Lay's USA Flavor All Stars 2016

Lay's USA is running another promotion to end out 2016; this time it's the return of 3 popular flavors from the last 3 years of various promos known as the "Flavor All-Stars". The 3 returning flavors are "Wavy Truffle Fries" aka "Wavy West Coast Truffle Fries" from 2015's Regionally themed "Do Us a Flavor" competition, "Smoked Gouda & Chive" from this years "Flavor Swap" promotion, and my personal favorite "Chicken &Waffles" from 2013's "Do Us a Flavor" competition.

I've reviewed all 3 of these bags here: Truffle Fries, Smoked Gouda & Chive, Chicken & Waffles

I'm pretty keen to get a few bags of "Chicken & Waffles", I absolutely loved that flavor. What about you? Excited to see an old favorite return? Let us know in the comments section below!

Gotta Get At This: Lay's Peru Apasionados Por Nuestros Sabores Competition Papa a la Huancaína and Lomo Saltado

Peru is running a fun flavor contest called "Apasionados por nuestros sabores" aka "Passionate for our flavors". It seems to be a voting competition between 2 typical Peruvian flavors: "Papa a la Huancaina" and "Lomo Saltado".
"Papa a la Huancaina" is a dish that derived from the Peruvian Highlands; a cold dish of yellow potatoes, served with Huancaina sauce which is a cheese based sauce. The potatoes are usually served on a bed of lettuce and come with Olives on top.
"Lomo Saltado" is a yummy dish of stir fried steak strips with bell peppers and onions, that comes with thick cut french fries on the side.
I love that both of these flavors come with potato on the plate; that is usually a good sign of a successful flavor in the bag.
The contest started running this month, so both bags should be available now in Peru.

Contest: Lay's USA Do Us A Flavor 2015 Finalists Announced!

They announced these flavors last week, but I was on vacation so sorry if you didn't hear the news here. However, if you didn't already find out... GUESS WHAT! Lay's announced the 4 flavor finalists in their Do Us A Flavor competition! This batch of flavors is pretty wild; this year's premise was that they've been inspired by local, regional flavors, so let's see what we've got and walk through them together.
First up, a Kettle Cooked option, "Greektown Gyro" a Gyro and Tzatziki flavored chip inspired by a Gyro shop in Texas. For this flavor to work, it's probably gonna be pretty hearty when paired with that thicker Kettle Chip. The Costco bag of Tzatziki chips I reviewed the other day was pretty authentic and delicious, so I'm hopeful these are gonna follow suit.
Next up, the Wavy option, "West Coast Truffle Fries". These are inspired by dressed up French Fries from Irvine, CA. Since, I live pretty close to Irvine, I'll just go out on a limb and say, this is not a typical thing. Yes, we do have a hipster foodie scene that sells all sorts of things on top of French Fries, but Truffle is not something I have found specifically often. These are probably pretty delicious though, since the Wavy chip only has to do the job of Fries. Not that hard to mess up. Right?
Third up is "Southern Biscuits and Gravy"; now this says regional flavor to me! It's another flavor of a dressed up starch, so if they can nail that gravy flavor and a hint of floury biscuits, these should be awesome.
Last one is "New York Reuben", again a flavor that sounds super regional to me and makes perfect sense. I'm a huge fan of the way Lay's USA handles Sandwich flavors, so I have no doubt this will be great. I anticipate it will have the corned beef flavor, and a sour note from either sauerkraut or pickles or both, and then a sweetness from rye bread.

So what are your thoughts about this year's finalists? Are they too extreme? Or are you excited?
Share your opinions in the comments section below.

Contest: Lay's Canada Do Us A Flavour 2014 Finalists Announced

 

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DAMNYOU CANADA! Why do you always have to be so amazing???! 

Get me a needle, cuz I want to mainline ALL of these flavors!!  

now.

"Bacon Poutine"? YES PLEASE.

"Cinnamon Bun"?  YES PLEASE.

Wavy "Jalepeno Mac N Cheese"? YES PLEASE.

Kettle Cooked "Tzatzki"?? GET OUT OF MY HEAD ALREADY AND GIVE THESE TO ME CANADA!!

For the uninitiated, Poutine is a Canadian classic... it's basically gravy and cheese curds on fries. The good lord knows that Bacon makes everything taste better... and so does Lay's, cuz they added it to their poutine flavored chips... (Also, Poutine is a year round flavor offered in Canada, so they gotta make this one stand out somehow. lol). I'm guessing this is the flavor to beat. Canadians already get "Smokey Bacon" and "Poutine" chips... so I reckon they will love the combination. 

