11 Discontinued Lay's Chip Flavors That We Want To See Again

When you think of potato chips today, you probably think of a specific brand. Perhaps even one with a yellow and red logo. But the potato chip's creation is attributed to George Speck, who people often referred to as George Crum. In 1853, Crum created potato chips while working at a resort in Saratoga Springs. As the story goes, potato chips were born out of agitation when a customer sent french fries back to the kitchen for being too thick. Crum reportedly cut them extra thin and fried them until crunchy. From there, potato chips grew in popularity across the United States. As time passed, new inventions made potato chips easier for consumers to access. In 1926, trained nurse and lawyer Laura Scudder invented cellophane bags, ensuring potato chips' future as an on-the-go snack.

That brings us to Lay's, the most popular chip brand in the United States with over $4.27 billion in U.S. sales for 2024. Herman Lay, the founder of Lay's, got his start selling chips during the Great Depression in Nashville, Tennessee under the name H.W. Lay & Company. Over a decade later, he simplified the name to Lay's Potato Chips. But Lay's is only what we know today because Herman Lay partnered with C.E. Doolin, whose invention you likely know: Frito corn chips. Before the partnership of Frito-Lay, snack companies typically stayed regional. Frito-Lay became the first national brand during the merger in 1961.

In over six decades of operation, Frito-Lay — owned by PepsiCo— has dominated snack aisles. Lay's, their eponymous potato chip brand, continues to test the bounds of innovation with unique flavors. With that innovation comes risk, and sometimes certain flavors don't make the cut to stay in production. As of this publication, the brand has released over 300 flavors. Here, we explore some discontinued flavors we wish Lay's would bring back.

The Lay's "Do Us A Flavor" contest is a chip lover's dream since it allows fans to choose new flavors that Frito-Lay will produce. The final four most voted-for flavor ideas are produced by Lay's for a limited time — usually around three months or so — before a winner is chosen. In 2015, West Coast Truffle Fries was one of several flavors that made the cut to head to stores. It's not a huge leap for a potato chip to be flavored after a type of French fry, but truffle can be divisive. It's earthy, complex, and has an umami flavor that can have hints of nuttiness or even garlic. It's an overall pungent type of flavor and smell that reads well with any sort of potato, including potato chips.

When it came out a decade ago, reviewers noted that the West Coast Truffle Fries flavor reminded them of sour cream and onion chips. But that isn't stopping us from wanting it to come back better than ever. The fact of the matter is that people love truffle fries as an elevated option to the always delicious fry. If Lay's brings it back, we hope they listen to reviewers and lean more heavily into the rich flavors of truffle oil.

Sriracha is an icon of the condiment scene, taking chili peppers, sugar, garlic, salt, and vinegar and turning it into a spicy, bright red accompaniment to hundreds of dishes around the world. The origin of sriracha comes from Thanom Chakkapak in 1949, who developed a hot sauce that was runnier, similar to Tabasco. That runnier "Sriraja Panich" — named after Chakkapak's town Si Racha in Thailand — sauce had a fan named David Tran who lived in Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, Tran sought asylum in the United States; he in turn created his own version of the condiment under the name Huy Fong foods. Before its many supply chain issues from the global pandemic, Huy Fong foods had over $150 million in revenue in 2022.

In 2013, Sriracha Lay's were another one of the Lay's "Do Us A Flavor" finalists, further cementing people's love for the condiment. While they didn't win (our next flavor took that honor), fans loved the Sriracha Lay's, citing the slow burn and how it was able to capture the complex flavor of sriracha well in potato chip form. Today, Huy Fong has bounced back from its production issues, but we wouldn't mind another sriracha snack on the market.

What isn't there to love about cheesy, ultra-flavorful garlic bread? It's got the gooey, stretchy cheese and the pungent aroma of garlic on top of delicious, crusty bread for a bite that is warm and welcoming every time. It's perhaps why the Lay's Cheesy Garlic Bread flavor was so popular back in 2013 when it beat out Sriracha and Chicken & Waffles as the final one standing in the "Do Us A Flavor" contest.

