Minnesota-made Old Dutch potato chips still have that mighty crunch after nearly 90 years

ROSEVILLE, Minn. – Minnesota has plenty of snack staples. From Jack Link's jerky and the Pearson Nut Goodie, to Sweet Martha's Cookies.

One Minnesota snack brand has been in cupboards for almost 90 years. It's the one with the windmill on the box.

"The box has been our best seller for a long time and we're one of the only companies that still does it," said Stephanie Aanenson, director of special projects for Old Dutch Foods.

The box is filled with bags of beloved Rip-L chips inside.

"It's a little thicker potato chip and it's got that potatoey flavor, and that's what ma bought," said Bob Erkkila, plant manager for Old Dutch.

It can only be Old Dutch.

"We're kind of a classic company," said Aanenson.

Carl Marx started Old Dutch in 1934 in St. Paul. It's been in the Aanenson family since 1952 and manufacturing in Roseville since 1968.

The hometown chip company is also known for its signature flavors.

"Things like sour cream and onion. We were one of the first to that many, many years ago," said Matt Colford, senior director for Old Dutch Foods.

There's also dill pickle, BBQ, cheddar and sour cream.  

"Onion and garlic is my favorite, favorite chip for sure," said Erkkila. "I not only eat it, but I'll crush 'em up and use it for fish breading. It's a good recipe."

New flavors are created and tested. Some hit stores, but they don't always succeed in crunch time.

"When the whole sriracha craze was everything was sriracha, sriracha, sriracha," said Colford. "You know, we thought boy, that'll be a lay up. And it wasn't [laughs]!"

Old Dutch makes a ketchup-flavored chip for our neighbors to the north in Canada, but you can't get them in the U.S.

"We have tried it I think three separate times here. Same exact seasoning, it definitely delivers on ketchup flavor. But that small group of people that love ketchup just were not buying enough of it [laughs] for it to hit our thresholds to stay," said Aanenson.

Old Dutch chips start with their arrival at the plant in Roseville – with 320,000 pounds of potatoes coming into the facility on the day we were there.

The potatoes run through an optical sorter and anything that isn't up to standard is removed. From there they are cut, checked again for quality and proper moisture content before going into one of six fryers. The chips then get sorted again before they're seasoned.

Finally, all the chips get bagged, and put in the iconic box before heading out on delivery trucks.

In a few weeks, a new all-dressed flavor of chips will be among them.