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On a scorching summer day, there's something about grilled hot dogs and potato chips. They're a classic American cookout duo — and the potato chip is deceptively simple, just oil, potatoes, and seasoning, but somehow that's enough to make it one of America's most addictive snacks.

For my money, nothing beats a kettle chip. Kettle-cooked chips are fried in small batches at various temperatures instead of run through a conveyor-belt fryer with a consistent temperature, which is why they come out with that non-uniform, craggy shape and a bigger, louder crunch than a regular chip. They also tend to be sliced thicker, and have a more golden fry. 

At Stumptown Savings, we run blind taste tests of store-brand products so you know which ones are worth your money and which to skip. In honor of grilling season, we put store-brand kettle chips to the test. The Pacific Northwest is kettle chip country — Kettle Brand and Tim's both got their start here and dominate the category nationally — but they're premium brands with premium prices, and when you're on a budget, every dollar matters. Store brands are often made in the very same factories as the name brands, just under the store's own recipe. As we've found before, some of them are genuinely great.

Two stores didn't make the cut. Signature Select (Albertsons/Safeway's house brand) was out of stock everywhere — a manager at the SE 39th and Powell Safeway thought it might be discontinued entirely. And Trader Joe's doesn't sell a plain kettle chip at all. You all voted for Trader Joe's in our pre-test poll, so technically you're wrong — but that's not your fault. I assembled the poll before I learned they didn’t have an original kettle chip. My bad. What’s interesting: Almost no-one picked the real winner. 

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Fred Meyer/QFC: Kroger brand (6)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ New Seasons (13)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Target: Good & Gather brand (3)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Trader Joe's (36)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Walmart: Great Value brand (1)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Whole Foods (2)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ WinCo Foods (10)

We tested store-brand kettle chips from six Portland-area chains:

We take our blind taste tests seriously. Every bag was hidden until the very end, so judges scored the chips with zero idea which store they came from. Each judge rated every chip on flavor, texture, and value — five points apiece — for a possible 15 points per judge and 60 points total.

The problem started before anyone even took a bite. Fried in olive oil — a low-smoke-point oil that has no business anywhere near a deep fryer — the chips had a slightly rancid smell that only got worse in the mouth. The frying itself was uneven, leaving a chewy bite, all for the highest price-per-ounce in the test.

"I hated this chip. I absolutely despised this chip," I told the panel. Katherine agreed: "I thought it was disgusting — I had an immediate reaction where I was like, 'ugh.'" 

Nobody on the panel would buy these again.

New Seasons has a rough track record in these taste tests, and price is part of why. This was the most expensive chip in the field by 8 cents an ounce — and clever packaging hides the fact that the bag holds just 5.2 ounces, well under the 7-8 ounce standard everyone else in the test used.

Texture scored decently: Kate called it perfect, Alex called it good, if a bit too crisp. Flavor was the other weak point. A few judges noted it tasted more "natural," with fewer ingredients — though every chip in the test had just 3-4 — but it lacked any complexity next to the competition.

"My first impression was, 'that's really funky,'" Katherine said. "My second impression was 'that tastes stale.' My third impression was 'it needs more salt.'" That about sums it up.

Tied for the cheapest chip in the test, Walmart’s chips tasted more like a classic Lay's than a true kettle chip — which, surprisingly, worked in its favor. The thinner, lighter chip delivered plenty of crunch, earning perfect texture scores from both Kate and Alex, with Alex calling it flawless. Katherine was the lone dissenter, saying it stuck to her teeth.

Flavor was a classic, well-salted profile that Kate and I both liked a lot. What held Walmart back was value scoring beyond the price tag — Walmart doesn’t have a single store in Portland proper, and its record on employee benefits and labor practices cost it points with Alex and Kate, who said they won't shop there regardless of price.