Zingerman’s Brand Artisanal Potato Chips—It’s All About the Spices

By The Ann Arbor Independent Editorial Team Last updated Mar 2, 2017 2

The Ann Arbor News Editorial Team

Zingerman’s recently “introduced” its new potato chips, available in three flavors: Detroit Street Barbecue, Tellicherry Black Pepper, and French Grey Sea Salt.

This is not the first time Zingerman’s has “done” potato chips. First there were the Spudmaster Potato Chips that cost $16 for a 10 oz. box. Here’s the description of those “retired” potato chips from Zingerman’s Mail Order Catalog.

After a long hiatus, the crew at Spudmaster is back in action! While the fun box and huge size caught my eye—some of the chips are six inches long—it’s the details that deserve the attention. They use fresh potatoes only, not frozen. None are “chipping” potatoes, which is industry lingo for a bland potato bred to withstand frying. The scrubbed, unpeeled potatoes are picked for flavor. The cooking times are modified for each batch, just like bakers do.

Blanched, spiced, baked and then laid in the bag so they don’t break, Spudmaster chips are an outlier on the potato chip spectrum. Where most are worried about clever spices, Spudmaster spends time getting the potato flavor right. It works.

These chips are cooked in peanut oil.

The current artisanal potato chip project started last December, almost by accident.

“We’ve been working with Épices de Cru for a long time. They’re very exciting, and their spices are exciting,” says Co-Managing Partner and Deli Chef Rodger Bowser.

Not too surprisingly, the spices from the Montreal-based company, which sources their world-class products from all over the globe, tasted great on freshly made chips. That got Bowser thinking about making potato chips a regular menu item, but the time and process required to make chips in-house on a daily basis didn’t seem feasible.

“I thought, ‘I don’t want to fry chips. There’s got to be someone who’s way better at this than me that I could get the spices to,” he says.

Bowser says he cold called Great Lakes Potato Chip Company, a family-owned business from Traverse City, Michigan, that he was eager to work with.

“The owner, Chris Girrbach, said, ‘This is a no brainer. We’re kind of wondering why you didn’t call earlier.’ The conversation was a slam dunk,” says Rodger, who loves what Great Lakes Potato Chip Company is doing and that they’re using Michigan potatoes. “They’re making a great skin-on potato chip. The flavor’s great, the crunch is nice.”

When he mentioned the idea to his fellow Managing Partners in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, his enthusiasm was matched.

“We were off and running. Now I had to figure out how to get the product to market,” says Bowser, laughing.

He began testing different flavors with Great Lakes, sending them the Épices de Cru spices, which he felt were an absolute must for the chips he wanted to produce. They experimented with 20 different varieties over a few months and settled on three to start production: French Grey Sea Salt, Barbecue, and Tellicherry Black Pepper. They discovered some unexpected flavors that worked well, too, and Rodger is planning a few special edition runs that could include Trinidad curry, Spanish paprika (he’s the most excited about this one) and maybe even a chip that tastes like Zingerman’s famous pickles.

After some serious number crunching, countless spreadsheets, and finding a distributor (Cherry Capital Foods), the next step was creating the great packaging that Zingerman’s is known for to pull the project together. Staff illustrator Ryan Stiner created a fun depiction of the Deli for the new bags.

“I was really excited to get to work on this project – potato chips are one of my favorite foods! I knew I wanted to create something iconic – so that whenever and wherever you saw these bags you’d know where they came from and the quality they stood for. I quickly realized that the deli building looks pretty similar to a bag of chips and the design just kind of came together from there.”

Zingerman’s Chips are available at the Deli, Bakehouse, and Roadhouse. Also, you can get them in your Zingerman’s Catering Bag Lunches.