U Gaufrettes Fromage & Fines Herbes (footballs)

If you read this blog regularly you might have noticed I really love Cheese Footballs. Which you can only buy in the UK on the run up to Christmas.

So imagine how thrilled I was to find this little packet of gaufrettes in a U Supermarché not far from Reims in North East France. I thought gaufrette meant waffle but in this case it seems to mean the very same crispy crunchy coat you get with a cheese football. Not stuffed with yummy fake cheese but soft cheese and herbs, and onion, garlic, carrot, cabbage, and celery (why celery? luckily not enough to have an adverse effect). Actually, don’t read the list of ingredients. It can have quite an adverse effect on your enjoyment.

Rather tasty. Yum yum.

Interestingly, I learn from Cliffs of Moher taste tester that they don't have crispy snacks like this in Ireland. How do they cope?

Sadly I seem to have failed to photograph this snack. Although, it looked just like every other cheese football snack I've ever tried so...

U Gaufrettes Saveur Croque Monsieur

I thought these little square of wafer and tasty cheesy mush were delicious. Tall elegant taste tester enjoyed them very much too.

But the rest of the reluctant taste testers were uncharacteristically picky. And said no thanks. See also Gaufrettes au Fromage for a similar reaction.

We couldn't imagine what their problem was... until Noble Friend said she was expecting them to have a vanilla taste. And Slightly Red Haired Bristolian admitted she was expecting strawberry. And she thought the cheesy, hammy taste too strong (and obviously not quite right).

Well, we think they're all wrong. And the Chef was quite keen too.

Scrumptious. Delicious. Lovely light crunch. Very tasty. Yes please.

Leader Price Slices Gout Bacon

OK, so apart from the word gout you might suppose this was a British or American crispy snack. But no. This is a snack sourced from a French supermarket and made in France. How do you suppose they pronounce slices? Slees perhaps? Because, you know, as far as I know les slices is not French.

Not to mention; what sort of a name is Leader Price for a French company? Well who knows but it seems to be.

Pretend slices or rashers of bacon made with puffed wheat and potato starch, this looks like a pretty tacky sort of crispy snack.

But guess what? Delicious! Yum.

All the reluctant taste testers seemed delighted to snack on this faux bacon snack. And I was too.

Casino Saveurs d'Ailleurs Chips de Crevette

I'm not normally mad keen on prawn crackers but I bought these in a supermarket in France because, well why not?

And guess what? These own brand crispy prawn crackers are great! They have more substance than your average UK style cracker, and a better taste than I've come across before.

The reluctant taste testers were mightily impressed. Especially as they know I don't eat seafood - so they were pretty impressed I'd bought this packet in the first place.

If you are in a a motorway service station in France (some are run by Casino) or a Casino supermarket, give them a go.

We recommend them.

Bret’s Au Fromage du Jura

Another big packet of crisps from Breton company Bret’s. With a Breton workforce growing French potatoes (possibly even Breton potatoes) for a family company and caring for the the Breton environment you can see this is a very Breton crisp.

Except for the cheese which comes from quite a different part of France. And what a tasty cheese this must be, because this is a fabulous crisp.

Just for a change every single reluctant taste tester really liked this crisp. A lovely subtle cheesy taste and a nice fine crinkle cut crisp. We all liked this crisp very much, and the Chef was pleased to approve too.

Interestingly Bret’s have previously marketed a crisp “au Comté” which is a cheese from the Jura. The Chef and I enjoyed them while driving through France several years back. Comté is a tasty, and well known, AOP cheese from the Jura. And I note from the list of ingredients that the cheese used here is in fact exclusively Comté. So why has the name changed? Could it be that name checking Comté on the packet required a licensing agreement of some sort?

Or is this a different recipe?

Well, whatever the truth of it, this is a very nice crisp. But you have to go to France to buy it. Or possibly an Arabic speaking country (ingredients in English and Arabic as well as French).

M&S Vampire's Fangs

No tricks just treats says the very orange packet of this cheese flavoured corn snack. Orange except for the black bat motif.

The reluctant taste testers and I thought we must have tried this Halloween themed crispy snack before but apparently we tried a salt & vinegar version, and this is cheesy. Just your regular cheesey crispy snack which, as ever with Marks and Spencer, is very tasty indeed. With a great crunch.

Of course, if you eat too many they may stick to the roof of your mouth (in a good way), and likely dye your fingers orange with all that tasty flavour dust. But we can cope with that.

As I recall, the reluctant taste testers and I ate the entire 110g packet in no time at all. Yum yum. Not terribly like teeth though.

As always with this style of crispy snack these are made in Denmark.

Carrefour Gaufrettes aux Fromages (squares)

I thought this own brand wafer aperitif snack was delicious. I really liked the cheesiness and the light crispy crunch.

Imagine my surprise when the reluctant taste testers couldn’t bring themselves to like it. The trouble is, that we have historically enjoyed sweet wafers in this country. Strawberry or vanilla flavour, often a treat at children’ parties. So, when served a pile of little wafers, the taste testers were totally unprepared for the cheesy flavour. And took against this crispy snack. (Yes, see Carrefour Gaufrettes Croque Monsieur for a weirdly similar reaction)

Goodness knows why. I mean, I have offered them all sorts of crazy flavours in the past. But in crisp form. Maybe it’s Ok to have weird crisps but not weird wafers. Although I wouldn’t call cheese weird it certainly isn’t the same as strawberry.

I wonder, are French children brought up on pink strawberry flavour wafers? If so, how do they overcome their expectations?

Don’t pay any attention to the reluctant taste testers.

Supermarket own brand of course, but none the worse for that.

Trésors Gaufrettes Apéritifs Roquefort & Miel

Oh dear. I couldn’t get any takers from the reluctant taste testers with this little biscuitty snack.

The aperitif market, which is a savoury snack to be eaten with a drink, (usually sold in little boxes) is a big market in France. Since I have been visiting French supermarkets in search of crisps or crispy snacks the number of this style of snacks has doubled (at least). And having tried quite a lot of them, and mostly liked them, I was hoping this would be a tasty morsel.

According to the box 300g of Roquefort cheese goes into each kilo of these little wafers biscuits. Which sounds great.

But I don’t know. The taste testers weren’t keen, I wasn't keen, and the Chef wasn’t keen either. That’s a pity.

Vico Saveur Chèvre Chaud & Miel

Normally speaking I would probably recommend a crisp from French crispy snack firm Vico. But this flavour is just a little bit weird.

For a start, not just goats cheese, but hot goats cheese. Now how can that be a flavour?

And we stumbled a bit here, because Tall Elegant taste tester and Noble Friend, they don’t do goats cheese at all. Which seems a bit sweeping if you ask me because there’s all different kinds of cheese made with goats milk the same way there’s all sorts of different cheeses made with cows (or ewes) milk. Well, anyway.

And if you consulted me I wouldn’t add honey to a crisp flavour.  None of the reluctant taste testers were very impressed at this taste combination.

So not a success with us. Nice crinkle cut crisps though.