Lay’s – Wavy Cheddar and Sour Cream

Some flavours will always be timeless in my eyes. While I can understand that cheese and sour cream is not a common combination in some parts of the world, it’s a pretty tasty combination that gets it’s fair due here in the Frigid North and likely the greater west. Sometimes you feel that cheese alone is not enough dairy flavour, and you want to add some more with the sour cream. It sounds kind of weird at first, but it’s such a great combo.

In the context of potato chips, cheddar and sour cream is a classic flavour, at least in my neck of the world. I feel like the cross pollination of flavours and ideas across the world has made this flavour a little more common in other parts like Asia, but it was unheard of over there when I was a kid. I grew up on this stuff, so I have a very specific flavour in mind when I think of it. It was one of those flavours that was so popular it spanned across multiple chip brands. Cheese flavours in general are hard to go wrong with if you stick with something less pungent but still distinctly cheesy. Cheese and potatoes are a combination made in heaven. Cheese and a lot of things is, if we’re being real here, a great pairing. So much so that it often gets overdone and I’m sure many a toilet have been clogged because of it.

I haven’t had Lay’s wavy version of this flavour, but I have had the original one. I like to think that ridges make everything better, so I have high hopes for this one.

I am genuinely shocked by how big some of these chip pieces are. I have a pretty big mouth for food, but some of these chips are so big I can’t even fit it all into my mouth in one go. I honestly wonder how big these potatoes start off as, since frying and processing them usually makes them a bit smaller. I’m worried they’ve got some Frankenstein potatoes in their factories. I’m also wondering if they sell these giant potatoes at a local grocery store. Would love to make a giant baked potato out of one…

The flavour reminds me of basically every sour cream and cheddar flavoured chip ever – it’s very cheddar forward, and that’s basically it. I guess the sour cream helps make it milder or smoother? Truth be told I can’t tell what the sour cream adds other than a slight tang, which seems to come from the cheese flavour anyways. Then again, I’m not complaining – the seeming addition of the sour cream sort of mellows out the overall experience and smooths out any “wrinkles” so to speak.

The texture is not bad, it’s not too hard but has a decent thickness and the ridges give it a nice surface area to capture the seasoning and deliver a decent crunch that would appeal to a wider audience. Overall the combination of the decent texture and classic, perhaps nostalgic flavour makes for a great, safe flavour choice. I would get these again for sure.