"Cinnamon Bun" is a genius idea already... flavoring a chip to taste like a "Cinnamon Bun" is Hyper-genius! If you think about the unseasoned chip as a blank canvas (like the mighty Bun) and flavor that bad boy up with cinnamon and vanilla. MMMMM. It is probably gonna be the BOMB. (or nasty. it could be nasty too. who knows.)

"Jalepeno Mac N Cheese"... here us Americans were sitting cocky with our "Cheddar Bacon Mac & Cheese"... while all along the Canadians were in a lab somewhere concocting THIS!!?? 

Jalepeno. ANNNND. Macaroni and Cheese!!

HOW ARE WE STILL EVEN A SUPER POWER??

Refreshingly spicy Jalepeno against decadent Mac N Cheese....seriously. There is no way this will not be incredibly delicious.

The 4th finalist is "Tzatzki"... I am half Egyptian. This is my people's Ketchup, ok? We put this on EVERYTHING... because it belongs on everything. Including potato chips. This can not be bad. There's no way. 

OH, i'm sorry, what is Tzatzki you ask? It's basically plain yogurt with mint and fresh cucumber... I add Garlic Salt... some people use fresh garlic and lemon too... but the recipe kind of depends on who you ask. This will make every meal better. I'm not joking, I've seen my dad put it on Mexican food, Chinese food, Burgers... it doesn't matter. It is THAT good.

I just got a new passport, so I'm pretty much going to go now and get these... I can be there in 3 hours... who's coming??

Are you losing it for these flavors like I am? Or do you think I'm nuts? Let us know down below...

Contest: Lay's Chile Crear Tu Sabor Winner 2013

 

Lay's Chile has selected their champion! 

This years winner of Chile's "Crear Tu Sabor" contest has been chosen and it is Mauricio Araya's Chorrillana!!

Chorrillana is a typical Chilean dish of French Fries topped with Beef strips, eggs, sometimes sausage, and cooked up onions. You can see Mauricio preparing a variation of it in the photo above using "Corte Americano" (Wavy Original) Potato Chips in place of the Fries. 

This seemed like the favorite to win from the beginning, as it is a popular dish in Chile. The other two flavors were super strange to me, and I didn't see them having a chance. One was BBQ sauce, which I thought was weird... not BBQ or BBQ'd meat... just BBQ sauce. Hmm. And the other was WEIRDDDD; Cream Cheese with Soy Sauce. WHAT? Who would want to eat that?? Tell me now! 

Mauricio's non-crazy flavor won him a cool 20 Million Chilean Pesos PLUS 1% of sales. Not bad, thats a little less than $40,000, and the percent of sales is a great bonus. So, Congratulations Mauricio! 

 

Note: This bag, as well as the other finalists were all Wavy cut. I also realized that the other known flavors in Chile ("Pizza" and "Sour Cream & Onion") are also Wavy cut. So it appears that the standard cut in Chile is the "Corte American" aka the Wavy.
Chile does, however, also offer the "Mediterraneas" line which more closely resembles the regular cut. And they have the "Resto" line which is a straight cut chip that is crunchier and has the potato skin left on.

Back to the programming at hand: If you're in Chile, and you loved those crazy flavors that didn't win, you'd ought to go stock up now before they are gone for good. I'd also love to know if anyone has tried the Chorrillana flavored bag yet. Is it any good? Let us know in the comments below!

Contest: Lay's Chile Crear Tu Sabor Finalists

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Lay's Chile ran their contest pretty quickly, it began in January and we already have 3 finalists. 3 very VERY unique finalists. "Chorrillana", "Queso Crema Soya", and "Salsa BBQ"... in layman's terms... "Chorrillana" is a typical Chilean dish, it's a plate of French Fries, covered in beef strips, eggs, fried onions and occasionally sausages. "Queso Crema & Soya" is cream cheese, soy sauce, and a hint of sesame seeds. (0_o)
Finally, "Salsa BBQ" is BBQ sauce. Strangely, this bag is not "BBQ ribs" or some other BBQ meat, it is just straight BBQ sauce.
All of these 3 flavors are full blown wacky (Im looking at you Cream Cheese and Soy Sauce!)
But, who am I to judge regional tastes?

I truly have NO preference in the outcome of this contest, I just want to see how it goes down. I've got to know if the people of Chile are really out their eating cream cheese and soy sauce and if it will win. This news made my day!