WTF are All Dressed Chips?!

Posted on May 10, 2017  •  3 minutes  • 600 words

Canadians have all sorts of weird junk food and Candy unique to Canada . While Ketchup Chips get a lot of the spotlight, another flavour that raises even more eyebrows and questions is All Dressed Chips. The packages don’tgive much away, and the most common question from those visiting Canada eventually goes to “So what flavour is All Dressed”. It’s at this point that most of us admit we don’t know and just say that they’re popular. So in an effort to satiate my own curiosity and perhaps inspire a few others to try them out, let’s dive into what the f**** All Dressed Chips really are?

So what flavour or flavours makes up All Dressed Chips?

It’s hard to describe, and best to just try them. All Dressed Chips tangy, sweet, with a hint or smokey sourness. It doesn’t make sense. If you talk to the chip making scientists it would appear they took the 10 year old approach and made the “swamp water” of chips. You remember swamp water right? Kids would visit to the soda fountain and put a little bit of every flavour in their cup. Well apparently that childhood curiosity sticks around for flavour making scientists.  According to the folks at Ruffles the flavour combines barbecue, sour cream and onion, ketchup, and salt and vinegar all into one super flavour. It’s like a musical super group, only saltier. And instead of them only making a buzz for a year or two, these have somehow been around for ages in Canada. They might not make sense when you read them, but give them a shot and you might see why they’re so popular in Canada.

Which brand does All Dressed chips best?

Personally my go to is Old Dutch, though I’ll admit I haven’t ever taken the time to stack every brand of All Dressed Chips  up against one another like the folks over at Eat North did. Check out their post on the best all dressed chips in Canada . You’ll get a great summary and see how some of the most popular brands and off-brands stack up.

The history of the All Dressed flavour

I contacted two companies, Ruffles and Old dutch, to find out if they could provide a bit of a background to the flavour. Specifically, I wanted to know who created the flavour? What year was it released to the Canadian public? And how does All Dressed perform to other flavours? I heard back from Ruffles / Fritolay, who had this to say:

This product was introduced in 2000 and has been a top favourite in the Ruffles brand. The Research and Development team comes up with new flavours every year and they would be the ones that brought this flavor to the Ruffles brand.

Way to sell it guys (/s)! 2000 seems kind of late, which leads me to believe they weren’t the first to the All Dressed goldmine. I haven’t heard back from Old Dutch yet, but hopefully they can expand on my questions a bit more. I’ll update this post if I hear back from them.

[caption id=“attachment_9172” align=“aligncenter” width=“1024”] Indie loves All Dressed Chips![/caption]

Buy All Dressed Chips Online

If you’re not in Canada, or can’t wait until your next visit, you’ll be glad to hear that you can order All Dressed Chips online. See the links below to Amazon. The price varies from $8 to $25 depending on the quantity. I’ve also seen those massive party sized family bags online as well, which could feed a small army. Nothing beens buying chips online for future salty-cravings!