11 Regional Potato Chip Brands Everyone Should Try

Two things are true about the United States: It's a really big country, and we love potato chips. Throw in our cultural predilection for excess, and you get a nation that is an absolute treasure trove of chip brands and flavors. Then again, regional potato chips are more about a diversity of culinary traditions than excess. Each state has a signature snack — if you're counting, that's 50 different snacks — and thus it makes sense for different places to love different chips. Some places will even coat potato chips in chocolate, if you want. Humans are a wildly inventive species, and we love thinking of new ways to make our taste buds happy. That's something worth celebrating.  

The point is, potato chips are one of the signature achievements of humanity, and life is far too short to only eat Lay's or Pringles. If you're taking a road trip any time soon, be on the lookout for these snacks when you stop at a gas station. 

Originating in Pennsylvania in 1921, Utz potato chips was originally run from Bill and Salie Utz's home kitchen. The husband and wife team sold their chips to markets in the Baltimore area, and things ballooned from there. In the 21st century, the brand has expanded its reach, even acquiring other regional chip brands. The original product — thinner than a kettle chip, sturdier than Lay's — remains a favorite. The highest heights Utz reaches, though, is with its flavors. For one thing, the company has both Honey Barbeque and Carolina Barbeque flavors. Any chip company with two barbecue flavors has to be great, even if said company does insist on the Australian spelling.

The best flavor, however, is a true local specialty. Get a taste of the Chesapeake Bay with the delicious crab chip, a chip flavor inspired by the blue crabs beloved by Baltimore foodies. Those are crabs steamed and then drenched in Old Bay seasoning, so imagine a chip that tastes like Old Bay, with a hint of sweet crustacean. It's a little like if a barbecue chip rented a beach house for a summer. It's one of the greatest chip flavors in the history of artificial flavors, and you absolutely need to try it the next time you're in Maryland.

The featured potato chips brand in an iconic "SNL" sketch about cheeseburgers, Vitner's chips are wax paper-thin and perfectly salty. Okay, maybe you have to actually visit the famous Billy Goat Tavern to know that Vitner's is the chip brand that John Belushi is hollering about. Crunch one of these bad boys, though, and you'll see why the burger spot doesn't bother cooking fries. These chips are the perfect smashburger side. Hey, thin chips and thin burger patties mean it's okay to go back for seconds, right?

Vitner's was acquired by Utz in 2021. Some say that the flavor hasn't been the same since the acquisition, but the brand remains a staple at Windy City corner stores and gas stations. Once something reaches a certain level of regional popularity, the countdown starts for when conglomeration will come for it. The hope, always, is that a brand getting bought won't compromise the integrity of the original product. Whether Utz has succeeded in that mission is up for debate, but these chips are still worth crunching on the next time you're walking the Magnificent Mile.

If you're a sitcom lover, maybe these chips were made famous thanks to a side quest in an episode of "The Office." In fact, you can go on subreddits dedicated to "The Office" and find people posting about trying Herr's for the first time. Pennsylvanians, of course, have been hip to Herr's greatness for years. Going from the potato fields of the Keystone State to being name-checked in one of history's greatest network sitcoms is quite the journey.

Apparently, the hottest trend in the middle of the 20th century was running a potato chip company in Pennsylvania. James Herr bought a small company in 1946, then moved operations to the Herr family farm. In 1951, Herr's production facility burned down, prompting him and his family to look for new digs. They bought a 37-acre farm in Nottingham, PA, built a 4,500 square foot facility there, and the rest is salty, savory history. The company is still headquartered in Nottingham to this day.

One of the reasons that regional potato chips are so great is the ability to capture a region's quirks and eccentricities in a snack. If you really want to get into it with regional magic? You have got to try Zapp's. With varieties like Spicy Cajun Crawtators and Cajun Dill Gator-taters, opening any flavor of Zapp's is the closest some of us get to taking an airboat out on the bayou. It's appropriate for these chips to be so standout, too. New Orleans is a city for the flamboyant and the bold — a basic salty fried potato never had a chance.

If spicy foods give you trouble, beware when you're opening a bag of Zapp's. These Cajun bites are not for the faint of heart. Having a numb tongue and a runny nose is worth it, though — and a much safer thrill than housing a case of Abita Purple Hazes before going frog gigging at 4 a.m. Spicy or not, Zapp's deserves praise for its ability to conjure, through flavor, one of this country's coolest geographic areas.

The frozen north of the Midwest had better make a good potato chip. Sure, people call Midwesterners "corn-fed," but potatoes are heavily implied in any gastronomically satisfying farmer's diet. Thankfully, Old Dutch Chips pack a hearty bite. It's hard to explain, but you could almost say these chips have a stick-to-your-ribs quality. It's a good chip to get you through harsh Minnesota winters. Or, since regions can sometimes transcend international borders, harsh Canadian winters. Old Dutch has had one headquarters in the U.S. and one in Manitoba since 1954.

One way Old Dutch distinguishes itself from other brands is by using multiple types of potatoes in its chips, meaning no bag is exactly like another. So if you open a bag and notice some chips with what Old Dutch describes as "green edges" or "brown potato chips?" Nothing to be concerned about. That is potato chip diversity. Pinch a good four or five chips between your fingers, eat them at the same time, and enjoy the taste of chip multiculturalism.

