Kona Chips

The Ugly Cookies are to die for! A «must-​get» every time I visit. a crunchy, sweet n salty, oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. What more could you ask for?

Okay, I have a potato chip problem. I love them. If you do as well, this is a must see. A little oily, but good very potato flavor. Good solid crunch and chew. I asked for a sample and they brought some chips fresh and hot from the kitchen on a paper towel! If you see them cooking chips, ask for a taste.
If they are closed, you can get them at the KTA stores (might not be in the normal chip section) or at Oshima’s in Kealakekua.

Kona Chips are all over the island in many grocery and snack shops but this is where they make them and their store is full of all of these wonderful treats. Also, early in the morning, they sell bags of «bits» from the production that you can get at a bargain price. The flavor, texture, and crunchiness of these chips are unique and addictive. I guess their quality and cooking standards make it difficult to produce larger amounts of these and still maintain their freshness and appeal, so they will remain a Kona-​product only. You can stop by on the road to Volcano National Park or if you’re going to the Refuge national historic site.

LOVE the original chips. The owners are really nice and you’ll feel great supporting a local business that’s been there forever. You should definitely try the furikake (sp) chips too!

This shop has Specialty Potato Chips! Very good. Their Furikake Potato Chips are great and you can get them in a huge box but you have to pre-​order it. If you can get this one!
If you can’t make it during their store hours, you can go to the grocery store and get the smaller bags. That’s what I had to do earlier this year. :(
Would I return? Yes
Do I recommend this place to others? Yes, yes!

A must stop each time in the Big Island. Everything is fresh, well packaged. Various items to choose from, sweet to sour and in between.
The hours are minimal so church with them before making the drive.
The chips are made from Klamath Potatoes– some of the best potatoes on the west coast!

I LOVE KONA CHIPS! I never fail to bring home these chips when I visit. I usually get bags of them at the supermarket, but on my last visit I went straight to their HQ and got jars of their chips (more travel proof!) and tried their Ugly Cookies — sweet & savory goodness.

Before the famous Maui Chips came to the commercialized market, there were Kona Chips. No, they are not the same! After all, where else can you get a locally-​produced chip that almost suppresses the normal guilt which usually ensues from consuming the whole bag.
What makes their’s different? Well I’m glad you thought about that question, because I asked the proprietor and was told it starts with thicker potato slices and they are spun for a bit to enhance their flavor and use less oil when frying. Can you tell the difference? Well. eat the bag and see if your belt is a bit tighter. I didn’t get that oil residue lingering on my tongue or on my fingers so I have to say I felt a bit healthier…
Ok, maybe not completely healthy.
There’s furikake chips that are delicious. Seriously delicious. For those of you who don’t know what furikake is, it is essentially dried seaweed and sesame seeds. Don’t diss it till you try it. It’s serious yummy-​ness going on.
Alright so it isn’t the healthiest snack on the planet, but its really good and who has ever turned down a potato chip? I mean they are bits of magical happiness… wait, potatoes are vegetables and vegetables are healthy for you… so by that logic potato chips are healthy for you!

Yay! I’m a fan.
I am going to keep my review short because this is a potato chip store and is definitely worth the five minute stop on your way back into town.
Positives:
1. Great chips made right there and family-​owned. Their tagline says they use a unique spinning process to eliminate excess oil and make them extra crispy. I would have to agree it works!
2. Furikake flavoring that you can only find ON the Big Island. Delicious.
3. Ugly Cookies — Cookies with potato chips in them! Delicious.
4. How often do you go to a potato chip company? Why not!
Negativves:
1. A little spendy
2. No samples
Notes: If coming from Kailua-​Kona, park in the area just past their shop. For those with allergy concerns, they use cottonseed oil.

Are you really going to go all the way to Hawaii and have a bag of potato chips from the ABC store? Do yourself a favor and get the real deal! These chips are fresh! I’m so happy I found these ono-​lishish potato chips that brought me back to my childhood!

