The Trader Joe’s potato chip aisle is bigger than most shoppers realize — somewhere between the seasonal stuffing chip and a lattice-cut ketchup oddity, there are over a dozen distinct potato chips on the shelf at any given time. Summer is chip-and-dip season, so we ranked every Trader Joe’s potato chip from absolute skip to absolute buy. Here they are, worst to best.
1. Thanksgiving Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips
A holiday novelty that shows up every fall, this chip aims to taste like Grandma’s stuffing in a kettle-chip format. Some shoppers love it for the gimmick. Most agree the seasoning swings too far into dried herbs.
- Price: $2.99 (seasonal)
- Taste Test: Heavy on sage and rosemary with a noticeable celery-salt undertone. The first chip is fun. By chip ten, the herbal note tastes more like potpourri than poultry seasoning.
- Texture: A solid kettle-chip base — good thickness, good crunch — but the seasoning sometimes clumps unevenly across the bag.
- Make It Better: Best eaten on the side of a turkey-and-cranberry sandwich, where the savory herb profile actually has context. Out of season, they read as strange.
- Verdict: Skip unless you’re stocking up for a Thanksgiving snack table. Even fans admit a whole bag is too much.
2. Vegetable Root Chips
Not strictly a potato chip, but they sit in the chip aisle and shoppers grab them when they want something a little fancier. A mix of taro, sweet potato, parsnip, batata and yuca all sliced and fried into colorful curls.
- Price: $2.99
- Taste Test: Earthy and slightly sweet, with each root delivering a different note. The sweet potato slices dominate the flavor. The parsnip and yuca pieces lean bland.
- Texture: Stiffer and chewier than a regular chip. Some pieces are still oily, others snap clean. The texture inconsistency is part of the experience.
- Make It Better: Pair with a creamy goat cheese dip or a roasted red pepper hummus. Skip them as a stand-alone snack — they need a dip to come alive.
- Verdict: Buy if you’re hosting and want something that looks fancy on a board. Skip if you just want a chip to eat by the handful.
3. Pizza Party Potato Chips
A loaded-pizza-flavored ridge chip aimed at the kid-snack market. The bag is bright and the chip surface is dusted with a red-orange seasoning blend meant to evoke tomato, garlic and dried herbs.
- Price: $2.99
- Taste Test: The first impression is sweet tomato powder with a faint Italian-herb note. By the third chip, the seasoning starts tasting one-dimensional — more candy-tomato than actual pizza.
- Texture: Standard ridge-cut crunch. The ridges hold the seasoning powder well, so you get a full flavor hit on every chip.
- Make It Better: Crush a handful on top of a real frozen cheese pizza in the last two minutes of baking. Adds crunch and amplifies the tomato note in a way that actually works.
- Verdict: Skip for adults. Buy if you have kids who already love pizza-flavored anything.
4. Ghost Pepper Potato Chips
A spicy kettle chip dusted with ghost-pepper seasoning. The bag warns about heat and follows through. Not as ferocious as the Carolina Reaper variant fans remember, but plenty hot for most palates.
- Price: $2.49
- Taste Test: Builds slowly. The first bite is a sweet smoky paprika note, then the ghost-pepper heat catches up and sits on the back of the tongue for a solid 30 seconds. There is a faint onion-garlic backbone underneath the burn.
- Texture: Sturdy kettle-cooked thickness. Loud crunch, minimal shatter, and the seasoning sticks well.
- Make It Better: Dunk in cold sour cream or a yogurt-based ranch to cool the heat. A cold lager also helps the burn move along.
- Verdict: Buy if you actively enjoy spicy snacks. Skip if you don’t — the heat sneaks up and is hard to walk back.
5. Ketchup Flavored Spud Crunchies
These puffy, crunchy little potato sticks taste exactly like the tomato-vinegar ketchup chips Canadians have loved for decades. Trader Joe’s version comes in a small bag and is one of the more divisive chip-aisle items.
- Price: $1.99
- Taste Test: Sweet tomato up front, sharp vinegar in the middle, faint salt finish. The seasoning is intense — there is no subtle flavor profile here.
- Texture: Airy, hollow, crunchy in a Cheeto-adjacent way. Not a flat chip. The puff structure carries seasoning into every bite.
- Make It Better: Eat them straight. Trying to dip these only mutes the flavor that makes them interesting. A cold root beer is the right pairing.
- Verdict: Buy if you grew up on ketchup chips or want to try them for the first time. Skip if vinegar-forward seasoning bothers you.
6. Thai Style Yellow Curry Flavored Potato Chips
An import-style chip with a warm curry seasoning that reads more comforting than fiery. The bag is small but the flavor lingers.
- Price: $2.99
- Taste Test: Toasted coconut and turmeric land first, then a gentle ginger-lemongrass note creeps in. The heat is modest — closer to mild curry powder than restaurant curry.
- Texture: Thin and lightly fried, with a clean snap. Less greasy than a typical kettle chip.
- Make It Better: Snack alongside coconut soup, fried rice or a peanut-sauce noodle bowl. They double as a textural element on top of curry dishes.
