Gotta Get At This: Lay's Chile Apasionados Por Nuestro Sabores Corte American Empanada de Pino, Maxx Choripan, Mediterranea Queso de Cabra y Oliva

Lay's Chile is also feeling Passionate for their own flavors, and running the Apasionados Por Nuestro Sabores campaign that Peru is running.
Three flavors are up for vote: "Empanada de Pino" on a typical cut chip or "American Cut", "Choripan" on a MAXX ridged chip, and "Queso de Cabra y Oliva" on a Mediterranea style chip.
"Empanada de Pino" is an Empanada (like a Calzone) filled with a mixture of ground beef, onions, raisins, black olives, and hard boiled eggs. It is a typical Chilean filling for an empanada.
"Choripan" is a Chorizo sausage and Crusty Bread sandwich that is popular in Chile and other surrounding Countries.
"Queso de Cabra y Oliva" is "Goat Cheese and Olive" the flavor is probably accompanied by Olive Oil on the chip because it's the Mediterranea style chip. Otherwise the description is pretty straight forward. Goat Cheese and Olive are two BOLD flavors and probably taste awesome on a chip.

So, if you can get to Chile, or a friend can send you some, here are 3 awesome new limited edition flavors to chase down! Enjoy the hunt!

Lay's USA Kettle Cooked Olive Oil & Herbs

MEH

Here's Kettle Cooked Olive Oil & Herbs, a bag in the current US Flavor Swap competition.

It's not good.
The bag smells powerfully of Olive Oil, and the first chip or two has the Olive Oil flavor, but the other seasonings overwhelm the subtlety of Olive Oil. The herbs are there, but more potently you get a LOT of Garlic powder. I could feel it on my finger tips and I could taste it accumulating on my palette. The more I ate, the less this bag tasted of Olive Oil. It began to have almost a cheesy taste to it. But it was just too much Garlic powder. The bag is also over salted.
I complained that Spain's Olive Oil bag could have benefited from some salt to enhance the flavor of the potato... but this skews in the complete other direction. Too much Salt, too much Garlic.
On top of that, the chips are not cooked well AT ALL. I always have been appreciative of the cook on all the chips in the Kettle Cooked line, but these ones fail terribly. They are more like stale thick cut chips than the usual kettle cooked.

I don't know what went wrong here. I anticipated this being one of my favorite flavors, but in my opinion it's a wasted opportunity.

BOOOOOOO

Lay's USA Do Us A Flavor 2015 Winner & Flavor Swap 2016 Contest

In case you hadn't heard elsewhere, Southern Biscuits and Gravy was announced the 2015 Do Us A Flavor Winning Flavor. (I haven't reviewed it yet, as it is still unopened in my kitchen #DietLife, but it had to have been better than the Reuben flavor). Hailey Green, the flavor's creator, won a Million Dollars for her flavor. That's FRIKIN incredible! If you preferred the other flavors in this contest, go ahead and snatch them up now as they are still available presumably til early February.
BUT
let's move on to the more interesting news. Lay's has decided to mix it up with contests finally & try something new for 2016. The "Flavor Swap" contest pits existing Lay's flavors against new versions. Customers will vote beginning February 8th online at www.flavorswap.com. The flavors that get the most votes of the duos will stay on shelves indefinitely. This means some beloved favorites could end up gone for good.
I'm loving this concept!
The 4 match ups will be between....

 NEW Smoked Gouda & Chive vs CLASSIC Cheddar & Sour Cream

 NEW Kettle Cooked Olive Oil & Herbs vs CLASSIC Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper

 NEW Korean Barbecue vs CLASSIC Honey Barbecue

NEW Fiery Roasted Habanero vs CLASSIC Flamin' Hot

Soooo, who will you be voting for? All the new flavors sound delicious, but will they be worth losing classic flavors over? I'm intrigued by all the new flavors but really looking forward to the new Olive Oil & Herbs flavor and the Smoked Gouda & Chive. YUM!

Share your thoughts with us in the comment box below!

Lay's Spain Estilo Artesanas 100% Aceite de Oliva

Lay's Spain's Artesanas are an Artisinal inspired range of Chips made with Olive Oil. This bag is simply "100% Olive Oil" flavored. I'd been waiting a long time to try these and I'm not gonna lie, I felt like I kinda got jipped. I guess as an American, I presume all chips come with Salt (as we call Salted Chips "Original", and we don't have an Non-Salted option). That's where I fell down on this bag. While the chips are well cooked and offer decent potato flavor, AND the Olive Oil flavor distinguishes itself... the bag needs SALT. The Olive Oil flavor overtakes the potato flavor, it gives the chips a flat, one-note, taste. I think with the addition of Salt, this bag would have let the potato chips natural flavor shine, and added some complexity. While the "Al Punto de Sal" bag brings out flavor in the potato, this bag hides it behind the Olive Oil. Spain does offer another Artesanas flavor, that has an addition of Salt, Pepper, and Garlic; but I didn't try that one. As far as this one goes, it was meh. I wouldn't buy these again.

Gotta Get At This: Lay's Belgium Winter Edition Naturel Oven Stars, Oven Crispy Thins Emmental Cheese and Olive Oil & Herbs, and Collection Tapas Olive and Pesto

Lay's Belgium has a lot of new releases hitting shelves recently, all of which look DELISH! Here's what's new...

Winter Edition Naturel Oven Stars is a FANTASTIC idea! In celebration of the Winter Holidays, they've released a Natural flavored (This is the same as Original or Ready Salted flavor) Star shaped chip. These are the same as Belgium's current "Naturel Oven" ridged, baked chips; but shaped like festive stars. Here in the states you can buy the regular shaped equivalent under the "Ruffles Original Oven Baked" moniker. The shape adds a little Holiday kitch to it, and that's something I'm a big fan of... but as far as being a bag worth chasing across nations, it may not be worth the hunt for just a shape change.

Belgium has also added a completely new collection to their repertoire... the "Collection Tapas". This is a collection France debuted back in 2013 composed of an "Olive" flavor and a "Pesto" flavor. The Olive flavor had some very favorable reviews online and both of them make perfect sense as potato chip flavors. If the collection is spreading, it would be great to see them hit the states, I can see them being a hit here.

Lastly, Belgium is extending their Oven crackers collection, it started with biscuits and now has reached out to include "Crispy Thins". These are just airy, thin, potato-based crackers flavored as "Emmental Cheese" and "Olive Oil & Herbs". Emmental is just a fancy way of saying Swiss Cheese which is a subtle cheese that probably compliments the cracker well. And Olive Oil and Herbs is pretty straight forward too. They sound yummy, and I assume the collection is selling well because it is expanding. What do you think? Is this beyond the scope of what you expect from Lay's? Or do they sound yummy? Let us know your opinions in the comments section below!

Gotta Get At This: Lay's Netherlands Oven Crunchy Biscuits and Crispy Thins

New Treats in the Netherlands! Crunchy Biscuits and Crispy Thins! The Crunchy Biscuits come in "Tomato and Spring Onion" and "Paprika and Mediterranean Herbs" and are described as "crispy savory cereal biscuits". The Crispy Thins come in "Emmental Cheese" and "Olive Oil and Herbs" and are described as "light crunchy potato crisps". Looks yummy!!