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.