ROKA Cheese Crispies Gouda Cheese with Pesto

Last year I wrote about the fantastic ROKA Cheese Crispies. Time now for a quick note on the very fabulous (but perhaps not quite so fantastic as the original) pesto version. The tin I bought came with one baggie of original flavour Crispies, and one baggie of pesto.

I got a tin for the Chef and me for Christmas last year, and several more for Christmas presents, and we ate the original flavour Crispies at once. But we saved the modern pesto version for later... and now we've finished the Pesto Crispies too.

It was always going to be hard for these pesto crispy crunchy biscuity things to compete with one of my very favourite snacks but I have to say these don't do a bad job. Which is pretty amazing as I recently decided I don't actually like pesto.

Light as a feather with a soft crunch that feels just right. Slightly oily but in a good way (I can't explain). Cheesy and pesto-y. Delicious. They fall apart really easily but it doesn't matter. It's fun chasing the crumbs.

I don't know what it is: they're just so good. Highly recommended. 10/10. although you should know that the original flavour rates 11 at least. Possibly more...

Update: the lovely people at ROKA sent me a food parcel because they read how much I love their Cheese Crispies. How generous is that? And a packet of Cheese Crispies with Pesto was included.

As the Chef and I had already tried some of these I ripped open this packet for the reluctant taste testers at work. So not long past 9 o'clock yesterday morning instead of having breakfast we were all snacking on these superb cheesy snacks. And everyone agreed they are simply delicious. The pesto flavour, it was agreed, seems to be more of a hint of pesto than a great big wallop of flavour, but this was felt to be a good thing. And then everyone greedily had another, and possibly another.  There weren't many crumbs but they were very soon hoovered up.

So a great big thank you to ROKA. And more exciting reviews to come because my food parcel was huge! And many thanks also to the Netherlands postal service who delivered my parcel amazingly quickly. Who knew I was an internationally renowned food writer eh?

Mackie's of Scotland Mature Cheddar & Onion

Ever hopeful, and as I happened to be catching another train from Sion station (in Switzerland), I picked up a second bag of Mackie's of Scotland crisps. Yes, we were in the Aperto shop buying another cup of coffee (no small bottle of wine this time) and a bag of crisps.

Well I don't really know what to say. Scottish crisps in Switzerland still seems so weird.

But I must admit I'm quite disappointed that whoever started exporting (or importing) Scottish crisps to Switzerland stopped short at the haggis flavour. That would be interesting to try but perhaps the Swiss didn't fancy it.

Anyway, after trying the sea salt flavour the other day, we thought we'd try cheese & onion. I took the crisp photo on the train and the blue you can see is my jeans. Crisp packets are more see-through than you suppose. No. I never thought about it either before I started writing this blog. But you can't see the mature cheddar golden of the crisps; that's what you get for wearing jeans while undertaking serious food photography!

Anyhow: not bad. The Chef and I liked these a lot more than we did the sea salt flavour. They still didn't smell quite right when I opened the packet. I think smell is very important but I've discovered that many people don't seem to consider it as much as I do. But the taste is not bad.

It's a gentle, rather sweet cheese and onion flavour. Not too much onion and I guess that must be the mature cheddar coming through. Plenty of flavour dust.

Still not as nice as they might be though. So I'm still wishing I was writing a better review.

Chio Oven Chips Sour Cream

As far as I can tell (reading the packaging) these crisps are made in Germany. So why the product description "Oven Chips Sour Cream" is in English is anyone's guess.

Chio is owned by Intersnack and judging from the ingredients list Chio products are available  in Germany, France, Italy, Slovenia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia and Bosnia, and Bulgaria. But not Britain. Which is a shame because they're rather tasty. And I can't help feeling that the residents of Slovenia, Romania, Hungary etc etc would not object to the product description being in German.

Weirdly it looks as though you can buy this Intersnack product almost all over Europe except in the UK or (for some reason) Slovakia. I say for some reason when it comes to Slovakia but not for the UK because I am accustomed to almost everything about the UK being different for some silly reason. And mostly we wish it wasn't different. But there we are.

Ah.... it seems Intersnack has a special brand, or perhaps brands, for Slovakia. But I can't seem to access the Slovakian part of their website. So no further information available on this gripping fact I'm afraid.