If you're at a Southern cookout, obviously you're going to have some iconic barbecue sides to fill your plate. Make sure to leave room for the Golden Flake. Trust us, this chip tastes best when used as a topping for a pulled pork sandwich. Of course, if a pulled pork sandwich isn't handy, you can always reach for a bag of pork skins. Also known as cracklings, Golden Flake's crispy fried pork skins come in as many different flavors as you'd expect from regular chips.

Some say the quality has gone down since Utz acquired the brand, but Golden Flake remains an icon of the South. "Flaky" seems like a strange word for a chip, so we won't say the chip lives up to its name. These are wonderfully thin and crispy, though, the kind of chip you can shatter by pressing your tongue to the roof of your mouth, hence why they taste so good topping a succulent pulled pork sandwich. The cracklings are a different story, texture-wise, but you'll want to try those, too. No trip to the South is complete without some cracklings. 

The Great Lakes are one of the most amazing natural features of this planet. Five bodies of water that look as big as seas, but full of fresh water? That's a miracle. If you're going to slap their name on a bag of chips, the chips had better be good. Happily, Great Lakes (the chip brand) makes a product worthy of its namesake. Headquartered in Traverse City, MI, this company leaves the skin on the potatoes when the chips are fried, and it's a great decision.

The Michigan Cherry BBQ is one of the more unique BBQ chips around. Barbecue is one of those flavors that every chip company seems to do second, and understandably so. Barbecue chips are great. That said, they can all start to taste alike after a while. Not so with Great Lakes' Michigan Cherry BBQ, which has just a touch of tartness to accompany the usual barbecue spice that mellows things out. When used for smoking food, cherry wood lends a lighter sweetness to whatever the final dish is. Whether or not actual wood chips are used in flavoring these potato chips, the end result still shares the same appeal.

Better Made is most famous for Rainbow Chips, which are bags filled with browned, almost burnt scraps of potato that might otherwise get rejected. At first, Rainbow Chips were just leftover crisps, but customers liked them so much that Better Made had to start burning its chips with intention — and to be fair, calling what they do "burning" is slightly reductive. There's more to it than that. Better Made has collaborated with farmers for years to breed a potato with a higher sugar content. During the chip-making, those sugars caramelize. Sounds a little tastier and more scientific than simple charring, right?

It's quite a bold move to call your company Better Made and then have your flagship product marketed as a happy accident. Of course, the Detroit-based company also has more conventional flavors and styles, with the requisite amount of wavies and barbecues. If you only eat one chip in the Motor City, though? Reach for the rainbow.

A cynical person would counter this article by saying that all chip companies are merely frying and salting potatoes and tossing them in bags, that the odd regional difference here and there is frivolity unworthy of celebration. Well, every chip brand has something unique to offer, and Laura Scudder's offering is more tangible than one dynamite flavor or potato-peeling technique. The original woman-owned chip company was the first to use wax paper bags to package chips, instead of barrels or tins. This innovation helped fewer chips break as customers carried them around. Do you have an easier time fitting a bag of Fritos or a tennis ball canister of Pringles into your kids' lunch boxes? Well, thank the head woman in charge, Laura Scudder.

Today, Laura Scudder's chips are harder to find. The brand has been sold to various other companies over the years, and now primarily makes seasonings. If you do find a bag of Laura Scudder's chips, make sure to verify the freshness date on the bag — another innovation that we owe to Ms. Scudder. If you can't find a bag of the chips, buy a seasoning packet, dump it on some plain chips, and raise a salty toast to a true innovator.

When you buy a flavored bag of Deep River chips, prepare to really taste that flavor. Every chip brand talks the talk of bold seasoning, but Deep River really walks the walk. The Jalapeño is zesty, the Dill Pickle is spicy, and the Rosemary & Olive Oil is good enough to make you think of fine dining. Maybe it's the vibrant colors on the bag pulling some sort of psychosomatic trick, but Deep River's flavors feel like they're typing in all caps on your tongue. 

Started in Connecticut in 2002, this chip company is a relative newcomer, but sometimes, though, age is nothing but a number. Deep River can now boast that it's the side item at the first-ever hamburger restaurant in the United States. Being told that you're better than fries dipped in ketchup by the establishment that invented burgers? That is absolutely a feather in your cap.

Maybe it's the branding on the bag, but there's something about Cape Cod's kettle-cooked chips that feels appropriate for the brand's local origin. It stands among the other iconic kettle chip brands, thick enough to scoop dropped lobster roll filling off of your paper plate. These have a crunch so powerful, you shouldn't eat them while someone's talking to you. There's a sense that someone was trying to eat a bag of Lay's on some windy northeastern beach, had a chip get snapped in half by a gusting nor'easter, and decided that life could be better with just a little more effort on the chip company's part. 

Cape Cod was started in picturesque Hyannis, Massachusetts in the bright summer of 1980. Coastal New England is a pretty, romantic place, and Cape Cod's packaging gives us permission to be romantic about potato chips. Let the lighthouse on the bag guide you off the stormy seas of hunger and into the comforting shores of kettle chip paradise.