Herr's
Address: 20 Herr Drive, PO Box 300, Nottingham, Pennsylvania 19362, USA Phone: 610 932 9330 Website: www.herrs.com Email: Contact Form Herr'sThe Herr Foods story began in 1946 when 21-year-old James Stauffer Herr bought a small potato chip company in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for $1,750. A year later the business moved to a vacated tobacco shed on the Herr family farm.
As Jim Herr learned more about the business he developed new and better chip cooking processes and a delicious snack food became even better. As demand for Herr's® Potato Chips grew, so did the company. In the spring of 1949, Jim located a 3,600-square-foot bakery facility available for rent in the small town of West Willow, Pennsylvania. In 1951 Herr's® experienced a major disaster when the fire broke out in the plant. With help from family, friends and the bank, the Herrs bought 37 acres and built a new 4,500 square-foot potato chip manufacturing plant. By 1956, the company had erected a 7,000-square-foot warehouse for storage of its allied products. In 1958, after careful consideration, Herr's® began adding seasoning to the potato chips. The barbeque chip was the first flavored chip the company tried and it's still in production today. Over the years the company added a number of potato chip flavors, including Sour Cream and Onion, No-Salt, Old Bay (crab seasoning), Salt and Vinegar, Pizza, Red Hot, Slightly Salted, Pennsylvania Dutch, Dill, and Sour Cream and Cheddar. During 1963 Herr's® constructed a 21,000 square-foot production facility in a field behind the Herr family's house. In 1974, Herr's® switched from glassine to foil bags. And to keep in step with consumer demand, Herr's® began producing a number of new products: 1976 - Cheese Curls, 1978 - Popcorn, 1981 - Pretzels, 1983 - Corn products, such as corn and tortilla chips, 1984 - Onion Rings. In the new millennium, Herr Foods is considered a leader in the snack food industry. Herr's Sour Cream & Onion Kettle Chips
A Nose Plunge Test revealed a salty onion aroma. The taste was also even in what often seems like a battle between the sour cream and the onion for dominance. These were creamy and had a fair balance of onion, so more than decent. They also enjoy the added benefit of a slightly healthier list of bad bits on the nutrition label to the original sour cream and onion version of these chips. (18) Herr's Reduced Fat Original Kettle Chips
It is easy to lose track of how many potato flavoured chips Herr's produces. Their balance of salt and oil, plus their deals with major supermarkets etc., must be how they can make a profit off so many slight variations on what is a fairly bland theme. These featured a reduction of 0.5g of saturated fat to their regular chips. There is, therefore, no discernible difference. (14)
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Herr's Boardwalk Salt & Vinegar Kettle
Whatever style of chip, if it is salt and vinegar flavour it needs to strike a fair and even balance between the two partners. I found these a little bit more vinegary than salty. It was also a relatively mild taste. (18) Herr's Cheddar Horseradish Kettle Chips
The flavour geniuses that toil over gurgling pots of ingredients to bring us the world's favourite snack food have managed to create this odd flavour pairing. With liberal seasoning that varied, darker chips appeared to taste stronger, and the lighter chips were more cheesy. Unsurprisingly, the cheese was somewhat overpowered. Horseradish is traditionally served with beef. It is as spicy as most peppers and leans more towards Japanese wasabi. This experience was hotter than most hot chips, but because so many were overpowered by this heat the cheesiness took a back seat. They could have been called horseradish with a hint of creamy Cheddar for accuracy. (16) Herr's Lattice Cut Classic Kettle Cooked
While Herr's market these as a 'Dipping' chip, to me they seemed more of a kettle cooked chip to rival Cape Cod. The waffle cut (as Cape Cod describes it), seemed to be a marketing approach. The taste was however apparent - A rich potato taste with a touch of oily salt. (18) Herr's All Natural Kettle Cooked Russet
On the surface, it would appear that this was yet another of Herr's many [many] plain and regular potato flavoured chips. But it was on the surface they this altered a little - The dark brown colour added to a different-to-usual potato variety, made these an interesting plain potato flavour. They seemed to be a little sweeter than similar offerings and mixed well with the salt to make a pleasing alternative to the usual flavour that Herr's give different names and bag designs to. (17)
Herr’s McCormick Grill Mates Smokehouse
Maple Potato Chips The theory behind these chips was very simple. McCormick supplies the seasoning, Herr’s puts it on their chips. It is the traditional way of seasoning chips, so very little can go wrong. Not least because McCormick’s would have to agree that it benefitted their product before it went on sale. The only issue is the chips themselves were thickly cut rippled chips. This meant there was a thick slice of potato to contend with. Fortunately, the smoky seasoning was strong enough to combat and match up with the creamy potato slice. There was also a hint of sweetness that could be attributed to the maple syrup essence. They were a little tame and overwhelmed by the potato and smoky nature of the seasoning. (16) Herr's Mesquite BBQ Kettle Cooked Chips
The smoky barbecue behind the potato partition was quite appropriate because these were a little less barbecue and little more smoky mesquite in taste. (18) Herr's Jalapeno Kettle Cooked Chips
A nice sweet pepper aroma hit me during my Nose Plunge Test. And they were hot. So many jalapeno chips lack something, not just a hearty bite of heat, but flavour. The high sugar and salt content mixed well with the potato to make these among Herr's most flavourful chips. The heat also offered a good balance between chips for all, and chips too hot for some. (20 *) |
