Co-op Limited Edition Dill-icious Dill Pickle Flavour Crisps

This is a wonderful crinkle cut crisp with a great bite and lots of good crinkles for the flavour dust to stick to.

Unfortunately the flavour is all wrong. I really enjoy dill pickle as a flavour, I love dill. But these crisps are far too vinegary for my taste. Far too vinegary. And I don’t like the way they smell. What a shame. And disappointing because Co-op crisps are usually very good.

Pretty packaging though.

Co-op Irresistible Limited Edition Hand Cooked Chicken Shawarma

I really don’t know quite what to say about this limited edition crisp from our local Co-op here in North London. You will probably think the Chef and I are terribly boring, but we are both fairly sure we’ve never had a chicken shawarma. We almost never have a takeaway. I think the last one was a pizza in lockdown in Switzerland. So neither of us knows what taste to look out for in these crisps. Oh dear. That’s not a great help, is it!

I looked up a chicken shawarma recipe to see if it tallied at all with the ingredients on the packet. What do you think? Not really. I think the taste that I can’t quite get to grips with is lurking behind the unhelpful ‘chili chicken shawarma flavour seasoning’. I wish I knew what that concoction is made with.

Don’t run away with the idea that this crisp is nasty. It’s not. I have eaten quite a few, and the Chef has been absent mindedly snacking away with no complaints. 

The crisps themselves are not very large but with a nice crunch, and they are richly golden in colour. It’s just that I can’t work out what they taste of. Could it be the cumin? I can’t make my mind up. Whatever they taste of, it’s like no other potato crisp I ever tried before.

Co-op Naturaplan Chips Herbes des Alpes

Made for the Co-op by Swiss crisp giant Zweifel; this packet of gluten free, suitable for vegans crisps looks about as healthy as a packet of crisps can get. Unless you bake them instead of frying which obviously means it’s not a proper crisp.

For myself, these crisps seem extremely herby; there’s a bit too much taste. The Chef , on the other hand, thinks there isn’t enough flavour. Apparently you can’t please everyone. A good thin crisp with a light crunch.

Co-op Naturaplan Bio Chips Ail des Ours

Here we are in Switzerland again, and it’s the season for wild garlic (ail des ours, bärlauch, aglio orsino). So we have tagliatelle flavoured with wild garlic, ravioli stuffed with mascarpone and wild garlic, and in a couple of months there will be cheese flavoured with wild garlic.

And for the first time we have found really delicious potato crisps flavoured with wild garlic. 

In the Swiss tradition these delicately flavoured crisps from the (Swiss) Co-op are very fine cut with a gentle crunch. And very nice too. We bought another 140g packet. Yum yum. Although I am quite disappointed to learn from the list of ingredients that most of the wild garlic flavour appears to come from actual garlic. Yup; disappointing. Ah well. Still very tasty.

Co-op Hand Cooked Ultimate Roast Potato Crisps

What an interesting crisp flavour, I thought as I rushed into the local Co-op for emergency double cream and paracetamol at New Year. Naturally I snapped up a packet.

Nice crisps. A good size, tasty, and a tip top crunch. But do these crisps actually taste of roast potatoes? 

Sadly, no. No they don’t. Well, not unless you roast your potatoes with quite a lot of herbs. And we don’t. The packet does show rosemary and garlic which are both on the list of ingredients, but the taste is not potatoey enough.

I’ve had roast potatoes cooked with masses of garlic, with tons of Parmesan grated over them, and with a bit too much lemon juice (thanks Judy), but to be honest I prefer my roast potatoes to taste of roast potatoes. 

What a pity. This is a missed opportunity to make a wonderful crisp. Mind you, the Chef had no trouble at all finishing the packet all by himself. So if you aren’t as picky as me you might like them. You probably will.

Co-op Qualité & Prix Snac! Bretzel Salés

Recently the Chef and I tried a small pretzel from the Co-op in Switzerland. It was very good indeed (especially impressive as I have a history of not really enjoying pretzels), but somehow we couldn’t get another packet so we thought we would try a packet of these instead.

Well, I don’t know why, but this version isn’t as nice as the first we tried. Slightly (only slightly) larger, with slightly fewer little chunks of salt (the best bit if you ask me), and a slightly doughier taste. It’s not bad but I suspect it’s the budget version. And not bio. But with a slightly more complex knotty design than the bio version. And it also comes in a much larger packet.

Quite nice. But not as nice as the first packet of pretzels we tried. The Chef agrees. Of course, these not being as nice as the bio pretzels doesn’t stop us eating them, especially with a bit of butter.