Anyhow, this is a rather good fine crinkle cut crisp with a light sprinkling of little green herby bits (parsley and chives). The crisps themselves are, just as shown on the packaging, mostly not very crisp-shaped. It's quite an odd shape which doesn't look like a slice of potato, and in fact, as these are made from potato starch and maize starch there really is no reason why they shouldn't be a completely fake shape.

A very good flavour crisp that tastes just like a top quality sour cream and chive dip. Recommended.

Bénénuts Fritelle Goût Bacon

And yet another choice from the lovely motorway service stations of North Eastern France. OK, mostly they aren't that lovely but they do feature interesting shopping: car accessories (especially faux Ferrari stickers*), maps, produits du terroirs, lots of drinks, and many crisps.

According to an online dictionary, fritelle are sweet fried rice cakes eaten on St Joseph's Day in Chianti. That's interesting because these fritelle look like chips or fries such as you might eat with steak, but made of maize meal and potato powder; pommes frites... only not. I am, however, comparing an Italian fritelle with a French fritelle so let's ignore this little excursion into etymology.

The packet calls them bâtonnets soufflés which is a pretty good description so perhaps we'll stick with that.

Well.... lovely texture. It's a very nice crunch and not as dry as some products like this. But I'm not crazy about the bacon flavour (since when was 'bacon' a French word anyway?) which is a little too smokey for my taste. The reluctant taste testers ate plenty so I suppose it must just be me.

I think I'd try these in another flavour if I could find it.

* Why would you want a Ferrari sticker on your Ford Ka or your Volkswagen Up!? I imagine the Chef would get pretty upset if I suggested putting one on his Audi.

Bret's Les Aromatiseés Moutarde Pickles

To be absolutely honest, I bought this packet of crisps thinking that moutarde pickles would be the most disgusting flavour in the history of crisps.

And how wrong I was.

Moutarde is of course French for mustard. Which I don't really like much. Pickles is not French for pickles at all. According to the back of a Lay's packet (they also do a moutarde pickles crisp), French for pickles is condiments. But in any case, pickles could be absolutely anything that has been pickled.

The ingredients list has mustard (a good start), pepper, turmeric, onion, garlic, sugar, carrot, cauliflower and cucumber. And salt of course. There are acidity regulators, acidifiers and citric acid too. And all suitable for vegetarians.

And the flavour? Somehow it's amazing.

Apart from one of them, the reluctant taste testers at work thought this was a really good crisp. They finished most of the 125g packet in no time at all. I took the rest of the bag home for the Chef to try. The one person who didn't really enjoy these called the taste "alarming' but she has a conservative taste in crisps so I'd trust the opinion of the rest of them. Some of them thought the taste was very mustardy, and some of them thought it was very pickley. But they all seemed happy to tuck in.

As usual with Bret's the crisps have a fine crinkle and a light crunch. There's not too much loose flavour dust but the taste.... it's really astonishing. Wow. Not for every day perhaps but certainly one to try if you spot a bag on your way through France.

Check out the Bret's website for more flavours.

Just for fun, here's a rose from my garden.

Lay's Saveur Bolognaise

I'm really disappointed. The Chef and I tried Lay's Bolognaise crisps a couple of years ago, before I started writing this blog, and I really liked them. I wrote about them in my very first post which was really about the cheeseburger crisps of the title, but I could not help harking back to the fabulous spag bol flavour we'd tried before.

And I really liked them.

But I felt that I hadn't written a proper post about Bolognaise flavour crisps so I bought another packet. Oh dear. The packet says "Nouvelle Recette + de Goût". Oh dear, and oh no! They've only gone and changed the recipe.

Encore plus savoureuses! it says. Imagine me making a disapproving face. These crisps don't taste the same. Well, of course not. They changed the recipe. I can only suppose Ley's changed the recipe because they suddenly discovered they were using my mother's 1960s spag bol recipe and no-one else in the world expects that taste. Maybe they read my blog.

So what we have here is a very pleasant crisp flavoured with paprika, parsley, onion, black pepper, pimento, tomato and oregano. and other unspecified flavourings. I can't see anything that tells me they are suitable for vegetarians, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised. No artificial colours, no preservatives, and no palm oil which seems to be a really big thing in French crisp manufacture these days.

I was discussing the great big hit of umami these crisps deliver with one of the reluctant taste testers at work. Another was totally baffled. He thought we were talking about Giorgio Armani. Designer crisps anyone? In faux black cashmere packaging? And why not?

Very tasty, good crunch, but not the same. You might not care that it's a new and improved recipe and really enjoy them.

