Beer Chips

“These babies are thick-cut kettle style chips with a serious coating of sugar and salt and to top it off, covered with a major dose of the world’s most perfect beverage—beer,” says the Beer Chips website. Sold! (Man, we’re suckers for anything involving beer.)

The shiny gold bag sports a short list of ingredients: potatoes, sunflower oil and/or corn oil, sugar, maltodextrin, beer (malted barley, corn syrup, hops, yeast), salt, cane syrup, honey, yeast extract. The beer geek in us longs to know what beer was used, and the bag has no answers. It does, however, have instructions on how to eat them, and the blurbage claims that “Beer Chips won’t make you drunk, but they may make you more interesting.” Enough trying to be cute—let’s eat!

Right off, there’s that firm crunchiness you’d expect from a thick kettle chip. Nice balance of sweet and salty, with a touch of honey under the saltiness. Flavors of roasted potatoes basking in oil bring back memories of Sunday roasts, while a peanut note provides a tasty finish. However, after eating a few, we noticed an oily buildup on the palate that wasn’t too pleasant.

An average, semi-interesting novelty item for the beer lover, but that’s about it. For the price, you’d be better off buying a more creative and flavorful gourmet chip, like Cheddar Beer Kettle Chips (kettlebrand.com).

[Four 9-ounce bags for $19.95, available at beerchips.com] ■