Potato Chip Taste Test: Fun and Easy Labor Day Party Idea
BBQing with friends soon? Conducting a Potato Chip Taste Test is a fun and easy Labor Day party idea.
No joke, the hardest part of this entire activity is deciding which chip tastes the best. I learned this when our family did a potato chip taste test just a few weeks ago, and we are still surprised by the results.
The best thing about the taste test is that I didn’t have to make any extra food. Plus, the setup only took about 60 seconds, and this was a blast for teens, octogenarians, and everyone in between.
Here’s how the Potato Chip Taste Test went down, and tips for how you can recreate it for your gathering.
Pick one type of chip for your taste test.
I selected regular, salted potato chips because I could get those from a variety of brands, and I knew that chip flavor was an all-around favorite.
For the sake of science, you have to pick chips that are the same flavor AND have the same physical attributes. We were taste-testing the classic or regular version of a salted potato chip, so for our taste test, this meant no ridges, no waves, no kettle chips, no flavors other than salt.
Select three to five different brands to taste test.
We ended up with four brands of potato chips for our taste test.
I had aimed for five, but I accidentally purchased a kettle chip version, so that one couldn’t be used for our taste test.
This might not sound like a lot to choose from, but once you taste all the chips and then have to taste them again (and again) just to be sure, it starts to get confusing, so you don’t need a ton of different brands to sample. Heaven forbid anyone develop flavor fatigue!
For our region of the United States, we taste-tested Lay’s, Utz, Great Value brand, and Herr’s.
One person needs to be in charge of the setup.
This taste test is meant to be easy, but by all means, you can make it more elaborate if you want.
This is a blind taste test, so I numbered paper bowls so that we could reference the chips by number.
On the underside of the bowl, I wrote what chip I was putting in that bowl so that I wouldn’t forget which number corresponded with which chip brand.
Then, I put the chip bags away so that no one could compare the picture on the bag to the chips in the bowls.
How the blind taste test is administered is up to you.
Know your audience!
If you think your group will really get into this and you want to make a ranking sheet with various categories, go for it. In the name of science, I like this idea.
In fact, I like it so much, I made you a free PDF you can download and print to rank your chips.
Our group was much more casual and chaotic. We put the chips in the middle of the table and passed them around to let everyone weigh in. Our main goal was to see if we could guess which chip was which brand. Let me tell you, we were WAY off, even though some of the participants were very confident in their guesses.
Being wrong and discovering a new favorite chip brand was half the fun. Another thing that was interesting to discover was just how different the chips taste, even though the ingredient lists were identical.
Download this free Potato Chip Taste Test Ranking Sheet here.
The other thing I like about this taste test activity is that you can adapt it to fit your taste buds or culinary interests. Maybe you have more self-control than I do and never eat potato chips. (What’s that like?!) Instead of potato chips, try taste testing seltzer, pretzels, apples, chocolate, or cheese. As long as you coordinate with your guests, everyone can bring a different brand of whatever you are sampling in order to share the cost of the activity.
As for our crew, there were no losers in this potato chip taste test. We haven’t met a chip we didn’t like, but the majority of participants agreed that of the four chip brands we sampled, Herr’s had the best classic potato chip. The Great Value brand from Walmart was surprisingly good, too.
Do you have a favorite potato chip? Would your friends and family have fun doing this activity? You can comment here on this blog post, email me here, or reach out via direct message on Instagram or Facebook.
Happy Labor Day!
Thanks for spending part of your day here. Before you go, if you’d like another blog post to read, try one of these!
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