Vico Curly Cacahuète

Another purchase from a French motorway service station, this 60g packet calls itself "Format Pause" which roughly translates as break size.

The packet tells me that Curly have made crunchy crispy snacks for more than 50 years: de delicieux produits soufflés et croustillantes, pour des apéritifs conviviaux et des pauses gourmands, depuis plus de 50 ans. What really puzzles me though is that they've called themselves Curly for more than 50 years when the products are not. A little curved perhaps, but not curly.

I bought a massive load of crisps on our way through France. The Chef has described me as rushing into the shops and buying everything in sight. No rushing was involved in my shopping but I confess I didn't always pay very close attention to what I was buying. So I didn't even notice that what I'd bought was not a cheesy maize snack, but a peanutty maize snack instead.

After the initial surprise (I should have noticed really because the flavour "cacahuète" is a bit of a giveaway) I thought these crispy, and quite crunchy, snacks were rather good. The reluctant taste testers at work finished the packet with no trouble at all so I guess they rather enjoyed them too.

A really interesting peanut snack. Very similar texture and crunch to the usual cheesy maize snacks, with brown sprinkles rather than orange flavour dust. You can also buy Curly Les Maxis, Curly Les Minis, and Curly Les Balls. None of them particularly curly. Deary me! Miles Kington, the late lamented godfather of Franglais, must be enjoying this.

In case you feel the need of a Curly website, here it is. Apparently there's a whole Curly community you can join, and even a Curly Bro' University! I'm sorry to say I haven't really investigated. But you may like to.

Boxerchips Savagely Salted

Flying home from Geneva to London Southend I bought a packet of crisps on the plane. Not, you understand, because I felt under-crisped, but because they were there. And then I put them in my bag because the packet looked difficult to open. And how right I was.

You get a red bag with a cardboard box in it. and the box has instructions on how to open it which I completely failed to follow. I can only suppose that these crisps are sold on the plane because the box makes them easy to stack without crushing the crisps, but I found the packaging very difficult to get into.

Boxerchips are made by the Boxerchips Company based in Dublin and I confess I never heard of them before. I think they're owned by Spudmuckers Ltd but I never heard of them either. Here's the website.

The crisps are made of potatoes, salt and sunflower oil. Nothing else. And they are rather good.

The package says 40g which is less than 1.5oz so you don't get a lot of crispy goodness for the huge price charged by the airline. I think you get even less than you might because presumably that 40g includes the weight of the cardboard. But I guess if you buy them from an actual shop they can't cost quite so much.

The packaging includes a little guy throwing his rubbish away responsibly. I'm afraid he is a bit stout as though he has been eating too many crisps. And then there's the little stick man driving the tractor across the crunchy crisp mountain. He must be a hard working farmer who doesn't have time to slump around snacking.

I like the flavour "savagely salted but not indecently so". I also like the little bit of Latin text "optimus crustulum potatus obvious universitas" which Google Translate magically tells me means "best cookies in the world scornfully"!! How fabulous is that?

Mackie's of Scotland Sea Salt

As we were on holiday in Switzerland we thought it would be nice to go to the Thunersee and visit Schloss Oberhofen. So while waiting for the train at Sion we dropped into the handy Aperto shop for a cup of coffee and a small bottle of wine - as you do - and what did we funfair? [seriously this iPad gets madder and madder; what I meant to type, what I tried to type was "find"] .... And what did we find?

Well, you are obviously agog to know, so I'll tell you. A selection of crisps from Mackie's of Scotland! How weird is that?

Having just tried the sensational sea salt flavour from Seabrooks of Yorkshire, and the really pretty good nature (sea salt) flavour from Swiss chips company Zweifel perhaps I was pushing it a bit in choosing the sea salt flavour.

This little 40g packet comes from Inchture in Perthshire. I used to live in Perthshire so
I really wanted to like these crisps. I have friends in Perthshire; I have family in Perthshire. I wanted to be able to say how nice these crisps are.

Made from plough to pack in Scotland, it says on the packaging. The Taylor family, third generation farmers, teamed up with Mackie's of Scotland in 2009 to create the perfect potato crisp. Their potatoes are naturally grown and are the best varieties for crisping (this packet was made from Lady Claire, a variety I have seen on other crisp packets). It is obvious that they have pulled out all the stops to create a great crisp.

But I wasn't that impressed. Sorry about that family Taylor.

