Beer Flavoured Chips

The other day I made a visit to the gas station to tank up as normal. As I walked inside to pay for my HUGE purchase, I walked past the snacks aisle and saw something that made my jaw drop....

Beer flavoured chips... I could not believe it. I was confused, amazed, excited, a whole range of emotions rushed over me. I would have bought these chips if they had cost $20 a bag. I have always been a person to purchase the most unusual chip flavours I can find, just to see how repulsive they are.

There was no way these chips could disappoint me. If they were tasty, that would be great, but I would be equally pleased if they were the most revolting taste ever. I like to have extremes in my life, if something cannot be incredible, it better be soul-destroyingly bad. There is nothing worse than the bland, forgettable middle ground. I want chips that I will tell my grand children about.

Anyway, here they are. BEER FLAVOURED CHIPS! produced only for a limited time for the European Football championships.
Also, a close up of the beer-y goodness.
What hidden mysteries could be contained in the delightful foil packet. I saved these for days until the moment was right to begin the great test. I was thoughtful and a little nervous about these. It is hard to say what the last food item to so impact my life would have been...
I opened the bag and had good look inside. They seemed ok, no strange colours, the beer flavouring seemed to be completely camouflaged by the chips, or it was colourless. Anyway, I could not see any difference between these and unflavoured chips. The smell was nothing too crazy either, a bit malty, not too strong. Phase one of the beer chips seemed to be quite OK.
After the visual inspection and smell test, I went ahead and made the plunge. I tried a chip.
First taste was ok, no retching or gagging. It actually did not taste like too much. I was a little disappointed by the mildness of it. After a couple more single chips, I could detect a definite beer flavour. I would say that it was a sharpish, pilsner sort of flavour. It did not leave any aftertaste and the saltiness of the chips was probably stronger than the beeriness.

I made a second test, to try eating a few chips at once. This was a world of difference. With a few chips shoved in there, they tasted pretty strongly of beer right away. This was more along the lines of what I was expecting. At this point I was thinking they are actually pretty good.
I thought I needed another opinion though. An opinion of a chip connoisseur that had no preconceptions or expectations about chips. Someone with a pallet that was pure and fresh. A person who would freely give an opinion on the quality of a food without a second thought.

I am lucky enough to know just such a person.... Liam... professional chip hound. I think he may be one of the few people walking the earth who has an even greater love of chips than I do, joined to a pickyness with food that makes him a tremendous pain in the butt.

I just lay a few chips out on the counter top as bait for the chip hound. Then I made the call "LIAM CHIPS!" and he came strolling in to the kitchen. Here is what happened next:
He gave a few munches, looked up at me and then gave an enthusiastic call of "MORE CHIPS" success! The chip hound has spoken and deemed them to be good.

I thought of one final test to put these chips through. The ultimate test of a chip, one that all good snacks should go through. How do they go with beer and sports on TV? These chips were specially introduced for the European Football championships, so I thought that was the obvious choice of what to watch. It was also the night of Germany vs Poland, which I had planned to watch anyway.

Here you can see my test environment.
I settled down in the scientifically proven optimal posture for enjoying beer, sports and snacks.
I was drinking dark beer as I usually do, and I can fairly say that the pilsner flavouring on the chips in no way impacted my enjoyment of the beer. They went very well together and I would have to say that overall, these chips are a winner in my opinion. I think that they have no chance of taking the crown from my beloved Salt and Vinegar, and I would likely even still go for plain salted more often than not... but beer flavour would certainly enter the arsenal of snacks in my chips armoury.

Experiment complete, Beer Chips = good.