Something Old, Something New, Something Blue: Old Dutch Salt'N Vinegar Potato Chips

While it is certainly true that I do not want for salt & vinegar chips, I do find it odd that some brands don't offer the flavor. For instance, the beloved chip of my youth, Jays, does not. However, since they make those paprika-laced Hot Stuff chips that burn my tongue just perfectly, I can't complain. Too much anyway. Old Dutch offers salt & vinegar kettle chips, as we have seen, but they have never sold their regular chips with the precious flavor. Until now.

It happened when I was at the supermarket in the early spring. I was making my way down one of the main aisles when I noticed an end cap display of chips. I always look at them and always see the same flavors yet I still inspect them every time. This time as I am perusing the shelves when I see a deep turquoise bag that looks blatantly unfamiliar. Had those wily Minnesotans finally made lutefisk chips? Nope. I stood there agog as I read "Salt'N Vinegar" on the bag and thought to myself, "I can't believe those bastards finally did it." A new salt & vinegar chip and I didn't even have to leave my neighborhood to find it.

Considering they already had a salt & vinegar chip in their portfolio, I wonder why Old Dutch added another. Did someone in the marketing department have an epiphany that they could innovate by making a pivot from sour cream & onion and leverage their existing salt & vinegar chip infrastructure to take it to the next level?

Let us find out what these shiny, new chips are all about.

As I've noted before, most salt & vinegar potato chips don't smell of vinegar. Usually I smell oil and potato and in that order. While I could not smell any vinegar, the order of smells was reversed here as these chips had a subdued oil aroma with the potato taking pride of place in the olfactory realm. As is the norm, I could smell a hint of vinegar if I put my nose right on a chip and took a big whiff.

The first thing I noticed after grabbing a handful for testing purposes was just how many large chips there were. It was impressive that so many of them survived packing, transit, and being put on a shelf without being reduced to smaller, less breakable shards. Once I had gotten over the size, I noticed that they seemed to be of a slightly darker yellow hue than is normal with scattered brown spots. I am unsure if they were cooked longer or if perhaps there were more sugars present to get that almost golden color.

I found these to be just a touch saltier than average and I liked how the typical regular chip crispness veered towards kettle crunchiness. The vinegar tang was really odd with these chips. When eating them, my tongue detected a medium-light bit of sourness which left me wanting more. And when I indulged, I found that my lips started to tingle even though my tongue wasn't registering dangerous levels of vinegar as I'd expect. This happened at different times so I don't think it was my tongue.

They finished with a sweet earthiness – these chips have lactose and dextrose.

I posit that we have here chips that are in the top 2 of all time for texture. I loved the crunchy crispness. Less thrillingly, they tasted sweeter than their kettle counterparts and less sour too. I will definitely try them again because I am flummoxed at the vinegar irritating my lips (in a good way) but not my tongue.