Why Can't Chips Be CHips

 Potato chips.It's simple - .A slice of deep fried potato flavored with salt. It's perfect.It;s what makes French fries taste like heaven. It should be the same for the basic chip. Yet it isn't. Now they come in a million flavors. The question is why.

This dawned on me when I made amy local  trip to the Acme yesterday and saw their brand Signature feature a stuffing flavor . I'm guessing it taste like sage and bread - possibly with hints of turkey and chicken broth, The problem with this is where would the potato flavor be? It's less of a chip than something else.Flavored chips are nothing new.They've been around for a whopping seventy-f9ve years first being made in Ireland(!!!!!!)  and not where everyone would guess - the US. it was Dublin based Joe Murphy who created the variant  - cheese and onion - along with the British favorite salt and vinegar. The last probably mimicked the taste of the French fries or chips themselves doused with salt and vinegar. He developed a way to season the chips during the production portion. His company Tayto gained worldwide recognition and soon copies followed. The United States quickly got on board and produced barbecue and sour cream and onion flavors. The last seemed a logical jump. Most Americans were dunking their chips into a sour cream based onion dip at parties.

However in those three quarters of a century , flavors seemed to have gotten out of hand. Lays alone has a large array of different ones and sponsor a  write in contest where fans can submit their sometimes wild suggestions. They even offer a chip that's layered with all the popular flavors - salt and vinegar, barbecue and sour cream. I'm not sure how the flavors would be mixed together , The original potato flavor would be smothered.Other snacks like Takis, the rolled tortilla chips snack has these Fuego or super spicy flavored crisps. Lays has taken a cue from them and produced a flaming hot chip . Other flavors reflect growing ethnic groups such as  Latinx. This gave birth to the flavor Chile limon which sort of is like a spicy margarita.  They laos have a Korean chicken flavor, as they cater to the growing Asian population. Here's is also on board with different  flavors too.There's an Old Bay one that is like  the famed crab leg dish along with ketchup and even steak. There is also a dill pickle flavors, ripe with dill for pickle lovers.

DO these flavors enhance the potato chip? Some fans might say yes. However they're missing the great tasty of fried potato with salt.