As a poker player there isn’t anything more annoying then when someone touches your chips.
Pringles, Ruffles, Lays if they are in MY bowl – DON’T TOUCH!
But seriously, chances are you will not find those brands on my poker table. Why? Because this is IN OHIO COUNTRY TODAY DUDE! That’s right. It’s all about the Ohio chip for me.
And according to potatopro.com Ohio boasts the second-most potato chip manufacturers in the US.
Or as I would like to say — “The Best Dam Chips In The Land.”
People here are partial to their regional chips. Cleveland and Akron residents love their Shearer’s. The Toledo area has Ballreich’s. Central Ohio has Conn’s in Zanesville. North Central has Jones’s in Mansfield. Mike-sell’s is in Dayton. Grippo’s is a favorite in Cincinnati. Herr’s and Frito Lay, two companies based outside the state, but operating plants here (but they don’t count LOL).
I have always loved Mike-sell’s. Mainly because of their marketing campaign. Being in marketing and advertising, I pay a little more attention to commercials and ads (ask anybody who has watched any TV show with me and they’ll tell you I critique “everything” — all apologies to family and loved ones, especially Gretchen). SO, ANYWAY, the Mike-sells ads would always end with….. the announcer pause in between “Mike (pause) Sells Potato Chips!” O.K., maybe not as clever as “Bet you can’t eat just one,” but I love it.
More than 100 years ago, the Dayton area was buzzing. Wilbur and Orville Wright were introducing the world to manned flight. Charles Kettering was working on the self-starting automobile ignition. And little ‘ole Daniel W. Mikesell was trying to make his way in the business world. And much to the delight of us all, he found potato chips. Mikesell changed the name of the company in 1925 to Mike-Sell’s as a play on words and hence began one of the great branding icons in Ohio food history.
At least 10 potato-chip companies fry and kettle-cook their potato chips in Ohio, giving the state the distinction of having the second-most chip makers in the country.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates there are only about 92 plants nationwide. Frito Lay has a network of 32, meaning Ohio is home to 15 percent of the potato-chip companies in the U.S. Neighboring Pennsylvania has the most, with 24 companies, according to that state’s agriculture department.
The production of potato chips is a $6.3 billion industry in the U.S.
On the smaller side of the potato chip industry in Ohio is one of the my favorites — Mumford’s Potato Chips & Deli — Urbana. Asa Mumford raised potatoes with his family on their farm in Champaign County. They had such a surplus of potatoes in 1932 that he and his son, Virgil, opened a small business making old-fashioned, kettle-cooked potato chips in back of a friend’s grocery store on Court Street.
In 1983, the business moved to its present location, which allows for the popular deli menu as well as seating for 50 visitors in two rooms. Mumford’s Old-Fashioned Kettle Cooked Potato Chips and other varieties are now manufactured in northeast Ohio and sold in abundance at the deli.
So next time your’re looking for a chip, go “all-in” for those made in Ohio. I’ll bet you’ll love it!
Here’s seeing you, in Ohio Country!
