Last Updated on January 26, 2026 by Brian Kachejian
Feature Photo by Brian Kachejian
Sour cream and onion potato chips just may be our favorite potato chip flavor. There are so many to choose from. So I decided to buy a bunch of bags of chips and do a taste test. Of course, I had to do it on camera. So if you are a fan of sour cream and onion potato chips, you may find the video below an interesting watch. Are they all equal? Of course, not. There were significant differences between the chips in both texture and taste. However, before I get to the ranking, lets looks bajc a little on the history of the Sour Cream and Onion Potato Chip.
Its history is a fascinating mix of food science, clever engineering, and a happy accident. Before the 1950s, potato chips were entirely unflavored. They were just salted potatoes in a bag. While an Irish company named Tayto pioneered the technology to add seasoning to chips (starting with Cheese & Onion), the American market went in a slightly different direction.
The flavor made its official debut in the United States in 1954, introduced by General Mills under their “Chipos” brand. However, the flavor didn’t become a cultural phenomenon until the late 1960s and 1970s. According to food industry lore, and I am not really sure if I believe this, the flavor truly took off after a Frito-Lay employee accidentally spilled sour cream dip onto a batch of plain potato chips during a taste test. Frito-Lay officially introduced the flavor to its Ruffles line in 1967, and the ridged chip quickly became the gold standard for sour cream and onion.
There is actual biochemistry behind why it is nearly impossible to eat just one sour cream and onion chip. Food scientists have found that this specific flavor combination is an absolute masterclass in triggering our brain’s reward centers. When you eat these chips, you are simultaneously activating your tongue’s receptors for fat, umami (savory), sour, and bitter. The chemical in onions that makes you cry (syn-propanethial-S-oxide) combines perfectly with the lactic acid found in sour cream powder. This specific synergy triggers a dopamine release in the brain that is far more effective than most other snack flavors. Ruffles intentionally put the flavor on ridged chips because the ridges create 47% more surface area than flat chips, allowing for maximum seasoning adherence. It’s a pretty brilliant move when you think of it. See, ladies and gentlemen, this is why we studied math. Remember all those questions about surface area?
Despite the name, most commercial sour cream and onion chips contain absolutely no real sour cream or fresh onions. Because real sour cream would spoil on a shelf, snack engineers use a shelf-stable illusion: a blend of buttermilk solids, whey powder (for that creamy mouthfeel), and lactic and citric acids to mimic the signature tartness. The onion flavor comes from dehydrated onion powder and maltodextrin. It is pure flavor engineering!
For this taste test, I decided to pit seven of my favorite brands against each other, back-to-back. So here we go. Let me know what your favorites are in the comments…..
# 7 – Pringles
I used to love Pringles, especially the sour cream and onion flavor, which I thought was always better than the red can plain chips. It wasn’t until 1984 that they introduced the Sour Cream & Onion. However, in response to recent health regulations, Pringles quietly changed their recipe between 2024 and 2025 by reducing sodium, artificial ingredients, and the overall amount of “flavor dust” on the crisps. Pringles had revolutionized the potato chip industry with their 1968 launch of uniform, saddle-shaped “crisps” stacked in a tennis ball can.
# 6 – Good Company – Sour Cream & Onion Canister Chips
The Good Crisp Company’s Sour Cream & Onion canister chips entered the snacking world much more recently, making their formal US debut on Whole Foods shelves in March 2017. The brand was founded in 2014 by Matt Parry, who had been forced onto a strict gluten-free diet. I was really surprised at how much I like these better than the Pringles. If I had put them up against the old Pringles, it would probably have destroyed them. But the new Pringles flavor, which of course is so much better for us as human beings, just doesn’t cut it anymore, and this company has taken its place. Still, neither of these canister chips can compare to the next five, and that’s why I didn’t include them in the video.
# 5 – Wise Ridgies
I have always been a big fan of rice potato chips because sometimes I don’t feel like eating a light, almost undercooked chip and would rather have a more well-done chip. While the Wise Ridgies are not that well done like the regular potato chips, they still manage to favor the darker side. These are good chips, but in this taste test, they were the least liked of the batch. Wise Foods was founded in 1921 by Pennsylvania grocer Earl Wise to use up a surplus of potatoes. The company introduced its famous “Ridgies” line of crinkle-cut chips in 1955. Once the Sour Cream and Onion flavor combination became a national obsession in the 1960s and 70s, Wise applied the zesty green-onion and creamy buttermilk powder to their sturdy Ridgies cut.
# 4 – Shoprite Bowl And Basket
If Pathmark were still in existence, it might have taken this spot. I love the value that strong brands bring to consumers, and Shoprite, one of the best valued supermarkets, has continued that tradition. The history of ShopRite’s Bowl & Basket Sour Cream & Onion potato chips is much more recent, beginning in November 2019 when ShopRite’s parent company, Wakefern Food Corp., launched the “Bowl & Basket” label as part of a massive, multi-year overhaul of its private brand strategy. ShopRite began phasing out its standard “ShopRite” labeled items in favor of this new, aesthetically pleasing brand that promised high-quality ingredients at a budget-friendly price. Salty snacks, particularly their kettle-cooked potato chips, were among the very first 100 items rolled out during the initial November 2019 launch.
# 3 – UTZ Ripples
As someone who grew up in the 1960s, I never tasted UTZ chips until the past 20 years. This is an impressive brand. I was blown away by how good these chips tasted, and maybe on a different day I might have preferred them over the Ruffles. While mega-brands like Frito-Lay dominated the national market, Utz Quality Foods, a family-owned Pennsylvania staple founded in 1921, waited until the 1980s to introduce its own take on the wildly popular Sour Cream & Onion combination. Rather than putting the seasoning on a standard flat chip, Utz applied it to their signature Ripples cut, which are known for being exceptionally sturdy and deeply ridged. This is a great one.
# 2 – Ruffles Sour Cream & Onion
This was a battle. As I wrote in the introduction, the ridges on the chips give the chips so much flavor and such an impact. It’s almost not fair to put Ridge potato chips in a regular potato chip competition, but in the end, I’m trying to pick the best sour cream & onion potato chips, so I got to throw everything in there. It came in second, but man, it’s a really close second. This is a great potato chip! Frito-Lay introduced the Sour Cream and Onion flavor to its iconic Ruffles line in 1967, and it was a match made in snack food heaven. Ruffles, invented by Bernhardt Stahmer in the late 1940s and acquired by Frito-Lay in 1958, were famous for their deep ridges, which made the chips incredibly sturdy and unlikely to break.
# 1 – Lay’s Sour Cream & Onion
It’s hard to beat Lay’s in the Potato Chip world. This one just slightly edged out the Ruffles in my taste test. These are very light-tasting chips. But there’s just something about that sour cream taste and that fresh thin chip that just rocked my world. It will rock yours, too. Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion potato chips officially hit the market in the late 1970s, introduced by Frito-Lay to compete directly with other brands that had successfully launched the flavor in the 1950s and 60s. After Frito-Lay first popularized the flavor on their ridged Ruffles line in 1967, consumers demanded that same addictive, tangy taste on a traditional flat chip. Frito-Lay responded by applying their proprietary buttermilk, lactic acid, and onion powder seasoning blend to their classic, thin-cut Lay’s.
Best Sour Cream & Onion Potato Chips Ranked article published on RockinFoodie.com© 2026
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