Red Hot Riplets
Red Hot Riplets is a kind of spicy potato chips sold in St. Louis, Missouri. Red Hot Riplets are ridge-cut chips covered with hot chili pepper and sweet barbecue powdered seasoning. The label describes the flavoring as "St. Louis Style Hot Sauce".
Old Vienna Snack Food Co. distributes Riplets locally. The chips are sold at many local businesses, from mom and pop stores to chains such as Schnucks and even 7-Eleven.
Flavor
Red Hot Riplets are spicier than potato chips available in national brands.[1]
The chips have a bright red color that comes naturally from the powdered peppers. Red Hot Riplets used to be fried in partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening, but they are now fried in liquid vegetable oils.
Old Vienna has also made Red Hot Thins with same seasoning on thin-cut potato chips, Cheesy Red Hot Riplets with the addition of a cheese powder, and Red Hot Pork rinds.
In 2003 Esquire magazine included Red Hot Riplets in their article and list "Best Potato Chips You've Never Tasted".[2]
Manufacturer
Old Vienna Snack Food Company was founded in 1936 by Louis Kaufman in St. Louis. The firm changed hands many times before folding in 1996. In that same year, a group of former employees resurrected the brand, which continues to be headquartered in the St. Louis metro area. As of 2015, the company had about 20 employees.[1]
As of late 2007, there was a bottled hot sauce with a label similar to the Red Hot Riplets bag, that contained "St. Louis Style" hot sauce. The hot sauce has since been discontinued.
Their other products include:
- Cheesy Red Hot Riplets Potato Chips
- Red Hot Riplets Potato (Thins)
- Hot Corn Snack Chips (similar to Fritos corn chips.)
- Sweet & Tangy Corn Snack Chips
- Cheese Popcorn
- White Cheddar Popcorn
- Hot Cheese Popcorn
- Red Hot Diggety's Corn Puffs
- Cheese Snaps (which are typically in the form of Cheetos.)
- Hot Cheese Snaps
- Original Pork Rinds
- Red Hot Pork Rinds
- Bar B Que Pork Rinds
- Hot Fries Corn Potato Snacks
- Wisconsin Cheddar & Sour Cream Chips
- Ozark Barbecue Potato Chips
- Pork Steak BBQ Potato Chips
In popular culture
The chips are also known outside of St. Louis because of the rappers Murphy Lee and Nelly.[3] Murphy Lee wrote a song "Red Hot Riplets" (from the album Murphy's Law) that mentions them in the chorus. When Murphy Lee was included in the Rap Snacks line of chips, he had them duplicate the Red Hot Riplets recipe as his flavor of Rap Snacks.
Notes
- 1 2 Neman, Daniel (9 September 2015). "Red Hot Riplets are St. Louis' delicious little secret". St Louis Post–Dispatch. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
- ↑ "Best Potato Chips You've Never Tasted". Esquire magazine. 2003-02-01.
- ↑ Johnson, Julia M. (2 April 2006). "Old Vienna rebounds after money crunch - St. Louis Business Journal". St. Louis Business Journal. Retrieved 2016-07-11.