Tuesday, 6 May 2025

Butterkist Crunchy Toffee Popcorn

 


Well, what can I say?

This yummy packet of Butterkist popcorn says “creating smiles since 1914”, and who knew we had popcorn such a long time ago? I mean, did the characters in Upstairs Downstairs ever eat popcorn? What about those people in Downtown Abbey? Perhaps they did. But unfortunately I’ve never really watched either of these popular programmes so I cannot really comment. 

Maybe the Ancient Mexican people of 9,000 years ago who first grew maize (thanks to Wikipedia), made popcorn? You’d think there would be ample opportunity to drop kernels into your cooking fire, and then… pop! Chicomecoatl’s your auntie and you have popcorn. I wonder how long it took for popcorn to be imported into Europe? Anyway, the poor old Ancient Mexicans would surely not have the benefit of this sensational toffee sauce.

This genuinely is a great packet of popcorn. Very nicely popped corn. I suppose that Butterkist has had plenty of time to perfect the process so (good news) there was no dribble of unpopped kernels at the bottom of the bag. And the toffee sauce is delicious. Totally delicious! But I shouldn’t have eaten this whole packet all by myself.

Yes of course. That wasn’t good for me. But I cannot remember the last time I ate popcorn, so provided I don’t eat another packet tomorrow, or not for another month or two at least, I think I can get away with that. 

Highly recommended though. 


Saturday, 26 April 2025

M&S Boxing Day Turkey Curry Crisps


You will have to forgive me for not posting this packet of Christmas time poatato crisps before. If you have read by previous post you will have guessed something went terribly wrong with my Christmas plans last year. The Chef and I picked up these crisps in Marks & Spencer a couple of weeks before Christmas when we went to stock  up on our favourite pasta (it’s only available in M&S), but never got to try them.

Anyway, here we are in April and I thought I’d better taste test this turkey curry flavour.

I have to admit that the last time I had turkey for Christmas dinner was probably when I was 5 or 6. My mother was ill in bed, I think she had flu or something, and my father cooked the turkey. I don’t actually remember this at all, but I expect you can imagine that it was a story my mother told often in the run up to Christmas. She didn’t like turkey (neither do I really), so she usually cooked chicken or pheasant, both of which are a lot less gigantic than turkeys. With lots less leftover to turn into a curry. Not that my mother ever cooked a curry but you get the picture.

We weren’t even allowed to have pheasant after my pampered brother whined that he didn’t like it. I notice he ate it happily enough when his wife cooked it.

So what did I think? Well… erm, I am not sure that I could taste any turkey flavour until several minutes after I stopped snacking. Suddenly there was a familiar taste of cardboard (I have eaten turkey often enough at work Christmas lunches). And there was a delicate taste of curry. 

But what did these crisps actually taste of? Citrus. Mostly citrus. A bit odd. 

For anyone confused by Boxing Day in the name of these crisps: Boxing Day is 26 December, a bank holiday in England, when traditionally tradesmen (the dustmen, your gardener, the postman, in the days of open fires the coalman, maybe even your local shop owner) would call in expectation of a seasonal tip. In the road where I live there is always a collection for the dustmen (garbage collectors) and the postman. 

Boxing Day is also traditionally the day when people mad enough to buy a gigantic turkey for their Christmas dinner have to find something tasty to do with cold turkey meat. Turkey sandwiches, turkey rissoles, turkey soup, maybe even turkey curry.

For another take on Boxing Day Curry see here.

Thursday, 10 April 2025

Taylors Brie, Bubbly & Orange flavour potato crisps


I wasn’t sure I wanted to carry on writing about crispy snacks because the Chef, always an enthusiastic taste tester, is no longer with us.

But this packet of crisps was a Christmas present so I thought I ought to post about it anyway.

