Fans of food: A potato chip journey

Business Insider

How are Lay’s grown and made? Follow the story with @how.kev.eats.

Transcript

00:00Hi, my name is Kevin.

00:03I'm a food reviewer online,

00:04and I'm a huge fan of Lay's chips.

00:06My favorite Lay's flavor, limon.

00:08The combination of this and Persian yogurt, unmatched.

00:11And PepsiCo just offered to fly me out

00:13to see how these are grown and made.

00:15A 10-year-old in me cannot refuse.

00:17So naturally I jumped on the offer,

00:18headed to Wisconsin right now.

00:20Or, you know, in a second.

00:22All right, let's go.

00:24I made it.

00:26We're at Heartland Farms today.

00:28I'm extremely excited to be here.

00:29This is gonna be awesome.

00:31Let's go check out what they do.

00:33Hey, I'm Kevin.

00:34TJ, nice to meet you.

00:35I've been eating Lay's potato chips my whole life.

00:38Is it at all possible that I've actually had a chip

00:42from a potato that was produced on this field?

00:44Yep, absolutely.

00:45That's really cool.

00:46Do you have a favorite Lay's potato chip?

00:48I do.

00:49I love Lay's potato chips.

00:51I love Lay's potato chips.

00:52Do you have a favorite Lay's potato chip flavor?

00:54My favorite is Lay's Original.

00:57I'm a limon guy.

00:58I love limon chips.

00:59That's a good one too.

01:00So how long does it take to grow a potato

01:01from planting to harvest?

01:03It is amazing how quick a potato plant grows.

01:05You know, we have early maturing varieties

01:07that take around 90 days up to 140 to 150 days.

01:11Can we dig some potatoes up?

01:12Let's take a look at them.

01:16What exactly are you looking for in a perfect potato?

01:19The rounder, the better.

01:20Shallow eyes and just about that size.

01:23Our two most valuable resources

01:25to grow a good crop like this is water

01:28and high quality soil to make that perfect chip.

01:32Do you ever play catch on the field?

01:33Once in a while.

01:35Give me a toss here.

01:38Good throw.

01:40No luck, baby.

01:42Wow, this thing is massive.

01:44Yes, it is.

01:45I'm Jeremy.

01:46Nice to meet you.

01:47Nice to meet you.

01:47What exactly are we standing on right now?

01:49We are on a self-propelled four-row potato harvester

01:53and we'll be harvesting about 40,000 potatoes

01:57every single minute.

01:58Did you say every single minute?

01:59Every single minute.

02:00We go back to when my great-great-grandfather

02:03emigrated from Poland and had the opportunity

02:06to build a life here in central Wisconsin.

02:08He chose to grow potatoes.

02:10It's in our blood.

02:11That's amazing.

02:12You want to go for a ride?

02:13Absolutely.

02:16When I'm on the harvester,

02:17I feel like the king of the farm.

02:20After the harvests, we follow the potatoes

02:22to see where they get washed, sorted by size,

02:25and then check for quality.

02:26We also have a team that do the final inspection.

02:29By hand?

02:30By hand.

02:31Just to make sure that only the highest quality

02:34get put into a bag of chips.

02:35Wow.

02:36Thank you so much for today.

02:37This was amazing.

02:40Thank you for being a fan.

02:41You're welcome.

02:43We just took the potatoes out of the ground.

02:45Now I get to see what they actually do with them.

02:48Hey, Kevin, nice to meet you.

02:50Before you hit the floor, we got to get you suited up.

02:57This is where it's all made.

03:00So these are the potatoes

03:01that you saw getting harvested this morning.

03:03That's amazing.

03:04We follow the potatoes to the iconic potato slicer,

03:08and then they were off to get cooked.

03:10Oh, the smell.

03:11It smells insanely good.

03:12Oh my God.

03:14And just like that,

03:15thousands of beautiful chips are coming out

03:17on this conveyor.

03:19This is where everything gets seasoned.

03:21We got a surprise for you.

03:22Oh my God, is this a limon chip?

03:24This is the limon chip, yep.

03:26Ladies and gentlemen, we have limon.

03:28That is a hot and fresh limon chip.

03:33Fresh off the press.

03:34The 10 year old in me has his eyes wide open right now.

03:36It's hot.

03:37It's actually hot to the touch.

03:39The chip is warm, it's still salty, it's still acidic.

03:43Easily the best limon chip I've ever eaten.

03:46The fact that I actually get to see how they do that

03:49is why I'm here.

03:50You must be Mary.

03:51Hi, I am.

03:52You must be Kevin.

03:53I'm Kevin.

03:54We're looking for appearance, flavor, and texture.

03:57So we would taste.

03:59Okay.

04:01I have a whole new appreciation

04:03for the solid potato flavor in there.

04:04This is a once in a lifetime experience.

04:06That's a good flavor too.

04:08Yes.

04:09Top tier.

04:10Cheers.

04:13Now let's see what's next.

04:14Upstairs where you were seeing where the chips were falling,

04:17so that'll fall into each of these canisters

04:20and that'll be what drops the exact right weight

04:22into every bag.

04:24That's so cool.

04:25It is cool.

04:26There you go.

04:27It's still hot.

04:29Yep.

04:30It's still hot.

04:31It's still hot.

04:32It's still hot.

04:33It's still hot.

04:34It's still hot.

04:35It's still hot.

04:36Yeah.

04:38Thank you guys so much for today.

04:39This was amazing.

04:42I didn't really know what to expect.

04:43It was great to see that everybody really loves

04:45what they do.

04:46And I learned a lot about how potatoes are grown

04:48and then made into my favorite chips.

04:50It's an experience I'll never forget.

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