Since its win, the flavor has gotten a bit of a cult following with fans raving about it online calling for the flavor to come back. And for a time, some got their wish. Retail giant Sam's Club did in fact bring Cheesy Garlic Bread Lay's back for a limited time in their warehouses in 2024. Unfortunately, it didn't last as a permanent option on the snack shelves and Lay's hasn't shared any more information on if or when it would bring back limited time flavors, even if they were well-received and delicious.

History tells us that biscuits and gravy are the byproduct of Southern Appalachian ingenuity. And with many hearty meals of old, it started as a cheap way to feed hard working blue collar workers in the way "sawmill gravy" fed lumber workers. Over time the dish gained traction across the South and then moved its way across the country. The original biscuits that folks used in the dish weren't the ones we know today. It was made with flour and water, perhaps a little salt, but no leavening agent or fat, which made them brittle and hard. But then came things like pre-made mix which eased the process of creation.

Today, biscuits and gravy is a deeply emotional dish for many, harkening back to childhoods spent at the kitchen table and that nostalgia got it a win in the Lay's "Do Us A Flavor" contest in 2015. Reviewers loved the Southern Biscuits and Gravy flavor and they were passionately vocal about it online. It is perhaps the one flavor out of all the past contest flavors that fans want to see back the most (there are even petitions calling for it to be produced again). For about three years it graced shelves, but it doesn't seem there are any plans to bring it back as of this publication.

Cheese cannot be understated as an incredibly important part of American cuisine, dare we even say international cuisine. Cheesemaking is a craft that was started some 10,000 years ago and cultures around the world have their own flavors and means of making that reflect the history and tastes of their people. But cheese can rot or go wrong at any step of the process, making processed cheese a big win for food production. It became so popular because processed cheese was able to feed people quickly and efficiently. So efficiently, in fact, that Kraft had the U.S. Army as a customer during World War I. The Army bought 25 million quarter-pound tins of processed cheese at that time. It's no surprise that mac and cheese became the next logical step for Kraft.

No matter what type of mac and cheese a person likes — melty, crunchy, extra seasoned, basic — bacon is a well loved pairing for pasta and cheese. It's perhaps this natural pairing's popularity that earned Cheddar Bacon Mac & Cheese potato chips a spot in Lay's "Do Us A Flavor" contest of 2014. Not everyone who tried the flavor got the bacon essence, but if it were to be brought back, a further focus on the smokiness and fattiness of bacon would send the flavor over the edge.

When you get sushi, it often comes with two condiments on the side: wasabi and ginger. Wasabi is first thought to have been eaten by the Japanese people as early as 14,000 BC. It comes from a green root called the Wasabia japonica plant, which many call the Japanese horseradish. Real wasabi has a sharp taste and has heat that isn't quite spicy like hot sauce, but causes tingling and can even, in some especially strong cases, elicit tears. It's often paired with sushi because it masks the smell of raw fish, which can be a turn off for some, and adds that famous heat. On the flip side, ginger is often used to cleanse the palate. With sushi, where raw, pickled ginger is often served, it reduces bacterial contamination as well as cleansing the palate between rolls.

In 2014, the Wasabi Ginger Lay's beat out Mango Salsa and Cheddar Bacon Mac & Cheese to be the official winner of the "Do Us a Flavor" contest. The contest winner shared with Yahoo! Food that the flavor was, "inspired by my grandmother: She's Japanese, and I grew up eating her sushi." Fans online have been raving about the flavor for over a decade, but as with the others on our list, Lay's has no current plans to bring it back.

Tikka masala is a curry dish from India that features small pieces of meat marinated in yogurt and spices before cooking (tikka) and a spiced red sauce (masala). Whether served with chicken or vegetarian featuring paneer or vegetables, tikka masala is a staple food in Indian culture. Takeaway restaurants around the world serve their own versions of tikka masala. It's such a popular dish in Great Britain that it's considered to be one of the area's national dishes. Its origins are debated, with some positing that it is the result of a chef in Glasgow, Scotland while others believe it to be derived from butter chicken, another famous Indian staple from the country's northern region.