- Verdict: Buy. It’s an interesting chip that does not get boring after the first handful.
7. Sea Salted Saddle Potato Crisps
An unusual saddle-shaped potato crisp imported and dusted with flaky sea salt. The shape stacks like a Pringle but the flavor is closer to a hand-cut chip.
- Price: $3.49
- Taste Test: Clean salted-potato flavor. No artificial seasoning, no oil-heavy aftertaste. The sea salt is bright and crystalline rather than dusty table salt.
- Texture: Thicker than a Pringle, more delicate than a kettle chip. Light, airy, snaps neatly.
- Make It Better: Pair with a thick dip — French onion, smoked trout, or a whipped feta. The shape scoops well.
- Verdict: Buy. A great party chip that looks fancier than it costs.
8. BBQ Flavored Potato Chips
Trader Joe’s classic BBQ chip. Nothing flashy, nothing wild — just a competent take on a category dominated by Lay’s, Kettle Brand and store labels.
- Price: $2.49
- Taste Test: Tomato, paprika, brown sugar and a whisper of smoke. The sweet note is dialed back compared to mass-market BBQ chips, which keeps it from tasting candied.
- Texture: Standard thin-cut crunch. Light, snappy, with even seasoning coverage.
- Make It Better: Smash a handful onto a pulled-pork sandwich or a grilled-cheese with sharp cheddar. They add salt, crunch and a sweet smoke note all at once.
- Verdict: Buy. A reliable everyday BBQ chip for the price.
9. Ketchup Flavored Lattice Potato Chips
A lattice-cut potato chip — the criss-cross waffle shape — dusted in the same ketchup seasoning as the spud crunchies but applied to a much sturdier base.
- Price: $2.99
- Taste Test: Same tomato-vinegar-sweet profile as the crunchies, but the heavier chip carries it better. The lattice surface holds more seasoning per square inch, so each bite is loaded.
- Texture: Crisp, sturdy, structurally engineered to not break in the bag. A genuinely fun chip to eat.
- Make It Better: Dip in plain sour cream to mellow the vinegar bite. Or eat alongside a sharp cheddar sandwich.
- Verdict: Buy. The best execution of TJ’s ketchup-chip idea — better than the spud crunchies version.
10. Deli Sandwich Style Potato Chips
A relatively new addition to the lineup, designed as the chip you would find next to a deli pickle and a stacked Italian sub. Thin, sturdy, salt-forward.
- Price: $2.49
- Taste Test: Clean salted-potato flavor with a hint of pepper and a faint pickle-brine acidity. Nothing aggressive — the whole point is to play well with a sandwich.
- Texture: Thin, crispy, breaks with a clean snap. Holds up in a brown-bag lunch.
- Make It Better: Layer them directly into a turkey, salami or roast-beef sandwich. They add crunch without competing with the meat.
- Verdict: Buy. The ideal everyday sandwich chip — useful and inexpensive.
11. Garlic Butter Irish Potato Chips
An imported Irish chip seasoned with butter and roasted garlic. The bag is small and shoppers tend to buy two.
- Price: $2.99
- Taste Test: Real butter flavor up front — not the fake margarine note common in flavored chips — followed by a roasted garlic warmth. Salt is restrained, letting the garlic carry the chip.
- Texture: Thin, light, perfectly crisp. The Irish potato varietals tend to fry cleaner than American russets.
- Make It Better: Serve as the crunchy element on a cheese board next to soft cheese, salami and a glass of red. They also work crushed on top of a baked potato.
- Verdict: Buy two bags. The first one disappears immediately.
12. Kettle Cooked Rosemary & Sea Salt Potato Chips
Trader Joe’s flagship kettle chip — the one most regulars name when asked which TJ chip to actually buy. A clean kettle base with whole flecks of rosemary and visible sea-salt crystals.
- Price: $2.99
- Taste Test: Bright pine-forward rosemary, generous flaky salt, and a deep toasted-potato base. Restrained enough to eat by the handful, complex enough to keep the bag interesting.
- Texture: Classic kettle crunch — sturdy, never brittle, with the right amount of curl and bubble per chip.
- Make It Better: Pair with a creamy chevre dip, smoked salmon, or a glass of crisp white wine. Or just eat them on the couch — they hold up alone.
- Verdict: Buy on every trip. A near-perfect everyday kettle chip and a customer favorite for years.
13. Ode to the Classic Potato Chip
Trader Joe’s most reliable chip — a lightly salted, thin-cut potato chip in a kraft-style bag that tries to look generic on purpose. It is the cult favorite of the entire TJ chip aisle.
- Price: $2.49
- Taste Test: Pure salted-potato flavor. The salt is correctly tuned, the oil is clean, the potato is the star. There is nothing extra and nothing missing.
- Texture: Thin, crispy, even, and consistent from chip to chip. The bag arrives mostly intact rather than a pile of crumbs.
- Make It Better: Eat from the bag. Dip in onion dip. Pile on a sandwich. Crush on tuna salad. They work everywhere and never fight the food they are next to.
- Verdict: The best chip in the lineup. Buy one bag for now, one for later, and a third for the shelf.
