The McKeons are lifelong, addicted chip experts, trained by our snack loving mother, Anna Mae. After decades of unending research, here's my carefully curated Top 5 for you.
Tim's Cascade Style from the Pacific Northwest are my #1 by mile and are (as the bag says) truly 'extra thick and extra crunchy', best washed down with a pint of Redhook. Maui Kitch'n Cooked are my #2, still small batch cooked on Maui, my veiled home for 7 years. Best accompanied by a pint of Kona Brewing Longboard Island Lager. Cape Cod Chips are #3. Oddly, Cape Cod's 40% Reduced Fat variety are just about as delish as their full fat original. These three brands all are somewhat similar in style - kettle cooked method, thicker, crispier, and hold up to dip beautifully without having to resort to ridges for tensile strength.
In my Hall of Fame category are Charles Chips, of course, which were delivered weekly to our house in Cleveland just in time for the weekend. By Monday, they were a memory till the next Friday delivery. the final choice is an old Michigan brand call Krun-chee. My brother Mike had a summer job delivering Krun-chee to taverns and small markets in Detroit in the early 70s. I was working at legendary, hard - rockin' WWWW-FM as APD and mid-day personality. Mikey would swing by every few days and mysteriously (not so) a large box of Krun-chee Chips products would 'fall' out the back of this delivery truck and the air-staff happily snacked till his next visit. Happy DJs played every request brother Mike had that summer, favoring Iggy Pop and Pink Floyd.
I'm with you. Best you finish the whole bag in one sitting. With a couple of brews. Wouldn't want them to go stale on us now would we?
Jim McKeon
PS/ I worked at Stroh's Ice Cream factory in Detroit during my college summers and can opine on that, too. But that's another column, another day. Be well.
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Do The Palm's cottage fries qualify as chips?
Deee-licious!
Tom Werman
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Wondering if you remember Connecticut potato chips, with the red,whitw, and blue bag. You are from Fairfield and these chips were the best. Oh yeah, my dad owned the company!!
Every religious group, scouting group and school groups visited the factory which was on the post road in Norwalk. They were in business until the late 60's
Love the blog
jeffry Steinberg
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Chips and snacks. In your mail bag about chips someone mentioned ring dings and devil dogs. My grandfather drove a Drake's truck for 40 years. Every other Sunday he would drive out to our home on Long Island from his in Brooklyn. And he would stock us up! Ring Dings that were twice the size of what you get today and wrapped in aluminum foil not flimsy plastic. Devil Dogs so fresh you could smell them through the box! Yodels and Funny Bones, apple and cherry pies and the all-time great coffe cakes! Now that I think about it I guess it wasn't such a coincidence that my friends would always knock on my door to come play when his car was parked in front of our house. He was a great soul. Thanks for the memory. Mike Ruggiero
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It's amazing.
Politics
Health
Medicine
Music business
Streaming
On and on.
And what makes your readers
Happiest.
POTATO CHIPS
THAT IS TRUELY EVIDENCE
BASED RESEARCH!!
Neil Lasher
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Made me think of these
www.lindencookies.com/pages/about-lindens
Don Strasburg
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I was trying to find the picture of me as a kid on my grandfather's Wise potato chip truck. He started out with Charles Chips. Then moved on/up to Wise. If you at a Wise potato chip in Syracuse, New York in the 60's, my grandfather put it there. His delivery truck was parked in our driveway. As kids, we could choose a snack from any box that was already opened. Thanks for the memory Bob..
Liz Nowak
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Free chips??? You are truly connected to the world which now includes Kaley Elliot. If we were all 10, this would be the coolest thing ever. Still, it can be monitized without selling your soul. You're not being paid to sell something when it's after the fact.
Funny, but I got into radio because you got every record for free and then you got to play them. Any money was a bonus.
John Brodey
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Here's one for you.
Entenmann's (before they went national and turned into junk) vs. Ebinger's (makers of the divine "Blackout Cake"). The day the latter went out of business was indeed a sad day. Entenmann's last saving grace was Walnut Danish Ring, and I haven't seen that for ages.
From Wikipedia: "Blackout cake, sometimes called Brooklyn Blackout cake, is an American chocolate cake filled with chocolate pudding and chocolate cake crumbs, and frosted with chocolate icing. It was invented during World War II by a Brooklyn bakery chain named Ebinger's, in recognition of the mandatory blackouts to protect the Brooklyn Navy Yard. After the war, the name persisted for a very dark chocolate cake and became common across the American Midwest.[2] Ebinger's variety was very popular and became a signature offering, popular with Brooklyn residents,[3] until the chain of more than fifty locations closed in 1972."
Live and learn.
