Bacon in its crispiest possible form

A Facebook post by my fellow bacon aficionado Daniel Boutros got me thinking about one of my favorite bacon-related snack treats, one that I’m frankly outraged is not freely available here in the US. I’m talking of course about Smoky Bacon flavored crisps – or potato chips, if you must.

Invented in the UK, the bacon chip was a perennial favorite in my youth and remains so to this day. I’ve always felt that, as with chocolate, America lags shockingly behind Europe in its attitude toward, and quality of, its crisps but recent years have shown some promising signs of cultural growth as top UK flavors like Salt & Vinegar and Cheese & Onion have made some stateside inroads. But Smoky Bacon has yet to cross the pond, so for my American cousins tragically unaware of this most awesome of flavors, I provide this link so that you might order them online and sample them for yourselves. You can thank me later.

Of course if you’re REALLY serious about your bacon crisps, you need to vault right over the rather pedestrian idea of flavoring regular potato chips with bacon flavoring and proceed to the king of all bacon-flavored snacks – the FRAZZLE.

Frazzles are basically the pure essence of bacon distilled down perfectly into crunchy chip form. Technically they’re corn chips, but that doesn’t diminish the bacon-tastic flavor explosion that occurs with every bite in any way. Seriously, if you’ve never tried these, you must. I’ve even provided a handy link so you can import them! Frazzles even have their very own Facebook fan page with almost 10,000 fans!

Smiths, the inventors of Frazzles, subsequently tried to top themselves with the introduction of Bacon Flavoured Fries, which are basically just posh Frazzles. Launched off the back of the success of Scampi Flavoured Fries, they became popular as a behind-the-bar pub snack but never really captured the imagination of the general public the way Frazzles did. Still, we should never complain about one more bacon-flavored snack.