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The New American Potato Chip

The simple potato chip has come a long way in the past decade. Today, the chip aisle in nearly every store—from mainstream supermarket to neighborhood specialty shop—is packed with selections featuring a range of flavors, textures, and styles to suit all tastes.

Just ten years ago, the potato chip section presented only a handful of choices—plain, rippled, maybe an MSG-laden barbecue- or cheese-flavored variety, and possibly sour cream and onion. Adventurous consumers would have been hard-pressed to find much more than that even in bold specialty food stores.

As the American palate has become more daring, supermarket shelves have featured novel flavors such as Guacamole, Cheddar and Salsa, Honey Barbecue, and even Ketchup. At specialty shops and delis, you’ll find all-natural, hand-cooked Cajun Dill, Gorgonzola and Red Onion, and Chesapeake Crab chips, as well as more esoteric snacks made from sweet potatoes, taro, and other root vegetables.

The Evolution of an American Favorite
Since its invention in 1853 (see sidebar, page 39), the potato chip has become a staple of the American diet, and it has ranked as the country’s number-one snack food for more than 50 years. Mintel’s 2003 survey of more than 17,000 consumers reveals that potato chips are eaten in 85 percent of U.S. households, and it predicts consumption levels to rise. In response, specialty chip manufacturers are taking the simple combination of potatoes, salt, and oil to new levels. A nation of snackers—and the food retailers that cater to them—is eager to see what crazy and creative concoctions chippers will think of next.

Beth Haskell, owner of Kelsick Gardens in Gloucester, Va., remembers when her store only carried Plain, Barbecue, and Sour Cream and Onion chips. “Ten years ago, there weren’t any fancy flavors—just the basics, she recalls. Over the past several years, the market has witnessed an influx of exciting new flavors, including Salt & Vinegar, Mixed Vegetable, Honey Mustard, and Jalapeño Heat. “Consumers love having all the choices, she says. “But plain, old Lightly Salted is still my number-one seller.

Mintel research confirms the trend. According to its report, “U.S. Salty Snack Trends, 81 percent of potato chip eaters buy the unadorned varieties. Barbecue and Sour Cream and Onion tie for second most popular, yet these rankings reflect the fact that most chips are purchased in supermarkets, convenience stores and other mass merchandisers, which usually sell products from Frito-Lay, Procter & Gamble, and other snack food heavyweights.

Specialty food buyers lean toward slightly more exotic flavors. At Kelsick Gardens, Route 11’s Dill Pickle ranks second. In Columbus, Ohio, the best-selling chips at Katzinger’s Delicatessen are Zapp’s Regular; Sour Cream & Creole Onion and Honey Mustard tie for second, reports Co-owner Diane Warren. Cajun Dill and Jalapeño have loyal followings, and Terra Chips also sell well.

In weight-conscious Miami Beach, Epicure Market stocks a surprisingly diverse selection of specialty chips. “Chips are big here. They’re the first thing people see when they walk in the store, says Grocery and Cheese Buyer Sarah Freedman-Izquierdo. Offerings in the “chip nook include William Poll Baked Potato Thins and Good Health Polenta Chips. The top seller is Jack & Ollies Salt and Cracked Black Pepper. Imported from England by Chelsea Market Baskets in New York City, these chips have developed a legion of fans in South Florida. “They’re nice and crunchy, and they really satisfy that craving for a good plain, lightly salted chip, Freedman-Izquierdo says.

Hearty Enough to Patch a Roof
Texture is crucial when it comes to the enjoyment of potato chips; a good bag sates the desire for a crispy, crunchy snack. While many snackers are content with a thin, fragile chip such as Lay’s, specialty chip connoisseurs prefer the range of extra-crunchy chips now available. Specialty chippers combine thick slices of potatoes, high-quality oils, and small-batch cooking methods to create chips with that coveted crunchy texture.

At Gramercy, La.-based Dirty Potato Chips, President Ron Zappe strives to produce thick chips that stand up well to dipping. “I want them to be hearty enough to patch a roof or fix a flat tire, he jokes. “Cooking the chips slowly at low temperatures in peanut oil produces the crunch and the curl. We like to get 15 crunches out of each chip.

According to Jim Green, public affairs manager at Kettle Foods, Salem, Ore., “Kettle brand chips are crunchier than most chips and have a hearty, nutty flavor. Cutting the potatoes into thick slices and stirring them by hand while they cook in open fryers produces these results, he explains.

To produce a lighter, crisper chip, U.K.-based Jack & Ollies flash-fries its chips for just seven to eight minutes, according to Export Manager Steve Thomas. “We don’t want to disguise the natural flavor of the potatoes, so we leave the skin on and use sunflower oil, which is neutral-tasting, he says.

Cooking potato chips by hand in small batches is the hallmark of specialty chippers, and it is what distinguishes their products from mass-market brands. “Because the water content of potatoes can vary widely we have no formulated cooking time. We have to monitor each batch of our potato thins continuously throughout the baking process, explains Stanley Poll, president of New York City-based William Poll, Inc. “It’s labor-intensive, but it results in an exceptional product that just can’t be mass-produced.

