Popular Lay's Potato Chip Flavors Ranked Worst To Best

No country on planet Earth eats more potato chips than the United States. One study found that more than 85 percent of Americans enjoy potato chips, and although many brands of chips exist, no brand comes close to the popularity of Lay's.

Whether you want a light snack while you multitask or a pick-me-up after a long day at the office, varieties of Lay's potato chips can often fit the bill. With more than 200 flavors available in all corners of the globe, you're sure to find a flavor that will fascinate your taste buds.

That said, not all Lay's potato chip flavors are worth your time — some flavors are so bad that it will be impossible for you to finish the bag, while others are so good that they'll become your go-to snack. In this ranking, you'll find the popular flavors of Lay's chips in order from worst to first.

If you're looking for the least enjoyable chip ever invented, buy a bag of Lay's Flamin' Hot Dill Pickle Flavored Potato Chips. You'll be astonished at their horrendous taste. Even if you're someone who is obsessed with hot dill pickles you can buy in a jar, these Lay's concoctions will surely let you down. And amazingly, both the dill pickle flavor and the spiciness are unappetizing.

Instead of genuine dill pickle flavor, you will instead taste a discombobulated mix of sourness and bitterness. The heat is supposedly from chili peppers, but it tastes like phony hot sauce that even Taco Bell would thumb their nose at. Rather than being the type of spiciness that titillates your senses, it's the type of spiciness that you will want to remove from your mouth as soon as humanly possible.

Typically, it's legitimately difficult to stop at just one potato chip. But eat one of these pickle-flavored chips and that will be more than enough for you to realize that you've made a grave mistake.

First of all, not all honey barbecue sauce is bad. On that note, Church's Chicken Honey BBQ sauce is the best barbecue sauce in the fast food world. It's a sauce that's so good that you'll want to drink it by the glass. That said, as yummy as honey is on its own, it doesn't always make barbecue sauce taste better. Take Lay's Honey BBQ Flavored Potato Chips, for example. The honey flavor absolutely ruins these chips.

Barbecue-flavored chips are at their best when they balance tanginess, spiciness, and sweetness. These chips, however, are simply too sweet. Even if you have a cranky sweet tooth with an insatiable appetite, you'll get tired of these chips pretty fast, and there's just not enough spiciness or tanginess to keep you entertained. After two or three chips, you'll start wishing for another snack.

Lay's makes some awesome barbecue-flavored chips. This honey barbecue variety is not one of them. Avoid these with all of your might.

Lay's Chesapeake Bay Crab Spice Flavored Potato Chips, in theory, were a good idea. Take regular Lay's chips and add a generous amount of Old Bay seasoning on top. What could go wrong? Old Bay seasoning somehow manages to be salty and savory at the same time, with just a hint of sweetness, and that sounds like the perfect addition to a potato chip.

But what sounded good in theory turned out to be a disappointment in reality. Tragically, instead of using authentic Old Bay seasoning, Lay's decided to try to make their own. The result is disastrous. In fact, you can probably find better knockoff Old Bay seasoning at a dollar store. These chips, which Lay's describes as being flavored with "crab spice seasoning," taste nothing like the real thing.

Save your money and don't purchase these chips. If you really want to taste Lay's chips with Old Bay seasoning, you're going to have to do the heavy lifting yourself.

Sour potato chips can be exquisite — the added sourness combines with the salty chip to form a superpower that becomes a snacking force to be reckoned with. Sadly, that roadmap to glory didn't happen with Lay's Limon Flavored Potato Chips.

Instead of a mix of sourness and saltiness, these lime-powered chips are overwhelmingly tangy. After a handful of chips, your lips will be permanently puckered, and your eyes will start to water as you try to recover. You'll wait for a salty aftertaste to provide a needed respite — but that saltiness will never arrive. As you eat more of these chips, the sour flavor in your mouth will continue to grow until your taste buds force you to wave the white flag.

If you love sour foods so much that you could eat Warheads for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, then go ahead and try Lay's Limon Flavored Potato Chips. You might like it. Everyone else should find a better flavor of Lay's chips.

Flamin' Hot Cheetos are a national treasure. Invented by a genius who doubled as a janitor, this legendary snack came to life in 1992. Flamin' Hot Cheetos are undeniably addictive, and Richard Montañez should be very proud of his invention. Although the chips can be quite spicy, the overall flavor is oh-so worthwhile.

