Ranking The Best Utz Chips, From Worst To Best

People often say, "they don't make them like they used to," but when it comes to the "Grandma" line of Utz chips, this is how they used to make them. "Grandma Utz" didn't bother with modern oils, and instead used lard to create these kettle style chips made from thicker slices of potatoes. Because lard is pig fat and Utz offers so many Kosher-friendly options, they are actually produced in a separate factory (via Philadelphia Inquirer).

Grandma Utz may have once been a winning softball team (via The Gettysburg Times), but for modern palates, these namesake potato chips are more a curiosity than a winning delicacy. While it's a bit unkind to say they taste "like shingles" (via The Morning News), these fatty Grandma chips should have perhaps been a thing left in the past. They also come in a Bar-B-Q style, but the flavoring doesn't help to mask its oily fattiness. We will give them bonus points for their attractive old fashioned brown bag design, trimmed with a homey pattern that looks straight off of Grandma's kitchen tablecloth.

When strolling down the chip aisle at a supermarket and you see a bag of Wavy chips next to a pair of Rippled ones, it's sometimes hard to even tell if there's any difference. After all, they look similar and are identically made with potatoes, vegetable oil, and salt. Well, there is a difference (explained by Kroger) — Ripple ones are riddled (in a good way) with sharp ridges, and Wavy ones have fewer rounded ridges. Both are sturdy enough for dipping, but Utz's Wavy Original are a little too bland standing on their own, that you don't even need to make a choice between the two. 

According to Heluva Good!, they got their name during their early cheese selling days when a customer exclaimed, "That's a hell of a good cheese!" They are more known these days for selling their dips, that naturally pair well with Utz chips. A collaboration between the two companies that both date back to the 1920s would seem like a "Heluva" good idea, right?

They teamed up in 2015 and released three Wavy styles — Jalapeño Cheddar, Bacon Horseradish, and French Onion (via Facebook). Today, French Onion still stands, and in 2018, Buttermilk Ranch joined it in stores (via Instagram). The two flavors certainly ring true to their dippy billing, but it's almost too much of a good thing. The French Onion is the more subtle of the two, as the Buttermilk Ranch feels overly seasoned.

While Utz recommends even trying these chips in the actual dips they hail from, it's perhaps best to keep them separated altogether. Dipping a nice Utz Ripple chip into a canister of Heluva Good! is perhaps the better option.

Salt is the most basic, yet most essential ingredient in any plain potato chip. One doesn't even need to bite into a plain chip to conjure up the magic that unlocks when the sodium hits one's tongue. The same can't be said of salt's dark partner, pepper, but when mixed together, they create a peculiar chip that has to be tried at least once.

Utz's Salt & Pepper chips debuted in 2000 (via York Daily Record), and years later topped a poll as the best in the industry by "Everyday with Rachael Ray" magazine (via York Daily Record). Pepper isn't even listed as an ingredient, but is filled in by a hint of onion powder and vinegar. However it's put together, the chip that's a rare sight in stores turned sweet toothed blogger If The Spoon Fits into a savory snacker thanks to its "seductive glory."

When it comes to BBQ chips that try to give off both a sweet and smoky flavor, it's hard to come up with a name that differentiates one brand's version from another. Ruffles sells Ultimate Sweet & Smokin' BBQ, Terra offers up Sweet & Smooth BBQ, while Utz counters with their Smokin' Sweet BBQ. Utz's stands out from the crowd, though, as it's backed by their excellent Kettle Classic chip.

The company describes their taste as "spicy heat with a kiss of sweet," and with accents of cheddar and blue cheese, Hickory smoke flavor, paprika, turmeric, and sugar, they are definitely a solid entry into this genre. Still, they're a notch below their hotter, less crunchier, similarly named older brother that also displays a BBQ brush on its bag — Southern Sweet Heat BBQ.

When Utz says they're selling you a bag of "No Salt Added" chips, they are not selling you a bill of goods, they are selling you a bag of surprising goodness. And what do these chips contain? According to Utz, the ingredients are potatoes and vegetable oil. That's the list. As simple as can be — and plain and simple, simply good chips.

Although they do contain 5mg of sodium per serving, these chips have been around since 1993 as Utz has been "focused on meeting the snacking needs of today's more health conscious consumers" (via Food Channel). They're even recommended by nutritionists as a low-sodium snack that still tastes delicious (via Women's Health).

Don't judge a flavor by its name or by its packaging cover. "Onion & Garlic" doesn't lend itself to sounding like a chip many would want to try, and that's probably the reason why so few chip makers (namely Wise and Old Dutch) produce them. Utz is unafraid to deep dive into any kind of flavor-town, and season their standard potato chip here with dehydrated garlic and onion.

Utz's Onion & Garlic chip debuted alongside Carolina Barbeque, per The Danville News, in 1997, following on the heels of the company's 75th anniversary celebration. Five years later, its tastes were confounding testers conducted for a 2002 Newsday article, who had trouble identifying either bulb vegetable in it. Regardless, it's a bizarre chip that is low on pungency, and remarkably smooth to sample. Crush and sprinkle some on top of a potato casserole, or mix them in a bowl with Utz' Salt'n Vinegar for pure craziness!

According to the York Daily Record, Bon Ton introduced the crab chip in 1974, but have since seceded their stewardship of their innovation to others  as they don't even appear to sell that flavor anymore. Their loss is Utz's gain, who has been making their own crustacean sensation since at least, per The Evening Sun, the early 1980s, and later added a fantastic Kettle version to the mix.

