Review: Lay's - Kettle Cooked Greektown Gyro Potato Chips

Lay's Kettle Cooked Greektown Gyro Potato Chips supposedly combine the taste of the Greek pita sandwich with the hearty crunch of kettle-style potato chips.

It's one of the four finalists from the 2015 Do Us A Flavor contest.

I picked up a 7.75-oz. bag for $2.69.

I was pretty intrigued by this flavor as I'm a big fan of gyros. I love the savory, tender slices of lamb and beef and the fresh coolness of the tzatziki, but was unsure of how the flavors of one of my favorite Greek foods would translate into the chip medium.

The smell upon opening the bag is strangely not very herbaceous and almost had a chemical, plastic note to it. It was odd and not very appetizing. Thankfully, the appearance of the chips flecked in spices was a lot more appealing.

In terms of the gyro meat department, the Kettle Cooked Greektown Gyro Potato Chips actually succeeded remarkably--although I don't think that's a good thing. The chips do taste uncannily like herby gyro meat, but it also has a strange, greasy flavor like that semi-rancid taste of solidified animal fat after you've left some cooked meat out for too long. It's quite tasty initially on the tongue but leaves an unpleasant, lingering aftertaste.

The tzatziki sauce is represented in the chip by a slight tang on the forefront of the tongue, and is the first flavor I detect upon eating a chip. This light tang fades quickly into the meat flavor and then much too quickly into the grease aftertaste. I don't really taste anything akin to cucumber in the seasoning.

As expected, I didn't really taste any other produce (such as the lettuce and tomatoes pictured on the front of the bag) either or anything that could be described as pita-flavor.

To me, the draw of a gyro pita sandwich is the contrast between the flavorful meat and the cool, fresh produce and the zip of the tzatziki sauce. The contrast is completely missing when translated to chip form, leaving the seasoning tasting very heavy. It's difficult to eat many of these at one time.

Overall, I found the Kettle Cooked Greektown Gyro Potato Chips a little off-putting. Lay's definitely wins points in nailing the gyro meat flavor on the bull's-eye, but the fact that they did so (complete with greasy undertone) is actually what made the flavor unpalatable for me.

Nutritional Info - Lay's Kettle Cooked Greektown Gyro Potato Chips
Serving Size - 1 oz (28g / about 18 chips)
Calories - 150 (from Fat - 80)
Fat - 8g (Saturated Fat - 1g)
Sodium - 140mg
Carbs - 16g (Sugar - 1g)
Protein - 2g
 
By Renee.