2 Brands of Cucumber Flavour Potato Chips by Lay's and Hsu Fu Chi (徐福记)

I found an intriguing flavour of potato chips recently - cucumber flavour. And I even managed to get 2 different versions of them by 2 brands. The first was Lay's, the popular American potato chip brand. The second was by a Chinese brand called Hsu Fu Chi (徐福记) brought into Singapore by a Chinese supermarket. Interestingly, even the Lay's version seems to be available only in China, as this was purchased from China with Chinese words on the packet, and I couldn't find any indication online that it was available elsewhere.

2 Types of Cucumber Flavour Potato Chips by Lay's and Hsu Fu Chi (徐福记)

Although I'm hard pressed to imagine how even 1 type of cucumber-flavoured potato chip might taste, it turns out that both versions tasted quite different indeed. 

Lay's Cucumber Potato Chips

Cucumber Flavour Potato Chips by Lay's - closeup texture

First, the more internationally known brand - Lay's. As you can see, the texture looks quite fake, like typical canister chips such as Pringles. The difference is that you can see little flakes of greens on them, although I'm not sure what greens they are.

This version was extremely lightly flavoured, such that I couldn't taste the difference at first. But after a number of chips and concentrating a bit more, I could make out mild earthy and chlorophyll notes in the aftertaste. 

The aftertaste did indeed resemble cucumber, so it was very interesting, but I was a little let down by the mildness of the taste. Perhaps if I had Lay's original flavour potato chips to try side-by-side, the difference might have been more obvious. 

In any case, I certainly did prefer it over normal potato chips, because the earthy and chlorophyll notes of green vegetables made it come across as a tad bit more natural in taste. Of course, the entire chip seems fake and put together with potato powder, and the flavouring is probably also artificial, but the earthy green notes was somewhat reminiscent of gourmet hand cut potato chip snacks.

For reference, this is the ingredients list (click to enlarge). It does indeed list potato powder as the first ingredient. As for the cucumber flavour, they list it as "cucumber flavouring", with the sub-ingredients being food flavouring extract and aspartame. There was no explanation of what vegetable the green flakes were from. Basically, I'm not even sure there's any cucumber in there. If so, it's strange why the flavour is so mild and barely discernible.

Cucumber Flavour Potato Chips by Lay's - ingredients list

Hsu Fu Chi Cucumber Potato Chips

Cucumber Flavour Potato Chips by Hsu Fu Chi (徐福记) - closeup texture

I've never tried this brand before and got it only because of the intriguing flavour. But I like how they package the chips in small servings, so you aren't forced to choose between stuffing yourself with a huge packet or soggy chips.

There are fewer flakes of green vegetable on these chips compared to Lay's, but you can still see some dots.

I liked this version a lot more. The cucumber taste actually turned out to be closer to pickled gherkins, which are called "small cucumber" (小黄瓜) in Chinese. The flavour was slightly sourish with pleasant corn-like notes that paired well with the potato flavour. As you know, potato chips pair well with sourish flavours such as sour cream or even vinegar seasonings, so this was in similar vein with the added corn-like notes of pickled gherkins.

The intensity was also stronger than the Lay's version, so I felt like it was worthy of the flavour title.

This is the ingredients list (click to enlarge) - equally artificial with no mention of what vegetables went into the seasoning, if any. But well, at least it tasted nice.

Cucumber Flavour Potato Chips by Hsu Fu Chi (徐福记) - ingredients list

If you found this potato chip flavour interesting, check out Ajigen's Mos Burger Potato Stick, which comes in Teriyaki and Gorgonzola Blue Cheese Flavour.

Discover other interesting savoury snacks

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