Whatever you do, just don't call Pringles potato chips. That's because a British judge has ruled in a tax dispute that Procter & Gamble's snacks "don't look like a chip, don't feel like a chip, and don't taste like a chip."
Heck, Pringles isn't even "made from potato" (even though it is) for tax purposes:
Potato chips ``give a sharply crunchy sensation under the tooth and have to be broken down into jagged pieces when chewed,'' the Cincinnati-based company's lawyers argued. ``It is totally different with a Pringle, indeed a Pringle is designed to melt down on the tongue.''
Warren agreed. Pringles aren't ``made from the potato'' for the purposes of the tax office's exemption, he said. He didn't say what Pringles are, other than that they're tax-exempt.
Link - via One Large Prawn
Whatever they are, you can still be buried a can of Pringles!
Crisps - thin slices of potato fried in oil until crisp right through with no discernable moisture.
Chips - thick batons of potato fried in oil but retaining a moist centre.
French Fries - thin batons of potato unlike anything a proper Englishman would eat - often served in burger joints.
"the U.K. government was told by Europe's highest court, the European Court of Justice, to entirely refund Marks & Spencer Group Plc more than 20 years of sales duty charged on chocolate-covered tea cakes."
Since the tax was 17.5%, that's no trivial amount. But Marks & Spencer didn't actually PAY the tax - they just COLLECTED it from the customers and passed it on. So now they get to keep it? I suppose they deserve some reward for being one of the few organizations to impose a little humiliation on the UK's obnoxious tax collectors.
From the Pringles website:
Ingredients: dried potatoes, vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, and/or sunflower oil), rice flower, wheat starch, maltodextrin, salt, and dextrose.
I haven't been able to eat Pringles for years due to a wheat allergy. I can eat regular potato chips just fine, though.