Popular Flavors Of Utz Potato Chips, Ranked

The only person who might find this chip even mildly palatable is a salty old Marylander who drinks crab smoothies and puts Old Bay on birthday cake. No part of the crab-and-Old-Bay experience belongs anywhere near a potato chip, and though we understand Utz is trying to keep it real for their original customer base in Baltimore, they'd have been better off partnering with Boog Powell and selling a special barbecue chip in right field at Camden Yards.

This chip doesn't taste so much like fish, but the rancid oil that sits in the bottom of a McDonald's fryer after a week of cooking Filet-o-Fish. If you have even a mild seafood aversion, just opening the bag will make you retch. And if you generally enjoy a good crab leg or crab Rangoon, you'll still find this chip pretty gross. It also looks vaguely like a barbecue chip, which means there are probably people at barbecues across America pulling these out of an unmarked bowl and expecting a mesquite flavor. Then again, their reactions might make for pretty good YouTube content.

Salt and vinegar chips have a certain cult following, and if you haven't been indoctrinated into that particular sect, you're going to want to avoid these chips like, well, a cult. They are intensely sour to the untrained tongue and come with a fresh coat of grease that doesn't do much to help the flavor. The salt only acts to intensify both the vinegar and the oil notes, literally pouring salt in the wound.

That all said, if you are of the salt and vinegar persuasion, these chips are a solid offering, though the inherent staleness of the chip leaves a little to be desired. They're almost like chips that were put out in a bowl at a neighborhood pub at opening, and you're just getting to them at the end of happy hour. The flavor is there, but the texture is not. If they're your only option for salt and vinegar chips, they'll do. But you can find better.

Another polarizing chip flavor: pickle. And if you're the type who enjoys the garnish on a deli sandwich more than the sandwich itself, this might seem like an enticing option. Pickle lovers will be pleased, as the chip encompasses pretty much all the flavors of a pickle in chip form. All it's really missing is the pickle juice, which would be a little disgusting on a potato chip, and definitely ruin its crunch.

If you're not a pickle person, well, why would you be eating these anyway? They are a little creamier and softer than your typical vinegar-soaked cucumber, so biting into one won't immediately send you running for the Listerine. Still, don't waste your time and money on pickle chips if you're not into pickles. Utz does a good job capturing the flavor of the real thing here, but if the real thing isn't your thing, then this chip is certainly not for you.

Much like the alternating terrain they create, ripples have their ups and downs. One of the major upsides of a rippled chip is the little valleys, which capture the flavor of a potato chip and make these varieties typically more intense. But with that intensity comes an inevitable backlash, as those who aren't into big flavors might find it to be a bit too much. Such is the case with Utz's rippled barbecue chips.

Now, if Utz had created the greatest BBQ chip flavor on the planet, even those who don't like the salt blast of a rippled chip could cut them a break. But this barbecue tastes like the remnants on your plate after you've finished a rack of ribs, soaked up with a bread roll. It's more greasy than spicy, and lacks the pepper and char that barbecue lovers crave. Still, it offers smoky notes that put it a good few steps above basic BBQ chips. And the ripple valleys create a far stronger chip-eating experience than others on this list. The salt blast can be off-putting for some, though. So definitely chase this with water.

This might be the most confusing snack on the shelf, because a lesser-trained brain might assume this bag was, in fact, filled with a bunch of cheese balls. It only makes sense – why would a bag of fried snacks labeled "Cheese Balls” be anything other than, well, cheese balls? Utz is clearly out to confuse people here, so make sure you read the ingredients to see what you're getting first. Once you understand these are, in fact, potato chips flavored with cheese ball powder and not actual cheese balls, you can set your expectations accordingly.

These taste almost exactly like the cheese balls you find in the oval container, and the hand-staining, mouth-saturating experience is no different in a chip. The texture is a bit different, though, like Ruffles and Kraft Mac & Cheese had a love child and hid it in a very confusing bag. The mouth feel is a bit disorienting, but once you get used to it, these are a cheese ball lover's dream. Understand what you're getting, and these will be an instant favorite.

Those big into sweeter, Kansas City-style barbecue sauces will be completely impressed by this chip. The expectation here is for something along the lines of the discontinued Lays KC Masterpiece chips, or even a traditional take on the mesquite variety from Cape Cod. But upon first bite of Utz's Smokin' Sweet BBQ chips, your mouth will be blown away by the overwhelming sweetness of this barbecue sauce, and as it fires up the reward center of your brain, it becomes completely impossible to stop popping these chips. That is to say, you might not want to try these if you're planning to eat anything else afterwards.

After you've gotten used to the sweetness, you might begin to notice a bit of a meaty or pork rind flavor. Rest assured, these are not the lard-cooked monstrosities we found in Grandma Utz's kettle chips, but rather they offer a flavor that's pretty comparable to what you'd find on a good rack of ribs. Where Utz missed with putting crab and pork flavors in its other chips, it got right here. And as basic BBQ potato chips go, this might be the best in the business.

Perhaps by accident, perhaps on purpose, but in ramping up the old sour cream and onion standard with a bit of cheddar cheese, Utz created one of the most complex and brilliant chip flavors ever to grace the snack aisle. The first bite is a wave of flavors that your brain has to take some time to figure out, like the peak of a hallucinogenic journey when your body says, "Just ... hold on a second." Once you've recovered from the initial euphoria, you'll slip into a smooth, creamy river of flavor, where cheddar cheese, salt, onion, and garlic all twinkle into the corners of your mouth.

If you've ever had the creamy garlic sauce from Papa John's, it's a little like that but with a sharp cheddar kick — just replace the pizza with some fried potatoes. For cheese lovers who also enjoy a sour cream and onion chip, you may never find anything better. It's a pleasant surprise from a flavor one might think could be overdone with dairy. But Utz absolutely nailed this one, and while they certainly had some misses too, they can be proud of this creation.