French Fry Diary 639: A Double Shot of Martin's

My friend Marni does a bit of traveling regionally, and when she does she is always on the lookout for new and different potato chips. A recent excursion brought two different kinds of Martin's potato chips to my attention.

Martin's is local to the south central Pennsylvania area, and make a variety of salted snacks, but that's not unusual, this area is hot with chip companies, especially those created after the Second World War. Martin's has a certain distinction as being a Presidential favorite, served on Air Force One several times.

The first bag was Martin's almost redundantly named Kettle-Cook'd Hand Cooked Potato Chips. Their claim to fame is that they're done the 'old fashioned way,' slow cooked one batch at a time. Very crunchy, they have a clean taste, which was refreshing. Great for dipping. Thumbs up.

The second bag was Martin's Bar-B-Q Waffle Potato Chips, which were, according to the packaging, 'bursting with flavor.' In this case, waffle is just another word for simple ripple cut chips. They are flavorful though, a nice heat with a bit of an aftertaste bite.

These chips also appeared to be slow cooked to that same crunch mentioned above, making them, with their ridges even better for dipping. These are awesome dipping chips.

This was a good delivery from potato chip Pennsylvania, thanks, Marni!

French Fry Diary 444: Martin's Bar-B-Q Waffle Potato Chips

I picked these up at the Sheetz we visited the other day. I had never seen this brand before, and I'm a sucker for barbecue potato chips so I tried Martin's Bar-B-Q Waffle Potato Chips.

Martin's is actually fairly local to where we were out in the wilds of Pennsylvania. It's a small family business that's been making snacks, mostly chips, since the 1940s.

The chips themselves have smaller ridges than most chips of this type. They have a pleasant sweet and smoky flavor, with just the right amount of burn.

These were very good chips. I wish we had gotten more than just one small bag.