Lay's Beer 'n Brats

Product circa: autumn 2017

I love chips that attempt to taste like meat, and I've had some pleasant beer-flavored chips before as well, so I went in with high hopes.

I wasn't disappointed.  I was intrigued enough after the first few bites to examine the ingredients list.  Prominent on the list is yeast extract.  In some forms you might know the stuff as Vegemite, but in this form it's simply a pale powder used to simulate the flavor of beer.  It's delicious.  Not only does it give the yeastiness that's reminiscent of beer, but it's also packed with umami flavor.

A curious addition to the ingredients list is cheese.  What?  After spending too long thinking about it, I decided to keep eating.  After eating way more than I should have, I realized that the cheese serves to add a dairy-like creaminess to the chips without making them taste cheesy.  This creaminess is very akin to the creaminess of a good bratwurst sausage.

All in all, the two ingredients in question result in something that, if at the very least approaches what it's like to each bratwurst and drink beer, is completely delicious.  A very clever effort from the food scientists, and something that I'd buy regularly if I saw it regularly.


Lay's Beer n' Brats:- Great
Original Lay's(for comparison): - Great