8 Salt And Vinegar Chips, Ranked Worst To Best

Chips are a blank canvas of sorts, and it's evident in the flavors that have come out over the years. That's why we've been graced with varieties most people probably didn't even know existed, like Lay's Crispy Roast Suckling Pig sold in China or Italian Seafood Doritos seen in Japan. But even with these bold and unique creations, none stand the test of time like the classic flavors, one of which is salt and vinegar chips.

According to retail data company Evidnt, salt and vinegar chips made up 9% of the chip market in 2024, falling a little behind other beloved go-tos, such as sour cream and onion, barbecue, and plain salted. In my eyes, though, nothing is quite as addicting as the tangy, sour punch that good salt and vinegar chips continue to hit you with one bite after another. So when I had the chance to rank a handful of the most popular brands that offer this flavor, I was more than up to the task. And once you get to the end, both you and I will know exactly which bag to go for next time we're in need of a salty, savory fix.

Of all the chips on this list, choosing to buy a bag of Wise Golden Potato Salt & Vinegar Chips would be, well, unwise. There are just too many things that went wrong when trying these chips. It was enough for me to never buy them again.

First of all, the chips themselves were a mix of broken up pieces, which I really don't like in any situation. I prefer medium or bigger sized chips, and while there were a handful of those here, there were just as many fragmented bits. They're the type I'd leave at the bottom of the bag as crumbs and would eventually just throw away if no one else wanted them.

Secondly, these chips leave a lot of salt behind on your fingers. Leftover seasoning or dust is not inherently a bad thing. It is pretty common of other brands, too, such as Doritos or Cheetos, but my problem here it is that this leads you to think Wise probably did a bang-up job of getting that salt and vinegar flavor down if there's literally evidence left behind on your pinchers. That's not the case, though. All that salt is there, only for you to get hit with an oddly herbaceous, floral taste that definitely shouldn't be present instead. There's nothing out of the ordinary on the ingredient list that I could pinpoint as the culprit; I just know it isn't right, leaving this brand at the very bottom of our ranking.

As wrong as it may sound, Pringles aren't actually considered potato chips. This would be because the U.S. Food & Drug Administration specifies that anything containing dried potatoes along with considerable amounts of rice flour and corn starch – two ingredients Pringles uses – cannot be called "potato chips." They are, however, allowed to be called "potato crisps," and so that is what the company uses.

Whatever you want to call Pringles, it's clear that they're potato-centric snacks, as my biggest critique about this brand is that it tastes too strongly of the starchy vegetable. So much so that you don't get a lick of that salt and vinegar flavor we're supposed to be tasting. No wonder: Check the label, and you'll see that this product contains 2% or less of vinegar, which is listed toward the tail end of the ingredients. This canister may as well have just been labeled as Pringles Original because if I had blind-tasted these crisps, that's the flavor I would've guessed it to be.

Siete has some explaining to do. How is it that this brand absolutely nails its tortilla chips and even its cashew queso (one of the vegan snack options we can't get enough of), but misses the mark so badly when it comes to its salt and vinegar chips?

Let me start by saying that what you see is not what you get when it comes to this product's packaging. The outside of the bag shows a few pieces of what almost looks like some puffy, airy, very seasoned Quaker Rice Crisps, so upon tearing open the bag, it was surprising to be instead greeted by some pale, yellow chips that look pretty standard. Their rims are slightly browned, but that's about the full extent of their pizzazz.

Even more, what was supposed to set these chips apart from the rest was that "hint of serrano," which is a type of Mexican chili pepper. Not only did I not get the slightest ounce of heat (no, not even a hint), I also didn't detect any salt and vinegar at all. All these chips really tasted like was a whole bunch of black pepper, almost like a baked black pepper plantain chip -– which is delicious, by the way; it's just not what this product is supposed to be. So while Siete's chips may be tempting for those with dietary sensitivities, given that they're vegan and dairy-, gluten-, and soy-free, I wouldn't bank on them satisfying a sea salt and vinegar craving. You're better off using these potato chips to liven up a sandwich by throwing it between the bread and protein.

Deep River Snacks' sea salt and vinegar chips gave me an interesting first impression before I even got the chance to try a chip. When I popped open the bag, an olive oil-like scent immediately hit my nose. And what would you know? The chips tasted like it, too.

Just like most of the other brands on this list, these chips use vegetable oil and "one or more of the following: corn, cottonseed, sunflower, or canola oil." But the taste of whatever combination of oils was utilized was apparent in this product in a way unlike any other chip I sampled. It takes the forefront on flavor, overpowering the bit of salt and vinegar you could somewhat taste. As such, I wouldn't bother eating these straight-up on their own. These chips come very much intact (rather than broken up fragments), yet I'd still crush them up a bit and put them in any of the many other uses for chips that transcend snacking, be it as a breading on fish or some texture for my mac and cheese.