Co-op Naturaplan Mini Bretzel

You might think there’s nothing very exciting about a mini pretzel. Perhaps not. But a small pretzel, just exactly the right size? With the right crunch and exactly the right amount of salt? You really can’t go wrong.

What more can I say? The thing is, it’s a whole lot more difficult to write at length about a crispy snack you liked and enjoyed than about one you didn’t like. Naturally if you really disliked whatever it was, there’s always lots to say. So just imagine me sitting on the sofa idly watching a 2009 stage of the Tour de France on Swiss TV with the sound turned off (don’t ask), snacking my way through half a packet of these surprisingly morish little pretzels.

Co-op Turkey & Stuffing Legs

Well, well, here's a thing; three dimensional pretend turkey legs in Turkey and Stuffing flavour made with lattice style extruded potato starch.

Complicated? Yes, a bit. But you know, they've got the technology to make all sorts of shapes these days. You don't have to employ an army of underpaid workers to make your little shapes. The machines do it all for you. So why not?

And as we know Turkey & Stuffing is usually a reliable, if not successful flavour for crispy snacks, so again, why not?

Obviously I spotted these in our local Co-op when I went out for emergency washing up liquid on Christmas Eve (the lemon fragrance smells more like shoe polish - or is that just me?), so how could I resist?

The little leg shapes smell just right. The texture is light with a light bite. The flavour... a little too heavy on the herbs I think. But not bad. A fun crispy snack for children I imagine. And probably just for Christmas.

Co-op Naturaplan Chips Romarin

Hmmn, interesting, this is a packet of crisps from the Swiss Co-op which turns out to have been made by Swiss crisp giant Zweifel. We all know, even if we don't think about it, that major crisp manufacturers make crisps for the major supermarkets, but you don't usually get the name of said comapny printed on the supermarket packet. But here we do.

So I tried this crisp, most of which are rather small and finely cut (in the style of Zweifel which I like), on Tractor Fan Taste Tester and on the Ski Instructor. The Ski Instructor (who isn't one any more but I don't want to change his name and confuse myself) thought these crisps tasted of chicken. Really? Yes, and what's more Tractor Fan agreed with him without having heard his views first. The Ski Instructor's argument is “why not?” You get packets of crisps labelled chicken that are actually vegetarian, so an alleged vegetable (or herb) flavoured crisp might as well taste of chicken.

The Chef couldn't detect any particular taste at all. But they all ate a fair number. Really quite a lot. With dip and without.

So I don't think it really matters what you think this crisp actually tastes of, let's just say it's a gentle flavour and all four of us rather enjoyed it.

Co-op Irresistible Hand Cooked Cornish Cheddar Cauliflower Cheese Crisps

Sorry, what?

Cauliflower cheese flavour potato crisps?? Apparently yes. Is this flavour almost as weird or even more weird than the wonderful M&S Reduced Fat Buttered Potato flavour crisp? Who can say.

But seriously, who on earth thought of this? The packet design has stars and glitter (a picture of glitter - don’t get over excited crisp fans) so perhaps it is intended to be a special Christmas crisp but who knows. I mean, do you have a Christmas Eve cauliflower cheese tradition? We certainly don’t (we have our Christmas dinner on  Christmas Eve if at all possible. It means that if family insist on coming round on Christmas Day, and they do, it’s a whole lot less stressful than it might be).

So.... cauliflower. Cauliflower cheese. Not sure any of the reluctant taste testers could detect that. Nor detect an aroma of cauliflower neither.

But this is an extremely cheesy crisp. It tastes so cheesy that I keep expecting each individual crisp to be completely coated in a thick layer of flavour dust. In fact they look like perfectly normal crisps. The bite is a little hard which I’m not mad about, with the skin left on which I like.

I’m not sure this crisp is actually irresistible, but it’s certainly less weird than we were expecting. And it works OK with a dip. Quite a lot of them were folded (which you can see on the packet). Interesting.

The Chef really liked them and insisted on finishing the packet all by himself.

Co-op Onion Rings

I never realised I liked onion ring crispy snacks until recently because I never eat actual onion rings. But I find the fake onion ring snack is actually pretty tasty.

And this is a good example. Slightly oddly made with maize, wheat and rice. But I notice that increasingly crispy snacks (as opposed to potato crisps) are made with an odd selection of ingredients. I wonder what task the rice performs in making this snack?

Good crunch. Good oniony taste. One of the reluctant taste testers thought the taste lingered too long - but really, what did she expect?

Not gourmet but tasty. I ate quite a lot. The taste testers all (mostly) ate quite a lot. None of these tasty onion rings made it home for the Chef to try.

But the Co-op is just round the corner and open late so he can rush out and buy some more if he feels fretful.