By comparison, Lay's Flamin' Hot Flavored Potato Chips are a letdown. These chips aren't exactly horrible, but they're nowhere near as good as Flamin' Hot Cheetos. The difference is that the Cheetos version has an unmistakable cheesy goodness that combines with the spiciness to elevate you to snack heaven. Even though cheese is listed in the ingredients, that same cheesy goodness just isn't as perceivable when it comes to Lay's Flamin' Hot Flavored Potato Chips. Additionally, the texture of the Cheetos is simply better for the job.

If you want a flaming hot good time, stick with Cheetos. Why mess with perfection?

Though undoubtedly superior to Lay's Honey BBQ Flavored Potato Chips, you should also stay away from Lay's Sweet Southern Heat BBQ Flavored Potato Chips. You can force yourself to snack on these chips, but you won't be too thrilled at the end of the day.

Like the honey-powered version, these chips are just too sweet. While the sweetness level is bearable, it's still far from optimal. What's even more of a problem is the spiciness, or lack thereof. Instead of the heat that is promised in the name of these chips, all you taste is an inordinate amount of paprika and onion powder. While you can see a chili pepper on the bag, you can't taste the chilis in these chips at all. Instead, you're hit with a one-two punch of paprika and onion powder before a sweet aftertaste kicks in. It's not a terrible experience, but it's also not something you would want to spend money on.

Unlike the Lay's chips listed above, Lay's Cheddar & Sour Cream Flavored Potato Chips are worthy of your hard-earned dinero. There's actually a lot to like about this snack. Firstly, the tanginess from the sour cream is extremely satisfying — it actually tastes like you're dipping each chip in freshly-made sour cream. Secondly, the flavor from the sharp cheddar cheese is soothing and pairs perfectly with the tangy sour cream. Thirdly, these chips have a pleasantly sweet aftertaste. In fact, if you're looking for Lay's chips with the right amount of sweetness, look no further. Finally, the saltiness plays a definite role but it doesn't steal the show.

If these chips are so good, why aren't they ranked even higher? The answer is simple: If Lay's Cheddar & Sour Cream Flavored Potato Chips appeal to you, you will really, really love Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream Flavored Potato Chips. The Ruffles version is one of the best chips ever created. If you want cheddar and sour cream chips and your choices are Lay's or Ruffles, go with Ruffles seven days a week.

While Lay's Flamin' Hot Dill Pickle Flavored Potato Chips are an unabashed catastrophe, once the spiciness is removed from the equation, the resulting chips are much more palatable. Actually, Lay's Dill Pickle Flavored Potato Chips are easily above average.

If you're a dill pickle fanatic, you will adore these potato chips. It's really that simple. These chips taste exactly how you imagine they would taste — like Lay's injected each and every chip with dill pickle juice one by one. The only slight complaint we have is that these chips should be a little bit saltier to combat the dill pickle monotony.

On the other hand, do you want even more dill pickle flavor in your chip? If so, opt for Pringles Screamin' Dill Pickle. The Pringles version is not for the faint of heart, because the volume is turned up to the max when it comes to its dill pickle flavor. However, the Lay's version is boringly subdued by comparison.

Lay's Fiery Habanero Flavored Potato Chips are better than you may think. From the name of these chips, you may believe that they're just another run-of-the-mill spicy chip. However, all it will take is one bite of one chip and you'll realize you've stumbled into something greater.

The flavor profile of these chips is stunningly deep — in addition to the spicy habanero peppers, you will also clearly taste the red bell pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and tomato powder that are listed in the ingredients. Moreover, citric acid provides a dash of sourness, while sugar adds a touch of sweetness to every bite. Combine that with the base that is a salty potato chip, and the depth of flavors may very well blow your mind.

If you have eaten habanero peppers before, you know that they're exceedingly spicy. They can actually reach 350,000 on the Scoville scale, which means a habanero pepper can be more than 30 times spicier than a jalapeño. But don't worry, while these Lay's chips are definitely spicy, they aren't painful.

The first time you try Lay's Salt & Vinegar Flavored Potato Chips, don't be surprised if you're disappointed. On the one hand, these things are super duper salty and super duper vinegary, and one bite is all it will take for you to sit up straight and pay these chips the respect they deserve. And a funny thing could happen as you keep snacking: With each chip that passes your lips, you could fall in love more and more. If you keep eating bag after bag, don't be surprised if a full-blown snack addiction is the end result. On the other hand, even if you're into vinegar on your chips, these Lay's should come with a warning.

