Ruffles Flame-Grilled Cheeseburger Chips Review

From Loaded Bacon & Cheddar Potato Skins to Classic Hot Wings, Ruffles has brilliantly seemed to jump on the flavor wagon of the chip industry. While perusing the aisles of my local grocery store for a good chip to enjoy with sandwiches for lunch that week, I spotted the Ruffles Flame-Grilled Cheeseburger Chips. EUREKA! A chip that tastes like a cheeseburger? I’m in. They weren’t on sale, so I paid the hefty $4.29 for a bag, but it’s worth it for a cheeseburger in a snack, right?

On the package, there’s a big, fat, juicy looking cheeseburger, complete with glorious strips of bacon, melty cheddar cheese, crisp lettuce, hearty red tomato and ketchup on a potato bun “glistening” in the light. It’s surrounded by some chips with flecks of green stuff on them. These are going to be amazing!

Nope. Nope, nope, nope. I just opened the bag and did the “smell test.” And I immediately regret that. I feel like my face might stay squinched up like this, so I quickly closed the bag. Ok. Look at the picture on the package, reset your nostril capabilities and let’s try this again.

Nope.

I can honestly say, after three big whiffs into the bag, that I nearly gagged. Not like “OMG that was so grody, I almost gagged.” but I literally nearly gagged. No way could a chip smell this foul. What I anticipated was the smell of a flame-grilled cheeseburger. What I actually got was a nose full of the smell of dog food. Do I really have to eat this?

I take a chip out and study it. They look nothing like the chips on the bag, and the green flecks in the picture are much more sparse on the actual chip. First bite and I chew. And my face started squinching up again. I chew and chew and swallow. I try to capture every flavor possible. There’s some onion… maybe garlic and tomato paste? There is a bit of a smoky note to it. And wet dog food.

Now, I’ve never eaten wet dog food. But I know the smell, and these taste like the smell of puppy chow glopped into a bowl. You know those grill items on the roller grills at gas stations? You can grab a hot dog that’s been sitting there for 7 hours – that’s about as close to a cheeseburger flavor as I can get with these chips.

There is no bacon flavor – not even a hint of it. I checked the bag and the ingredients list a “Bacon Type Flavor.” Yikes. To my surprise, the ingredients DO list cheddar and Swiss cheese. I did not catch even a note of cheese. In fact, the only ingredient I could actually taste was the “Natural Smoke Flavor,” although there was nothing natural about it.

There goes $4.29, my hopes for an amazing snack and my respect for Ruffles inventive flavors, down the drain. I ate a total of 6 chips, simply to give a good review, and the aftertaste is still lingering 15 minutes later. I highly recommend leaving these on the shelves, friends. I tried to find this particular flavor on the Ruffles website, and to my surprise, they aren’t listed. Perhaps that should have been a warning sign for me, but I’m a sucker for a cheeseburger.

Side note: My boyfriend just tried to feed these chips to the family of ducks that live on our property. They didn’t like them, either.