17 Regional Chip Brands Worth Trying

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What connects one of the world's richest men, an English optician, and a notorious gangster? The potato chip, of course! George Crum reportedly made them for fussy railroad titan Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1853, a few decades after "The Cook's Oracle," published by William Kitchiner, featured the recipe among its pages, and rumor has it Al Capone discovered them on a trip to Saratoga. 

Potato chips are now a giant of the snack world, and not just in the United States. There are unique and wonderful flavors for sale across the globe, and while Americans' favorite brand may be Lay's, that is far from the only provider. Across the country, snack lovers regularly rip open packets of chips that are made on right in their own backyards. But what do Alabamians prefer, and which are a local fave in Utah? Come with us on a whistle-stop tour as we round up 17 regional chip brands that are worth munching on.

Some schools take their children to museums or theaters for field trips. For kids living in and around Birmingham, Alabama, the Golden Flake potato chip factory was the destination of choice. The chance to eat warm chips, fresh from the oven, was so popular there was a months-long wait list. Although production moved to Pennsylvania in 2023, over 100 years, Golden Flake went from a nickel-and-dime, basement operation between Mose Lischkoff and Frank Mosher, to a multi-million dollar business.

Today, Golden Flake potato chips are made by Utz and available to buy online, so chip fans across the United States can savor the range that includes vinegar and salt, dill pickle, and cheddar and sour cream.

Alaska is full of many unique foodie delights, like akutaq, or Eskimo ice cream, and the traditional Inuit food of muktuk, made of whale blubber. It's also home to the Alaska Chip Company, which has been churning out its all-natural potato chips since 2003. Made from locally-sourced potatoes that have been grown under the midnight sun, and containing no additives or preservatives, they're beloved by locals across the state and they've been a big hit with tourists, too. 

Thanks to the internet, chip fans across the United States can also get their hands on one of the Alaska Chip Company's five flavors. They are: The lightly salted Alaska Chip, the Chilkoot Chip, which is sour cream and chive, the jalapeño Volcano Chip, the Bering Chip, with its sea salt and vinegar tang, and the popular barbecue Grizzly Chip. You can even give them a chilly home from away from home with this storage advice.

Anyone who visited the beach in Orange County over the past 40 years or so probably tucked into a bag of Rusty's Chips. The company is all about "surf life, killer snacks, and having a blast with friends," and its instantly recognizable, funky-colored bags have become legendary among the OC community. Rusty's Chips are made by hand, from washing the potatoes (which the company insists contain zero chemical treatments) to the slicing and seasoning. The small-batch results are worth it.

A Facebook post included throwback photos from a few delighted customers. One praised Rusty's for making "the ultimate potato chip," while another asked if they could be sold by the case and shipped to the buyer's home. In 2024, Rusty's Chips was bought by Newport Beach-based Cooper Brands, and the bags are available to buy online.

There aren't many companies that can compete in a cutthroat market and stay true to its roots, but Denver Chip Co. in Colorado is one. It's a spin-off from the same family's established business: Broad Ripple Chip Co, and is notable for a few reasons. First, Denver Chip Co. only uses one type of potato, the Idaho Russet. Second, after being prepared by hand, they are fried in small batches in canola oil. Third, the chips come in just two flavors: Original, which has a garlic hint, and Sweet & Spicy.

Alton Brown dubbed Broad Ripple Chip Co. chips "incredible," while other reviews rave about the quality and taste. If you're in Colorado and feeling peckish, you can pick up a pack of the crunchy, slightly sweet potato chips at around 150 outlets across the state. 

In 1936, Raymond Atebara put his name to a potato chip company and began producing bags of tasty snacks. However, when the tubers became scarce due to World War II rationing, Atebara replaced them with locally grown Taro roots, creating a first for the island. The savory snacks are still made and enjoyed to this day — but they're not the only chip options on offer.

The Atebara Chip Company also makes chips from traditional potatoes and gorgeous purple sweet potatoes, but the flavors take them to the next level. The company uses unique ingredients for its chips, including authentic Japanese seasoning furikake, sriracha peppers, and candied ginger. The bags of chips are a common sight in local stores and are popular with tourists, but you don't have to travel for miles to get your hands on a packet. Atebara's sister brand, Hawaii Island, is sold online.

