Let’s be real. If you’ve ever torn one of these open, you know the struggle is real. The packet is maybe 1.5 inches wide and 3 inches tall.
But then you open it, and it’s barely a tablespoon of powder. I’m not joking. It’s less than half an ounce—usually about 0.4 to 0.6 ounces, or roughly 11 to 17 grams.
I once poured it out onto a plate just to measure it. My friend, it was a sad little pile of beige dust. And yet, that sad little pile is supposed to take down an entire 16-ounce container of sour cream? Magic, I tell you.
The Ingredients Are a Telenovela
Flip that packet over and look at the ingredients list. It’s not just “ranch.” No, it’s a soap opera in a tiny foil envelope.
You’ve got buttermilk powder, salt, monosodium glutamate (MSG—the controversial but delicious star of the show), garlic, and onion. Oh, and a laundry list of things you can’t pronounce, like citric acid and calcium stearate.
That calcium stearate? That’s the stuff that keeps the powder from clumping. It’s basically anti-caking insurance for your dip. The MSG is the real workhorse, though. It’s the reason you can’t stop eating the chips.
