Utz Onion & Garlic Potato Chips

I really like Utz potato chips.  Utz always maintains a very high level of quality, they have a great assortment of snacks to choose from, and they're a growing company that still remembers their roots as a small Pennsylvania outfit.  I was really happy when they started expanding their distribution network into my corner of New England, because the Connecticut Valley lost it's only local chip company some time ago - a victim of the suburbanization of much of the farmland they depended upon for their spuds.

Anyway, when I see a chip flavor I haven't tried before, I usually pick up a bag to give it a try.  I happened upon Utz Onion and Garlic chips and thought they sounded interesting...and they were.   The onion flavor is dominant, leaving the garlic as a faint hint in the background (not necessarily objectionable, depending upon how you feel about "garlic breath") but the most pronounced flavor I got from them was "sweet."    Yes, along with the onion and garlic powders, the ingredients include sugar and dextrose.  Straight from the bag, alongside a burger, the sweet taste was a little off-putting, like it didn't really belong.

On the other hand, served with a dip as a snack, the sweeter taste worked really well.  The sweet and onion flavors combined together to make a plain sour cream dip as delicious as a custom-blended onion dip.

So I guess I'm of two minds about these chips.  I don't think I'd want to just serve them up with dogs or burgers as a straight side chip.  But on the snack table at a cookout, set by a couple of bowls of dip, they'd be pretty awesome.
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