When the salt and vinegar chips are down, which brand will give you the biggest flavours at the smallest price point? Photo / 123rf
When the salt and vinegar chips are down, which brand will give you the biggest flavours at the smallest price point? Photo / 123rf
They’re the quintessential summer barbecue appetiser, a snack table staple, and, as we all know, best paired with a bowl of Kiwi onion dip, but the question remains: which salt and vinegar chip is the best?
There’s a lot to consider here, from price to flavour to the architecture of the chip itself and how well it can withstand scooping up that moreish dip without breaking.
Consumer NZ has done the hard yards and rounded up nine different Kiwi chip brands you’ll find at the supermarket to put them to the test in a blind tasting.
So, when it comes to the perfect salt and vinegar chip, what are Kiwi taste buds looking for?
Consumer NZ investigative writer Vanessa Pratley says it’s all about finding the balance.
“An even distribution of flavour and crunch is key – with our samplers describing the best chips as ‘strong-flavoured, but in a good way’, and ‘crunchy but light’,” she says.
The two chip brands that best fit that brief for the tasters were the Kettle Chip Company’s Sea Salt and Vinegar chips ($2.99/100g), tied with Snacka Changi Vinegar and Salt ($2.99/100g) for first place.
Snacka Changi Vinegar and Salt chips.
Yes, they’re on the pricier side of the chip aisle - but when it comes to flavour, you tend to get what you pay for. Cheap as chips doesn’t always cut it.
For Consumer NZ’s testers, the home-branded salt and vinegar chips on supermarket shelves ranked the lowest - with Countdown’s ($1.20/100g) labelled “bland”, and Pams ($1.26/100g) apparently “tasting like cardboard”.
“Our testers were unimpressed with the budget buys, calling them floury, bland, and, concerningly, dead-looking,” Pratley shares.
“We would avoid the cheaper chips in our test. Unless price is your only consideration, we wouldn’t recommend buying them.”
But there are some budget-friendly chip options out there. Bluebird Salt and Vinegar ($2/100g) and Heartland Originals Salt and Vinegar ($1.52/100g) were rated second and third, respectively.
Proper Crisps Cider Vinegar and Salt would win if this was a chip-based beauty contest, but didn’t quite deliver on taste - and were also the most expensive at $3.35 per 100g.
The most divisive chips appeared to be ETA Ripples Salt and Vinegar and Copper Kettle Salt and Vinegar ($1.79), leaving tasters in disagreement over whether they were too vinegary - or not sour enough.
ETA Ripples Salt and Vinegar chips.
One taster declared the ETA Ripples bag had “battery acid” levels of vinegar flavour, while another questioned, “I don’t know if I would even class these as salt and vinegar” - suggesting the flavouring may have been unevenly distributed throughout the packet.
Others were surprised that their favourite flavour in the blind taste test didn’t match up with their usual chip selection.
“Quite a few of our tasters were surprised to have found that their go-to brand of chip wasn’t synonymous with their blind taste-test results,” Pratley notes.
So next time you’re browsing the snack aisle, it might pay to shop around for your chips and try a brand you haven’t gone for before.
“Our investigation goes to show yet again, that even when it comes to something as small as picking your favourite chip, brand perception plays a persuasive role in your purchase decisions - maybe packing more crunch than you think.”