Iconic is a good word to describe Mrs. Fisher's potato chips brand. This Illinois firm started life in 1932 in the Rockford kitchen of Ethel and Eugene Fisher, who did everything by hand, including coming up with the company's familiar "dancing potato" logo. After the couple divorced, the business then moved around several production sites, until it settled at its current west side location.

Generations of locals have fond memories of Ethel's bags of "Penny Chips," and although the potatoes are now peeled by a machine lovingly dubbed SpudNik, the quality remains the same. That includes the thickness of each potato chip, which is a closely guarded secret, according to VP Chris Spiess. Company owner Roma Hailman is pleased that customers can still get Mrs. Fisher's chips directly from the production site. "We know everybody by their first names," she told the Rockford Register Star.

For 50 years, people in Burlington chowed down on bags of Sterzing's Potato Chips, knowing they could only be bought in a 50-mile radius of the city. The product of entrepreneurial candy maker Barney Sterzing, he launched his potato chips in the summer of 1933, and made daily small batches. To this day, the company still uses his slow-cooking method to produce its chips. 

There have been some changes. Requests from soldiers serving in the Vietnam War prompted them to sell nationally and internationally. In the 1980s, the Sterzing's company introduced its first new product for decades: A ruffled chip, while the flavor line-up has been expanded with sweet and spicy BBQ, and sour cream and onion. The company said its potato chips are still made fresh every day. 

While some regional snack companies became household names across the globe, others had a tougher route to success. Kansas City-based Guy Caldwell was the man behind Guy's Nut & Candy Company, roasting peanuts at home after World War II and selling them with his wife's help. Shortly after, he started making potato chips, before expanding his range and changing the company name to Guy's Snacks.

At its height, the company's Missouri production plant employed 1,000 people, but when Caldwell retired in 1979, things started to go downhill. After passing through the hands of several owners, and entering bankruptcy in 2001, Andrew Miller snapped it up and brought the brand back to life. Today, the company continues to sell its legendary potato chips as well as ridged chips and snacks from its own website and other online sites.

Back in the day, people in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, didn't just have milk delivered to their door — their snacks came that way too, thanks to Charles Chips and its iconic tan-colored vans. The company was launched by the Musser family in 1942,who packaged its potato chips in reusable cans and delivered them to customers' doors.

Charles Chips of yesteryear probably wouldn't have needed any hacks to revive stale chips, as social media users revealed that tins were often empty as the chips were eaten so fast, while others remembered how neighborhood children would get excited at seeing the distinctive delivery van. In 1994 Charles Chips was acquired by Blevins Concession Supply Co., which went bankrupt in 1997. Fast forward a few years and in 2011, the Scardino family breathed new life into the business, selling the iconic tins – and now bags — of potato chips online.

The United States' snacks industry is a competitive space but the Massachusetts' based, Tri-Sum potato chip company is still run by a relative of J.P. Duchesneau, who launched it as the Leominster Potato Chip Company in 1908. For decades, loyal customers in Fitchburg and Leominster bought packs of Tri-Sum, which were gradually sold across the wider New England region. Online reviewers found the company's original flavor chips are softer than other brands and less salty, while the range also includes more recent additions, honey barbecue and sour cream and onion.

In 2025, three years after he dismissed rumors that the company was closing, J.P.'s grandson Richard Duchesneau told CBS Boston how people go to the "enth degree" to get their hands on bags of Tri-Sum potato chips. "We're not that widely distributed because we're a small local brand," he said.

Detroit is famous for cars, music, and a unique style of pizza. But ask any local about their favorite potato chip brand and chances are they'll say Better Made. Founded by cousins Peter Cipriano and Cross Moceri in 1930, the company expanded its product and flavor range over the decades. It became an icon for the city's residents, who loved the smell of freshly-cooked chips coming from the Gratiot Avenue production site. 

Better Made potato chips are cooked in cottonseed oil, setting the snacks apart from competitors and potentially helping them go the distance in a competitive market. Their delicious taste isn't just popular with Detroit residents — Rachael Ray and magician Penn Jillette are among the brand's celebrity fans.

The simplest recipes are often the best. For Upstate New York brand Terrell's, cooking small batches of thinly sliced potatoes has been a winning formula since 1946. According to the company, founder William Terrell made "one of the world's great potato chips," and many loyal consumers agree.

