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The best honey barbecue chips delivered smoky depth, balanced sweetness, and plenty of crunch.
In a Nutshell
We taste-tested six brands of honey barbecue chips you’re likely to find at your local supermarket or online. To find the very best ones, we tasted each without knowing which was which. We crowned an overall winner, along with two worthy runners-up.
Classic barbecue chips are delicious. When I want something with a touch more sweetness, though, I reach for the honey barbecue variety. Like classic barbecue chips, they’re tangy, smoky, and savory—but they also have a touch of honey that makes each bite satisfyingly salty-sweet. To find the best honey barbecue chips, we tasted six brands you’re likely to find at your supermarket or online. We tasted them without knowing which was which, and found one overall winner, along with two worthy runners-up, that we’d be happy to snack on.
The Criteria
Great honey barbecue chips should strike a balance between sweet, smoky, and salty. They should be well seasoned with paprika, garlic, onion, and/or tomato powders and evoke the flavor of classic barbecue rub or sauce. Though the chips should taste smoky, that smokiness shouldn’t be overwhelming. Our editorial director, Daniel, notes that the chips “should be rounded with a noticeable but not cloying honey sweetness.” They should not be greasy or taste stale; instead, they should be satisfyingly crisp.
Overall Winner
Wegmans Sweet BBQ Flavored Kettle Cooked Potato Chips
Almost everyone loved the flavor of these chips. “This hits with smoke first, which gives these chips a robust barbecue flavor,” Daniel wrote. “The honey sweetness is much less pronounced, just lightly balancing the hefty BBQ punch on the tail end. These win as honey BBQ chips with a smoke-pit personality.” A taster who chose these chips as their overall favorite applauded their savory, smoky, and honey-forward profile and superb crunch, and someone else noted that these were “probably the crunchiest of the bunch.” Our associate culinary editor, Laila, thought they were well-seasoned, but would have appreciated a touch more sweetness and smokiness.
Runners-Up
The Most Honey-Forward Chip: Wise Potato Chips, Honey BBQ
These chips had an unapologetically bold honey flavor that balanced their intense savoriness, which a taster characterized as “potent.” One of the tasters, who appreciated how honey-forward the chips were, named these chips her favorite. Laila found these “very sweet and almost dessert-like,” but enjoyed them overall. Many tasters also praised the chips’ texture, which Daniel described as having “really nice crispness and structural integrity.” The chips, he noted, were “perfect as a basic honey barbecue chip.”
Another Pretty Good Chip: Lay’s Honey Barbecue Flavored Potato Chips
Flavor-wise, our editors thought Lay’s chips had a good sweet-to-smoky ratio. Daniel noted: “The honey sweetness is well-modulated, not too sweet but not absent.” Though these chips were, as Laila noted, “pleasantly savory,” many tasters thought they could have been saltier and tangier. Both Daniel and Laila appreciated the chips’ thinness and crisp texture, though Daniel had concerns that they were borderline too thin. Overall, these chips were a happy medium for many tasters, who described them as “solid,” “reliable,” and “good.”
The Contenders
- Cape Cod Waves Potato Chips, Honey BBQ
- Lay’s Honey Barbecue Flavored Potato Chips
- Lay’s Sweet Southern Heat Barbecue Flavored Potato Chips
- Utz Honey Barbecue Potato Chips
- Wegmans Sweet BBQ Flavored Kettle Cooked Potato Chips
- Wise Honey BBQ Potato Chips
Key Takeaways and Conclusion
Our winner, Wegmans Sweet BBQ Flavored Kettle Cooked Potato Chips, had a pronounced barbecue flavor that was balanced by a subtle honeyed sweetness. Though some tasters wished it had a bolder flavor, many thought it was a well-rounded chip that wasn’t too salty or sweet. Almost everyone agreed that these chips had a spectacular crunch. Wegmans uses both sugar and honey powder to give their chips sweetness. It is the only brand that uses hickory and mesquite smoke flavoring, evoking the smoked-wood flavor you’d get from an actual barbecue.
One of our runners-up, Wise, is the only brand that contains monosodium glutamate (MSG), a crystalline form of glutamic acid commonly used as a savory flavor enhancer in processed foods. (Glutamates are naturally occurring in many foods, including Parmesan cheese and tomatoes.) That explains why so many of our tasters found these chips “intensely savory.” Wise’s potato chips get their sweetness from sugar, honey, fructose, and dextrose. Our other runner-up, Lay’s, uses sugar, brown sugar, fructose, molasses, and honey.
All of our top picks use garlic, onion, and tomato powders to recreate the bright, tangy, savory notes of a barbecue dry rub and/or sauce. Two of our favorite brands, Wegmans and Lay’s, use torula yeast and yeast extract—both high in glutamates, the same amino acids that make up MSG—to give their chips an umami boost. Wise uses MSG in lieu of torula yeast and yeast extract. These flavor enhancers and savory boosters are what make the chips so snackable, and keep people coming back for more.
If you’re looking for honey barbecue chips with smoky depth and excellent crunch, Wegmans Sweet BBQ Flavored Kettle Cooked Potato Chips are your best bet. Those with a sweet tooth and desire for nicely salty chips will love Wise Honey BBQ Potato Chips. And if you’re a fan of thin, crisp chips with a balanced flavor profile, Lay’s Honey BBQ Potato Chips are a great option.
Our Testing Methodology
All taste tests are conducted with brands completely hidden and without discussion. Tasters taste samples in random order. For example, taster A may taste sample one first, while taster B will taste sample six first. This is to prevent palate fatigue from unfairly giving any one sample an advantage. Tasters are asked to fill out tasting sheets, ranking the samples according to various criteria. All data is tabulated, and results are calculated with no editorial input to provide the most impartial representation of actual results possible.
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Read the original article on Serious Eats