To be honest, I don’t remember ever having heard of Taylors (no apostrophe) who seem to be based in Perthshire and Dublin, but this packet of their crisps was bought in Colchester. Interesting. Anyway, pretty much the whole family has tried these “thick cut” crisps: Ski Instructor, Farmer’s Daughter, Family Vegetarian, Graffiti Artist, even Cliffs of Moher … and we all thought they are a bit too weird.

Now you all know I don’t like being mean about crispy snacks. But honestly, this is not a good crisp. Sorry, but it’s not. For a start it isn’t thick cut. And then it doesn’t taste of Brie, it doesn’t taste of Bubbly (presumably Champagne was not involved in the manufacturing process), and it doesn’t really even taste of orange. Anyway, who wants a potato crisp that tastes of oranges?

Really sorry Taylor family: none of us enjoyed this crisp. The flavour was just wrong.

The Chef: 1951 - 2024
Very much missed by all who knew him

Thursday, 12 December 2024

Waitrose Christmas Caramelised Salted Nut Mix


I made a stupid mistake not photographing the see through packaging of this nut mix before I started eating. Silly me, I failed to get a good pack shot. I have eaten everything: all of the nuts and most of the flavour dust caught in the corners, and there’s nothing left but an empty packet which doesn’t look particularly sexy.

Damn. 

Still, this is quite a nice nut mix, easy to eat (or even scoff - I might have scoffed), although I don’t think almonds and cashews genuinely count as a mix. I should think you would need at least three of something to qualify as a mix. The Chef, slightly baffled when I asked if you need three of something to make a mix, vaguely agrees with me.

Once upon a time, a dear friend who was living in Morocco, made the horrid mistake of very kindly bringing me a bagful of fresh almonds. Freshly picked from Moroccan nut orchards, and to my way of thinking, absolutely horrible. I don’t like almonds. I don’t like almond flavour. The almond drink orgeat, so popular in the Regency, fills me with horror. And I think marzipan, famously made with almonds, tastes very nasty indeed.

But an almond, especially selected by Mr Waitrose to be caramelised and/or salted is extremely tasty.

Although I do prefer the cashews. 

So, rather a nice “mix” of caramelised salted nuts.

Saturday, 7 December 2024

M&S Chocolate Covered Pretzels


Hmmn… the chocolate coating on these pretzels is slightly sweeter than I expected, and the pretzel taste disappointingly fugitive. Really not enough crunch and definitely not enough salt.

If I were given the chance, I think I would adjust the sweet/salt ratio. Quite tasty, but I don’t think I would buy another packet.

The Chef liked his pretzels better than I did. He likes milk chocolate. But he agrees that there really isn’t enough saltiness.

Extremely handsome lime green and shocking pink packaging though. Very nice.

Monday, 2 December 2024

M&S Hand Cooked Hot Honey Pigs in Blankets Crisps


So, Pigs in Blankets? To be honest I had never heard of pigs in blankets until I was quite grown up. At Christmas my family had miniature (cocktail) sausages with the chicken (not turkey), and rolled up bacon. But not bacon rolled around sausages. I didn’t even know it was a thing. 

Anyway, this M&S crisp tastes nothing like sausages, nothing like bacon, and I would hazard, nothing like pigs in blankets.

But could this be the fault of the hot honey? This crisp doesn’t taste of honey either. Perhaps that’s because the oak smoked sugar is interfering. But it does feature a big hit of something hot. I expect that’s the chilli.

I definitely wouldn’t bother to buy these crisps again.

However, Cliffs of Moher Taste Tester came round to help built my Christmas tree, and after complaining that she really didn’t care for M&S crisps, graciously agreed to try this one. Apparently they don’t have pigs in blankets in Ireland, or at least not where she was brought up, but not to worry because she surprised herself by rather enjoying these crisps. A bit like smoky bacon she thought. Which explains a lot as I have never liked smoky bacon crisps and avoid them if I can. 

Anyway, quite a lot of the packet got eaten fairly enthusiastically. So I guess that counts as a sign of approval.

