The Ultimate Ranking Of Every Zapp's Chip Flavor

Ron Zappe (whose name rhymes with "happy") originally worked in the oil industry, but after four of his companies went bankrupt in a single day, he found a new path to success with peanut oil — by making kettle-style potato chips. Since 1985, Zapp's has been one of America's more unique snack makers. Based in Gramercy, Louisiana, the chippery has proudly covered its products in the Cajun spices and seasonings that best represent the flavors of the Bayou State. Zappe died in 2010, but his chip legacy lives on, and in even wider distribution today thanks to the brand being acquired by Utz a year later.

Various Zapp's potato chip flavors have come and gone over the years, but many remain deliciously eternal. Currently there are eight in the catalog, and I tried them all to see which were the true cream of the crunchy crop. These rankings are based on taste, uniqueness, and overall lovability. Without further ado, laissez les bon temps rouler! (Let the good times roll!)

Some recommendations are based on first-hand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

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Hotter 'N Hot Jalapeño

Louisiana's known for some hot dishes, and that includes the snack foods. By name alone, the Hotter 'N Hot Jalapeño boasts to be one of those very snacks, representative of its home state. Zapp's website even once described them as a "4 alarm" chip and claimed that a friend "ate 6 bags one night and swore he was having a heart attack."

Luckily, I did not sustain any sort of health issues eating them, but I couldn't imagine eating anywhere close to six bags of them, even if I had a decade to complete the task. A first bite tastes just like a regular-flavored Zapp's, but then the jalapeño powder they're laced with kicks right in. Its fiery presence lingers in the mouth well beyond eating, leaving the gums a bit numb as an aftershock.

Jalapeño chips have been a staple in the Zapp's lineup since the mid-'80s, and these chips are purely for jalapeño enthusiasts only. For most eaters, it is going to be hard to have more than a few in a single session. To cool things down a bit, they would pair well with a glass of milk or go great dipped in ranch dressing. Since these chips are a lot of hot to take on, they probably shouldn't be the first bag of Zapp's to reach for off the shelf.

Evil Eye

In 2020, following in the footsteps of its successful Voodoo flavor, Zapp's released a new Louisianian-inspired chip -- Evil Eye. Tiffani Justh, vice president of marketing for Zapp's, said in a press release that these chips "embraces the mythos of the evil eye with a cauldron of flavors not found before" (via Business Wire).

Eschewing the usual striped design, Evil Eye's bag certainly has an eerie look to it, sure to give anyone the heebie-jeebies. The chips themselves can also strike their own kind of fear, looking like they're splattered in dry blood. Appearances are where the horror seems to end.

The chips smell like paprika and have a ketchup-y taste that straddles a place between sweet and spicy, which makes sense, as they are made with a mélange of flavors including dehydrated tomato, salt, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and onion powder. Like the jalapeño chips, these have a delayed release of heat, but I'm not sure anything is inherently evil here. The Evil Eye's bags would be right at home as a Halloween decoration, and the chips a good delivery mechanism for some queso.

While these chips are certainly an inspired creation, they didn't fully inspire me to want to keep going back into the bag for many handfuls more of them. Regardless, it's hard to take your eye off this peculiar bag.

Regular Flavor

For many brands of potato chips, sometimes less truly equals more. Who needs colorful flakes of seasoning to spice up something that's fine as is? Zapp's Regular Flavor has been around since the birth of the brand in the mid-'80s, standing out by being nothing overly special but its plain ol' self. The ingredients of the chips that live inside the golden brown bag are the simple trio of potatoes, vegetable oil, and sea salt. One great thing about these chips is that since they're free of extra flavoring, you can really appreciate the crispness and wavy contours that Zapp's excels at.

A whiff of the textured Regular Flavor chip smells like oil, but it tastes like a not-so-salty kettle potato chip. For fans of Zapp's and its more exotic flavors, they may find the Regular Flavor a little too basic. Since these chips are a blank, but sturdy, canvas, they are perfect for dipping into any kind of sauce imaginable. I definitely liked these chips, but to me, they are missing those signature seasonings that make Zapp's what it is, like all the other flavors that rank higher.

Mesquite Bar-B-Que

"Mesquite" is a word often seen in the world of grilling, but what exactly is it and what does it actually taste like? Mesquite is the name of a tree found in the southwest and Latin America, which has edible pods that can be ground and used in cooking. The powder can coat meats, sauces, marinades, and, of course, potato chips. It has a taste that's both sweet and smoky, with an edge of nuttiness.

Zapp's Mesquite Bar-B-Que chips certainly have the "mesquite" makeup, where sweet and savory meet in harmony. In the early 2000s, the company's website proclaimed that the chips tasted like "an old wild west cookout. [They'll] make ya want to kiss your horse ... or spouse ... or both." These chips' ingredients include salt, sugar, tomato powder, paprika, other spices, and dehydrated onion and garlic to create a distinctive chip with a snappy taste. In fact, these sunshine orange-tinted BBQ chips are much better than most BBQ flavored chips they share shelf space with in the snack aisle. They would be a worthy addition to a plate also featuring a nice grilled hamburger. Zapp's Mesquite Bar-B-Que chips are a solid sweet option to buy -- and perhaps pair up with one of the brand's more zesty offerings.