Cape Cod is a brand I remember fondly from my middle school and high school days, and though I hadn't tried it since then, I assumed my long-time love for it would've held up. I guess my frontal lobe has developed or my taste buds have matured in the time that has passed, though, because I was overall disappointed in the Cape Cod Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Vinegar Chips.

The immaculate crunch I recalled loving back then is still very much a leading characteristic of these crisps, which honestly makes it all the sadder that the flavor just isn't as good as I once thought it was. Cape Cod claims its version "has a bit more vinegar than what you'll find on a thinner chip to stand up to the robust potato flavor of our hearty chip." The latter might have some truth to it, but I can't say this product had any more of that delightful, mouth-puckering sourness to it than the normal chips discussed elsewhere on the list. However, Cape Cod still earns a middle-of-the-line spot in the ranking because the ones that fell below it had some sort of flaw to their flavor that made them not worthy of being classified as salt and vinegar chips at all.

Kettle-cooked chip varieties dominate the better half of this ranking, save for Lay's, which has the honor of coming in at No. 3. Lay's is, after all, practically the face of all chips, having been around since the 1930s. With it being the brand that I (and likely countless others) immediately picture when imagining the grocery store chips aisle, it would've been especially disappointing if this brand couldn't deliver. Thankfully, it did. This is the one I'd recommend to people who prefer the light and airy crisp of a thin chip that shatters immediately rather than the harsh crunch that kettle-cooked treats are known for. 

Similar to our first-place winner, the Lay's version also has some very visible browning along its edges, with some pieces so toasted they almost look a bit burnt (refer to the above picture). No bites tasted burnt, thankfully; those eating these chips can instead expect that classic salt and vinegar taste but with a potato flavor that still manages to shine through it all, creating a bit of a balance between the two and introducing complexity.

I'm a Jersey girl and therefore live relatively close to the Jersey Shore. Yet still, I raised an eyebrow upon seeing that Herr's labels its kettle-cooked chips as "Boardwalk Salt & Vinegar flavored." I somehow have no memory of ever coming across anything flavored with salt and vinegar in my millions of times going up and down the food joint-lined walkways on the beach, so I have no idea what the significance of "boardwalk" is in the item's name. But if Herr's chips are an accurate representation of what I can expect waiting for me at the shore, I'd consider searching a bit harder next time.

These chips quite honestly don't hold a candle to what I put in first place, though I knew it still meant something that I couldn't get myself to put the bag down once I had already finished analyzing the chips enough for this article. The salt and vinegar flavor is just not dialed up enough for my personal preferences (and the ones I'd imagine other die-hard fans of salt and vinegar have), but it still has enough acidity to beat out most of the brands that fall below it. Plus, the crunch is as lovely as ever. With these chips' slight sourness, bigger size, and durable structure, I can picture them being ideal for scooping up something like a store-bought French onion dip.

Miss Vickie, you have really outdone yourself this time. I should have never doubted her, seeing as she came in second place in our barbecue chip brand ranking. But because Miss Vickie's was the very first salt and vinegar chip I tried for this ranking, I didn't want to set the bar too high and in turn convinced myself it would likely land toward the middle of the list. Upon finishing my taste test of all eight brands, though, I quickly realized no other product came even close to how addicting Miss Vickie's actually was for me.

The very first chip I pulled from the bag was massive — truly, so much bigger than I'm used to seeing in chips -– and had beautifully browned edges. This was more or less what most of the chips looked like, though none ever reached quite the same size as that first behemoth.

The flavor of the chips was a little less astonishing to me, as my initial reaction was that it didn't hit me with enough of that quintessential tang I wanted. But perhaps my preference for an overwhelmingly sharp taste is one that's unrealistic and hard to reach because once I got through all the other brands on this list, I was surprised to learn Miss Vickie's was actually the most potent there was. Regardless, I clearly liked it enough to practically finish off half the bag during the sampling session anyway. And the crunch that came with every bite? These chips quite literally take mindless snacking to another level. They were so satisfyingly crisp that I could hardly hear myself think as I munched on them, and I mean that in the best way possible.

Going into this taste test, I assumed it'd be rather difficult to spot the nuances from among eight bags of the same chip flavor. Evidently, it was a lot easier than I had anticipated, as each brand varied noticeably not only in the structure of the chips, but also how tangy they were. I sampled multiple pieces of each brand for this list. The products that packed an unmistakably salt and vinegar flavor at the forefront ranked higher, and the ones that seemed plainer ranked lower. With a couple of the chips, I booted them down for being too broken up or fragmented, as these are usually less convenient to eat and don't easily allow for snacking or scooping dips.