Cypressa Rosted and Salted Broad Beans (Habas Fritas)

I really don’t get broad beans.

I don't like fresh broad beans (with or without the outer shell), fresh or frozen, and I definitely don't like fried or roasted broad beans. It's a Spanish snack, probably enjoyed by millions of Spaniards and visitors to Spain, but I don't know. For me they're just too tough. Too hard a bite. Too... not made of peanuts. Which is probably extremely picky because, thinking about it, there's not a lot of difference between broad beans and peanuts.

That's just me though, and personal preferences are often weird. I know that Noble Friend really likes Habas Fritas, and it seems Tall Elegant taste tester liked them too. Possibly other reluctant taste testers , although I have failed to interrogate them all.

This packet of roasted and salted broad beans seemed to hit the spot for reluctant taste testers who aren't me. So why not try them for yourselves?

Snack Jack Broad Bean Snack Original Flavour

I wasn't looking forward to trying this broad bean snack. Noble Friend is very taken with the broad bean snack Habas Fritas that she has learned to love in Spain. She made us try the M&S version and was baffled when I announced myself extremely unimpressed.

So here we go. Actually a bit of a surprise. Not broad bean shaped like haas fritas but sort of crispy worms. Not the (I thought) horrid dull bit of haas fritas but a crispy bite not unlike all manner of maize or corn based snacks the reluctant tasters and I have tried.

And not a bad taste either although a little bit peanutty.

The one not so good element is that the snack is really dry. You know how some crispy snacks are mysteriously much dryer than others? I think this is one of those. Having said that, they are quite moreish. And I think would be a lot more moreish if tried with a drink. By which I mean a glass of wine or something.

Which makes it a bit odd that the packaging design seems to be aimed at children. For some reason I am always quite put off any snack advertised by a cartoon character.

Look, I don't really like a lot of  cartoons. There are exceptions of course. Yakari (a Franco-Belgian cartoon series about a little Native American Indian boy and his pony Petit Tonnere; books and TV in French), Sherlock Yak (a yak detective in a zoo with his assistant Hermine, an ermine; the books are in French, the DVDs of the French/German TV show sadly only available in German), and Grizzy and the Lemmings (not Canadian as you might suppose from the setting, but French and not really in a nay language at all) are my current favourites.

But a giant broad bean with white gloves and boots? What's that about?

And it does seem odd that a snack advertised with a carton bean should be a likely candidate for a bar snack.

Anyway, I think I can confidently say we rather enjoyed this crispy snack.