Lay's served up its Indian Tikka Masala potato chips in 2014 alongside other flavors that paid tribute to cuisine found around the world. As part of the company's "Passport to Flavor," which is different from the "Do Us A Flavor" competition, the Indian Tikka Masala chips were meant to introduce chip lovers to new flavor profiles that they may not have tasted before. As such, there were no winners or a contest, but for the time the flavor was in stores, fans seemed to love it.

Bagels with cream cheese are a breakfast staple, but the history of the bagel goes far back, far before any of us were here. In the 13th century it's believed that Jewish bakers in what is now Poland made single-serving circular breads. When a wave of Jewish immigrants came to the United States in the 1800s, they brought what we know as modern day bagels with them. Cream cheese got its start in New York thanks to William A. Lawrence. If you're a fan of Philadelphia Cream Cheese — arguably the most famous brand of cream cheese in the country — you can thank Lawrence for that.

Together, bagels and cream cheese have become important parts of people's diets, and the everything bagel is one of the top most eaten flavors of all. It makes sense that, when Lindsay Hoffman submitted the Everything Bagel with Cream Cheese flavor to the Lay's "Do Us A Flavor" contest in 2017, the company decided to bring the flavor to life. As an avid bagel and cream cheese lover herself, she shared that she thought Lay's did "a phenomenal job" in replicating the creamy, savory, and complex flavors (via The Gainesville Sun). 

People have strong opinions about pizza, especially if they live in one of the top pizza cities in the country. For many, deep dish pizza is too much. Too much crust. Too much sauce. But for those who love it, deep dish represents culture and history. The dish was created in Chicago, Illinois in 1943, but over time, the standard recipe has evolved to be thicker (the original was about half the height of modern interpretations) with sturdier dough. Taking a cast iron pan, yeasty dough is added and then the layers begin. A deep dish pizza typically includes sauce, cheese, and toppings with a final layer of sauce on top.

Deep dish pizza is quintessential Chicago, and Lay's wanted to capitalize on local flavors in their "Tastes of America" campaign with a Deep Dish Pizza flavor back in 2018. It was inspired by Giordano's, a Chicago legend when it comes to deep dish. Fans thought the chips tasted as close to pizza as a chip could be, and several times since 2018 the flavor has been brought back in stores. However, Lay's hasn't shared any plans to make it a permanent fixture in its chip line-up as of this publication.

Sweet and salty is a flavor combination most people can't get enough of. It takes savory elements and uses them to cut against overly sweet flavors, and the Lay's Wavy Milk Chocolate potato chips did just that. Back in 2013, Lay's launched perhaps one of a handful of sweet and dessert-inspired potato chips. The difference between the Milk Chocolate flavor and Lay's Honey Butter flavor is that Milk Chocolate took regular flavored potato chips and lathered them in a layer of milk chocolate.

After the flavor was launched in the United States, it made its way to Canada, though it was a limited release in both countries. As with many of the company's limited releases, the Wavy Milk Chocolate flavor was temporarily brought back in 2021. Perhaps in part due to the fan fervor around the flavor, Lay's released a recipe to make chocolate covered potato chips at home for those unwilling to wait for another limited release.

As with most snacks that are discontinued, parent company's rarely give a reason, even when the snack is popular. One Lay's potato chip flavor that had fans reeling from its absence was the Garden Tomato and Basil flavor. Back in 2011, Frito-Lay culinary scientist Elizabeth D'Cunha shared that Garden Tomato and Basil was inspired by summer and the ripeness of fresh tomatoes, which she called "the best part of summer" (via YouTube). And it seems that the inspiration created more than a mere imitation in the final product.

There are plenty of chips that have tried to capture the vibrant, fresh taste of tomato and basil, but the spot-on flavor of the Lay's version is one that fans keep coming back to. Years on from the flavor being launched, fans are still calling on Frito-Lay to bring back the flavor across social media and even with a Change.org petition, but as of this publication, Frito-Lay still isn't budging.