Lay's describes the vinegar flavor of these chips as "tangy." A better description would probably be "unimaginatively acidic." Again, there's a great chance that you'll grow to cherish this snack, however, if you have a tamer palate there's a chance the vinegar and the salt might be too much for you to handle. Just in case, we advise having something like sour cream or even homemade queso handy when opening up a bag of these chips.

If you want Lay's potato chips that are both cheesy and spicy, like the aforementioned Flamin' Hot Cheetos, Lay's Cheddar Jalapeño Flavored Potato Chips are the chips you've been searching for. This snack is packed to the brim with cheesy goodness and the unique spiciness only jalapeño peppers can provide. While not nearly as spicy as Flamin' Hot Cheetos, these chips are spicy enough to keep you on your toes.

If you've ever eaten jalapeño poppers that are stuffed with cheddar cheese instead of cream cheese, you have a pretty good idea of what Lay's Cheddar Jalapeño chips taste like. While this chip's cheddar cheese isn't quite as sharp as the cheese used in Lay's Cheddar & Sour Cream Flavored Potato Chips, but it's equally as fantastic. You will also have no problem tasting the buttermilk, sour cream, and blue cheese that are listed ingredients for these chips. Those three ingredients combine to add a gratifying tanginess to the mix.

A perfectly balanced chip is difficult to find, especially when you're hoping for a balance between spiciness and sourness. However, that's exactly what's been accomplished with Lay's Chile Limon Flavored Potato Chips. This snack is absolutely great.

These chips taste like they've been blessed with an upgraded version of Tajín. If you've never Tajín, it's a popular Mexican seasoning that perfectly combines lime, chili peppers, and salt. You can put it on everything from fresh fruit to French fries, and your food is sure to be enhanced. These chips have replicated the magic of that seasoning and have made it even better. They're so scrumptious that no one should think you're crazy if you slowly lick the seasoning off each chip before you even take a bite.

Flamas Doritos are similar to Lay's Chile Limon Flavored Potato Chips, but the Lay's chips are better because the spiciness doesn't overwhelm. Give them a chance, and they'll certainly enter your rotation of favorite snacks.

As you're well aware, there's a big difference between the best barbecue sauce you can buy and the worst. The same holds true when it comes to barbecue chips. While the previously mentioned barbecue chips are forgettable at best, Lay's BBQ Flavored Potato Chips are a timeless snack that will never get old.

This became Lay's first flavored potato chip when it was launched in 1965. More than 55 years later, these chips are still universally loved. When you first put one of these chips in your mouth, a relaxing sweetness greets your taste buds. This sweet flavor is due in part to the presence of molasses. Within moments, the chips go from sweet to a very subtle spiciness. By the time you're swallowing the chip, the barbecue flavor that you know and love has invaded every inch of your mouth — all that's left to do is stick your hand back in the bag and grab another of these glorious chips.

The origin story of Lay's Classic Potato Chips dates back to the 1930s. For multiple decades, this was the only potato chip the company sold until flavored chips arrived and caught the attention of many. However, there was something special about the original chips, and Americans never forgot where it all started. To this day, this is the flavor that remains the most popular in the United States.

The reason for the popularity isn't difficult to decipher. First of all, the crispiness of Lay's Classic Potato Chips can't be topped, and this snack explodes in your mouth with each crunch. At the same time, the chips are thin enough that it takes no effort at all to eat them. Secondly, the potato flavor and the saltiness makes them a binge-worthy snack that is almost impossible to turn away. When other flavors let you down, you always have a safe haven with these originals.

Not only are these the best sour cream and onion chips you can find anywhere in the universe, they're also the best flavor of Lay's chips overall. These chips are so good that you'll be kept up at night dreaming about chowing down on another bag of the bad boys.

A mild onion flavor is what you'll first taste when you eat Lay's Sour Cream & Onion Flavored Potato Chips. Even if you don't like onions, the flavor is light enough that you'll still enjoy it. Before you know it, the flavor of rich sour cream enters the party. And this sour cream flavor somehow manages to taste even better than the real thing. Last but not least, a salty aftertaste strikes. At the end of the joyous roller coaster ride, the only thing you can think about is your next chip.

If you can only have one snack for the rest of your life, pick these chips and you will live happily ever after.