These Are The Worst Lay's Potato Chips, According To Our Taste Test

While you can find a wealth of different potato chip brands at your local supermarket, Lay's remains the most well-known of the bunch. It also might be the most prolific, with a long list of flavors. We also undertook the tasty task of tasting 20 different Lay's potato chip flavors, ranking them from worst to best. According to our taste test, the worst Lay's potato chips you shouldn't bother putting in your shopping cart are the Kettle Cooked Flamin' Hot flavor.

The Flamin' Hot flavor has been a hit for years, even inspiring a movie directed by Hollywood star Eva Longoria. We certainly love Flamin' Hot crunchy Cheetos, as indicated by top spots in our ranking of 12 Cheetos flavors and 9 popular baked snacks. However, the flavor didn't work for us when it came to Lay's potato chips. It delivers a powerful punch of heat that doesn't complement the earthy savoriness of the potato chip. 

Perhaps the fact that Flamin' Hot Cheetos combine the heat with cheese and a corn-chip base makes for the winning combination that potato chips lack. We weren't offended by the flavor as much as we were just underwhelmed by it in the face of so many other delicious Lay's flavors.

While millions of Flamin' Hot fans were happy to see the flavor expand to potato chips, one and two-star reviews of the Flamin' Hot Lay's from customers at Walmart and on lays.com shared our disappointment in the outcome. The powerful punch of heat we noted in our taste test was described by some customers as overwhelming or unbalanced. Other customers complained about inconsistent seasoning; some chips were evenly coated with the Flamin' Hot spice mix while other bags barely had any seasoning at all. Lastly, many customers said that Lay's had improved upon the original recipe for Flamin' Hot Lay's by adding cheese. However, recent bags seem to have reverted back to the cheeseless original recipe, leaving customers dissatisfied.

Of course, the cheesy and hot combination that made Flamin' Hot such a success can still be found perfectly executed in a bag of Cheetos. If you're craving some spicy potato chips, check out competing brands like Zapp's, whose Voodoo Heat potato chips ranked as our favorite.