French Fry Diary 494: Starbucks Potato Chips

When I first started writing this blog there were certain things I expected, and certain things I did not expect. One such thing I would never expect is to be reviewing potato chips from Starbucks. A coffee chain making potato chips? Sounds absurd, doesn't it? But it's true.

Folks who regularly read this blog know I'm not a coffee drinker, yet I do visit Starbucks quite often. It's a writer's conceit. Starbucks is the stereotypical place where writers write, where they meet, and, for some, where they go to be seen writing. Yeah, we writers are a sick breed.

Anyway, when I saw these new potato chips at the Starbucks where I attend a weekly writers group, I couldn't help but pick up a bag - especially when I saw they were my favorite chip flavor. Barbecue, specifically Smoky Sweet Barbecue, in a kettle variety.

Here's the thing though. Starbucks doesn't seem to want to acknowledge, at least online, that they would ever do such a thing as make or sell potato chips. There's no record of them online, or at least on their website. A lot of other folks, who are not Starbucks, are talking about and taking pictures of them however. Apparently the branding was/is known as Darling Spuds in the UK, and they come in quite a few varieties. However that name is nowhere to be found on my bag.

When I opened the bag, they had a good aroma. Unlike a lot of kettle chips I have tried recently, these chips were pretty big, and twisted well for dipping. The touch of sweet compliments the heavier smoky barbecue seasoning. Not bad. Starbucks should confess, they're nothing to be ashamed of.

French Fry Diary 20: Wawa

For those of you outside of the local Delaware Valley area, Wawa is sort of like 7-Eleven, a convenience store that is literally everywhere here, approximately one every mile or so in every direction, open 24-7 and has just about everything one could possibly need at three in the morning or just before a big snowstorm. Yeah, that’s right, it’s French toast central – milk, eggs and bread.

They also specialize in quick on-the-run food, including coffee that some say beats Starbucks by a mile, a wide variety of deli items, hot dogs, hot pretzels, and yes, even pancakes. And speaking of breakfast foods, they even have hash browns.

The Wawa Hash Brown is similar to the McDonald’s Hash Brown in that it is (supposedly) diced potatoes fried in a patty form. As you can see it’s much smaller and squarer than the Mickey D version, although these too are kept under heat lamps to keep them hot. Who knows how long they’ve been under these lamps however. The one I had was kind of tasteless at first, which was weird because I was tasting that tastelessness for quite some time afterward. I don’t know what’s in these things (I’m not sure it’s a potato product even) but I won’t be having another.


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