Kotas Reviews Guinness Potato Chips

We are getting deep into Spring, and Summer is just around the corner. What a wonderful time to sit outdoors with an ice cold beer and a big bag of potato chips to indulge in some pure snackitude. Chips and beer have gone together since the era of the Free Lunch in saloons and bars across the country, because what better way to quench your thirst after eating a bunch of salty chips than to wash it all away with pint or three? If only we could get that experience in a single snack food. Well, that time is upon us. Today we crack open a nice big bag of Guinness Potato Chips.

Thick Cut, because Manliness!

I honestly never thought I'd see the day where two products that were as vaguely related to each other as these would be crammed together in marketing bliss. Then again, I always did underestimate the snack food industry's insatiable appetite for gimmickry. So here we are. Oh, and for those of you who think this is merely a Guinness branded bag of regular old chips...

Exhibit A.

 This is the real deal ladies and gentlemen. Irish Stout (specifically Guinness) flavored potato chips. What is this world coming to? Now, as a tippler of taste, I do enjoy me a good Irish stout, and Guinness will always be my first love. There is simply nothing like having a nice Guinness straight from the tap to make a meal feel comforting. That said, this is profoundly strange. Let's open up the old bag, shall we? 

They remind me of the Lay's Cappuccino chips from way back when.

Well, that certainly is a flavoring. I guess I should have expected this sort of look from a Guinness flavored anything, but "coal dust" is not a look I generally desire on my potato chips. They mostly just look dirty. The scent is only sorta kinda like Irish stout, though I probably wouldn't be able to place it without looking at the package. Very earthy. Let's dig in.

Again, this is kind of okay, I guess. It does have the bitterness associated with Guinness, but this flavor doesn't really sit well with the large potato flavor it is trying, and failing, to compliment. The overall experience is mostly fine, but it isn't what I would call good, nor does it recreate the experience of "eating potato chips while drinking Guinness". It hints at it, and it does have novelty factor, but the price of these chips is too high for what you get. At least it doesn't taste like a mouthful of coal dust, I guess. Oh, and it's $4 for a "half standard chip bag". Not the best value in the world.

On the FACE Rating System, these chips get 0 Faces. I do not hate them, but I don't like them either. They are "okay, I guess" and I get to say that I ate Guinness Flavored Chips. If this matters to you, you might try to score some, but otherwise? Give it a pass. Just go get a bag of Kettle Chips and drink a Guinness. Much nicer experience.