Snack lovers can choose from four types of Terrell's potato chip: Original and ripple style, as well as Syracuse style, described in this Reddit thread as "Like a mix of salt and vinegar and barbecue flavoring mixed together," and, "the best chip to ever exist." In 2023, the company's original recipe Bar-B-Que chips were revived, to the delight of social media followers who probably thought they would never come back. The following year, Terrell's teamed up with former Syracuse University quarterback Kyle McCord and issued bags of honey BBQ sharp cheddar potato chips. 

Food inspiration can come from anywhere, and for Tiffin, Ohio, residents Ethel and Fred Ballreich in 1920, it was the "Marcel" wavy hair style that gave them the idea for their own style of potato chips. What began as a two-person operation eventually grew to become a major business, producing multiple snacks. Fast-forward through several highs and lows to 2019, and the family business was sold to the Ballreich Snack Food Company (run by a group of Ohio investors).

With an expanded range of flavors, including sweet Thai chili, honey butter, and smoked cheddar and onion — which were dubbed a "a sit on the couch and eat the whole bag" snack by these online reviewers, as well as the rebranded Classic Thins (formerly Fantastic Flats), devotees of Ballreich's potato chips are spoiled for snacking choice. As for the "Marcelled" style snacks? They're available to buy online, too.

Many regional potato chip brands have been going for decades, but South Carolina outfit Lowcountry Kettle Chips prove there's still room for newcomers. It launched in 2016 with a bloody Mary flavor, which was soon joined by Carolina Reaper, Spicy Pimento Cheese, Mustard BBQ Sauce, State Fair Fried Pickle, and Sea Salt. Cooked in canola or sunflower oil and gluten-free, the chips are stocked at locations across the southeast, including Whole Foods and Harris Teeter's. 

These Southern flavor-forward snacks took off like a rocket, and founders Andrew Trumbull and Clayton Wynne soon found demand outstripped what their Dorchester Road production facility could supply. Today, the chips are carefully made by a third party to Trumbull and Wynne's exact recipes. If this Instagram review is anything to go by, Lowcountry Kettle Chips is on the road to long-term success.

With a bag that leaps at shoppers from the shelves and an ethos that puts "common sense" and "making time for things that matter," Dakota Style potato chips burst onto the market in 1985. The company hand-selects its potatoes then slices them extra thick for what it calls an "industrial strength" bite before they are open-kettle cooked.

The brand's available flavors also pack a punch: They are jalapeño, honey mustard, dill pickle, mesquite BBQ, and salt and vinegar. Although the funky packaging might not be to everyone's taste, they are popular across South Dakota — and beyond. One online reviewer described them as "not an everyday chip," while Chip's Chips on Facebook "liked everything" about them in his video. Happily for snack lovers across the United States, you can buy Dakota Style chips from the company's website and select other snacks online.

For almost 70 years, the Utah village of Kaysville was home to a snack food company that distributed its products across 11 states in the west of the country. Clover Club was the brainchild of enterprising young couple Hod and Clover Sanders. They used a bank loan to buy their first chip kettle and swapped a piano for a delivery truck. 

By 2000, amid parent company Granny Goose's financial difficulties, Clover Club chips and snack production was discontinued. But, the brand story wasn't over. In around 2002, the man behind Don Julio Foods, Craig Fisher, bought the company. Although Tyson Foods snapped up the Don Julio brand in 2013, Clover Club chips are still going strong. Utah snack lovers can choose from five flavors: salt and vinegar, tangy barbecue, cheddar and sour cream, sour cream and onion, and classic golden.

Snack fans in West Virginia and Ohio will be familiar with Mister Bee chips, and its habit of issuing special edition chips. The company has been turning whole potatoes of all shapes and sizes into delicious potato chips, cooked low and slow for lots of flavor. That's where Bite Brands-owned Mister Bee sets itself apart from competitors.

Yes, its sells traditional tastes like BBQ and sour cream and onion, but alongside those are pepperoni roll, the exclusive (304) style — a particular favorite of Mountain State locals — and the 2025 Mothman Style Mysterious Spice Blend chip. Turns out, these special bags are Mister Bee's way of saluting "the best of West Virginia," per The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. Keep your eyes peeled and you can pick up a bag of Mister Bee chips online.