The crisps are a little thicker than usual for UK crisps, the crunch is fine, the taste is fine but that's it. The crisps are fine. But sadly not better than that. And when I first opened the packet, the aroma really wasn't very nice at all. I'm afraid, that for me these qualify for a could do better. The packaging design is rather charming though.

Here is my photo of Schloss Oberhofen on the Thunersee. It's a shame the sky is rather cloudy because you can't really see the mountains in the background. The little turretty thing springing out of the lake looks as though it has been there forever doesn't it? I'm not sure when it was built, but it wasn't there in 1863. So just a modern extension; just like the glass box which is a very nice restaurant where we had lunch.

Zweifel original chips Nature

Basically the ready salted flavour - sea salt - crisp from Swiss crisp giant Zweifel. And extremely good they are too.

We went to the Fondation Pierre Gianadda at Martigny to see the summer exhibition. Works by Renoir borrowed from museums like the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and other big international galleries in Moscow or Basle, but also from quite a number of lesser-known or completely private collections. That's what's so nice about the exhibitions at the Fondation Gianadda; you often get to see works of art which are not usually on show. So you get a really well-known painting hanging next to something that may never have been seen by the general public before. And although Martigny is very near the Swiss border with both France and Italy, the gallery is not completely mobbed so you can get close to the art works and really see them.

Also on show were some lovely photographs by Michel Darbellay of the Fondation's collection of sculpture, and some amazing original designs for stained glass windows in two chapels in Martigny.

Exhausted by all this art and culture we sat down in the cafe and had a glass of wine and a coffee. And a packet of Zweifel crisps. Very nice. Very nice indeed.

Zweifel don't muck about with fancy packaging. They don't mess with crinkles for their crisps (they have other brands for that as we shall see). But they do make great crisps.

Not quite as good as Seabrooks from Yorkshire (which is a superb crisp) but still pretty sensational.

Zweifel Snacketti Hearts Lovely Salted

What? I kid you not. This crispy snack flavour is called "lovely salted". I checked that the snack isn't called Hearts Lovely, and the flavour salted. But no.

So here we have a rather charming extruded potato snack (potato starch and potato flour) fashioned into a lattice and then folded into a hollow heart shape. The flavour is made from salt, onion, natural flavours (which natural flavours we wonder yet again?) and seasoning (which contains sugar and flavour enhancers). A bit of a mystery then.

However, it is a very nice slightly salty crunchy snack. For British readers, they're a little like Quavers in texture but you can't burst the bubbles on your tongue. And I can't quite work out what the lattice reminds me of.

I probably would not have tried this crispy snack if I hadn't been on the lookout for interesting Swiss crisps. And then I would have missed a tasty treat. I'm not crazy about the masses of people on the packet all waving their arms in the air. Is this a snack to be eaten at a rave I ask myself? Reserved for people at festivals? Who can say. But it looks as though Snacketti is Zweifel's brand they aim at younger snackers and I guess the packaging is designed with this in mind.

What I can say is that I enjoyed this little heart-shaped snack and would buy it again. Perhaps not a product for your posh cocktail parties, but while watching NCIS or Alerte Cobra on the screen of your choice? Absolutely.

Crak's Finement Salé

Well, here's complicated. Crak's seems to be a Tuc brand, and Tuc seems to be owned by LU which is a French biscuit company (apparently from Nantes), and LU is in turn owned by Kraft Foods which is now called Mondelez International.

The weird thing is that I always thought Tuc was a UK brand. We used to have a TV commercial featuring a really annoying jingle: Tuc by itself is a snappy happy cracker, and a super snappy cracker with cheese. I think that's how it went.

Anyway, these little salted biscuits are perfectly OK but a little bit dull on their own. Quite a dull taste but in a really tasty way. I only bought one of the gussetted bags because inside the gusset it says "idéal pour le dipping!" and I couldn't resist. "Tout à fait adapter au dipping" it says.

Unfortunately this will be le dipping as practiced in France and the UK. And we were trying these in Switzerland and couldn't find any dips quite suited to the task; not even in the huge Co-op in Conthey. We tried the local version of guacamole but it was very thick and more something you might spread on toast rather than use as a dip.

I think they would be very good indeed with a proper dip. Nice crunch, good salty taste (but not too much) and a little bit sweet,  and in fact a rather pretty shape. Not bad Crak's.... or Tuc.... or LU.

I tried looking on the LU website for further information but it seems you can only access it in Metropolitan France. Which is a shame because I would have like to find out more. Weirdly made in Italy.

One to try again if I had a proper dip.

