Review: Vidalia Brands Sweet Onion Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

I don’t like onions. Raw onions, anyway. But take those onions, slather them in batter and drop them in a deep fryer… Yum! (Well, as long as they aren’t too thick, or do that thing where you bite into them and a long slimy onion falls out. I hate that.) Vidalia onion rings are even better. Named for where they are grown — Vidalia, Georgia — this variety of onion is well-known for their sweetness. There’s a certain kind of lore with this vegetable. There’s a festival and even a Vidalia Onion Museum, people.

So, while I was shopping at Schnucks this week, I noticed these Vidalia Sweet Onion Kettle Cooked Potato Chips in the produce section. I’m never one to pass up onion-flavored chips (more on that later), so into my cart they went. Vidalia Brands recently added these to their lineup of Vidalia sweet onion-based snack foods. They also come in a Barbecue variety, but I don’t do BBQ. They are gluten free, cooked in better-for-you safflower and sunflower oils, and run 150 calories per serving.

To start, I had a bit of a problem with the bag. It seems like a lot of these premium, smaller sized (these contain 4.5 ounces) chip bags are often difficult to open. I finally pulled the dang thing open, but did rip it in the process. The scent wafting up was distinctly that of fried-potato, with just a hint of onion. And the taste? Well, pretty much the same. It tasted like an onion, or even sour cream and onion, flavored chip.

Now, that’s not a bad thing at all. But if I didn’t already know, I’m not sure I’d be able to guess these were flavored with Vidalia onions. The taste is indeed on the sweet and slightly tangy side, though (the ingredients include cane sugar, dextrose, and citric acid). With each chip I ate, I was hoping the next would have heavier magical onion-y spice on it to pump up the flavor. The potato itself was great, a perfect kettle-cooked chip with a nice crunch. The more I ate, the more they reminded me of Krunchers Sweet Hawaiian Onion Chips.

Before I knew it, I’d eaten over half the bag. So yeah, I liked them! The chips are high-quality, well done, and super tasty. But, do they stand out from other onion-flavored chips? Hmm, I’m not so sure. I’d like to do a side-by-side taste test with other sweet onion chips.

But maybe that’s not such a good idea. After forcing myself to put the bag back in the pantry, just a few minutes later I met with my normal post-onion-chip-eating regret. Now, this has nothing to do with the chip itself, but any time I eat onion-flavored stuff, I soon have eater’s remorse. Whether it be with my beloved (and mouth shredding) Funyuns, or the always-popular Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion chips, they do a number on my stomach and, of course, my breath. I’m burping onions for hours. Sorry, husband. But dammit, I’m weak for onion and garlic flavors. I even love Burger King’s “onion rings,” for goodness’ sake.

Would I Buy Them Again? I’m honestly not sure. Maybe? I enjoyed them, perhaps too much, but they didn’t stand out to me so greatly that they’d be the front-runner the next time I want to assault myself with copious amounts of onion powder. But I would like to try another of their products, Sweet Onion Petals, which are made with Vidalia puree.