We Tried 10 Lay’s Flavors From Walmart and Ranked Them

Tanner gave Chile Limón an S.

I gave it an F.

And somehow, after eating them, getting a little spice in his eyes, and watching me question why he was still reaching for more, Tanner decided they were his favorite Lay’s chips he'd ever tried.

I couldn't disagree more.

That's what made this taste test a lot more interesting than I expected.

Tanner asked if we could do another taste test. We've already ranked chicken nuggets, burgers, and French fries, so this time he wanted to try something a little easier to carry home from Walmart: Lay's potato chips.

We went in planning to grab around six flavors.

We came home with ten.

Apparently, neither of us knows how to stick to a plan.

We grabbed every flavor that looked interesting, brought them home, and decided to rank all ten using our usual S-F tier system. Tanner had already opened one of the bags before we even started filming, so clearly he was taking this very seriously.

The lineup was Classic, Salt & Vinegar, Honey BBQ, Cheddar & Sour Cream, Bacon Grilled Cheese, Sour Cream & Onion, All Dressed, Dill Pickle, Limón, and Chile Limón.

And as it turned out, Tanner and I had very different ideas about which ones were actually worth eating.

Watch the Lay’s taste test

Watch We Tried Every Lay’s Chip Flavor From Walmart.

Play the Lay’s taste test here

Our Lay’s flavor ratings

Lay’s flavor ratings in tasting order (S is the highest tier)

Lay’s flavor	Derek’s verdict	Tanner’s final verdict
Classic	S	B
Salt & Vinegar	A	A
Honey BBQ	D	C
Cheddar & Sour Cream	A	C
Bacon Grilled Cheese	C	B
Sour Cream & Onion	B	B
All Dressed	F	F
Dill Pickle	A	A
Limón	F	B
Chile Limón	F	S

1. Lay's Classic

We started with Classic, which honestly felt like the easiest one on the table.

I've eaten Lay's Classic forever. I don't need a bunch of seasoning or some crazy flavor combination. Sometimes I just want a potato chip that tastes like a potato chip.

So I gave it an S.

Tanner gave it a B.

I don't know what happened there.

He actually tried to introduce an SS tier because apparently our perfectly good S-F ranking system wasn't enough for him. I shut that down immediately. We've always done S, A, B, C, D, and F, and we're not creating a new tier because Tanner suddenly wants to give a chip an extra-special gold star.

Still, Classic was the first one, and it was already sitting at the top of my list.

2. Salt & Vinegar

Salt & Vinegar was another easy one for me.

I've always liked these, and if I'm choosing between a bunch of different Lay's flavors, this is probably one of the bags I'd reach for first.

We both gave it an A.

It's got that salty, sour flavor that hits you right away, but it's not quite as good as Classic for me.

Of course, we couldn't get through one chip review without getting distracted. At one point we were dealing with a dog hair situation involving Bandit, because apparently even the dog needed to participate in the taste test somehow.

Two flavors in and we were already getting sidetracked.

3. Honey BBQ

Honey BBQ was where things started getting a little more complicated.

Tanner likes barbecue.

I don't.

So going into this one, I figured he'd probably like it a lot more than I would.

He didn't.

The honey made the flavor too tangy for him, and while he still gave it a C, I gave it a D. He said he'd probably like regular barbecue better without the honey.

I'm not sure that would have helped me.

I don't really like barbecue chips in the first place, so removing the honey probably wasn't going to turn this into an S-tier experience for me.

At least Tanner and I had one thing in common: Honey BBQ wasn't winning this thing.

4. Cheddar & Sour Cream

This one should have been easy.

Cheddar & Sour Cream has always been one of my favorite chip flavors. The problem is that I think Lay's changed the flavor at some point, and these days I'd probably take Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream over them.

Still, I was expecting to like them.

Then we started eating them and somehow neither of us could really taste the flavor.

So we kept eating them.

Because apparently the solution to not being able to taste something is to eat more of it.

We moved on to Bacon Grilled Cheese before realizing we never actually rated the Cheddar & Sour Cream, so we had to go backward and officially give it a score.

Tanner gave it a C.

I gave it an A.

It may not be my favorite version of the flavor anymore, but I still like Cheddar & Sour Cream enough that an A felt right.

5. Bacon Grilled Cheese

Bacon Grilled Cheese sounded like one of those flavors that could either be really good or taste like somebody dumped a bunch of random seasoning onto a potato chip and called it lunch.

It landed somewhere in the middle.

I gave it a C. Tanner gave it a B.

It was alright. I'd definitely take it over the Honey BBQ, but if I'm standing in the chip aisle and I have to choose between this and Cheddar & Sour Cream, I'm grabbing the Cheddar & Sour Cream.

And somewhere in all of this, Bandit was still trying to get involved.

He eventually got his chip.

He was probably the only one who didn't care about the rankings.

6. Sour Cream & Onion

Sour Cream & Onion is one of those flavors that feels almost too obvious.

Tanner called it basic.

I told him I love basic.

There's nothing wrong with knowing what you like.

