Potato Chip - Regional Varieties

Regional Varieties

• In Australia, popular flavors include plain (salted), roast chicken, barbecue, and salt & vinegar. In recent years, other flavors have become popular, including lime and pepper, chili, sour cream & chives, sweet chilli sauce & sour cream, honey soy chicken and Caesar salad. Until recently, a doner kebab flavor was manufactured by Arnott's.
• In Austria, garlic flavored potato chips are available.
• In Bulgaria, plain salted, paprika, sour cream and onion, and cheese and hot chili are popular flavors. Barbecue and ketchup flavored chips are also available.
• In Canada, seasonings include dill pickle, ketchup, barbecue, all dressed, salt and vinegar, and sour cream and onion. Lay's previously introduced wasabi chips in Toronto and Vancouver, but no longer offers them. Loblaw, Canada's largest food retailer, offers several unusual flavours under its Presidents Choice brand, including: Jamacian Jerk Chicken, Greek Feta and Olive, Ballpark Hot Dog, and Barbeque Baby Back Ribs, among others.
• In China, Lay's has introduced potato chips flavored in Chinese cuisine, world cuisine, and flavors such as cucumber.
• In Colombia, the five main flavors of chips are natural (ready salted), barbecue, chicken, mayonnaise and Limón.
• In Egypt, Chipsy (a formerly-independent firm bought out by Lay's in the 2000s) is the most popular brand of potato chips. It has some flavors inspired by the local cuisine, such as kebab and stuffed vine leaves, although cosmopolitan flavors such as salt and vinegar are also popular. The most popular flavor is cheese, based on Rumi cheese.
• In Finland, the market leader in potato chips business is Taffel (known in Denmark and Norway as KiMs and marketed in Sweden under the name OLW), an Åland company, with salt flavored ordinary chips "Sips", popular tube-shaped cheese flavored "Juusto Snacks", sour cream and onion flavored "Broadway", and barbecue flavored "Grill Chips". In general sour cream & onion- and barbecue -flavored potato chips are among the most popular flavors regardless of the manufacturer. Popular brands include, in addition to domestic Taffel, a few foreign ones such as Estrella and Pringles.
• In Germany, the most common flavor is paprika. More exotic varieties are also beginning to appear, including salt & vinegar and Asian flavors. The most recent development is the Salt & Pepper-flavor and product lines from organic farming. The legendary beer flavored chips seem to be more of a myth, the most recent general availability of beer flavored chips was a soccer world cup 2006 special edition by Lorenz Snack-World. The dominating brands are Chio Chips and funny frisch, both manufactured by Intersnack, Crunchips, manufactured by Lorenz Snack-World, and Pringles. Other foreign brands like Lay's or Kettle are available sporadically, but do not usually play a major role.
• In Greece, oregano flavored chips are very popular.
• In Hong Kong, the two prominent potato chips are the spicy "Ethnican" variety by Calbee, and barbecue by Jack'n Jill. Lay's are also popular in Hong Kong. (With the most popular being BBQ and sour cream and onion.)
• In India and Pakistan, there are a number of flavored varieties both in locally made and multi-national brands, such as Lay's. Some flavors are tomato, pudina (mint), masala, coriander, salt and pepper, and red chili powder. The most popular chip varieties are potato, tapioca, and plantain (yellow or green, each with its own distinct taste). A similar snack made from potato and sago starch is known as far-far in India.
• In Indonesia, barbecue, corn, and roast chicken are the favorites. Another variety of chips are cassava chips.
• In Ireland, the common varieties of crisps are similar to those sold in the UK. However in Ireland, the word Tayto is synonymous with crisps after the Tayto brand and can be used to describe all varieties of crisp, including those not produced by Tayto. Owing to the dominance of Tayto in the Irish market, the word has become a genericized trademark. Walkers crisps were launched there several years ago, but have failed to dominate the market. Hunky Dorys and King crisps are other popular Irish brands.
• In Japan, flavors include nori & salt, consommé, wasabi, soy sauce & butter, garlic, ume, barbecue, pizza, mayonnaise, and black pepper. Chili, scallop with butter, teriyaki, takoyaki and yakitori flavored chips are also available. Major manufacturers are Calbee, Koikeya and Yamayoshi.
• In Mexico, many flavors are spicy. Popular flavors are salt, lime, habanero, 'Chile y Limón' and cheese.
