Old Dutch are a massive company, and their marketing team will be paid a helluva a lot more than us at Chips & Crisps. We therefore hesitate to say this, but if Frito-Lay take an aggressive approach to capturing the full Canadian market, packaging alone will help them on their way. Having designed product packaging and reviewed several hundred Potato Chips bag designs we feel a little more comfortable commenting in this area. And, the traditional approach will only take you so far. As target audiences mature, younger people need to be sold to as well. The 'Old Dutch' writing, the cartoon windmill, the plain white bag, the diagonal flavor band; it is all just too old fashioned to capture the imagination. Smaller, regional operations can be forgiven for maintaining their historical reference points, but there is no company in the world that enjoys as big a market share in their country that has such dated packaging design.
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Crunch
There was a surprisingly large amount of whole Chips in a nicely air filled bag. This provided us with a rather sizeable test subject. A first bite featured a firmer than expected crack before the Chip snapped. Two further chomps and the Chip crumbled under the pressure before it succumbed to potato mushiness.
Texture
These Chips were all about finger residue. They were mostly flat, and somewhat thicker than many regular Chips. There were oil boils, but most were also rather flat and muted. There was a thickly spread coating of red powder. This left a large amount of greasy red finger residue.
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Taste
Unless you are Belgian, the most appropriate flavor addition to French Fries (Potato Chips to some), is generally Ketchup. This variety is always therefore an interesting experience. However, before continuing it should be mentioned that the other ingredient invariably added to the Potato Chip's bigger and fatter dinner accompanying relative, is salt. And boy, did these have some salt. In just 50 grams (27 Chips), there was a whopping 710 grams of sodium - 30% of an adult's suggested maximum daily intake. This is among the highest we have come across after hundreds of reviews. Anyway, although that is a gentle reminder, it is not for us to judge, we are just interested in whether it tastes like it says it does on the bag. A Nose Plunge Test revealed a strong tomato aroma. The flavor was slightly sweet, but mostly tomato. Huh, a bit like Ketchup!