Lay’s 2026 World Cup Potato Chips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xRnLXsoFyI

The Reckless Gastronome

Martin Peyruc, Reporter

Olé, Olé, Olé, my dear friends it is once again time for my quadrennial attempt at caring about sports. I tried caring more frequently, but I have a hard time letting my mood be in the control of people I’ve never even met, so I only let myself get worked up rarely. I gave the Olympics a shot, but there’s just too many sports that I can’t even figure out how to recognize a good performance (I’m currently watching Yuri!!! on Ice and the byzantine scoring system for ice skating might as well be alchemical formulas as far as I can tell.) So, soccer seemed like the best choice, plus I played it as a kid (not that I was any good, I didn’t even get any participation trophies) so I find the rules easy to understand. The fact that my homeland has also produced some outstanding players like Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi is also a bonus.

Some of you may be starting to wonder if I’ve lost my mind (obviously) and how any of this has anything to do with food and I promise you I’m getting there (slowly). To celebrate the World Cup, Lay’s has released three new (ish, I’ll explain later) flavors from various competing countries. French Onion Soup, Argentinian-Style (I prefer the word Argentine, but both are linguistically correct) Steak with Chimichurri, and the flavor I’m most curious about, Brazilian-Style Garlic Sauce. I don’t know why they picked these countries out of the 48 (it used to be 32) that are competing, but I have heard rumors (and even seen mockups) that everyone might get a flavor. I personally doubt it, since that’s a lot to produce, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the winning country gets a special release of their own or maybe they’ll just keep Argentina’s flavor around for longer since they are going to win. There, I said it. I’m rooting for Argentina. That only applies to the World Cup itself though, I’m going to do my best to fairly review all three flavors without any favoritism (maybe, I’m whimsical like that).

For my infotainment section I thought about doing the history of potatoes or perhaps potato chips, but I can’t say much, other than to say they come from the top layer of the hollow earth (I haven’t done any research yet, so that is just me guessing).  So, since I live in the States and soccer still only rates fourth in team sports popularity here (it only recently surpassed ice hockey) I think there’s a need for a bit of history. Don’t worry, I’ll try to give each of the flavors a bit of background when I do their individual reviews.

Humans have been playing with round objects for at least 3,000 years (yeah, yeah, I know, this will go a lot faster if you reprobates stop snickering) with evidence of Mesoamericans playing with round stones and later rubber balls (no, you rub her … wait that doesn’t even make sense). The earliest known ball game involving kicking (don’t kick solid balls, I learned this the hard way, although it did give me my best bowling score of the evening) dates to the third century BCE in China. There is evidence that the Aboriginal Australians may have an older game, but it seems unclear just how old it is. The earliest clear ancestors of soccer dates to 12^th century England, but the rules were far less defined as both kicking and punching the ball (and other players) were common features. It was frequently banned (for some reason), sometimes for centuries at a time, but it really became popular in the 16^th century (the last time it was banned though was in 1835, it didn’t keep). The game kept evolving into the 19^th century when various schools started codifying the rules.

This brings us to the Trans-Atlantic elephant in the room. Why do Americans call it soccer and the British call it football? First let me apologize to my translator and to anyone not reading in English, I have no idea if any of this makes sense, because I’m certain both names are translated to fútbol so I can’t imagine any of this makes sense, so I recommend listening to World in Motion by the band New Order while we sort this out (it’s not mandatory, I just like the song). In 1863 the Football Association set the rules for what is modern game (more or less) of football. The problem is that there were several games calling themselves football already. While Association Football was most common, Rugby Football was also around. So, for a while they were nicknamed Assoccer and Rugger (you see where this is going). Sightly later, in the US, Gridiron Football (which incorporates elements of both) became popular. Assoccer was shortened to soccer and in the States, the gridiron part of the name was abandoned. I should also mention that there are games in other countries that also share roots, such as Canadian Gridiron Football, Irish Gaelic Football, and Australian rules Football. Football can mean several different games depending on location, Soccer is more precise. Ok, lets welcome back our non-English speaking readers (hope you enjoyed the song) and get to the reviews.

First up and in no particular order let’s address the French Onion Soup chips. French onion soup in its modern incarnation has been around since the mid-19^th century (obviously onion soup has been around in some variation for millennia, it doesn’t take much creativity to boil an onion). It is comprised of sauteed onions, stock (often beef, but other types are acceptable), with gratinated cheese (often Gruyere, Comté, or Emmental) floating on a life raft of bread (there is no room for Jack). On to the review. These are rather underwhelming. Even the first sniff of the freshly opened bag was weak. A good French onion soup is hearty and warming, and sticks to your ribs, these chips are so anemic you’d expect them to fall over and clutch their legs if a regular chip just brushed up against them. I can just barely taste the onion, but there’s no hint of cheese, broth, or even bread. Very disappointing, but at least they are wavy chips, so they have a nice crunch.

Next up we have the Argentinian-Style Steak with Chimichurri. Remember when I mentioned that one of the flavors was only newish (it’s in the second paragraph, your memory should be better than this)? Lay’s has been getting their mileage out of this flavor since they released it last year with a big picture of Messi on the front (at least it makes more sense than the Messi taco flavored chips, tacos aren’t common in Argentina). I did try them then, but since I didn’t write a review, I may as well do that now. Wait, you all know what chimichurri is right? Of course you do, since you’ve certainly read my personal chimichurri recipe that I posted a decade ago, on my old blog (I’m going to do a re-write sooner or later). Just in case there are any new readers out there (hi, welcome) chimichurri is a versatile sauce made from parsley, garlic, oregano, onion, red wine vinegar and olive oil. Every family has their own recipe or even competing recipes so there are a lot of variations, but this is a good baseline. The chips don’t seem to have a strong aroma, but the flavor is pretty good. The primary flavor is herbal, mainly parsley and oregano, but I can detect some beefy undertones. The garlic and onion might be present, but they blend into the background. Overall, pretty good, but I think if they added a little bit of vinegar, it would nail the goal.

Finally, we have the flavor I was most curious to try, the Brazilian-Style Garlic Sauce. Also known as Molho de Alho it is traditionally served as a condiment for churrasco and grilled meats. Other than involving garlic and oil though, there doesn’t seem to be a definitive recipe. Some recipes are closer to a lemon garlic aioli, while others involve making a roux and others feature dairy. It seems it can be as simple or as complex as people want. Upon opening the bag, we finally get some chips with an aroma. It goes without saying that the aroma is garlic (what were you expecting, cedar shavings?). While garlic is certainly the most prominent flavor, there is a richness bordering on creamy and almost bread-like quality to the flavor with a slightly acidic tinge from the lemon. It reminds me of the Garlic Bread Soup I make when I’m sick (it’s a simple recipe, stale bread, broth, and enough garlic that if you put it in a bag, you could bludgeon someone with it, toss in all in a blender until “creamy”).  While I am a big fan of garlic, I will say these might be too strong for people with “delicate” (wimpy) taste buds, and even for a garlic fanatic you are going to need to brush your teeth before making out with someone (thanks and apologies to my spouse for helping me test this).

There we have it, folks, in a surprising last-minute turnaround the victor of this year’s Potato Chip Cup is Brazil! O-Lay’s! (I thought I was being clever, but it turns out they used this as a slogan a couple of years back, yellow card for me). I guess I can let Brazil have this victory, since Argentina is going to win whole enchilada (also not a dish eaten there). GOOOOOAAAAAALLL!!!!

Found at 7-11