Eatarama
Posts
All-Dressed Chips

All-Dressed Chips

A Very Opinionated Guide to American All-Dressed Chips

April 19, 2025

A Short & Opinionated Guide to New American All-Dressed Chips

OPINIONATED BUT ACCURATE!

What you’re seeing on the left here is a bag of the best potato chips on Earth: CANADIAN ALL-DRESSED RUFFLES. Having had well over 1,000 types of potato chips from all over the world, I feel confident in asserting this — and I am far from alone here. If you don’t know what “All-Dressed” means, please Google it as it will take too much space to explain here. The flavor is very popular in Canada, and the Canadian Ruffles are the best such chips, period. Now, once in a while, we get All-Dressed Ruffles in America…

This, on the right, is what the American version looks like. These are only sporadically available. Sometimes they are off shelves for years, and then they re-appear and are sold out everywhere within a week. They are very similar but MILDER than the Canadian version (they’re lighter on the seasoning that makes them tangy & vinegary) but they’re still great — when you can find them. Recently, we’re had a couple of different brands of American All-Dressed chips crop up…

These (new-ish, American) Lay’s All-Dressed, on the left, are poor. The flavor is about 70 percent weaker than a decent All-Dressed chip should be. Furthermore, regular, non-Ruffled chips are the worst vehicle for All-Dressed flavoring. I can’t explain why but it must have something to do with the powder’s ability to adhere to the chip surface? Don’t get these.

Now, here is where things get kinda crazy. These (new-ish) All-Dressed Pringles (right) are actually VERY GOOD. I mean, they don’t compare to either Canadian or US Ruffles — but, mainly because Pringles has been VERY liberal with the flavor powder, these have a pretty intense All-Dressed taste! I have now bought four cans of these (so far) and am eating them as my regular (non-work, non-Instagram, just watching TV) snack! Make of this what you will.

Lastly, I am aware that quite a few regional brands (such as Tim’s here in the Pacific NW) are making their own semi-All-Dressed chips. Unfortunately (for me), most of these chips are KETTLE CHIPS which I really do NOT like. (This is a topic for a whole ‘nuther newsletter.) If you must eat kettle chips, Zapp’s are in my mind the least objectionable and their Evil Eye flavor (if they even still make it) is the best approximation of All-Dressed I have tried. THE END!

If you are enjoying these newsletters please forward to a friend who might also enjoy them!If you got this newsletter forwarded to your inbox, please SIGN UP FOR THE EMAIL LIST HERE!