could be almost be swapped to smoked ham and you wouldn't know the difference. The potatoes are perfection. Walkers always makes the best chips. I've given up trying to find another chip as delicious as a Walkers brand chip. It tastes of hearty potato flavor. It stands up to the strong bacon flavor. They just go together like two pieces of a puzzle.
If you like Bacon you've got to track this down. Try a local British grocer or Amazon. I highly recommend it!

Gotta Get At This: Lay's Guatemala Ponle Tu Sabor a Lay's Contest

Another day, another contest!
Looks like Lay's Guatemala and Lay's Dominican Republic are both conducting this contest right now. "Ponle Tu Sabor a Lay's", which translates to "Put Your Flavor in Lay's", is a typical 'create the next flavor' type contest. It seems this contest started off with fans submitting potential flavors online (just like the current US contest), but right now the contest is down to two flavors inspired by two different fans; Andrea and Francisco.
The flavors seem to be available in stores (I've yet to confirm this), and fans can go to the website to vote on which bag should be added to the full time lineup. Both of these bags sound KILLER! I would grab either of these without a second thought. Pollo al Limon or Lime Chicken is Andrea's flavor. Even the picture on the bag just makes me want to dive in. And Lomito Encebollado or Tenderloin with Onions is Francisco's flavor. That sounds like a delicious take on the Steak and Onions bag. mmm. Both sound worthy of winning. I'll update when I find out which one wins. But if anyone has friends in Central America that can get their hands on these, I recommend you try and get some.
Also, I just wanted to say, these bags look AWESOME. They have a little touch of 80's with the white striping at the top, but modern coloring and a modern logo. These just look so cool. Not to mention that they have the food being sliced into chips. SOO COOL! Love the look of these!

UPDATE: I was recently looking at the Dominican Republic site and saw that they had 2 different finalists on the page now, I don't know what happened, but they do share a landing page so it looks like the pages got crossed and are now fixed. The Dominican finalists are Carlos with "Salsa a la Parmesana" and Indhira with "A la Parilla". Which are basically Parmesan Sauce and Grilled Beef. I'll throw together a new entry in more detail, but for now I want to clarify that DR has their own unique finalists. The two flavors in this blog entry above are exclusive to Guatemala.

Lay's Denmark Barbecue

Another bag from Denmark! Whoop! Here's Barbecue flavor, Danish style. The Barbeque image on the front is a vegetable skewer, so I'm not sure if this bag was supposed to taste like meatless bbq or with meat. These chips are really nice. The texture is similar to Lay's USA, but the potato is clearly better quality... I enjoyed them. They aren't as potato-y as other chips, just a hint of potato taste and the seasoning is the star. The flavor in the first bite reminded me of a less intense version of the BBQ chips we have here at home. After a few more chips I found the sweetness. It was pretty cool. They are just like the ones we have here, but they aren't at the same time (Does that make sense?). At one point I licked my fingers and I could have sworn I had just tasted Chicken skewers. Insane. So maybe this bag is supposed to taste like Chicken BBQ? IDK. Regardless, I think BBQ lovers will really love this bag. Great for when you are missing chips from home in Scandinavia. For those who missed my other Danish Lay's review... I found these not only in Copenhagen, but in Sweden as well. So, they are worth a search if visiting the region. Loved it, glad I still have a bag left. Good job DK :)