Explore: Cape Cod Potato Chips Factory

From the time I was born until I was about six years old my family spent a week every summer in Dennis on Cape Cod in a house that my grandparents rented for the entire family to stay in together.  When that tradition ended, around the same time, my Dad, who is an architect, was commissioned to design a house for our family friend's on a plot of land they purchased on the Outer Cape in Truro. Once the house was complete, we began renting there for a week every summer.

For those who are not familiar, Truro is a sleepy town in the narrowest part of the Cape that sits between Welfleet (a mecca of fine art and fried food) and bustling Provincetown. Over the past 20 years I've fallen in love with this slice of paradise and I was lucky to spend all of last week there with my parents, sister and her boyfriend, who all flew up from Miami, FL for the week.

Last year during our annual pilgrimage to Truro my sister's boyfriend was joining us for his first ever trip to Cape Cod. As such, we felt the need to show him every single thing we love about the Outer Cape which included: the 4th of July parade in Provincetown, lunch with a view at Ross' Grill, fried food heaven at PJ's, Will Gilson's summer experiment at Adrian's, tastings at the Truro Vineyard and superb people watching at Bubala's by the Bay.

As we were preparing for this year's Truro trip I was feeling a little "been there, done that" until I saw a slideshow on Boston.com called "25 Fun Things to do on Cape Cod for Free." Ding, ding, ding, jackpot!

In the slideshow I saw that you can visit the Cape Cod Potato Chips factory! I immediately made this stop my one "must-do" while on the trip.

Monday morning, after a great weekend in Bath, Maine, I hopped in the car, picked up my sister and her boyfriend, and we headed toward Route 3. When we crossed over the Sagamore bridge onto Cape Cod, we started to look for the exit for the chip factory.

When we got off the exit (exit 6 for Hyannis), the factory was just a few traffic lights away. When you turn into the factory's driveway there are massive signs pointing to the tour parking. After you park, similar signs point you toward the tour entrance.

Those signs lead to a welcome sign outside the factory's front door. I don't know why, but I was so giddy when I saw this! Perhaps because it looks like a life size label, which reminds me of the chip bag?

The signature Cape Cod Potato Chips lighthouse is painted on the wall in the factory's lobby:

The factory tour is self-guided. Basically, one wall of the factory is all windows and move past each window reading about what is happening at each station and looking in on the chip protectors in their natural habitat.

Though there were signs everywhere that said, "No photos or videos," I couldn't leave my readers in the dark! I snuck a few shots.

Here are the freshly made chips coming down the shoot and making their way to inspection:

By each window there is an illustration that explains what happens to the chips at each stage of the process. These facts were actually quite interesting!

In total, this self-guided tour takes about . . . two minutes. And that's if you walk slowly, read every word on the illustrations and really, truly, pensively observe the factory workers. I wouldn't recommend making a day trip to Hyannis just to do this, but it's certainly a fun stop to break up the drive to the Outer Cape.

When you finish the tour, you get spit out into the gift shop. I know it's a bit hard to see in this photo, but there is a sign above the display cases that reads, "You can almost taste the salt air. But it helps if you open the bag." Ha! I love that.

After completing the tour, each person is allowed to take to two mini bags of chips from the sample bin. I was kind of hoping we'd get to sample chips fresh off the line. I have to admit, I was disappointed.

With free samples in hand, we perused the gift offerings. I loved this canvas tote bag that was stuffed with chips and garnished with a branded chip clip! What a fun gift! If you're hosting a Cape Cod wedding, this would make the perfect arrival gift bag for guests.

I also loved this gift set which included a beach pail, shovel and frisbee.

Outside of the gift shop, as you head back to your car, you pass all of the delivery trucks that take potato chip goodness all across the country. The image on the side of the trucks is so beautiful it actually looks like you could reach out and touch the water.

If you're worried that we left the tour with only two mini bags of sample chips, fear not. While in the gift shop we did some pretty serious damage, deciding to take three flavors of chips to the house (I wanted to get five, but my sister reigned me in). We got a jumbo bag of original (naturally) and decided to try two new flavors - sweet & spicy jalapeno and the roasted garlic and red pepper.

The original flavor was just as good as I remembered, but the roasted garlic and red pepper was underwhelming. The sweet & spicy jalapeno was so awesome that they are officially my new favorite! They have just right the amount of kick, without compromising any of the addictive qualities of the original recipe.

We chomped our way through all three bags of chips by Thursday and wound up having to buy two more bags to satisfy our cravings through the rest of the week!

Have you ever visited the Cape Cop Potato Chips Factory?

 

Molly Galler

Welcome to Pop.Bop.Shop. My name is Molly. I’m a foodie, fashionista, pop culture addict and serious travel junkie. I’m a lifelong Bostonian obsessed with frozen confections, outdoor patios, Mindy Kaling, reality television, awards shows, tropical vacations, snail mail and my birthday.

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