Lay's Debuts Chocolate-Covered Potato Chip

Lay's will debut its new potato chip dipped in chocolate next week, the snack company announced today.

Called Wavy Potato Chips Dipped in Milk Chocolate, the crinkled potato chip will sell for $3.49 for a 5-ounce bag and is being shipped to stores today (it will be sold only at Target).

The chocolate-covered chip initially will be a limited-time offering, sold only through the holidays, but could become permanent (if you buy lots of it).

If it's a hit, Lay's could be persuaded to branch out into potato chips coated with dark chocolate, white chocolate and peppermint chips. And who knows what else. We're seeing a whole new kind of “chocolate chip” cookie here!

“Flavors are getting more sophisticated and complex,” Tom Vierhile, innovation insights director at consumer products research firm DataMonitor, told USA Today. “We are seeing more products that may pair traditional flavor opposites” like sweet and salty, he said.

Some smaller companies already sell chocolate-dipped chips. But mixing chocolate and salty snacks is new territory for Lay's, the nation's largest snack producer. If consumers buy it, Ram Krishnan, vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay, told USA Today, “It gives us latitude to offer other flavor combinations that we've never done.”

Americans have been getting more and more into the sweet-salty combo, long a favorite flavor combination in other parts of the world. The last year has seen the debut of Kettle Maple Bacon Potato Chips, Planter's Sweet & Salty Snack Mix, ConAgra's Crunch 'n' Munch and Sweet 'n' Salty Bugles. (And, of course, there are classics like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, honey-roasted peanuts and salted caramel everything.)

This new demand “opens a world of possibilities that we haven't explored before,” Krishnan said.

We're sure more than a few stoners snack fans will be eager to follow down that new road. Go wild, Frito-Lay. Go wild.

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