We both gave it a B, although I did notice that every once in a while, one of these chips has a slightly cardboardy taste to it. I don't know if it's the onion seasoning or what, but every now and then you get that one chip that makes you stop and wonder what just happened.

Still, B felt about right.

And at this point, we were starting to build a pretty respectable list.

Then we got to All Dressed.

7. All Dressed

I had never tried Lay's All Dressed before.

The bag makes a pretty big promise, too. It's supposed to taste like all the best Lay's flavors in one bite: sweet like BBQ, savory like sour cream and onion, and tangy like salt and vinegar.

That sounds good on paper.

It was not good in my mouth.

We both gave it an F.

Not a low C. Not a D.

An F.

I told Tanner I would never buy these again, and he was talking about possibly throwing them away.

There was also a point where I tried to get Tanner to plug his ears so I could say something, except he immediately caught me trying to do it.

So that went well.

And then, after tasting the chip, Tanner was coughing and clearing his throat like his body was trying to figure out what we'd just done to it.

All Dressed had officially earned its place at the bottom.

8. Dill Pickle

Now we're getting somewhere.

Dill Pickle is one of my favorites, so I didn't even bother pretending I was going to be objective about this one. I grabbed two chips right away.

I'll put dill pickle on pretty much anything.

Dill pickle pasta salad? Yes.

Dill pickle pizza? Absolutely.

Dill pickle chips? Obviously.

At one point I even brought up dill pickle ice cream.

Just put dill pickle on it.

That's basically my philosophy.

Tanner and I both gave Dill Pickle an A, although he briefly tried to turn that into an O before we settled on the fact that we're still using our S-F system and not inventing a new ranking system every five minutes.

This was one of the flavors I expected to finish near the top.

9. Limón

Then we hit the first flavor where we had a pretty serious disagreement.

The bag says Limón, and the chips are basically giving you lime.

Whatever we're calling it, I wasn't impressed.

The smell wasn't particularly strong, and the sour flavor didn't really hit until the end of the bite. Tanner liked it a lot more than I did.

I gave it an F.

Tanner gave it a B.

So naturally, we had to try the next one.

Because apparently I hadn't learned my lesson yet.

10. Chile Limón

Chile Limón started out looking like another disagreement.

I gave it an F.

Tanner gave it a B.

Then we kept eating them.

And that's when the spice started showing up.

Tanner's eyes started watering a little, and I kept telling him not to touch his eyes because I was pretty sure that was about to turn into a much bigger problem.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting there watching him eat more.

Then we got to the final rating.

Tanner changed his answer.

He gave Chile Limón an S.

An S.

The same kid who gave Classic a B just decided Chile Limón was the best chip he'd ever had.

I gave it an F.

And before anyone thinks I gave it an F because of the spice, that's not it. I actually like spicy food. The problem for me was the lime flavor. There's something about that lime and potato chip combination that just doesn't work for me.

Tanner didn't care.

Chile Limón was his favorite.

He even told me it was his favorite chip he'd ever tried.

So we definitely weren't leaving this taste test with the same winner.

So What Were Our Favorites?

Tanner's favorites ended up being Chile Limón, Limón, Sour Cream & Onion, and Dill Pickle.

My list looked completely different.

My top five were:

1. Classic
2. Salt & Vinegar
3. Cheddar & Sour Cream
4. Dill Pickle
5. Sour Cream & Onion

The funny part is that I actually didn't expect Classic to win.

I usually find myself reaching for the more interesting flavors, especially Dill Pickle, so I figured something with more seasoning would take the top spot.

Instead, the plainest chip on the table won.

Classic got the S.

Everything else had to live with that.

Tanner Wasn't Done Yet

We could have ended the video there.

We had ranked all ten chips. We had our favorites. We had completely different opinions about several of them.

That should have been enough.

It wasn't.

Tanner wanted to do a mystery round.

He had me close my eyes and started handing me chips to see if I could figure out what they were. I managed to correctly identify Chile Limón, Limón, and Classic.

Then the guessing turned into one of those moments where Tanner is clearly having way more fun than I am, and eventually I'm just sitting there telling him I hate him while he's laughing.

And then he had one final idea.

Let's Put All Ten Together

Tanner suggested we take one of every chip and eat them all at once.

All ten.

At the same time.

I questioned whether my mouth was even big enough for that.

We tried it anyway.

And somehow...

It wasn't terrible.

Actually, we both kind of liked it.

At that point I started thinking Lay's might be onto something. Forget making ten different bags. Just throw every seasoning together and make one completely ridiculous chip.

Of course, I still had to deal with the Chile Limón spice afterward, so I was drinking pop trying to get it out of my mouth while telling Tanner I hated him.

He was having a great time.

I was not.

And that's pretty much how our Lay's taste test ended.

Ten bags of chips. Two completely different opinions, a dog trying to steal food, Tanner changing his Chile Limón rating to an S, and somehow, after all of that, we still decided eating all ten flavors at once was a good idea.

Tanner's final review of the entire experience was probably the most accurate one.

“I hate my daddy and I'm never letting him do this video again.”

I love you too, buddy.