Dear potato chips. You are my nemesis. You are my Achilles heel, the one I can’t get enough of. Not chocolate beer wine drink or any other vice of fancy that makes my heart swoon, no… it is you crackly salty savor chip… you who are my heart’s desire, for I can not get enough even when I should know better. Unless you can not make good chips, but that’s another story which is truly a sob story of epic proportions, one that breaks my heart, but luckily did not have to tell after visiting this place.
Enter sign of the apocalypse, bursting in volcano fiery red, literally tempting me to hell’s gate without much coddling or needed force. The red sign above the store KONA CHIPS! beckons me forward with no trouble whatsoever. For you will be slayed and must be investigated.
A simple display room shows the bounty of the potato chip and salt call. There are many items, things with nuts and veggies and trail mix and I don’t give a rats ass stuff which is actually pretty good, but get the flying F out of my way cause I am here. to devour potato chips.
Unless they suck.
They… do not suck… at all… whatsoever. They are crackly salty good. Even a basic regular brand one is fantastic. Enter head explosion territory of flavor and desire that is furikake flavor. Seaweed and garlic flavored chip who wants some… HELLO!
These have a wonderful great aromatic and rich umami like flavor. There is a hint of sweetness, and a classic mix of sea salt. Garlic… GARLIC… I am friggin dying here! No you young lad weaned on bags of Old Dutch, Utz, Wise and many of the like, the flavors of Ketchup, Vinegar, Bacon, Sour Cream, F’d up hipster flavors of Thai, Blue Cheese,… it all seems pale in comparison and WORTHLESS now after what is the glory that is FURIKAKE!.. Bacon? what the F is that? WHO CARES!
Our hero with his wife in tow, her grabbing bags of NON CHIP items she was keen on brings only the banter from me of WHY ARE YOUR ARMS NOT FILLED WITH BAGS OF MORE CHIPS?! I demand loudly! (although Ugly cookies have CHIPS in them and of course kick ass, so you buy those then!)
See that behind the counter, I point out with giddy excitement. You know what that is? You can buy boxes or large pails of chips. PAILS! Do you see that?! You know what that means? It means my ENTIRE FACE fits in the bucket, I don’t even have to USE MY HANDS if I want to devour these!
This place is really not good for my cholesterol levels, but the hell with you I am dying happy. Go here, and if you don’t buy chips just go home… seriously.

I have beem coming to Kona Chips for about 12 years and there has never been a problem. The chips are amazing in taste one of the best potato chips I’ve had, and are only available here. Also the unique Ugly Cookies are one of a kind with the use of Kona Chips makeing an amazing crunch but great flavor, while still keeping a sweet cookie taste. Last the staff is amazingly nice and polite. I highly recommend Kona Chips to anyone going to Kona.

As with anything on the Big Island on this side of the island, very homely! The store-​front is actually small and «to the point». It seems their mail order operations make the bulk of their business.
Nonetheless, you can get some local classics like furikake chips, or roasted natto! The staff is very friendly, prices are great, and also be sure to nab a «vintage» Manago t-​shirt from here. The shirts aren’t offered at the hotel/​restaurant next door and are only avaialble here.

FURIKAKE CHIPS ARE DANGEROUS.
I can’t seem to stop eating them until all that’s left is furikake dust and oil remnants.
They’re freaking DELICIOUS and shits on any flavor of Lay’s I’ve ever tasted.
They don’t only sell chips but various cookies and snacks as well! Their ugly cookies are yummy! Kinda reminds me of momofuku milk bar’s compost but without coffee grinds, and these cookies are definitely on the crunchy side.
My second favorite item from here is their garlic chips. They’re not chips but deep fried cloves that dissipate in your mouth after the initial crunch attack. WHAT UP.
The owners are really friendly and will take their time to explain the products to you, should you have any questions regarding their delectability!
They ship! So yay or nay regarding on how much you end up taking back home ;) I live down the street but I still buy stuff lol

I went to this place because I was trying to think of something to bring home for my friends at work that I could not easily get on Oahu. Anyhow, I stumbled across this place, and I am glad I did.
I asked the store guy what he recommended, and he offered me a sample of the furikake chips and the ugly cookies. I ended up leaving with a two bags of furikake chips, two bags of the regular potato chips, two bags of ugly cookies, and a bag of taro chips.
My work really enjoyed the chips and the cookies. I actually think I prefer the regular potato chips. They are not too greasy and extremely crunchy. They are very addictive and left me wishing I had not only bought one bag! The ugly cookies are also very yummy!

