The Definitive Ranking Of Aldi Potato Chips

I loved Aldi before it was cool — a fact I am quite proud of. Over the years, it's been my go-to store for nearly everything, from chocolate bars and ice cream to, most importantly, potato chips — the reason we're gathered here today. For a store that only carries about 1,400 products at any given time, Aldi boasts an impressive selection of potato chip flavors. Nearly all of them fall under Aldi's in-house snack foods brand, Clancy's, which covers the gamut: regular, kettle-cooked, ridged, and baked chip varieties. In short, potato chip lovers (like myself) will have no shortage of options to choose from.

But as we all know, just because you have options at the grocery store doesn't mean that all of them are actually worth adding to your cart. In order to decide which Clancy's-branded potato chips are truly the best, I taste-tested as many varieties as I could find — including both regular and limited-edition chips — and ranked them from worst to best. As I snacked my way through the chip aisle, I evaluated each bag on its flavor, texture, and overall enjoyability.

I won't judge if you're trying to go the healthier route by picking these baked chips over the fried ones. But I will give you some grief if you claim that Aldi's baked chips are good — because they're anything but.

The only way you'd enjoy these chips is if you like eating wood pulp for fun. They're mushy and bland, and though I can appreciate the crispy snap they offer, that's about all they have going for them. I wasn't able to pull out any distinct potato-y notes, nor did I get the impression that Aldi actually added salt to these chips once they came out of the oven. They're bland, flavorless, and utterly disappointing — a hard pass in my book.

These barbecue-flavored baked chips are like the embodiment of the expression "putting lipstick on a pig." Aldi can try to hide the fundamental flaws of its baked chips all it wants — like with a sweet, tomatoey coating — but it doesn't change the fact that they're fundamentally bad chips.

The barbecue baked chips have a similar texture to the original baked variety. The obvious difference is that the barbecue ones have a dusting — emphasis on "dusting" — of seasoning on them. If you look closely at the chips, you'll see that Aldi wasn't very generous with the seasoning. The barbecue flavor only comes through as an afterthought, and it's completely eclipsed by the overwhelmingly papery texture and bland flavor of the chips. Coupled with a lack of salt, and you've got a chip definitely worth skipping.

I am a devout member of the sour cream and onion chip fan club. However, trying these chips made me realize that I really only have an affinity for good sour cream and onion chips.

Don't let the little specks of herbs fool you. I took to licking this chip like a lollipop to see how much of that flavor I could pull off, and even then I was wholly disappointed. What little onion flavor is here is quite stale, which essentially defeats the purpose of including it. The smaller chip fragments had a more pronounced sour cream flavor, but if I was blindfolded, there would be no way that I could tell these were supposed to be sour cream and onion chips. They may have been more palatable if they were in kettle chip form, but, overall, they lack the quintessential acidity, brightness, and an allium-y punch that I was looking for.

Aldi has proven that it knows how to do funky flavors well. I think there is a place for a plainer chip under its snack umbrella, but I don't think this plain variety is the best candidate. Their flavor is deeply potato-y — as I would have expected from a plain chip — but other than that, they lack flavor. There's no oily coating to make them feel like an indulgent snack, nor is there enough crunch to distract you from their boring profile. While their consistency isn't as mushy as the lower-ranked baked chips, I can't say it was pleasant.

There is just no contest between the other original chip varieties on this list and this one. I could foresee hiding their ho-hum flavor with a dip, but I was looking for a chip that didn't need an accompaniment to be great.

It would appear as though Aldi's flavor gurus know no bounds, as I never expected to see a bag of queso-flavored potato chips appear at my local supermarket. I will praise Aldi's team for its creative thinking, but that's about all I'll say about these chips. When I think "queso," I think spicy, creamy, and something I want to spoon into my mouth with a soup ladle. These chips get the cheese flavor right, but that creamy profile is all but missing.

Some store-bought quesos can be spicy — and I honestly thought that was the route Aldi was going to take, given how well it does with spicy chips. But all I got were some stale chile notes, which were so muddled that I couldn't discern exactly what kind of chile was used. It's unlike any queso I've ever eaten — and certainly unlike any potato chip flavor I've ever had. I'm all for novelty in this ranking, but it has to be well-executed. These chips, unfortunately, were not.

Usually, I'm an absolute fiend for cracked black pepper chips. Their piquant, bright flavor is the perfect contrast to a well-salted chip. So when I saw these, in my favorite kettle style no less, I figured they were a shoo-in for the top spot. However, while their flavor is spot-on, I can't say that their texture was, too.

