Everyone’s taste buds are different, so let’s start off by saying that when it comes to matters of taste, all opinions are valid. However, through a recent taste of all the Pringle’s flavors our Harrison Kroger had to offer, we maybe think that one or two opinions are trash.
Who would have thought that those innocent, soft, thin chips would make several people cry before the day was out? Pringles, a “stackable, potato-based snack chip,” are packed with flavor, which we already knew, but we didn’t know that sometimes that flavor is pain. We set out to find out which flavor of Pringles was best, but like Icarus, we flew just a little bit too close to the sun. Read on to find out which chip scorched us. We decided to tackle this question of chip supremacy in two different ways, a school poll and a journalism staff taste test.
JOURNALISM TASTE TEST
At The Paw Print we take taste tests very seriously, so we took a whole lunch hour for our a Pringles taste test. All the willing journalism students, blindly tried 10 different types of Pringles and fill out a survey ranking each chip from 1-5.
Here’s our (scientifically sound ranking from best to worst:
1: At a ranking of 3.5 out of 5, the best chip we tasted was Sour Cream and Onion. This squares with the larger school poll (spoilers!), which makes sense, because this chip has just enough flavor without leaving you wondering if you will ever taste anything else again.
2: Right behind Sour Cream and Onion, at a 3.4, was Ranch chips. Some people thought that this would be better with a side of Ranch, which, honestly, is fair, but this crowd pleaser left everyone happy.
3, 4, & 5 Rounding out the top three was a three-way tie, making these five chips the best ones the chip aisle has to offer. Cheddar Sour Cream, Cheddar Cheese, and Ghost Pepper Ranch all got a 3/5 which means that they made the top half of our list. We’re sensing a pattern here: if it has cheddar, sour cream, or ranch, Harrison High School is interested. One taster didn’t appreciate the cheese, though, saying “It tasted like lactose intolerance.”
6: Leading the five worst chips was one that really divided our taste testers, the Pizza chip, scoring a 2.8. Some thought the flavor was artificial, while some loved it and wanted to eat the whole tube.
7: At 2.7, the next worst chip was Honey Mustard. This one was also really divisive, with some people hating it just less than the bottom one, while some people didn’t mind it. It’s sweet and savory mix was not an overall great blend for most people. Even those who didn’t hate it didn’t like it, with one taster saying that it was “like orange chicken, but in a bad way.” On the other hand, one taste tester, apparently one who is reading Animal Farm right now, said that this chip tasted like Stalingrad. I guess they’d prefer starvation to having to eat another one of these chips. But that wasn’t as bad as another taster, who said this tasted “like how I imagine kicking a baby would feel.” We are grateful that they clarified that they haven’t actually kicked a baby.
8: We learned from numbers 8 and 9 that high schoolers don’t love salty and sour chips. Coming in at just 2.6, the Dill Pickle chip, though loved by some, was merely tolerated by the rest. One person commented that it was “very sour, like a war head,” while another person said that these chips had “a life-changing taste.” They didn’t clarify if that was a good or bad change, so try them at your own risk.
9: And it’s salty cousin, Salt and Vinegar, scored even lower, with a 2.5. These chips were the ones that lasted the longest, which made the people who liked them happy, I guess.
10: At our lowest score of a 2/5, here it is: the chip that made people cry. We didn’t think it would be that hot. I mean, it was a Pringle! But when the first taste tester ate a whole chip all at once, totally unprepared, it was traumatic. The Hot Ones chip claimed several other victims, with participants reporting that it burned the top of their mouth, that it gave them stomachaches, and that it was “the worst chip [they’ve] ever had.” Ms. Evanson literally couldn’t stop complaining about the one bite of the chip she had, and we have it on good authority from Mrs. Vaughn that the last thing Evanson did before she went to bed was send a text complaining about how bad it was. It’s safe to say the public did not enjoy chip number 5.
Some people claimed some of the chips had no taste or were very bland, or that you couldn’t tell the difference between a few as they didn’t have any distinguishing taste that made them special.
Despite the tears, the taste test was a success, with one student saying that his “favorite part was eating Pringles in class. Suck it, Middle School Dweebs.”
SCHOOL WIDE PRINGLES POLL
We wanted to see if our experience tasting chips was valid, so like any good scientist, we did more research. After collecting poll data from over 20 people who were all very excited to express their chip opinion, we found the school’s ranking of chips matched ours, with Sour Cream and Onion coming in first. The rest of the ranking didn’t go hand in hand, with Pizza coming in second, and then Cheddar Cheese coming in 3rd.
The flavors above were all options for the top spot but, some people were upset about the original flavor not being an option, which was definitely a mistake on my part. The least popular flavor was definitely Honey mustard since no one chose it (it didn’t even make it up on the chart).
Unfortunately, no one has been to another country and tried one of the other creative flavors. Internationally there are over 100 flavors of pringles, 25 in the US, but only 10 in our local grocery store.
In case you are sick of Pringles, we also asked about how they stack up to other snack chips, and Doritos and Lays were the only two that cracked the 50% mark, with a majority of students reaching for them before they put their hand down the skinny Pringle can.
Both Doritos and Lays are very good alternative snacks and may be more filling since they are denser than Pringles, but Pringles lightness is what makes them so good. Pringles are so soft and thin it makes them easy to eat and reduces the likelihood of cutting your mouth with sharp edges! Four people voted Pringles as their top choice (the correct choice) and they fully understand that the taste and texture of this chip is where it is at.