Appearance: Are they regular chips or do they have ridges? Are the pieces big or small? Do they look like real potato, or more processed?
Texture: Are the chips crispy or crunchy? Are they sturdy enough or too fragile for dipping? Is the bite firm and brittle, or slack and airy?
Salt: Are the chips well seasoned? Do they lean salty or bland?
Potato Flavor: How potato-ey do the chips taste? Do they taste natural or processed? Is there anything else going on: sweetness, savoriness, umami?
Fine Print
The Lineup: We tested 15 local and international brands of potato chips from the grocery. We focused on basic salted potato chips. We included potato crisps (ex. Pringles, Oishi Crispy Patata), which are made of a potato-starch blend.
Why We’re Doing This: Lay’s dominates the potato chip aisle—not just here, but all across Asia. Before we get our own localized Lay’s Adobo or Lay’s Sinigang, we have to ask: is Lay’s even the best potato chip out there? Have we been skipping better potato chips in pursuit of the yellow bag? Is there even such a thing as a bad potato chip? We tested all the brands we could find to set the record straight.
How We Tasted: Each brand was sampled as is—the way people actually eat chips at home!
Blind Taste Test: All brands were removed from their packaging, labeled, and tasted blind to prevent brand bias.
How We Scored: Each product was evaluated across 4 criteria. Final placements reflect the Pepper team’s averaged impressions.
Transparency: No brand paid for inclusion in this taste test.
