REVIEW: Lay’s Cinnamon Bun Potato Chips (Canada)

Lay's Cinnamon Bun Potato Chips (Canada)

I guess every batch of Do Us A Flavour candidates has to have the water cooler flavour — the weird one that’ll get people talking. Last year’s batch of Canadian flavours had Maple Moose, and sticking with the sweet theme, this year there’s Cinnamon Bun.

Everyone who I’ve spoken to has recoiled in horror at the thought of cinnamon bun chips, but I’m just going to come out and admit it: it’s actually pretty close to my dream chip flavour. Now, before you write me off as a complete sociopath (who dreams of cinnamon bun chips??), hear me out. My dream chip flavour? Cinnamon Sugar Doritos.

Keep in mind that this wouldn’t be a salty/sweet combination; this would be a full-out dessert chip. Think about it. It would be like a churro in chip form! How is this not a thing yet??

Doritos executives: please feel free to steal this idea.

Alas, since Churro Doritos are not yet a thing (and may never be), Cinnamon Bun Lay’s is probably the closest that we’ll get.

I’ll say two things about these chips right off the bat:

1) They’re not gross. They’re edible.

2) That’s probably the nicest thing I have to say about this particular flavour. These are clearly not going to satisfy my dream Doritos cravings.

I had hoped that they were going to be a full-out dessert experience, but it really isn’t. It’s way too subtle. That’s not necessarily a problem, but the flavours never really come together in any meaningful way.

If you were eating a bag of plain Lay’s and one fell on a Cinnabon and then you ate it, it would probably taste something like these chips.

Lay's Cinnamon Bun Potato Chips (Canada) Closeup

It’s weird. They’re slightly buttery, with a somewhat pronounced sweet cinnamony flavour — they actually do a pretty decent job of capturing the flavour of a cinnamon bun. But then there’s the plain Lay’s flavour, which is equally pronounced. Both flavours announce to your tastebuds “Yep, here I am!” but neither has any particular interest in cooperating with the other. They’re both just there; two random tastes that have seemingly been crammed together on a whim.

I wish they had just gone all out with the cinnamon bun flavour and let the chip be more of a vehicle for crunch than anything else, because as it is now it’s pretty muddled. It’s neither here nor there, and it’s slightly off-putting.

I was able to tolerate them, but I had a few other people try them and no one could make it past a chip or two, so I may just have a higher than average tolerance for sweet cinnamony chips. But clearly, these aren’t the chips I’ve been dreaming of.

Way to kill my dreams, Lay’s. Way to kill my dreams.

(Nutrition Facts – 50 grams/per 27 chips – 270 calories, 17 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 90 milligrams of sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 1 grams of fibre, 2 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.)

Item: Lay’s Cinnamon Bun Potato Chips (Canada)
Purchased Price: $3.50 CAN
Size: 180 gram bag
Purchased at: Hasty Market
Rating: 5 out of 10
Pros: Reasonable facsimile of the flavour of a cinnamon bun.
Cons: Cinnamon bun and potato chip flavours are just as incongruous as you’d think. Too subtle. Killer of dreams.

10 thoughts to “REVIEW: Lay’s Cinnamon Bun Potato Chips (Canada)”

  1. My first thought was “Aren’t there cinnamon-sugar Doritos?” No, there aren’t.

    Homemade won’t be as good, but if you use one of those “make your own tortilla chips in the oven in five minutes!” recipes and roll in cinnamon-sugar rather than salt, it’s a way of getting the fix.

  2. Last year around christmas time Walmart had a Great Value brand of corn chips that were cinnamon churro flavored. I bought a bag when they inevitably went on clearance and they were. . . okay. Not the best thing ever. Doritos would probably do a way better job of it.

  3. This is exactly how I felt about the Cinnamon Sugar Wheat Thins. The only chip I’ve found that comes close to providing enough coating are the Stacy’s Pita chips.

  4. Mission used to make Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips for the holidays. A friend bought a bag when we went to Disneyland and it didn’t even last the trip up. Alas, the stopped making them due to lack of sales.

  5. I’d probably be weird enough to actually enjoy these. Lay’s should consider using sweet potatoes too, they’d be the perfect vehicle for a liberal dosing of cinnamon sugar.

    I’d totally eat Doritos again if they’d make a churro flavor. The closest thing to it so far is Snyder’s of Hanover Sweet & Salty Cinnamon Sugar pretzel pieces. I’d eat an entire bag in 1 day.

  6. Cinnamon sugar Doritos would be awesome. A counter service Mexican Place in the Twin Cities area serves cinnamon sugar tortilla chips but they call them “sopapillas.” Aargh! (I mostly grew up in AZ/NM, so I would love an actual sopapilla once in a while, and haven’t been able to find one up in the Midwest.

  7. Actually I quite like these. Of the four flavours, this one is the closest to tasting what it’s supposed to taste like. With the addition of the buttermilk, they have nailed a cinnamon bun with cream cheese icing. Of the four, I think this is the best.

    The tzatziki is my least favourite, just has something weird in the taste that doesn’t appeal to my palette . The others are just mediocre takes on other chips that are out there, Old Dutch produces a Cheddar Jalapeno chip that is much better than the Jalapeno Mac and Cheese. Presidents Choice makes a poutine chip.

    But regardless of what you think of all the flavours, just go and vote for your favourite and hope that it wins because that’s what this is all about.

  8. These chips were horrible. My fiance said there was something she didn’t like about them, so I tried ONE of them, it was so horrible i had to literally use mouthwash to get the flavor out. They started with much taste like a cinnabun, but ended in a terrible bitterness like i just had a spoonful of baking soda. it was really really bad. I cannot recomend these to anyone ever. they are terrible.

  9. This was the most disgusting chip ive ever tried in my chip life. Take it off the shelf, they wont sell!

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