Contest: Lay's Chile Crear Tu Sabor Es La Papa

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Oh Snaps! Another "Create your flavor" contest!! Now Chile is getting in on the action with their "Crear tu sabor" contest. The winning contestant will gain 20 million Chilean pesos, and of course, introduce their new flavor to all the lucky kids in Chile. I don't know much about the current flavor offerings in Chile other than the above pictured "Corte Americano" or "American slice" (referring to that Wavy-type chip style) and the Mediterraneas line. They might also have a "Pizza" flavor and a "Sour Cream and Onion" flavor, I'm not sure. Regardless, from what I've seen online, I couldn't tell if their flavor range is vast or not... but a new flavor is always welcome. I'll keep y'all updated on the next step in this contest. :)

Walkers UK Salt & Shake

Here is an interesting bag of Walkers from the UK. These are Salt & Shake, a Walkers rebranding of the popular UK Smith's Salt N Shake bag. The Salt N Shake bag began when Frank Smith began selling his crisps with a 0.6g package of salt. Customers could add the salt at their discretion and shake the bag up to spread the flavor. Smith's was eventually bought out by Pepsi/Frito Lay (as was Walkers) and in 2003 It was rebranded into the Walkers range. I first popped this bag open and found my tiny blue packet of salt. Before dressing it up, I tried a chip on it's own. You never think about how vital Salt is to a chip until you have one without salt. It was bland and seemed to feel like it had more grease than usual. Actually, now that I think about it, it probably did... that way the salt would stick to it (duh, Gina). I tore open the packet and poured in the Salt, shook it up, and dove in. Sadly I had to reshake it like 4 times to get some decent coverage. The chips basically got Saltier as I got closer to the bottom because all the salt decided it wanted to live at the bottom of the bag. And even the saltiest of the chips was moderately seasoned. It was a fun bag to eat just for the novelty, but I would save this for people who are on a diet that needs to regulate sodium, or the faint, who just don't care for salty chips. These are definitely yummy and edible, but if I want salt flavored crisps in the UK, I'm gonna grab Walkers "Ready Salted".

Potato Chip Bag Size Comparison

Today I wanted to write about something a little different. Comparing the bag sizes internationally. I personally prefer to buy bags in the individual or 2 serving sized bags because if it's a flavor I don't like, then I don't feel bad throwing away a huge bag. And even if I do like it, many times the bag is just too big for me and will go stale before I finish it. But, I know chip addicts can demolish bags, so I know that my preference isn't the norm. Still, buying the small bags make them easier for me to sample and import. For that reason, I thought I would show you some different size bags from different countries, these bags are all considered personal sized bags, but are all different dimensions. Check it out...

Here we've got a 34.5g bag of "Walkers Salt & Vinegar" from the UK alongside 3 25g bags: "Lay's Arabia French Cheese","Chili", and "Salt", followed by another "Walkers" bag.  The US "99 cent" bag is ~42.5g and bigger than the Walkers bag. The US mini bags that come in the variety pack boxes are about 28g. I would say that the 3 Lay's Arabia bags are the same size packaging as the US mini bags, they just have a few less chips inside. However the Walkers bag is shorter and narrower compared to the US equivalent. And while here we can hit up a sandwich shop and get around 43g of chips with our sandwich, in the UK, sandwich shops only offer the smaller ~34g bags.

Then we have Israel's 40g "Tapuchips", Mexico's 40g "Sabritas", UK's 32.5g "Walkers", and the Emirates 25g "Lay's Arabia" chips. The American 42.5g equivalent would fall right between "Tapuchips" and "Sabritas" here. Those two bags match the height of the US bags but the Israeli bag is much wider and the Mexican bag is much narrower. It's interesting that the Sabritas are actually narrower than the Walker's bag.

The last bags I want to talk about come from "Lay's Thailand", while the bags are big and match up with some of the above sizes, they are lighter. The larger gold "Hot Chili Squid" is 80g and much larger than the Israeli "Tapuchips" in the photo above (Tapuchips are about 3/4 the size of the Squid bag). This bag here is in-between the American 99 cent bag and the Supermarket size bag of 10oz aka 283g. I could see the gold bag lasting even an avid chip lover 2 eating sessions. Next is the small "Extra Barbeque" bag, which is about the size of the 25g Arabian chips or the 28g US mini bag... but for some reason, it's only 14g. Which probably means It has 3 chips in it or something. Then there is the "Hot and Spicy Crab" bag, which is almost identical in size to the American 99 cent bag, but instead of the US's 42.5g, it's only got 27g inside. The last bag in this set is the "Nori Seaweed" bag... it's is just a bit smaller and narrower than the gold squid bag, yet compared to the 80g in the gold bag, the Nori bag only has 57g. If you think that the Crab flavored bag next to it is the size of a US portioned bag, that would make a lot of sense, since that size bag can hold 42.5g and the Nori bag is slightly bigger with 57g. It's crazy to me that the Gold Spicy Squid bag is larger. All the various sizes carried in Thailand seem to be able to sit on the same small shelf. The crazier thing is that I think their are more sizes in the range than just these. So while we have about 5 sizes to choose from here in the US that offer more Party sized options, Thailand has about 5 or 6 sizes to choose from that offer more personal snacking options.

Every region is different and they are all going to offer up what appeals to their clientele. These little baggies are a crash course on portion sizes and eating habits in other countries. Fascinating. But. I have to say, I find it really stereotypical that the US has the largest chips to bag ratio, lol, not that I'm complaining.

Gotta Get At This: Lay's Netherlands Patatje Joppie

Looks like Belgium isn't the only country extending the shelf life of their contest winning flavors... Lay's Netherlands recently updated their website ton include new permanent packaging for "Patatje Joppie". "Patatje Joppie" was the winner for the 2011 "Maak de Smaak" (Make the Taste) contest in the Netherlands. In October, the flavor was set to be retired and replaced by the 2012 flavor "Spicy Reggae Chicken". Now, the Limited Edition banner has been removed and it looks like "Patatje Joppie" is now a permanent member of the family. "Patatje Joppie" is based on the commonly eaten French Fries covered in "Joppiesaus" (Joppie Sauce) from the Netherlands. It's basically a sauce that is flavored by Mayo, Mustard, Onions, and Curry powder... plus a few secrets. Obviously, the flavor translated well to the chip medium, and the flavor was an instant hit. So, it's nice to see that this will continue to be available to the masses. Have you tried "Patatje Joppie"? Do you love it? Let us know in the comments below!

Gotta Get At This: Lay's Belgium Limited Edition Pesto Mozzarella

 Just found this new image up on Lay's Belgium's website. It's an updated lineup image of their regular chips range. The list of flavors hasn't been updated yet to include the new info, so all the news comes from this one picture... but it's interesting news. Primarily, a new Limited Edition flavor... "PESTO MOZZARELLA"! Mmmm. That sounds SO good! I'm jealous! I want it!
This is not the replacement to "Bicky Crisp", because that contest is still in it's early stages, which makes this a stand-alone Limited Edition. That also means that with another Limited Edition coming soon, there is no guarantee on how long this will be available. I recommend hunting this down ASAP!

This image also offered up some other interesting news; new packaging for the beloved "Bicky Crisp"! As I've mentioned here before, "Bicky Crisp" was the winner of the first Maak Je Smaak contest in 2012. It won by a landslide and became a huge hit. I speculated a few weeks ago, that it would probably join the permanent lineup just because it was so loved... and here we see a new packaging with the Limited Edition banner removed. So it looks like those of us who have yet to try it will still have the chance!

The people of Belgium have a really comprehensive selection of chips available to them now, not only in this range, but from the Sensations line and the Harvest line as well. Luckies!! If you know any of these lucky folks, let me know, I'm gonna ask them to send me some of these little treasures lol!

Lay's Thailand Nori Seaweed

Check it out! Here is a very cool looking bag, Nori Seaweed from Lay's Thailand. I was really excited about these, but unfortunately I couldn't get passed 4 or 5 chips. The potato is cooked perfectly and when you pop open this bag you see beautiful colored chips staring up at you screaming "eat me!". The chips are all perfect size and light golden toned with little flecks of real Nori. I eat a lot of Nori here in Southern California, so I was ready to compare this to a roll of delicious sushi. And at first, the chip kind of takes the substitute place of rice, and the nori comes through and the whole thing comes together... but then there is an aftertaste I find hard to describe. Maybe it is the stand in for the fishy taste, but that's not how it came across to me. It tasted VERY MUCH like Lay's Arabia French Cheese (albeit not as potent in strength). The more chips I had, the stronger the aftertaste got. And if you read my review of French Cheese... I really did NOT like that aftertaste. It's like if sweaty foot smell was turned into a taste. But again, in this bag it isn't overwhelming, it just comes in at the end and sits around on your palate. I wish it didn't have this taste because Nori does have such a nice flavor and it does come through purely at the beginning, but if you ask me, this was more of an attempt at a Nori wrapped roll than Nori by itself. To cut to the chase, I wouldn't dismiss this bag if you have never tried it... it's fun just to say you've tried it. But for me this isn't a favorite, and I don't see myself going out of my way to get it again. For those of you looking for it, I know they have it on Amazon and on ebay right now; so if you're still willing to try these, Happy Hunting!

Contest: Lay's Argentina El Sabor De Ganar

This just showed up recently on Lay's Argentina's Facebook page. Looks like they are running a contest... "El Sabor de Ganar" aka "The taste of winning" (nice!)
I like that they're using the logo from the recent USA contest.
Argentina! Come up with some delicious flavors, oh please!