Even though Utz doesn't have the license to utilize the signature taste of Maryland crabs — aka Old Bay seasoning (Herr's does), whatever they're doing ("spicy rock salt," per Pottsville Republican) is quite crackin'. That's the reason they are able to call their product The Crab Chip. They made a cameo on "The Wire" (via Product Placement Blog) led to a sponsorship of Rusty Wallace's racing team because he was so smitten with them (via York Sunday News), and it even allows those who keep Kosher to get in on the taste of crabs without actually eating them. And beyond the chips, they make for a chic fashion statement, on turf or naturally surf, thanks to the fine folks at Route One Apparel.

Utz made its mark in the industry and the delighted stomachs of its customers for decades on the strength of its plain original potato chip. Their game completely changed in 1989 when the company had a coming out party for their Kettle Classics (via Intelligencer Journal).

What's the difference between Kettle and regular chips, besides the use of peanut oil and sea salt? Utz explained to America's Test Kitchen that they're made the same way, but Kettle are "fried in batches in big vats," and must be moved around "to ensure that they cook evenly and don't clump." In a taste test by them, the Utz Kettle chip proved to be the best of the bunch.

The Kettle Classic crunchy beauties quickly became, per The Evening Sun, one of Utz's best selling chips and spawned its own line of amazing flavors. They were so dang good that Rachael Ray requested them for her talk show, and ESPN personality and talk show host Tony Kornheiser couldn't stop talking about them on air – and Utz happily kept freely feeding his habit (via York Daily Record and Intelligencer Journal).

Utz's Mash-Ups series entries seem to come and go, so when one comes, it's best to go and grab a bag to try these flavor overload experimentations. Sadly, it appears that the ship may have sailed to experience the marriages of Maui BBQ & Jalapeño, and TGI Friday's Cheddar & Bacon.

Luckily, the Kettle Classics Smokin' Sweet BBQ Crab Chips make for such a wonderful addition to the line that they're still kicking around since landing on shores in 2019 (via Facebook). Smokin' Sweet BBQ and The Crab Chip make for solid solo entities, but you put these opposites together and they not only complement each other's flavor, but they bring out the best in both of them. Per Twitter, Utz has long welcomed Mash-Up suggestions from fans, and we can't wait to see what they drum up next.

As per Old Dutch, they may have been the first company on this side of the Atlantic to pair up the potato chip with the popular dip flavor of sour cream and onion in 1970, but it was Lay's that popularized the flavor by selling it nationwide by the end of the decade (via The Los Angeles Times). Working its stealth flavor magic in the mid-Atlantic region was Utz, who has been selling Sour Cream & Onion chips, based on this ad in The Evening Sun, since at least 1974, if not earlier.

As Utz's footprint on shelves grew in the following decades, so did the appreciation of their Sour Cream & Onion, which has now rightfully become, per Utz, the company's "most popular seasoned chip." The now Rippled chip contains dehydrated sour cream and onion, as well as parsley and garlic powder, which makes for a best in zest. It's beloved by The New York Times, and even once led to a rather unsavory domestic dispute. In 2017, a Pennsylvania woman did not heed her husband's request to lay off his bag of Utz Sour Cream & Onion chips, and in retaliation he "bit off a chunk of her skin" (via WNEP).

Lost in the shuffle of endless chip choices is the one that started it all — The Original Utz Potato chip. According to Utz, the company is still following the very same classic recipe Bill and Sallie Utz used starting in 1921. Potatoes, cottonseed oil, and salt is all that's needed here for potato chip perfection, and people have been saying as such since its inception. The original chip also comes in an equally righteous Ripple form, which are made instead with vegetable oil, and started being advertised for sale in the 1970s (via The Cumberland News).

A 1926 article in The News Comet extolled the Original chips' virtues by saying such things that still hold true, like, "No picnic meal is complete without them," and they are "A delicacy liked by practically everybody. Children are especially fond of them." Although we're not sure if they "are an excellent dessert." They said it best when they added, "Make it a rule to always have a supply on hand."

Utz made a wise decision earlier this century when they went into business with Ben Greenfield to license his line of popular New England style Mystic Chips, which included his kettle-style dark russets (via The Hartford Courant and Newsday). The "Drive-Thru Gourmet," a self-described "chip freak" wrote in The Republican and Herald that they were, "quite simply, the most delicious potato chips I've ever eaten."

Based on the current Utz roster, the "Mystic" name appears to have been since been retired, but the spirit of the chips live on in an Utz package. The company brands them these days as Kettle Classics Dark Russets, and what looks like unappetizing, burnt chips are the furthest thing from it. Utz says, "The natural caramelizing of the sugars in the fresh potato slices creates a gourmet snack like no other," and a chip unlike any other they sell.

How do you dethrone a long time Utz chip champion like Salt'n Vinegar? You stick close to its winning formula, but you harken back to the flavor's original British roots by dousing them with malt vinegar, and then break out the crunch by outfitting it with your exceptional Kettle Classics contours.

Once tagged as "Old English Style" on their bags, Utz's Kettle Classics Salt & Malt Vinegar are such serious business that they didn't even bother with a slangy "'n" in their name this time around. They are not only Utz's finest work to date, but one of the finest chips ever made by any company ever (with apologies to Fritos' Limón y Sal from Mexico).

But is it too much to ask for an Utz Mash-Up of Kettle Classics Salt & Malt Vinegar and Salt'n Vinegar?