Co-op Limited Edition Irresistible Hand Cooked Gourmet Burger Crinkle Cut Crisps

Blimey that's a great big long name for a simple packet of crisps!

Irresistible? maybe; Hand Cooked? I'm sure; crinkle cut? obviously; Limited Edition? well, who knows? Depends how popular this crisp flavour turns out to be.

And I'm not sure how popular a burger flavour crisp that don't really taste of burgers will be.

Cheeseburger flavour is easier to replicate than plain burger I think. You have the cheese, the distinctive mustard and the pickle. With plain burger flavour, which is what we have here, we seem to have just the pickle flavour.

Specially selected potatoes grown in Herefordshire, hand cooked in small batches (I wish I knew how small that actually is) and seasoned with Aberdeen Angus beef, Monterey Jack cheese, tomato, dill pickle and a hint of chilli says the packet. Why Monterey Jack I wonder? It's not a cheese you normally get in the UK.

This is a lovely crisp with a great crunch. Noble Friend told me she liked it because - well, "you know I like that flavour". Others of the reluctant taste testers snacked in quite enthusiastically so that only a tiny proportion of the packet was ferried home for the Chef to try. I was happy to eat this crisp... but disappointed that the flavour is mainly dill pickle.

Quite tasty. The Chef thinks "not bad" (you know how picky he is. But not burger flavour whatever the packet blurb tells me.

Co-op Fine Foods Vegetable Chips

When the Chef & I were in Switzerland we were invited to supper with a French (actually from Alsace so possibly German) friend and her son who is half Corsican. Both of them spend a lot of time in Switzerland, and both of them spend a lot of time in Peru where they run trekking holidays which I suspect are not for the faint hearted or the dilettante tourist. And I wouldn't be able to cope at all because so much of Peru is very high and I am not at my best at altitude.

If you had asked me to name anyone who wouldn't eat crisps I would have bet on Alsatian friend. And I would have been quite wrong. Because she introduced us to a fine packet of vegetable crisps from the Co-op. And very nice too.

In fact, not just very nice but delicious. Once again I'll remind you that I don't normally buy vegetable crisps as potato crisps keep me plenty busy, but in this case I think I would make an exception. And anyway the Chef liked them so much he went out and bought 2 more packets so we could try them again.

Parsnip (weirdly called panais in French), sweet potato, carrot and beetroot.  And I enjoyed them all. As always a duller crunch than you get from a potato crisp but not too dull, and really, very tasty.

Co-op Irresistible Hand Cooked Sea Salt & Chardonnay Wine Vinegar Crisps

Damn! My nearest Co-op store that I know of is in Southwark! Which is to say, south of the river (River Thames, keep up chaps), so almost in France.

Aargh! The Chef will never forgive me. I took this little packet of yummy but posh salt & vinegar crisps into work and the reluctant taste testers and I ate the whole lot.

Kind of sharp, kind of sweet and a good crunch. Very nice.

Very nice indeed. I was pleased this was a good crisp, but sort of puzzled: the first Co-op crisp the Chef and I tried was the Slightly Salted and it really is superb. The second flavour was West Country Cheddar & Red Onion Chutney which was a bit, actually quite a lot, over flavourful. Too much flavour is not a good thing.

And todays's choice? Actually pretty good. Hurrah! But the Chef didn't get to try.

Co-op Irresistible Hand Cooked West Country Cheddar & Red Onion Chutney Crisps

The new extension at Tate Modern with an interesting road sign

Yes, another impossibly long named crisp.

Basically it's yet another take on a cheese and onion crisp but using a named cheese (Cheddar) from a named dairy (the Alvis brothers dairy) in a named part of the country (Somerset in the West Country).   And not just onion but red onion, and red onion chutney at that. Oh so complicated.

Now the Chef and I tried a packet of lightly salted crisps from the Co-op just the other day (see our all time favourites side bar) and they really were superb. But somehow this cheese and onion crisp is not of the same calibre. I think it's trying too hard. Which is a shame.

Quite a thick crisp with a fairly hard crunch, the skin has been left on which is nice, and the flavour dust is a rich orangey golden colour. Not a bad flavour by any means, but I think these crisps are too tasty.

Too tasty? Yes I think so. Call me picky but I think these crisps would be better if the flavour were more subtle. But try for yourself if you have a local Co-op.

I don't know where our local Co-op is so all three of the Co-op crisps I have bought recently came from the little branch just around the corner from Tate Modern. Which is in Southwark (South of the Thames) so quite a distance away but easily accessible on the tube.

Co-op Irresistible Hand Cooked Lightly Salted Crisps

Last night the Chef & I went to Tate Modern to see the Georgia O'Keefe exhibition. It was the penultimate Friday of the show (late night opening too) so rather crowded, but the Tate has very large rooms and it wasn't too hard to get up close to all of the paintings. And the photographs and books on show too.