Zweifel World Champion Chips Macaronis du Chalet

Another World Cup 2014 flavour from Swiss crisp giant Zweifel. And this is their choice for a typical  Swiss flavour. Macaronis du Chalet or Älplermagronen is a dish you might expect to find at a mountain restaurant, perhaps right at the top of the mountain where there is nowhere else to eat. I gather this macaroni dish may include bacon or tomato or both, or perhaps neither. But the portions are usually big enough to feed three.

In fact, I remember we went to the restaurant at the top of the Gornergrat Bahn above Zermatt some years ago, and my friend Lynn ordered the Älpler-Makkaroni mit Apfelmus; which is basically macaroni cheese with apple sauce. Which was different.
   
The crisps are the usual fine cut from Zweifel, perhaps rather paler in colour than normal and mostly a lot smaller than normal crisps. They have a great cheesy aroma, a good light crunch, and a pleasant creamy "macaroni cheese" sort of taste.

The ingredients include onion and cheese, and whey powder. And the traditional "natural flavour" which as so often I found myself wondering what it means.

I tried these at home and then again on the reluctant taste testers at work. And we decided they were very very cheesy indeed but you can't taste the macaroni. As pasta doesn't taste of anything very much on its own perhaps that's no surprise. Very pleasant crisps but nothing madly exciting.

You can read about Zweifel's German World Cup 2014 flavour here.

Vico Dixi

At least, I think this crispy snack is called Vico Dixi. Either, or both, is/are a French brand from euro snack giant Intersnack and both are listed as brands on Intersnack.fr. And Vico seems to be the second (second to what I have not discovered) brand in the French snacking market.

Whatever... here we have a fluffy little ball of maize and peanut (un boule de maïs soufflé croustillante) flavoured with tomato. Each little ball is about the size of my thumbnail if that big, so not very large, and they are rather more-ish. Quite light, a little dry in the mouth but not off-puttingly so, really rather peanutty, and with a delicious tomato taste. And a rich tomato colour. The packet says the taste is un gout tomate intense et irristibles; and that's about right.

The packet also says that Vico is the king of aperitif  - by which I suppose it means the king of snacks to go with your gin and tonic, or glass of sherry. Or in my case today, a glass of white Swiss wine. Johannisberg since you asked.

Made without preservatives or colouring, and I imagine from the list of ingredients that they are suitable for vegetarians although the packaging does not say so. No palm oil. And made in France.

Avoid at all costs if you are allergic to peanuts: otherwise give them a try. Probably available at a supermarché near you if you happen to be in France (I only saw them at one motorway service station).

The newspapers say it has been the most horrible summer in Switzerland since 1965. My family went to Holland that year for our summer holiday and I can just remember it being freezing cold and very wet. Ever eaten an ice-cream on a freezing cold dark day in a howling gale? You would remember it too. It was lovely here on Thursday and Friday - lizards in the garden enjoying the sun - but today (Sunday) it is grey and wet and dark. So we have a wood fire even though it isn't as cold as it looks, a polar on the TV and a selection of interesting snacks to try. And we thought these little crispy balls were rather good.

Zweifel World Champion Chips Curry Wurst

I was delighted to discover in the Co-op yesterday that Swiss crisp giant Zweifel had produced a small range of World Cup 2014 crisps. Even better, now that the world has gone back to normal and Germany has taken the trophy home in triumph, these crisps are on special.

Here we have the fabulous Curry Wurst flavour crisps created especially for Germany: a typical German taste (typique du pays it says here). Apparently fans of Zweifel chose 3 of the 32 countries involved in the World Cup and Zweifel created 3 flavours to match the chosen countries. So this is country number 8: Germany. I think Zweifel crisps are sold in Germany which probably accounts for the three chosen countries being Switzerland, Germany and Brasil. Your vote, your chips (in English which is not an official language of Switzerland, or at least not yet) it says on the packet.

Up until 31 July I could have voted for my favourite World Cup flavour.... but we never saw them until 1 August. How disappointing!

To be honest I was a bit dubious about this flavour. Is curried sausage a typical German dish? I wasn't aware of this traditional German delicacy, but there you are. What do I know? I dare say the lovely Germans are mad for curried sausages.

The crisps themselves are the usual finely cut potato slices Zweifel always delivers. Nice light crunch. Very nice rich golden colour. And the flavour? Concocted from sugar, salt, tomato powder, curry, "flavour", onion powder, garlic powder etc etc, there is no explanation beyond the mysterious "flavour" ingredient of how the sausage flavour is created.

