MARCH 14TH IS NATIONAL POTATO CHIP DAY AND THE 166TH ANNIVERSAY OF THE POTATO CHIP! MICHIGAN’S FAVORITE POTATO CHIP – BETTER MADE – IS 89 THIS YEAR!
DETROIT, MI – Better Made Snack Foods – still made fresh daily in Detroit – is celebrating National Potato Chip Day on Thursday, March 14th, the 166th anniversary of the Potato Chip. For 89 delicious years Better Made has been Michigan’s favorite potato chip – a snack that remains the largest selling segment of the salty snacks market with over $15B in sales world wide. Michiganders still eat more chips than people in any other state.
Not bad, considering the potato chip started as a prank! Here’s the story of the joke that became a worldwide sensation: Potato Chips were first made in 1853 while Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt was on vacation in New York. While at the Moon’s Lake Lodge, he kept sending his fried potatoes back to the kitchen because he said they were too thick and not crunchy enough. The chef, Native American George Crum, decided that he would cut them into paper-thin slices, boil them in oil, fry them, and salt them as a joke to the Commodore. It backfired as they became an instant success and the restaurant became well known for them!
In 1896 when chips became a staple in cracker barrels and in glass cases, a woman came up with the idea of using a heated iron and waxed paper to form the first potato chip bag. The bags were filled as people bought them and sealed shut with the warming iron. And believe it or not, during WWII, the Government declared potato chips to be a nonessential food and banned their production! It wasn’t until a loud cry went up all over the country that they rescinded their order!
“We have several different flavors of potato chips and are always experimenting with new flavors,” says David Jones, President of Better Made. “We have many different types of BBQ chips available, including our newest flavor, Southern Style Sweet Heat BBQ, and our Red Hot BBQ flavor was featured in Rachel Ray Every Day Magazine last July/August.”
“You can find all kinds of chips but we believe nothing is better than Detroit’s own Better Made brand. We’ve been perfecting our way of making great tasting chips for over 89 years and people love to eat them! We always encourage people to send a case to a friend, family member, or someone in the military.”