But what a waste of a potentially good flavour. Basically, to me, these fine cut crisps taste mostly of the something hot and, prompted by Cliffs of Moher, smoky bacon. And I’m not really very impressed by Marks & Spencer’s Christmas packaging either.

Friday, 22 November 2024

Waitrose Christmas Mandarin & Sour Cherry, Caramelised Nut Mix


I know this is not a packet of crisps, and it doesn’t really qualify as a crispy snack, so I guess it’s more of a chewy snack?

Yes, the slightly weird dried mandarin part of this snack mix from local supermarket Waitrose is a lot tastier than I expected. But definitely chewy. The sour cherries I mistook for large raisins or something, but they are tasty too.

On the crunch front there are caramelised almonds, a lot nicer than regular almonds because they don’t actually taste of almonds, and then there are cashews too.

So, an interesting mix of flavours and textures for this Christmas mix. Somehow a lot tastier than I expected, and the different textures work very nicely.

If you can’t get to a Waitrose you could probably make your own mix with freeze dried mandarins, sour cherries, some cashews and, with any luck, caramelised almonds. Maybe honey roasted or salted almonds would work instead. I really am quite surprised that I enjoyed this combination of texture and flavour so much.

Give this combination a try. (The Chef not so impressed.)

Monday, 4 November 2024

Proper x Netflix Netflix & Chilli Caramel


Well, this Proper x Netflix collab is a first for me. As is the flavour, which appears to be Netflix & Chilli Caramel. Sorry? Since when was Netflix a flavour? We don’t subscribe, but I am pretty sure Netflix is a well known streaming service.

However, never mind that, this is a very tasty popcorn, and I ate nearly the entire 90g packet all by myself. Over nearly a week though. Remember how light popcorn is? So that’s a lot more than 90g of crisps. But the packet has a high in fibre label (good fibres only) so here’s hoping this snack is fairly healthy as snacks go. 

And it is incredibly tasty. The Chef thought the chilli was a bit too hot, but I think it works very well with the caramel. Delicious!

The Netflix thing is some sort of a competition to win a home cinema bundle, and other stuff, but it seems that I ought to have kept my receipt. It’s not entirely clear. The terms and conditions are very complicated.

Thursday, 31 October 2024

And yet another article about crisps…

Both images grabbed from the Internet 

And yes, here’s another article about potato crisps, this time from The Guardian. 

It does seem that crisps are very much at the forefront just now. My local supermarket has suddenly broken out fresh supplies of retro crispy snacks that they don’t normally stock, and others that have appeared for Christmas. Although, very sadly, this same shop stopped selling Cheese Footballs years ago and I know they are a firm favourite with you lot, and they don’t even sell Cheeselets!

This of course means a traumatic visit to a different shop which has really difficult parking with useless signage, and of course a completely different layout making it hard to find what we are looking for.

If you like handbags and have loads of money to spend, keep an eye out for crisp themed bags. Obviously they are not always available new, but second hand sites sometimes have something fabulous to discover.

Don’t forget the book mentioned in the article: Crunch by Natalie Whittle.


Saturday, 26 October 2024

Cheez-It Snap’d Double Cheese


I don’t find myself particularly impressed at the very small size of the Grab & Go! bag of Cheez-It Snap’ds. Can I turn a Cheez-It Snap’d into a plural? I’m going to anyway. 

And I still think this Grab & Go! bag is very small. It’s only 40g. Which not so very long ago was an ordinary size for a packet of crispy snacks. Grab & Go! used to mean considerably larger than this.

Still cheesy, thin & crispy, still quite orange, still parallelogram shaped… I am only going to quibble at the cheesy. Because they don’t taste of cheese. They taste of a cheesy snack. And that isn’t the same thing.

Plus, the Chef was not impressed at the amount of crummage at the bottom of the packet.

Don’t want to sound whiny but I don’t think I will bother with another packet.