• In some Middle Eastern countries, many popular American flavors and chicken-flavored chips are available. In others, salt and salt and pepper varieties are the most popular.
• In the Netherlands, the market is dominated by Lay's; they offer many flavors, such as: natural (salted), paprika, bolognese (Italian herbs and tomato), barbecued ham, cheese & onion, Mexican herbs, Heinz tomato ketchup, chili, spareribs, Mediterranean herbs, Thai sweet chili, Oriental spices, pepper & cream, chicken & thyme, and spices & lime. Natural (salted) and paprika crisps are the most popular.
• In New Zealand, the most popular varieties of potato chips are ready salted, salt n' vinegar and chicken. In 2009, Bluebird Foods Limited released a unique range of chips made of classic New Zealand flavors such as 'Meat Pie and Ketchup' and 'Reduced Cream and Onion Soup Dip 'Sunday Roast'. The range is named 'Kiwi As'.
• In Norway, most chips are flavored with salt, salt and pepper or paprika. More exotic flavors like mushroom and horseradish are also available. Major brands include KiMs, Maarud and Sørlandschips.
• In the Philippines, favorites include cheese, barbecue, and sour cream and onion.
• In Russia, popular flavors are plain (salted), onion, paprika, black pepper, and sour cream, more unusual varieties are bacon, shashlik, crab, and caviar. Both Lay's and Pringles brands are widespread. Russian companies like Perekrestok also manufacture their own chips.
• In Singapore, popular brands are barbecue flavored Jack and Jill Potato Chips, Sour Cream and Onion Lays, Chipster and the brand Lay's Kettle Cooked Chips.
• In Serbia, popular potato chips are plain (salted), pizza, grill and ketchup flavored. The Chipsy company holds most of the Serbian potato chip market.
• South Africa has many potato chip flavors, including "fruit chutney", "biltong" (beef jerky), "sausage", "Worcestershire sauce", "peri peri" (Mozambican/Portuguese hot sauce flavor) and tomato sauce (ketchup flavor) among many others.
• In Spain, the most popular flavors are plain (fried with olive oil and salted), and ham.
• In Sweden, the two dominant companies are Estrella (owned by Kraft Foods) and OLW. The most popular flavors are salted, grill (onion flavored), sour cream & onion, and dill. Exotic flavors include sour cream & bearnaise and hot sweet chili. Chips made of unpeeled potatoes, called lantchips, are also common. Another common chips-brand is Pringles.
• The market in the United Kingdom is dominated by Walkers (a regional brand of Lay's) which is known for its wide variety of crisps. The three main flavors are ready salted, cheese & onion, and salt & vinegar; however, other examples are prawn cocktail, Worcestershire sauce (known by Walkers as Worcester Sauce), roast chicken, steak & onion, smoky bacon, lamb & mint, ham & mustard, barbecue, BBQ rib, tomato ketchup, sausage & ketchup, pickled onion, Branston Pickle, and Marmite. More exotic flavors are Thai sweet chili, roast pork & creamy mustard sauce, lime and Thai spices, chicken with Italian herbs, sea salt and cracked black pepper, turkey & bacon, caramelized onion & sweet balsamic vinegar, stilton & cranberry, mango chili, and special flavors such as American Cheeseburger and English Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pud. Kettle Foods Ltd's range of thick-cut crunchy crisps include gourmet flavors: Mexican Limes with a hint of Chilli, Salsa with Mesquite, Buffalo Mozzarella Tomato and Basil, Mature Cheddar with Adnams Broadside Beer, Soulmate Cheeses and Onion, and other previously listed flavors. Most seasonings contain only vegetarian ingredients, although some recent seasonings such as lamb & mint sauce contain meat extracts. In the early 1980s, Hedgehog brand flavored crisps were widely on sale and received much publicity. McCoys Crisps are also popular in the UK. In Northern Ireland Tayto (NI) Ltd. dominate the market. In the north of England, Seabrook Potato Crisps are popular, but they are much less common in the south.
• In the United States, popular potato chips flavors include original (plain or with salt), sour cream and onion, barbecue, ranch dressing, salt and vinegar, and cheddar and sour cream. Stores in regions with a significant Hispanic population sell lime flavored chips using the Mexican name, limón. In the general timeframe of 2010 to 2012, stores in the United States have been featuring potato chips labeled on the package as "Kettle Cooked."