Read the history of Entenmann's corporate life, it tells you everything about the rise and fall. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entenmann%27s
And for those of us from eastern Westchester who drove into NYC on the Major Deegan, the wafting of the wonderful aroma from the Stella D'oro factory into the car never went unnoticed. I wonder if that bakery is still there.
Myles Silton
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Thanks for writing about Charles Chips.....Reminds me of my Dad and I chomping on those out of the big tin in Ohio back in the day on the weekend, when he came home from playing golf. They were great and even if they weren't - they were wonderful. That big tin was always special in our house. Been years since I thought of them. Thank you (and thanks Dad, miss you and our special chip eating sessions!) Elisa
Elisa Miller-Burda
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If Kaley Elliott from Wise wants to send you some products. Make sure you ask her for a package of Wild Bill's Beef Jerky. That stuff is delicious especially when fresh out of the bag!
Brian Kelly
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What sociologist can explain to us why an idle muse about potato chips
has become your most viral post ever?
Best,
C Darryl Mattison
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sorry im late. best ever chips....Conn's Potato Chips from my hometown, Zanesville, Ohio.
Robert Merriam
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What, no Utz love?
(...."time for Utz..... some day they'll be....)
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utz_Quality_Foods
With Gratitude,
Matt Peyton
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Wise don't taste the same like we knew growing up. Watch. Jerry Greenberg
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I grew up on Wise Potatoe Chips .. still my favorite!!!
Joseph Carvello
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I wish they'd make the "burned" ones
So good!!
Jeff Harris
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Wise potato chips.
For all who grew up on them and need a fix here in Los Angeles, they are available along with other amazing treats from our youth at the Malibu Kitchen and Gourmet Deli in Cross Creek on PCH in Malibu. They are the sole distributor west of the Rockies for Wise products. And, the food is amazing; both Jerry Seinfeld and Phil Rosenthal have done episodes of Comedians and I'll Have there. Best damn fudge brownies you will ever eat.
Cathy Goodman
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Tangent but same line of delicacy
Planters cheez balls
In the 1980s as a kid at my aunt and uncle's house in Shippan point (Stamford CT) for fancy cocktail parties they were served as a LEGITIMATE appetizer - so long as you used a toothpick and not your fingers
They beat Cheetos and any cheese variety snack food by a mile ... but alas they are gone
www.kristinehendricks.com/ever-happened-planters-cheez-balls/
Patrick W. Ryan
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This made me go see if we had chips in the house. Now I'm 10 down with no end in sight!
-Falzone
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Ya have to understand..I'm a Baltimore boy.(pronounced "balmer")...so...there...is....only...ONE...potato chip.....UTZ!!! Hanover PA...sorry dude but Wise were way inferior to the UTZ...now of course up on the Cape there a tourist trap up there at the Cape Cod chip factory... they're a close 2nd to UTZ...IMO
BALTIMORE BOB
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Hawkins Cheezies up in Canada. Ask Jake Gold to send you some. The best. When i was teaching in Japan my mom and dad asked me what i wanted for Christmas as a care package/Christmas present. I said send me Cheezies. As many as you can. Maybe one of my favourite Christmas mornings.
Todd Devonshire
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Thanks Bob - just ordered a tin of Charley's Chips. They should be sending you a commission!
Mitch Tuchman
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We just moved to Charlotte NC from too way many years in Los Angeles. Fresh Market (Charlotte's version of Bristol Farms) carries Charles Chips IN BAGS! My husband and I freaked out. Will gain 10 pounds each if we don't watch it!
Lynn Hock
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Zapps Spicy Crawtators
Craig Davis
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I love Cape Cod chips, salt and vinegar. And it blows me away that they were for sale everywhere in North Dakota during a recent visit. Cape Cod in North Dakota, just wouldnt expect. One big bag got me through my whole vision quest trip through the ND Badlands.
Greg McLoughlin
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If you like those, you'll LOVE Goods (red bag). I live in south east PA and can attest to the greatness of our snacks. Reading, PA is still the pretzel capital of the US!
Clint Weiler
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It's the summer playing season on the Outer Banks, so I'm catching up on your newsletter.
I've had'em all.
But the best ever is the Saguaro potato chip from my years in Tucson. I haven't had one in 20 years, but I just Googled the little fuggers and they still exist. I'm getting ready to place an order. If they have maintained the quality of their product, I will be on happy mofo.
If not, fuck it. I still have my memories.
Scott Sechman
P.S. Scratch that. Apparently, they went out of business. Hard to compete with the behemoth corporations.
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That's beautiful! You get an email from the rep of your chip company!!
Now if payday would put out the peanut butter avalanche bar again. They are so good I want one in my coffin just in case I wake up and need a snack....haha
All the best
Jeff Harris
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The whole world's watching!
Doug Pomerantz
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