Today we reached a milestone: our 100th flavor in our approximately weekly Guess the Potato Chip Flavor event in my lab. Today we decided to celebrate the event not only with our 100th flavor, but also with five other flavors to round out the meal. Those five other flavors were some current Lay’s flavors: West Coast Truffle Fries, Southern Biscuits and Gravy, Greektown Gyro, New York Reuben, and Pico de Gallo. Over the last couple of years we have had quite the variety: Happiness Butter (from Japan, by a South Korean company), Butter Chicken (Lay’s, from Canada), Slow-cooked Ribs (Old Dutch, from Canada), and many others. Some were excellent, some.. not so. The two that stayed in the bowl the longest, by far, were Sea Salt Pomegranate and Cappuccino. We try to stick to potato chips, but we do occasionally branch out into other types (such as corn chips) if there are compelling flavors or if we have no novel potato chip flavors.
But the 100th flavor… now that was a fantastic one. My graduate student James Pflug acquired it online, from the UK, and, well, here are two pictures:
They have edible gold stars on them!
The flavor: Winter Berries and Prosecco with Edible Gold Stars and a touch of Fizz, by Marks and Spencer. Berries and sparkling wine with gold stars. Wow. I can’t imagine how we can top that.
Here’s the full list of what we have tried.
David Maddison
The Subulate Palpomere 
Edible gold stars?!?! AMAZING
This may take the romance off of the gold stars, but they consists of “Stabiliser: E464, Humectant: E1520, Colour: E171, Curcumin”
Hahaha slightly less magical, yeah
Some of my favorites do not seem to be on your list! Please let me know if you ever come across nori or dulse potato chips; east-meets-west style. Those could be delicious.
Potato-chip health warnings: 1. eating potato chips regularly may lead directly to a need to purchase larger pants, especially if you spend lots of time in the lab behind a desk. 2. Also, some of them have high concentrations of MSG. I have nearly passed out twice from eating too many Tim’s Cascades Jalapeno chips. (I do not eat them anymore).. On one of the occasions I was at a symposium, and I was starving and it was the only thing to eat with the beer. It is not very fun to have to give a presentation in front of a crowd of mostly strangers when you are about to pass out. Some of you may have witnessed similar presentations. When I was an undergraduate I attended one of the annual Univ. British Columbia-Univ. Washington ecology symposia. The dinner bouquet was at a huge Chinese restaurant in Vancouver and the master-of-ceremony passed out at the podium from an MSG overdose!
Note: banana chips make fairly good carabid beetle bait, especially for use in remote locations where you must back pack in
James Bergdahl
Spokane, WA, USA