Tuesday Timbits: Zapp’s Potato Chips

I gotta admit—it’s actually a little painful for me to write this post, because as you may remember, I LOVE potatoes, in all of their various and delicious forms.  And if one were to believe in karma, then the Zapp’s Chippery is what potatoes who were REALLY AWESOME get to come back as in their next “life”.  It’s like the equivalent of being a potato saint.  Given the Catholic population, it wouldn’t surprise me if Ron Zappe is granted sainthood when he passes.  St. Zappe, patron saint of all things delicious.

Zapp’s are made in Gramercy, Louisiana, which is situated along the Mississippi River in between Baton Rouge & New Orleans.  The chippery (I cook say “chip factory”, but “chippery” is such a fun word) is located in a former Chevrolet dealership. Ron Zappe, the creator of Zapp’s chips, said on the Oprah show that the chips were made on the showroom floor of the dealership, and that teens would park out side the building & watch the chips being made, like it was a movie.

These heavenly (and certainly movie worthy—though you might miss most of the dialogue if you tried to actually EAT them during a movie) delicacies are kettle-cooked, which involves a thicker-cut chip, slow cooked in small batches in refined peanut oil.  And they’re not overly salty.  Zapp’s typically have about half the sodium content of most chips, because they believe in adding tons of spices and flavors, NOT a ton of salt.  They’re available in FIFTEEN different flavors.

My personal favorites? Cajun Crawgator, Mesquite BBQ, Voodoo (which was supposed to be a limited edition—they were created by accident when someone knocked a bunch of spices off a shelf, but they were so popular Zapp’s added them to the regular lineup), and the Cajun Dill.

The chips are primarily available at retail locations within about a 300-mile radius of the factory, but Zapp’s ship their chips anywhere in the lower 48 states (sorry, Alaska & Hawaii).

In fact, if you have $25 burning a hole in your pocket, and the envie to try some of the best chips on the planet, you can have an 8-pack of their medium-size bags (you pick the flavors), OR a 25-pack of deli size 2oz bags, shipped to your house for $24 (that includes shipping).  That’s actually not much more than what you’d pay for them at the store.