In a world where consumers can purchase $2,000 doughnuts, $180 bowls of ramen, and $2,300 hot dogs, potato chips have always existed as the snack food of the people. Though a bag of chips might cost 99 cents at a gas station or a convenience store, the trend of turning everyday food items into hyper-expensive delicacies has finally infected the world’s deep fried spuds.
According to Foodbeast, a Swedish beer company called St. Eriks is now selling the world’s most expensive potato chips, charging $56 for five small, solitary bites. Proving that exclusivity is an incredibly viable marketing scheme, the $11 chips are already sold out.
Though salty, grease-filled potato chips have served as the perfect bar snack for generations, St. Eriks believes it deserves a more refined, artisanal flavor to accompany its premium IPA.
“Ever since the birth of our India Pale Ale we have had a troubling feeling that something was missing,” the company’s website reads. “And as time has passed by, we’ve slowly come to realize that the feeling has been justified. Because doesn’t a first class beer—like ours— deserve a world-class snack to match it? Well, of course it does.”
Of course it does.
According to Adweek, chef Pi Le created the recipe for the upscale snack, which includes truffle seaweed from the Faroe Islands, crown dill from the Bjäre Peninsula, potatoes plucked from the hillside in Ammarnäs, India pale ale wort, and matsutake—”one of the world's most sought-after species of mushrooms.”
Abby Priest, a Swedish advertising agency known for its stunt-filled approach marketing, devised the campaign. St Eriks initial batch of 100 boxes was launched last month, but supplies immediately sold out. Until a new batch comes in, you might have to make do with that can of Pringles from the bodega.