Lay's Southwestern Queso Potato Chips
/The Tex-Mex Crunch that Needs No Dip
Name: Lay's Southwestern Queso Potato Chips
Category: Potato Chip
Ethnicity: USA
Brand: Lay's (Frito-Lay, Inc.)
Americans know it all too well: the cheese dip. Its a thick, golden yellow sauce that has graced hundreds of millions of party tables and Tex-Mex dishes throughout this fine country and Mexico for decades. The cheese dip is creamy, fatty, salty, and processed to the point that it almost doesn't even look like cheese, which I am pretty sure is the point. In an American get-together, friends and family would take their salty carb snack of tortilla chips, potato chips, or pretzels and scoop up the yellow liquid for their mouths to feast on. The cheesy crunch sustains us as a party crew and entices our appetite for the lovely meal to come. But the cheese dip in its original state is quite different from what is commercially sold and consumed in America currently. The original cheese dip is of course MEXICAN, hailing from Mexico and then traveling through the US states that boarder it (Texas, New Mexico and Arizona). Called "Queso", after the Mexican word for Cheese (Hello!), this dip or sauce includes flavors indigenous to the origin area. This dip begins with the base of mild to sharp cheeses like Pepperjack, Monterey, Velveeta, or other processed cheese blended together over heat. Milk or cream cheese can be added for extra creaminess (potential stomach ache alert). To achieve the classic Queso flavors, fresh chopped tomatoes, jalapeños and bell peppers are finely chopped up and incorporated into the hot cheesy sauce until ready.
Now, was that too much? Perhaps. But our snack of the hour is an experimental one that cleverly plays with this important dip to both Mexico and America. As a part of the long running fan-flavor contest, Lay's has invented possibly their best and most "normal" experimental chip flavors. First these chips are excellent because they provide a clean canvas for weird funky junk food flavors. I must say, the flavor of this chip is right on the money. As soon as I take my first bite, I get a rush of salty, peppery creamy cheese flavor just like scooping up some killer queso. Then I get delicious and requisite tomato and bell pepper flavor followed by the deeper sophisticated Southwestern cumin flavor. I just think that this chip hits the classic dip flavors so well. I love that the cumin flavor isn't overpowering as it often is, if improperly used. The balance of pepper and spiciness has been met perfectly. And though Queso features a classic artificial flavor, this chip tastes truly natural to me. Slightly spicy, cheesy, salty, peppery: these representative Queso flavors brightly shine through on this chip. It is the perfect party chip, with the dip built right in. Party On, America and eat this chip!
P.S. Drunk college students salute you.
Rating: B+ (The Dip Everyone Gushes Over, in Chip Form. Thanks Lay's!)
