Utz Quality Foods
Bachman, Bob's Texas Style, Boulder Canyon, Dirty, 
Golden Flake, Husman's, Kitchen Cooked, Nathan's, 
Poore Brothers, Snikiddy, Snyder of Berlin, Tato Skins, TGI Fridays, Tims Cascade Snacks, Tortiyahs!, Utz, Zapp's
Address: 900 High Street, Hanover, Pennsylvania 17331, USA
Phone: 717 637 6644
Website: www.utzsnacks.com, www.husman's.com, 
www.kitchencooked.net, www.snyderofberlin.com, www.timschips.com
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Zapp's Potato Chips

Zapp’s Potato Chips, founded by Ron Zappe in 1985, is in the Cajun bayou country town of Gramercy, Louisiana.  Since 1985, Zapp's made it their goal to make the best tasting potato chip there is. And like most small companies, they have humble beginnings. Today, state-of-the-art equipment means they can make them efficiently, too!  
Zapp's chips are kettle cooked - a very expensive method that has always been recognized for producing the best tasting potato chips. Slow cooked, a batch at a time in their peanut oil blend, the result is a thick, crunchy chip that cannot be replicated by the mass produced process of the big potato chips companies. In order to achieve this old fashioned process, Zapp’s builds its own fryers, unique in the snack food industry. The old-fashioned kettle fryers and state of the art packaging equipment makes Zapp’s one of the leaders in the kettle chip industry.    
“The best reason for quality today is a job tomorrow” is a company motto. When Zapp’s started their chips were sold within a 300-mile radius of the New Orleans area. But like good news, word of great taste spreads fast, and today they ship potato chips all over the United States and export to the Far East and the Caribbean. 
As their reputation grew, so did interest in their chips and snacks. They have been featured on Oprah, Emeril Live, and in numerous magazines and newspaper articles. Hardly surprising when you consider some of the chip brands; Spicy Cajun Crawtators, Cajun Dill Gator Tators, and Voodoo. Yes, Voodoo Chips. 
Ron Zappe died 2010 at the age of 67. Shortly afterwards, it was announced that the company would be sold to Utz.
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Zapp’s Voodoo Heat Kettle Cooked Chips
I felt the best way to address this was to make an immediate assessment of the flavours present. There was a tangy tomato. There was a mild heat. There was a slight sweetness. There was a spicy undercurrent. Altogether the flavourful mix added up to a very welcome taste. And seriously folks, what about the name? It says "Voodoo" on the packet. There were also pictures of skulls. It really doesn't get any better than this.   
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Zapp's Cajun Dill Gator Tators Kettle Chips 
My Nose Plunge Test was encouraging, as a rounded vinegary dill pickle burst out of the bag. Zapp's appear to have stripped it bare with these chips. They are dill flavoured, with a Cajun spicy heat. The hotness did not linger, neither was it too strong, but it blended well to create a variation on what is ordinarily a very powerful and commanding flavour option.   
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Zapp's Salt & Vinegar Kettle Cooked Chips
A Nose Plunge Test revealed a tart vinegar aroma, which was set at just about the right level. As Zapp's seem to go for it with their flavours I feared the worst. I am a stickler for an accurate flavour description, and there is a reason this - With just two seasoning ingredients to concentrate upon, manufacturers need to balance each other out to bring home a great flavour combo. My concerns were unfounded. There was a good balance between a strong vinegar and equally strong salt. A little too powerful for some, but at least it was balanced.  
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Zapp's Mesquite Bar-B-Que Kettle Chips 
A Nose Plunge Test revealed a generic and relatively mild smoky barbecue aroma. While many chips manufacturers put ‘Natural Smoke’ in chips of this nature, Zapp's put ‘Smoked Malt.’ Whatever that is would account for the fairly original variation on a barbecue flavoured theme. The sweet tomato and garlic pepper were both present, but there was a little added extra that separated these from the crowd.   
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Zapp's Spicy Cajun Crawtators Kettle Chips
Spicy Cajun Crawtators is arguably the world's finest potato chips name. As long as the flavour was something I had not experienced before, I didn't much care what it was like. It was always going to score high. I expected a spicy shrimp type of taste and that was perhaps what it hinted towards. Well, at least a Cajun-style rub and a sort of sea cum shellfish flavour. Mainly, it was Cajun spicy.   
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Zapp's Hotter 'n Hot Jalapeno Kettle Chips 
When a chip variety claims to be jalapeno, the first thing I hope for is a spicy jalapeno flavour, naturally. The next is heat. Not a burn your mouth out heat, but something hot enough to admit it got you going. Of course, some say, “Nah, not hot,” however hot something is, but these were hot. And most importantly, tasty. They tasted exactly like jalapeno. All that said, they needed to be a little hotter because after all, they do describe them as, “Hotter 'n Hot.”   
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Zapp's Regular Kettle Cooked Potato Chips 
It almost seems a disappointment that Zapp's would have a regular chip, given the exciting list of flavours in their range. As it remains the biggest selling variety in the world, they probably had to take a bit of an “If you can't beat ‘em” approach. It may have been the oil or the cooking process, but a real warm and tasty potato chip flavour shone through. As far as potato flavoured chips go, these were pretty good.   
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Zapp's Voodoo Kettle Cooked Potato Chips 
Who wouldn't look forward to getting the opportunity to taste a flavour without a descriptive name? This is how Zapp's explain it, “Voodoo flavor is the result of an accident. An employee was moving a pallet of spices off the top shelf and dropped it. While cleaning up, someone stuck their finger into the mixture . . .” I cannot, therefore, survey the flavour on anything other than whether I liked it. A Nose Plunge Test revealed a somewhat smoky aroma. Maybe mixed with voodoo vinegar. To describe the flavour would not do the experience justice. It was a peanut oil infused taste of smoky barbecue, onion, peppery spices, maybe even a little vinegary shellfish, who knows? So, would I recommend Zapp's Voodoo Chips? Well yes, to fifty percent of you. The other fifty percent won’t like them. Possibly.   
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