We taste-tested this year’s Herr’s ‘Flavored by Philly: Crunch Off’ chips. Here’s what we thought

Herr s fourth year of its Flavored by Philly chip competition introduced its first battle of champions and upped the ante by offering a permanent spot for the winning flavor The competitors each beat out two other flavors to win their respective years and now have to do it again They are Long Hots and Sharp Provolone The Tomato Pie flavor inspired by Corropolese Bakery in Montgomery County The Special Hot Stromboli chip based on Romano s original sandwich in Essington Jim Herr the Chester-based chips company s senior VP of marketing disclosed the decision to make this year s competition a Crunch Off rather than roll out three brand-new flavors like before was based on fan feedback With the great response we ve had over the past three years and how multiple people have required us to bring back previous winners we thought it made a ton of sense to have a battle of the champions have the crunch off and have one of these items have a chance to be an everyday product he commented Like the previous three years we picked up a big bag of each chip flavor posted up in a well-trafficked spot in WHYY s office and had the Billy Penn club along with our WHYY colleagues give them a try Executive Producer and Host of WHYY s The Pulse Maiken Scott right describes each chip flavor at the Billy Penn Herr s chip tasting at WHYY on June Kimberly Paynter WHYY This year s taste testers picked their favorite Majority had specific initial impressions after each bite and specific shared deeper feedback and rated each flavor based on general enjoyability accuracy to the dish they were trying to imitate and originality This anecdotal evidence was also paired with an Instagram poll to get certain of the population s perspective on a favorite flavor Not to brag but Billy Penn s taste test has successfully predicted the overall winner of the competition every year That s not to say it s a sure thing but we um trust our process Long Hots and Sharp Provolone Super in your face The inaugural champion a locally themed Long Hots and Sharp Provolone flavor designed by a local chip innovator brought the heat this year and the majority of the WHYY office s tasters loved it It s big on the sharp provolone the heat comes after one taster stated It s super in your face commented another who voted for it Others highlighted the zesty and savory flavors in the chips Billy Penn s Nick Kariki records staff reaction at the Herr s chip tasting at WHYY on June Kimberly Paynter WHYY Of the office voters picked the flavor as their favorite It was also the top pick on our Instagram poll with of the vote Specific did find the spiciness a little too much though Fun flavor too spicy to eat a bag of them one person wrote A couple almost-tasters shied away at the spicy smell of the chip thinking it wouldn t fare well in their mouth Tomato Pie Direct intentions sweetness The Tomato Pie flavor year two s winner inspired by Corropolese Bakery earned plaudits for its sweet and tangy flavor It came in second in the office voting with and garnered of the Instagram votes A little too sweet at first but it does taste like tomato pie wrote one taster while another called it a unique sweet tomatoey chip flavor A third revealed it to be the the greater part snackable of the three chips which they described as a flavor you could absent-mindedly eat half a bag of before you realize what s happened We think that was meant as a good thing Herr s Tomato Pie chips Kimberly Paynter WHYY Special Hot Stromboli Good in a sandwich The Special Hot Stromboli flavor based on Essington-based Romano s signature sandwich ended up being compared directly to the Long Hots and Sharp Provolone flavor by a multitude of of our tasters while the sweet flavor of the Tomato Pie stood out in contrast to both This led to several folks either calling it out for not being spicy or cheesy enough or preferring its milder meatier flavor Like last year a great number of remarked on the taste similarities to a hoagie or hoagie oil One taster envisioned the chip tasting good in a sandwich But the subtlety of what Herr s describes as savory cheesy and mild heat flavors didn t help it stand out compared to the other two flavors as much as it did over last year s competition Herr s Special Hot Stromboli chips Kimberly Paynter WHYY Special Hot Stromboli picked up seven votes in the office and got of our Instagram voting coming in third for both It does taste like stromboli but I don t definitely want a meat chip one person wrote in our poll Winner s Long Hots came out as the clear winner in both our clearly unscientific but somehow prescient office taste test as it did in It also claimed the majority in our Instagram polling though the margins were a little closer According to Herr s last year s competition drew votes compared to more than the previous year and more than votes in the inaugural edition This year the company brought in Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber whose organization Neighbourhood Heroes the chip company supports to help draw more fans to vote in the competition Herr s chairman and CEO Ed Herr left and Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber at Citizen s Bank Park Nick Kariuki Billy Penn We ve seen continued momentum each year that we do this and we get a little broader and we get a little bit more reach and interest Jim Herr announced So we re really excited to see what type of interest we get this year as we ve stepped up the partnership and the assets around it Another clear thing our taste test shows is that people s palates vary quite a lot so you are your own best judge on which chip is your favorite The flavors are available in the usual stores and you can cast your official pick on Herr s competition page or by following the instructions on the bag Voting closes on August and the winning flavor will be revealed on August There s also a sweepstakes for voters with eight gift baskets of snacks merchandise and a gift card up for grabs The post We taste-tested this year s Herr s Flavored by Philly Crunch Off chips Here s what we thought appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY