May 2024

Ye Gam "Original"

Orion

I feel like a plain or salted “potato chip” should not have a long ingredient list. It should be oil, salt and potatoes. When you add ingredients like starch and sugar, I feel like you’re actually making some kind of potato cracker instead. We all know that certain brands of “potato chips” don’t really taste entirely like potato chips, and these would fit into that category. It’s funny though, when I think of them as potato crackers the flavour actually improves.

The problem here is that the folks at Orion are doing everything in their power to make it look at feel like a potato chip... kind of. The most obvious thing they’re doing is the shape, as each one of these chips is not perfectly round. They’ve actually made them a little oddly shaped like one might get if you sliced into a potato. They’ve also added ridges, which according to some helps increase the flavour of a potato chip, but in this case I think it’s also an attempt to make it look more like a real potato chip.

The things that make these feel a little less like potato chips and more like crackers are as follows. The most obvious is actually how they look as well, or more to the point that each and every one of these chips is exactly the same size and shape. The texture is also a little off, as I said before it seems a little more like a cracker than chip.

Seasoning wise they actually have it down pretty well. They don’t taste oily and the salt to chip ratio is perfect. I also didn’t mind the fact that each box contains several small packets. If you just want a couple of chips there’s no problem with having to reseal the bag or have any of your chips go stale over time. Sure it might not be the most environmental thing to do, but at least the multiple small bags serve a purpose.