Cajun Dill Gator-Tators

Zapp's namesake founder Ron Zappe was always thinking outside the standard chip flavor bag. After only a couple of years in business, he told The Shreveport Times, "There's no reason why there can't be dill pickle potato chips, teriyaki chips and gumbo chips." By the early 1990s, Zappe made good on his word and released a Cajun dill-flavor chip.

Today, the chips come in a beautiful green and yellow bag and are known by the mouthful of words "Cajun Dill Gator-Tators." They have an exterior of bright flecks of verdant dill and are made with salt, vinegar powder, sugar, spices, garlic powder, onion powder, and, for good measure, parsley. The chips certainly reek of pickles but have a taste that doesn't exactly go full-on sour. Regardless, these remarkable gators have bite, and you may find yourself biting down on half the bag before you even blink. If you can get your hands on a muffuletta sandwich, a few of these chips would be a perfect side companion. Cajun Dill Gator-Tators are so darn tasty, they could easily rank as one of Zapp's best, but the next three higher-ranked flavors are just a wee bit more magical than this one.

Spicy Cajun Crawtators

If there was one bag of Zapp's that best represents the brand, and the food culture of Louisiana, it would have to be the Spicy Cajun Crawtators. You can see it right there in the logo, where the image of crawfish is clutching a potato chip. When developing this original flavor, founder Ron Zappe recalled to "This Week In Louisiana Agriculture," "I was looking for what it tastes like after the [crawfish] boil." After failing to find another product that captured that taste and essence, he was forced to figure it out himself. Spoiler alert — he nailed it.

If you've never had the pleasure of partaking in a Cajun crawfish boil, book a trip to New Orleans right away. If that's not an option, turn to these Zapp's chips, which are truly the next best thing. The Spicy Cajun Crawtators combine the talents of salt, spices, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, natural hickory smoke flavor, and mustard. The only thing that seems missing is corn on the cob.

Zapp's has one of the only crawfish-flavored potato chips on the shelves, and why would another company even bother to try? These chips' nearest cousins are crab-flavored ones, which are usually dusted up in a strong Old Bay-type seasoning. However, those are an acquired taste, while the more friendly Spicy Cajun Crawtators can be beloved by any kind of chip eater.

The Spicy Cajun Crawtators are the best flavor from the original Zapp's lineup.  Yet, somehow, they've been outdone by two "modern" flavors that came about in the 21st century.

Salt & Vinegar

One of the most delicious duos in all of the world's chip flavors is salt and vinegar. When I ate through every bag of Zapp's parent company Utz's chips, the top two finishers in the rankings were its takes on salt and vinegar. Obviously a love of a certain flavor is a subjective choice for the mouth of each beholder, but there's no denying how excellent of a chip Zapp's version is.

This obvious flavor was actually a kind of latecomer for the Zapp's catalog, only being added by 2002. At the time, the company described them having "a tangy, salty taste with a pucker that will knock your socks off." My socks remained on after scarfing them down, but my senses were never the same, in the best possible way. Zapp's Salt & Vinegar chips have a subtle pungent smell to them and a pure white vinegar taste. With a strong flavor profile all their own, they don't need to be paired with anything, but why not wash them down with another great flavor pairing — the lemon and lime twist found in a can of Sprite.

Zapp's has blessed the earth with one of the world's best versions of salt and vinegar chips. It would probably stand alone as the company's best, if only the top flavor didn't borrow some of its excellent pungency to create something even more beautiful.

Voodoo

One of Zapp's most popular chip flavors came about by accident when an employee broke a pallet holding various spices which all got mixed up together. In 2008, according to the back of the chips' packaging upon initial release, the company decided to turn this into a happy accident with a limited-edition chip flavor called Voodoo Gumbo.

Canadians have long enjoyed multi-flavored potato chips, known as all-dressed chips, but such a chip has never fully caught on in the U.S. This is where Zapp's is again an outlier in the industry. Its take on all-dressed chips is now simply known as Voodoo. On a single chip, one can grapple with tanginess of Zapp's Salt & Vinegar flavor, the smokiness of its Mesquite Bar-B-Q vinegar, as well as a nice touch of sweet onion. The flavor is so great and beloved that it has inspired an all-purpose seasoning, a flavor of its "Sinfully Seasoned" pretzel sticks, a pair of Nikes, and a Christmas tree ornament. Even Voodoo's packaging design, with a colorful parade of pinned voodoo dolls, comes off as being more cool than creepy. What more do you want in a chip?

This bag of Frankensteined-seasoning chips run the gamut from sweet to savory, and everything in between. They will literally cast a spell on your taste buds. There is perhaps no brand of chips more special than Zapp's, and Voodoo is Zapp's at its absolute best.

Read the original article on Daily Meal.