When I hear "kettle chip," I think of something insanely crunchy. Like, I want my teeth to hurt after eating a folded-over chip. This avocado oil-fried chip is like a sad cross between a kettle chip and a regular one. It lacks the proper snappiness to go along with its pepperiness (which is plentiful — I will give Clancy's credit for that). I really wanted to like these cracked pepper chips, but their mushiness kept them from even grazing the top of the podium.

Barbecue chips have never ever appealed to me, so it's no surprise that I wasn't particularly fond of this Aldi offering. Despite my lack of interest in the flavor, I have definitely eaten my fair share over the years — and can tell you confidently that these are not even in the top 10 best barbecue chips I've ever had.

The first issue I noticed was that the seasoning on the outside of the chip was not uniform. On most of the chips, I tasted more salt than I did "barbecue" flavoring. What smoky undertones I did get were just that — undertones. There was no mesquite, hickory, or clear direction as to what kind of smoke flavor Aldi used. While I do think these chips had a better balance between sweetness and savoriness than some of Aldi's other barbecue chips (including the limited-edition barbecue flavor that ranked above it), I still think its flavor is too half-hearted to warrant placing it any higher.

When I ate these jalapeño ranch-flavored ridged potato chips, one expression came to mind: has potential, needs direction. Jalapeño is normally a great seasoning for chips because it can distract from the starchiness and restore balance to any creamy or tangy flavors present, like the ranch seasoning that was supposed to be on these chips. I certainly could taste the jalapeño — and it was quite fresh and piquant — but I was missing the supplementary creaminess to round out that flavor profile and quell the bite of the peppers.

I even dug around in this bag to try and see if some of the smaller chips were more heavily-coated with the ranch powder, but I came up empty-handed. I have no doubt these chips would be a favorite among jalapeño lovers who crave that lingering bite on their taste buds. But I was looking for a chip that was true to the flavors listed on its label — and these just weren't it.

I could probably do a separate ranking of Aldi's barbecue chips (after all, does such a small grocery brand really need to sell four different types of barbecue chips?). These honey barbecue ridged chips seem to be a seasonal and limited-edition addition to the brand's lineup; I found them tucked with the other whimsical chip flavors in the aisle of shame.

The bag is bigger than the other brands I sampled, yet it is still very affordably priced. "Big" doesn't just refer to its price – Aldi also packs big flavors into every bite. When I tasted my first chip, I though it was more maple syrup-leaning than honey. It had a subtle oaky undertone that was really complex. However, it did not adequately balance out with the salt, leaving me with a potato chip that was, weirdly, more sweet than it was savory. I was also left searching for other barbecue-esque notes — like tomato, ketchup, or mesquite — but couldn't find any. If Aldi transformed it into a maple barbecue chip, or perhaps tried a play on a maple bacon chip, it could work. But as it stands, its flavor wasn't true to its label, leaving it out of the running for "best chip."

Why, you may ask, is a vegetarian like me eating these bacon and cheddar chips? Well, based on the label, I couldn't find any ingredients that suggested that these chips are made with actual bacon (and considering that store-bought bacon bits don't contain actual bacon, either, I wasn't too concerned).

My mind definitely didn't go to "bacon" when I tried them. While they have sour cream-ish and cheddar undertones, that meaty element is missing. Each chip is speckled with green herbs – presumably an attempt at chives — but I don't think it did much for their flavor. They're a little less "creamy" than the cheddar and sour cream ridged chips, but other than that, the two are basically the same.

I would have ranked these chips higher if Aldi had leaned more into the smoke flavor or offered some sort of greasy, meaty flavor to — quite literally — bring home the "bacon." I'll happily eat these chips because I like their cheesy flavor, but their shortcomings in the bacon department pushed them down on my list.

Call me weird, but I don't really see the appeal of the ridged (or wavy) potato chips. Maybe it's because I've never really been a big dipper, as I think good chips should be able to stand on their own without being shrouded in French onion dip. That said, I didn't rank these wavy chips high on their shape or structure alone.

Rather, I ranked them high because I genuinely though the flavor and consistency of these chips were better than the original ones, as well as some of the lower-ranked chips. They're much saltier and have a more satisfying crunch, which makes eating fistfuls upon fistfuls easy. But when push comes to shove, they're still plain potato chips, and there are a whole bunch of more uniquely flavored Aldi chips that are better buys.

