Deep River Snacks Zesty Jalapeño

Tall Elegant taste tester went to visit a friend recently and brought back this small packet of crisps. Friend lives near Boston in the United States so that's where this packet comes from.

I've tried Deep River crisps before: New York Spicy Dill Pickle, which I found very spicy indeed. And now here we have Spicy Jalapeño. Which the reluctant taste testers and I found extremely spicy. Small and very crunchy but what a lot of taste.

Senior taste tester liked them a lot and thought them very spicy, Tall Elegant taste tester tried them and said they were extremely spicy, I thought the chilli taste was very hot, the Chef tried the last of the packet and said they were very strong.

You know how chilli often creeps up on you after you've eaten it. And you didn't think it was that hot but then suddenly it is. Not these crisps. No, you get the hot strong chilli taste at once. It's a very nice taste but it is a big taste. A very big taste indeed.

Mind you, the packet does have a warning. It says: Fair warning: the fresh heat of our jalapeño chilli pepper will leave your tongue tingling and your taste buds begging for more! And Did you feel the fire? I'm pretty sure our answer is yes.

Deep River Snacks support lots of very good causes and this packet encourages you to support the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation which is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury and improving the quality of life for individuals living with paralysis.

Deep River Snacks New York Spicy Dill Pickle

Spicy Dill Pickle? Very very spicy indeed. And yes, I know the packet says spicy but I'm not sure I was expecting quite such spiciness.

This is the last but one packet of crisps that lovely Friend from Buffalo brought from the United States. So having been scrunched up in her suitcase the crisps are a bit broken up. But I notice that the Deep River Snacks bag coped with the pressure in the baggage hold a lot better than the Lay's bags. It's definitely quite sturdy as crisp bags go.

These crisps are all natural, certified gluten free, kosher, with non-GMO potatoes and sunflower oil, no preservatives, no MSG, no trans fat and cholesterol free. And free of peanuts and tree nuts. Wow! Is there anything in this crispy snack? Well, yes; there's a whole lot of taste.

These are quite crunchy little crisps, rather a dark yellow with lots of flavour dust and scattered with teeny tiny snippets of (probably) dill. The flavour is made up of "extractives" of dill weed (not a word I have come across before), onion, garlic and vinegar, and of course the usual suspects: spices and natural flavour. I sometimes wonder why the crisp companies bother to give us any ingredients at all when what they so often tell us is "natural flavour".

Deep River Snacks seem to be very committed to helping a wide variety of charities, each associated with a different flavour of crisp: my packet tells me about the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and their Light the Night Walk (in North America). Rosemary & Olive Oil flavour (which I rather fancy) encourages you to support Autism Speaks which is a charity I like the sound of. Peach Habanero Tortilla Chips are also associated with this charity. A combination of peaches and chillis I think? And potatoes of course.

The crispy crunch is a little hard but I'm feeling a little fragile today (glands or something) so probably I wouldn't normally complain about that. The thing that bothers me a bit is that the dill pickle taste (which I love) is almost obscured by the amazing spiciness.

But it's a very different packet of crisps from the norm and doesn't seem to be trying to copy anything else I have tried. And it looks like a nice company with carefully considered values. So I'm pleased to have tried this product.