Sarriegui Patatas Fritas Con Sal

Managerial taste tester and his wife stopped at a Hackney pub for a drink on a very hot day and by chance discovered this Spanish crisp. And being mightily impressed they bought a packet for me and the reluctant taste testers to try.

This is a very simple crisp. Very finely cut and rather smaller than I was expecting, these crisps taste mostly of crisp: not one of the overexcitable flavours that manufacturers favour nowadays. And the reluctant taste testers were quite taken with the simplicity.

Architectural taste tester (she who hardly comments) loved this crisp. Like an old fashioned crisp she said.

But Managerial taster tester wasn't so impressed on second tasting and wondered why this crisp seemed so familiar? Taste tester from the New Forest discussed it seriously with him and they finished by deciding it reminded them of Pom Bears. Really? Are they sure?

I can honestly say I had quite forgotten we had tried this crisp before. And below you can see what we thought in February 2016

Another packet of crisps from the wonderful Fortnum & Mason.

It occurs to me that you may not know what Fortnums is. You may not realise the shop was opened in 1707 and is as much a tourist attraction as a shop. Although it is a proper shop and sells many wonderful and desirable things. Shopping at Fortnums online is fun, but to get the full flavour you really need to go there in person.

Fortnums is only just around the corner from Buckingham Palace. You can visit both in one day: the Palace in the morning followed by lunch at Fortnums. I know it can be done. Plus you can then go across the road to the Royal Academy or just go shopping in the Burlington Arcade. A great day out.

Anyway, this is a pretty wonderful crisp. A lovely fine cut crisp, a beautiful crunch, a little bit oily by British crispy standards, but not too much salt; just enough really. And because the crisps are rather oily you get a lot of salt stuck to the inside of the packet. Just swipe your finger around the inside of the packet and lick it.... yum. A real old fashioned crispy experience.

Not surprising that the crisps are a little oily perhaps as they are made with 60% extra virgin olive oil, and 40% sunflower oil.

I think most of us liked this Spanish crisp a lot. Certainly we found it difficult to stop eating them.

Although... as the crisps were so fine cut there were quite a lot of broken crisps at the bottom of the packet. And Tech taste tester said he could not help thinking he was looking at a bowl of cornflakes.