Zappe sums up the ideology of specialty chippers. “We can’t make them cheaper, but we can take our time and make them better, he says. Competing with mainstream snacks is not even a consideration, according to most small-batch manufacturers. “There will always be a demand for high-end chips, says Zappe. By using labor-intensive methods such as hand-peeling, hand-raking, and hand-sorting, these specialty companies produce artisan-quality chips unrivaled by factory-formula brands.

Olive Oil Potato Chips
In 1999, Good Health Natural Foods, Northport, N.Y., introduced a line of olive oil chips made with non-GMO Russet potatoes from the Pacific Northwest. Later that year, Terra Chips debuted an olive oil chip made from Red Bliss potatoes.

Because of its smoke point, a special cooking process is needed to fry in olive oil. Instead of the more typical flash-frying methods, Good Health chips are cooked in vacuum-sealed cauldrons at a lower temperature for a longer time. “The longer cooking time allows the thick-sliced potatoes to cook all the way through, and the low temperature prevents the olive oil from breaking down, explains President François Bogrand.

Terra Chips uses a similar “vacuum fry technology to cook in olive oil. “Our method allows for less oil absorption. That means a healthier, more intensely flavored chip, says Adam Levit, vice president of sales and marketing of the Melville, N.Y.-based company, a division of the Hain Celestial Group.

Beyond the Basic Potato
Terra Chips found its niche by “doing what the major chip companies can’t or won’t do in order to produce alternative snacks, says Levit. “The industry saying ‘no smaller than a golf ball, no bigger than a baseball’ doesn’t apply to us. When you’re using the vegetables we use—sweet potatoes, taro, and yucca, for instance—you can’t control ingredients like that.

“Because potatoes vary slightly from crop to crop, the texture of the chips can be subtly different from one batch to the next, notes Sarah Cohen, president of Route 11 Potato Chips, Middletown, Va. From November to April, Route 11 produces chips made from an heirloom variety of sweet potato, the Hayman, which is grown exclusively on the eastern shore of Virginia. “We get them fresh out of the ground, says Cohen. “They are delicate and difficult to produce, but they make wonderful chips.

Both Terra Chips and Good Health produce chips made from exotic blue potatoes native to Peru that are now grown in the Pacific Northwest. Since Terra Chips teamed up with Jet Blue Airlines in 2002 to supply Terra Blues to air travelers, interest in the unusual chips has soared.

Chelsea Market Baskets premiered an exciting addition to its line of imported chips at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. Currently in testing, Jack & Ollies Parsnip Chips will be available for retail this spring. Barbara Crockett, marketing manager at Chelsea Market Baskets, reports huge interest already. “I expect 80 percent of our existing customers to place orders for the parsnip chips. And 20 new buyers have expressed interest as well, she notes. Crockett describes the flavor as “an earthy sweetness studded with the heat of cracked black pepper.

The Heat is On
One of the most notable flavor trends, chippers agree, is hot and spicy. After discontinuing Habanero Chili with Ginger, Kettle Foods introduced Jalapeño with Tequila and Lime. “We feel like we need to offer one especially hot chip to satisfy that niche, notes Green.

Blair’s Death Rain chips fill the niche for the most extreme chili heads. “Our company began with hot sauce, and we saw a demand for heat in other segments. People want snacks that are really hot, believes Blair Lazar, president of the Highlands, N.J.-based company. The basis of Death Rain chips is the habanero chili, and the company labels each flavor with a heat scale rating: Barbecue rates “medium, Cajun is “hot, and Habanero is “XXX hot. One of Blair’s Death Rain’s best-selling varieties, Buffalo Wing, is made with real chicken flavor, vinegar, and lots of heat to reproduce the experience of eating a plate of hot wings.

Spicy flavors are especially popular in the south. Dirty’s Zappe reports that Cajun is a top-seller in and around Louisiana, and in Texas there’s tremendous demand for Jalapeño Heat. In Miami, there is a strong following for Route 11’s Mama Zuma’s Revenge Habanero chips, according to Epicure’s Freedman-Izquierdo.

Healthier Options
Although chips have traditionally been considered a junk food to be avoided by the health-conscious, Americans love potato chips too much to forsake them. So manufacturers have created healthy alternatives that satisfy the desire to snack. Even in bikini-wearing Miami Beach, Epicure Market sells “an absurd amount of chips, says Freedman-Izquierdo. “For weight-conscious people there are a lot of great low-fat products.

Baked Kettle™ Krisps, made with whole, unpeeled, sliced potatoes, contain 1.5 grams of fat per serving. “We use only expeller-pressed safflower oil, which is 80 percent mono-unsaturated, says Kettle Foods’ Green. “Sales have steadily increased, and consumers say the Krisps fit into the Weight Watchers program. William Poll Baked Potato Thins—now made from Yukon Gold potatoes—are hearty and substantial, intensely flavored with fresh herbs, and contain only three grams of fat per serving.

With chip manufacturers offering such a diverse range of products, retailers have to do little to encourage sales beyond opening a bag for customers to sample. The packaging itself can be enough to pique shoppers’ interest, believes Freedman-Izquierdo. “A vivid photo on the the bag or a clear container displaying the hand-crafted chips can get customers’ attention, she explains. Whether customers are shopping for plain potato chips or Zesty Tomato Mixed Vegetable chips, “you want their mouths to water.

Jennifer Maslow is assistant editor of Specialty Food Magazine.