master-cooks | The World's First Potato Chip Flavor Is Still A UK Staple

The world's first flavored potato chip, known as "crisps" in the UK, was created in the 1950s and remains a staple in British snack culture. This iconic flavor is cheese and onion, a combination that has delighted taste buds for decades. Before its invention, potato chips were typically sold plain, with consumers adding their own salt if desired. It was Joe "Spud" Murphy, the owner of the Irish company Tayto, who revolutionized the snack industry by developing a method to add seasoning directly to the crisps during production. This innovation paved the way for the wide array of flavored chips available today. Cheese and onion crisps quickly gained popularity due to their savory blend of tangy cheese and the subtle sweetness of onion, offering a more satisfying and complex taste experience compared to the original salted version. The flavor's enduring popularity in the UK is a testament to its timeless appeal, continuing to be a favorite choice among snack enthusiasts. Its successful introduction marked a significant milestone in the snack industry, setting the stage for the diverse and inventive flavors that followed, yet cheese and onion remains a beloved classic.

The rise of cheese and onion crisps

The official creation of potato chip flavors is attributed to Joe "Spud" Murphy, the owner of Tayto, and his employee Seamus Burke, who began adding cheese and onion seasoning to their crisps in 1954. Before this innovation, potato chips were sold plain, although some vendors provided small packets of salt for customers to season their chips themselves. The pre-seasoning approach developed by Murphy and Burke has since become the standard for selling this snack; nowadays, you wouldn't typically add salt to chips unless you're preparing oven-baked varieties.

Initially, Tayto offered its cheese and onion flavor alongside two other basic options made from the same ingredients: plain crisps and cheese-flavored crisps. Shortly after, the company introduced the salt and vinegar flavor, created by applying a light spray of vinegar onto a starchy powder that serves as seasoning. Many of these early chip flavors were designed to replicate toppings commonly found on traditional potato dishes, and even today, restaurant-style baked potatoes often feature shredded cheese, onions, and salt.

The wide world of potato chip flavors

The United States had a unique journey with flavored potato chips, which ultimately became just as popular as they did in the U.K. Today, Americans consume more potato chips than any other nation, largely due to the extensive variety of flavored options available. The first flavored potato chip introduced in the U.S. was barbecue, launched by Herr's in 1958. By the late 1970s, sour cream and onion also gained traction in the U.S., somewhat mirroring the original cheese and onion flavor.

While the first potato crisp flavor in the U.K. remains the most favored, the same isn't true for American preferences. According to World Metrics, the top chip flavor in the U.S. is plain, with barbecue trailing far behind in second place. Sour cream and onion ranks third, indicating that Americans are not as enthusiastic about onion seasoning in their chips, or seasoning in general, aside from the generous amount of salt in plain chips. Instead of focusing on flavors, Americans have developed a strong culture around dips for both potato and tortilla chips, featuring a variety of ingredients from onion dip to ketchup.

The World's First Potato Chip Flavor Is Still A UK Staple

The rise of cheese and onion crisps

The wide world of potato chip flavors

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