I like to call cheddar and sour cream chips a "twist my arm" flavor. In other words, I won't go out of my way to eat them, but if someone offers them to me, I have no problem eating them.

Clancy's definitely got some things right with these chips. They're quite cheesy — though not in a way I expect cheddar and sour cream chips to be. They're very salty, and that cheese flavor lacks depth and refinement. So, you probably could have called them "Cheese?" chips and I would have gone along with it. The tangy flavor is certainly more present here than it was with the sour cream and onion chips, but I don't think Clancy's jumped in with both feet when it came to this essential flavor component. Like other cheddar and sour cream chips I've tried, I'll eat them if they're put in front of me — and had no problem snacking on the open bag at my desk — but I wouldn't spend money on them myself.

Taki's are not the top of my "favorite snack foods" list, so I didn't think I would feel very strongly about these hot chili lime-flavored potato chips. My expectations feel even more when I saw that they were not kettle-cooked or ridged, meaning they would have the same mushy consistency as Aldi's original chip line. However, the ample seasoning won me over and ultimately helped them earn a respectable spot on this list.

These chips were not too spicy, and I think even someone who is heat-averse could eat a couple handfuls without needing a glass of water. If anything, that heat is more prickly than singe-your-tongue-hot. The lime flavor is much more prominent and, surprisingly, I didn't hate it. It's more potent than a "hint of lime" tortilla chip, and I think it meshes very well with the chips' heat. However, to truly appreciate them, I think you need to truly be a fan of Taki's — and that's not something that can be said for all Aldi shoppers. I also wish they were in ridged or kettle-cooked, as it would have made their consistency more palatable. But all things considered, they're not a bad chip.

If given the choice between regular chips and kettle chips, I'm going to go with kettle chips every single time. Not only is that initial crunch so satisfying, but they also don't get gloopy as you chew them, as was the case with Aldi's original chips.

These aren't the best kettle chips I've ever had, mainly because they could be saltier and just a wee bit crunchier. But if you're looking for a last minute beach snack, they will certainly fit the bill. There's nothing objectively wrong with these chips, which is why they placed relatively high in my ranking. There were just a couple other Aldi chips that had bolder and tastier flavors overall.

Aldi's original barbecue chips are not my favorite of the bunch, but I can speak a little more favorably about its mesquite barbecue kettle chips. The flavor of these crunchy chips is much better directed than that of the original ones. You can actually taste the mesquite profile of these chips, and I felt my eyes rolling back in my head in pleasure when I bit into a chip that was super well-coated in barbecue dust.

However, as someone who doesn't really like barbecue chips all too much, I think that the real reason why I'm drawn to these chips is because their seasoning is more peppery than classic barbecue. It offers a unique dry-heat situation that I can't say I've gotten from many other barbecue chip brands I've tried in the past. That said, I don't think these chips will be a favorite among barbecue chip purists for that very reason, which kept it from the top spot.

If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I don't like gimmicky food. I think pickle-flavored foods are a little overplayed, but I'll admit that even I was entranced by this bag of spicy dill pickle-flavored wavy chips. Eating these chips felt almost hypnotizing — they were just that good.

While I think there is a little kick to these chips, that is far from the primary flavor profile. The chips give off old-school deli pickle vibes, with plenty of herbaceous dill, spicy garlic, and almost oniony notes. Each bite is dynamic, meaning you can't get tired of eating them. That's probably why I was able to do a number on this bag before I realized how many I'd eaten.

They're excellent on their own, though you could also get away with pairing them with a cooling dip — including my latest Aldi obsession: the Park Street Deli Garlic Feta Dip. Since these chips seem to be a limited-edition find, I will need to prepare myself for the heartbreak when Aldi inevitably pulls them from shelves. Take my advice and stock up while you still can.

I know my way around a bag of potato chips, so I was excited to take on the challenge of tasting and ranking Aldi's lineup. To keep things fair and fresh, I sampled each bag on the day I opened it — no dips allowed. Texture and flavor were the two most important things I considered when ranking each of the chips. Although I have my own potato chip loyalties, but I wanted to assess each one objectively and based on its overall snack-ability. The flavor had to be tasty enough to warrant eating several handfuls at a time.

A good potato chip should be representative of the flavors promised on the bag. So, if I was eating a jalapeño ranch-flavored chip, I wanted it to taste like both jalapeños and ranch. The chips also had to be well-coated in seasoning to make the flavor clear and compelling. I also preferred chips that were crunchy and well-textured over those that turned mealy as I ate them.