The Snack Attack: Grab Your Passport, Lay's Goes Global With 4 New Chip Flavors [TASTE TEST]

As top-notch athletes go for the gold at the summer Olympics, Lay's is giving us regular folks a chance to work our arm muscles with four special edition chips.

The "Passport to Flavor" chips take our taste-buds on a global adventure inspired by four ethnic flavors: Brazilian Picanha, Chinese Szechuan Chicken, Greek Tzatziki and Indian Tikka Masala.

Hey, who said you can't get a workout while sitting on the couch? I usually call it the 12 oz. curl, straight from the tabletop to my mouth -- and with four separate bags to work through, your biceps should be bulging by the time you're done. Give those Olympic athletes a run for their money, boy!

All four international flavors are available for a limited time.

Review: Lay's "Passport To Flavor" Chips

I've actually never tried any of these flavors "in real life." So you can take that for what it is -- either I'm the best person to be testing these, because I have nothing to compare them to, or I'm the worst.

Brazilian Picanha
The potato chip captures the flavor of Picanha, the finest cut of Brazilian steak, which is skewer-grilled with coarse salt to lock in flavor with a mix of chimichurri sauce.

For some reason, this was the only bag that included a translation of what the flavor actually is -- steak and chimichurri sauce. If the smell of these chips isn't enough to repulse you, the taste might be. One of my coworkers loves chimichurri sauce, and even she thinks these were gross. There's a hint of garlic and a little bit of a leafy flavor, but I didn't taste steak at all. Another coworkers said these taste like seaweed. The bag says that after one taste, you'll be saying "Mais, por favor!" I highly disagree with that. More like, "Não Mais! NÃO MAIS!"

Chinese Szechuan Chicken
The regional Sichuan Pepper is where takeout favorite Szechuan Chicken gets its name. The potato chip embodies the dish with the tongue-tingling sensation of "málà."

The smell of these chips is almost enough to knock you over. I feel like I'm sitting in the middle of a Chinese restaurant, and I don't like it. I'm not a huge fan of Chinese food, but I feel like the taste with this chip is almost right on the money. Maybe not the Szechuan money, but definitely what Americans think of when it comes to Chinese food. That being said, the taste isn't the best. There's a little bit of a spice, but it mostly just tastes like a really salty batch of fried rice with too much soy sauce.

Greek Tzatziki
Made up of a mix of dill, garlic and other unique spices added to yogurt, Tzatziki is a Mediterranean classic.

This chip has the lightest flavor out of the bunch, which is nice. I don't know about you folks but I still like to taste the potato in my potato chip. And the real surprise here is these chips actually taste like Tzatziki (I'm told)! My mouth is basically taking a trip to Greektown right now. The taste of dill and garlic are unmistakable, and you can even detect a little creaminess from the yogurt. The bag says these chips will have you saying "Opa!" and I couldn't agree more.

Indian Tikka Masala
Packed with flavorful spices like turmeric and cumin, the tomato-based dish Tikka Masala is a fixture in global cuisine.

I've never heard of Tikka Masala before. Actually, I've never even had Indian food before, so this was my first experience with the cuisine. Tikka Masala is basically chunks of cooked chicken in a creamy spiced tomato sauce. Sounds good, but how does that translate to a chip? It's definitely weird. At first, there's a slight sweetness and, I know this might sound crazy, hints of cinnamon. After the sweetness goes away, you can taste the Indian spices but the flavor is still very weird. As my coworker perfectly summed it up: "These weren't disgusting, but I wouldn't eat them on purpose." If anything, these have piqued my interest to try some real Indian food.

The Verdict

In the end, the only chip I ended up "liking" is the Greek Tzatziki. I say it like that because I wouldn't go out seeking a bag of these chips. But out of the four flavors, it is the best. The other ones, honestly, tasted like garbage.

The Snack Attack is a feature on CBSDetroit.com that centers around all things food. Know of a new snack we should attack? Send an email and we'll be sure to add it to the list.