Suitable for vegetarians of course, so yet another meaty flavour in the world of crisps that has no actual meat in it. Gluten and lactose free as well.

I have to say that I was pretty sure these crisps would be horrible. But they're not. They taste not unlike many sausages I have eaten in Switzerland, although not in Germany because when I was last there we stayed in a very smart hotel in Fussen and the food was "smart hotel" style. Delicious but not curry wurst.

Not my most favourite crisp flavour ever but I wasn't expecting too much from a novelty footballing flavour. Still, not bad from the producers of the best crisps in the world: Original Provençal (in case you've not been paying attention!) Seriously, they are the best crisps ever.

M&S Ever So Posh Parmesan Asparagus & Truffle

A very grand-sounding crisp flavour from the always dependable (and usually delicious) Ever so Posh range at Marks.

I photographed these crisps in one of the lovely new bowls I bought in Tetbury. And you can see the crisps are cooked with their skins on. What you cannot see is that the bowl has a very pretty bird pattern.

When the beautiful brown bag is first opened there is a lovely waft of parmesan aroma that promises much from these handsome crisps. But I'm not really convinced.

True, the parmesan taste is very nice. But what does asparagus really taste of? Yes of course I've eaten asparagus. Not millions of times; enough to know I can taste it when I eat it but not perhaps enough to remember what it tastes of when it's not right in front of me. So I honestly cannot

detect the asparagus flavour here. And same for the truffle. I don't get that at all. Is it just me? I don't know. But basically what I've got is a parmesan flavoured crisp.

Good crunch, nice golden colour. All the usual. But I'm not that impressed. It's as though someone thought of a grand sounding combination of flavours and came up with this. Again, it could just be me. I think M&S have been selling these for a couple of years now. Someone must be buying them.

It's a shame that the asparagus on the packaging looks just like asparagus, the parmesan looks fairly like a chunk of parmesan, but the truffle looks like a small sponge. You know, a proper sponge from the sea. Perhaps truffles don't translate very well into packaging design? I do rather wonder what the artist thought when presented with this crisp flavour to illustrate.

Bret's Indian Curry

A wonderfully brightly coloured packet might make you think these "curry" flavoured crisps will be tastier than they actually are. Yes, I know; not a very promising start.

I have learned to sniff each new crisp flavour as soon as I open the packet, and in this case I was irresistibly reminded of dreadful school curries. Chock full of raisins and almost too hot for the untutored palate to cope with (remember this was the 1970s long before chicken tikka masala became the national dish of Britain), school curry was not very nice. And then we had curried eggs, which was basically hard boiled eggs in a bed of plain boiled rice with a skin of curry sauce on top. In fact, that wasn't too bad provided you could add butter to the hot rice to fake a little sauce.

Anyhow, these crinkly crisps from the Breton company Bret's don't taste right to us. I wonder if this is what the French crisp consumer expects when he/she is offered a curry flavour? I can't help feeling a British curry flavour crisp would be quite different.

The crisps themselves are pretty good. Bret's do a good job with their Breton potatoes cut to a fine crinkle. Nice crunch. Shame about the flavour though; it's all in the dark flavour dust and not in the crisp and it doesn't work for us.

Partagez un instant de plaisir et craquez pour le gout unique des chips Bret's suggests the blurb on the packet. Perhaps not.

The ingredients listed (handily in English as well as French and Arabic) include coriander, cumin, ginger, sweet pepper, turmeric, garlic and clove. But not apparently star anise which is shown on the packet. And I wonder how they have replicated the taste of those raisins in the school curry?

Not at all unpleasant but I don't think I'd get them again. That sounds a bit mean doesn't it, but I don't think I'd try these crisps again. We didn't finish the packet.

Seabrook Sea Salted

Lovingly made in Yorkshire by the Seabrook family since 1945 these lightly ridged crisps were superb. I can't say more than that. I found them in the services on the A2, just a little 31.8g bag (what sort of size is that we ask?) and we ate them on the ferry from Dover to Calais.

In fact we ate them so quickly because they were so very good, that there is no photograph for posterity. So all we have is the bag.

Top quality crisps from Yorkshire. So good they all got eaten. With a glass of champagne from P&O. Excellent. And fabulous. Absolutely delicious.

If you see them, try them.

Update: suddenly in October 2015 I saw this ad in the Guardian magazine.