Pepsi Marinated Chicken Wings & 3 Other Potato Chip Flavors We’d Have To Be Drunk To Try

Sometimes it feels like every other country is having so much fun with their snacks and fast food while we’re just stuck with the ho-hum normal flavors of the West. Sour cream and onion-flavored potato chips? Fine, that’s tasty. BUT SO BORING. We can’t help but be jealous of countries like China, which has a vast array of Frito-Lay potato chips that come in flavors like “Pepsi Marinated Chicken Wings.” What in the what now? That has to be fun.

Okay so maybe PMCW chips (as they shall be called henceforth) sound a little… odd. But we love the fact that these aren’t just chicken wing-flavored chips, those wings have ostensibly marinating in Pepsi before being turned into chips.

Kotaku East takes on about 10 of the 20 available strange flavors of Chinese Lays to let the rest of the world what kind of party you can have in your mouth there if you can stomach it. Or if you get drunk enough to chow down on things like “Cheesy Lobster.” It’s funny though, that one of the “wacky” flavors listed is called “The American Classic.” Which tastes just like a potato chip, appparently.

A few of our favorites:

Mexican Tomato Chicken: Kotaku East’s Eric Jou says this one tastes like “chicken doused in ketchup.” Mexico is a long way from China, but we’re pretty sure a quick Internet search could turn up some more authentic ideas.

Cheesy Lobster:  Jou says this was the worst and “downright disgusting.” It also summoned up memories of eating not-so-fresh sushi, which is bad enough of an experience as is — doesn’t need to be put into a chip. Blech.

Italian Red Meat: This chip was “super bland” and although the bag advertised some kind of bolognese-looking sauce, Jou says the chip tasted nothing like it. We just love that it’s called “Italian Red Meat.”

Pepsi Marinated Chicken Wings: Jou saved the best for last and it sounds like it was an experience unlike any other snacking experience. He writes:

This chip is something else, something different, almost something that I wouldn’t call a potato product. The smell is almost medicinal, the taste is strange—at moments there is the Pepsi flavor, at other moments there is the taste of chicken, but it doesn’t feel right. There is a strange peppery feel when it goes down. It almost tastes like a science experiment gone wrong. Nowhere near the delightfully sweet and sour flavor of real cola marinated chicken.

Again, we’ve gotta give Kotaku East props for attempting such a feat without a 12-pack and an iron stomach. Anything less than that kind of set-up and we’d be unable to try a similar test.

Pepsi Marinated Chicken Wings? We’ve got Cheesy Lobster in China too. [Kotaku East]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.