Specialty Chips & Vintage Soda Tasting Party

Some folks are part of the wine and cheese crowd. Others are more beer and barbecue.

We’re definitely chips and soda types — especially the men of the house!

What better way to celebrate Father’s Day than with a specialty chips and vintage soda tasting party.

That’s just what we did to honor dear old dad on his special day.

On Father’s Day, Jackson and I sent Bruce off to the grocery story with a long list so we could pull together a fun lunchtime surprise for him.

A few days prior, we shopped at World Market for a selection of gourmet and specialty potato chips. While we were there, we also picked up a mix-and-match case of vintage sodas.

While I iced down the sodas and set them up on the festive front porch, Jackson labeled the chips, using paper straws  and star washi tape to make paper flags.

We served them on a tiered tray in mix-and-match bowls.

You can’t serve potato chips without dip!

So, I made up some of my fancy three-cheese pimento cheese party spread, this easy and irresistible Parmesan dip from my friend Yvonne at StoneGable, plus that old party standby, Velveeta and Rot-Tel Mexican cheese dip.

Since this party was all about the boys, I also made some candied bacon — recipe coming soon — and served it all on my handpainted American flag tray.

Once the spread was set, Jackson invited his daddy onto the porch for a face-stuffing, soda-guzzling good time.

The party was a hit, and it made for some good father-son bonding time. (There was also some good mother-son bonding time in the planning of it, too, as Jackson and I shopped for the menu together and collaborated on the decorations and the setup.)

And speaking of the menu, we served these chips: (Some of the links below are affiliate links.)

• Tyrell’s Hand-Fried Sweet Chili & Pepper Potato Chips (my favorite)
• Kettle Maple Bacon Potato Chips
• Hawaiian Snacks Sweet Maui Onion Rings (Jackson’s favorite snack of the day)
• Hawaiian Kettle Style Luau BBQ Chips (Bruce’s favorite)
• Herr’s 1853 Kettle Cooked Lattice Cut Sea Salt Potato Chips (Jackson’s favorite chip)

As for the soda pops (or soft drinks, as we like to call them here in the South), we had quite an array on the menu.

• Dang! That’s Good Root Beer
• Hippo Size Burley Birch Beer
• Hippo Size Prodigious Peach
• NuGrape Soda
• Soda Boy Caramel Cream
• Nesbitt’s of California Peach
• Boylan Orange
• Swamp Pop Satsuma Fizz
• The Pop Shoppe Lime Rickey
• Zuberfizz Key Lime Creme Soda
• Sioux City Prickly Pear
• Nesbitt’s of California Honey Lemonade
• Jackson Hole Soda High Mountain Huckleberry

We couldn’t taste them all at the party. We’d be floating and way too sugared up! But we sampled quite a few and we’ve been sipping in the weeks since, as well.

Jackson and Bruce proclaimed Dang! That’s Good Root Beer just that. It was one of their favorites. Old-fashioned NuGrape was a hit with Jackson, as was Boylan Orange. I was surprised to discover how much I like peach soda; both the Hippo Size Prodigious Peach and Nesbitt’s of California Peach topped my list. I also liked Swamp Pop Satsuma Fizz, flavored with the popular Louisiana citrus fruit.

Our chips and vintage soda tasting party was a fun way to celebrate Father’s Day and to have some family time.

If you want to throw a party for your family — or sample some of the snacks and sodas we served — please pin this post so you can find it when you need it.