Anyhow, on our way back to Southwark tube station we dropped into a branch of the Co-op and found this great own brand crisp.

Just lovely! Great crunch, perfect saltiness, and nice colour with the red skin of the Lady Rosetta potatoes left on. A fabulous crisp. Well done the Co-op.

Although, I see these crisps are manufactured in the UK for Co-operative Group Limited. I don't know who made this crisp but it's a top job.

We also tried them with Sainsbury's Soured Cream & Chive dip (yes, there was a small branch on the route back to the tube station) and that worked extremely well.

All round deliciousness.

Co-op JaMaDu Croustades de Maïs

This is a terribly exciting initiative from the Swiss Co-op to provide healthy crispy snacks for children.

"Kids Expert Jury" it says on the front of the packet. And on the back it tells me that it is important that children eat a balanced diet and take part in regular physical activity which they enjoy (I love that bit: when I was a child you had to do sports whether you liked them or not. And mostly I didn't).

Anyway, with this in mind the Swiss Co-op launched the JaMaDu programme. And we are told that all JaMaDu products have been tested and recommended by children, parents, and experts.

Great idea. Most unfortunately the reluctant taste testers join me in thinking that this crispy snack tastes of nothing at all.

Which is pretty grim. Except that the tall taste tester thought this crispy snack tasted kind of fishy (he said "cod") which is sort of worse than tasting of nothing very much.

Most of us thought this caterpillar-shaped crispy snack tasted of nothing very much. The managerial taste tester (who doesn't usually comment) contributed this interesting fact: crispy snacks for small children don't taste of anything. And who better to comment? Managerial taste tester has a 2 year old son. And should be an expert.

Well, it was worth a try. And the idea of producing a crispy snack with 40% less fat seems pretty good. I guess the advice should be to introduce your child to healthy low-fat no-saltiness before they have any chance to try and appreciate what I think of as a normal yummy salty crispy snack.

Not sure why the Co-op chose a lemur to illustrate this snack. Especially a red ruffed lemur. It looks like an absolutely charming animal but why it should be promoting a crispy maize snack I do not know.

Co-op Fine Food Hopi Blue Chipotle Nachos

Hopi Blue Chipotle Nachos says the packet in English. And then Tortilla-Chips mit blauem Mais und Chipotle-Chilli  (German),  Tortilla chips au maïs bleu et au chile chipotle (French), and Tortilla chips al mais blu e al Chili Chipotle (Italian). Because everything in Switzerland comes in German, French and Italian.

I wonder why they are called Nachos in English but tortilla chips everywhere else?

The first trouble with these Hopi Blue tortilla chips is that they aren't blue. It would be lovely to think they were blue. But they're not. They're a sort of dried-blood dark red with small black and white spots. This is not an attractive colour; actually quite off-putting.

The second trouble is that you can't really taste much (any) chipotle chilli. Basically all you get is tortilla chip flavour. Which I find quite dull.

Nice big pointy triangles, the crunch is good and the chips do work well with a dip - provided it's the right dip (I tried two different dips and one of them was a disaster) - but otherwise I couldn't find anything special to say about them. 

This is a 150g bag that thinks quite a lot of itself. I'm not that impressed.

Kambly Apéro Herzli Bio

Here's an interesting little heart-shaped biscuity salty snack from Swiss biscuit firm Kambly.

I found these in the local Co-op in Switzerland and indeed the smart metallic green packet also has the Co-op Naturaplan logo on it.

I thought the packet seemed sturdy enough to survive an encounter with the easyJet baggage handlers (obviously packed inside my suitcase...) and I was right. There don't seem to have been any breakages at all.

So I tried these crunchy biscuity snacks on the reluctant taste testers at work and after a little thought the team tucked in with a fair amount of enthusiasm. If I leave a bowl of crisps in the kitchen it's amazing how much grazing goes on during the day. Even crisps they claim not to like get eaten, but I think the taste testers really liked these little hearts.

As Very Skeptical taste tester put it, they must be healthy because they're full of nothing but air. Full of nothing but air and organic too.

But the taste? Well, they sort of taste of pretzel. Not very salty but with a little sprinkling of salt on and not very pretzelly but a gentle savoury something that is somehow rather good. And a nice light crunch.

I was a bit baffled when I opened the packet because, well, I don't know quite what I was expecting, but I don't think it was what I got. However, I find I quite like these little biscuits. And I love how they look. I know they are brown but it's a very smart brown. But not very like the hearts on the packaging which look more salty but less brown.

Time to sit back with an aperitif and enjoy a little bowl of Herzli.