Review: Herr Foods Baby Back Rib Potato Chips

Gimmick or Fact?

Leave my chips alone! I’ve never been fond of flavored potato chips. I especially despise barbecue flavored. They actually taste nothing like barbecue. I really don’t see the point. After all, what’s wrong with potato chip flavored potato chips?

As luck would have it, I was at Walmart shopping for a lawn tractor battery when out of the corner of my eye I spotted not just a bag of barbecue potato chips, but baby back rib potato chips. That’s pretty specific, I’d say. They can’t even get the barbecue flavor right, yet they’re going to try and convince me that these chips taste like baby back ribs? The package doesn’t indicate what style of ribs they taste like. They don’t mention if they’re Kansas City style or Memphis style or anything. Maybe they taste like raw pork.

Well, of course I had to buy them. Wouldn’t you? It’s the novelty of it all. The humor of it alone made the $2 and some change worth the investment.

Made by Herr Foods out of Nottingham, PA, I was curious of what ingredients could possibly produce a chip that would resemble the flavor of baby back ribs. Besides several oils, there was sugar, salt, onion powder, molasses, tomato powder, garlic powder, paprika extract, smoke flavor and a bunch of other unknown crap. Wow, those ingredients are similar to what we might use to make our own barbecue sauce and rub, minus the unknown crap of course.

The aroma from the bag was good. It smelled similar to a mild meat rub with a minor flavor infusion of potato chips. Now comes the taste test. I have to admit, they do taste like baby back ribs, although the power of suggestion may be playing a key role.

Whether these chips really taste like baby back ribs is up to you…and your imagination. They’re not bad for a flavored potato chip. If you’re into barbecue flavored chips, you’ll like them. They didn’t leave all that red stuff on your fingers, either. My only complaint was the ability to find a whole chip. Maybe my bag was just mishandled, but most of the chips were half chips at best.

Although tasty, they’re not enough to convert me away from my love for regular potato chips. I think I’ll hold out for spare rib flavored.