Located on the south-​west side of the Big Island in Captain Cook is a small store located off of Mamalahoa Highway called Kona Chips. They have their wonderful well-​known simple crunchy, thick lightly salted potato chips, sinfully tasty furikake potato chips, garlic chips, t-​shirts and a few other snacks. Whenever visiting we would try to stop by and pick up a tub or two of their popular furikake chips for our friends as well as a bag or two of their garlic chips. The chips are all very addicting and if you’re not careful you can go through the entire bag in one sitting. Definitely not a smart idea to go through the entire bag of the garlic chips because you won’t be so pleasant to be around for the next couple of days. Ha!
They’re not cheap as the previous Unilocaler had mentioned, but we enjoy supporting local Mom and Pop stores and finding those one of a kind gifts to bring home to share with our family and friends. Otherwise the usual Kona coffee or chocolate macadamia treats can be purchased on the outer islands as well as California and possibly other areas.

It’s called Ugly Cookies, currenly my favorite cookies from the Big Island (sorry Big Island Candies and Donna’s Cookies). Basically the only place to get the cookies is to drive to this little store next to Manago Hotel. Come on KTA (Hilo and Kamuela), give them some shelf space and KTA Kona give them more space than 5 jars so that I don’t have to drive 2.5 hrs from Hilo.
The cookies has oatmeal, rice cereal, chocolate chips and Kona potato chips in it. Little pricey but worth it to me.

Furikake Potato Chips made in Hawaii. What’s a Furikake chip you ask? Only a super tasty extra crunchy potato chip seasoned with seaweed, sesame seeds, sugar & salt. Best kind of Asian fusion!
I just bought an embarrassingly large 4 gallon bag yesterday and received it today!

These potato chips are ridiculously tasty — fresh, nice and salty, made in-​house… love it! Wish I had a good reason to buy the enormous bucket o’ chips here. ;)
note: it’s next door to the Manago Hotel in Captain Cook, a tasty spot for lunch (and they serve Kona Chips with their sandwiches)

Not to be confused with Maui’s «Kitch’n Cook’d» Potato Chips by the Maui Potato Chip Company (based in Kahului, Maui), Kona Chips is an entirely non-​affiliated company located in Captain Cook, Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii.
They both just so happen to use the «Kitch ‘n Cook’d» logo because they were once both franchisees of that brand which was once based in Ohio as turnkey franchise business. «Kitch’n Cook’d» used proprietary manufacturing equipment and processing, along with their corporate yellow and red «Kitch’n Cook’d» logo packaging. To this day Maui Potato Chips continues to use the original (very manual) «Kitch’n Cook’d» manufacturing equipment, while Kona Chips uses more modern automated methods, including an oil spinning process that gets most of the cooking oil out of the chip.
With that, the Kona Chips are noticeably lighter and less greasy than their Maui «Kitch’n Cook’d» counterpart. It’s an EXCELLENT potato chip, and worth picking up if you see it in the store.
Kona Chips also has a product line under the name ‘Petroglyphs in Paradise’. Under that name they have Furikake Chips, «Sumo Style» Shrimp Chips and «Ugly Cookies», as well as I believe a few more products.
As good as it sounds, I surprisingly didn’t really care for the Furikake Chips, mostly finding that the Furikake they use wasn’t the right type. It was rather tasteless. Could be just me though. You may really like it.
As for the «Sumo Style» Shrimp Chips, theyr’e not kidding when they say «Sumo», as these buggahz are MASSIVE! They also happen to be the BEST Shrimp Chip I’ve ever had. Easily beats out the Frito Lay «Maui Style» Shrimp Chips. I suppose the only drawback is their price. Still, great chip.
Finally, I got to try their «Ugly Cookie», which is sort of an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, although I’m not a cookie expert and can’t pinpoint exactly what kind of cookie it’s modeled after. All I do know is this «Ugly Cookie» sure is BEAUTIFUL when it comes to taste. It’s AWESOME! Super crunchy, with a real homemade «just like mom makes» character to it. Especially ono with milk!
Kona Chips can be found at their factory outlet in Captain Cook in Kona on the Big Island and at fine retailers all over the Big Island. They were also being sold exclusively on Oahu at Longs Drugs in Manoa valley, although I’m not sure if they’re still bringing it in. Call Long’s Manoa to verify before driving there.
Check out the photo section for a bunch of pics I provided of the chips described in this review.