KP Hula Hoops Big Hoops BBQ Beef

Hmmn... not sure I would have bought BBQ beef flavour if there had been other to choose. It's a really hard flavour, built on yeast extract and dried tomatoes and salt:which appears on the list of ingredients 3 times (3 times? that's a lot of salt).

Now, as a lifelong lover of yeast extract (that's Marmite to many of you) I was horrified to learn the other day that it's partly made of celery (which you may recall I can't eat). I never noticed that. And I have to say that although there is no suspicion of celery in the list of ingredients here, this crispy snack smells quite strongly as though it should be there. Which is a bit odd.

So what makes these Hula Hoops into Big Hoops? They're just bigger. I was looking for a bigger ring so you could fit the hoop on your thumb not just on your little finger but it's not really like that. The ring looks bigger, but not too much. I think the bigness is in the width of the band.

This crispy snack has a great crunch. I'd like to try the plain salted version.

And I'm pleased to see that this grab bag isn't too huge. Some grab bags of crisps and crispy snack are just gigantic but this is only 50g so not too bad for your crunch at lunch. Which I bet this will be for many.

KP Hula Hoops Golden Hoops Sour Cream & Chive

I'm not completely convinced by this new product, these hoops baked with 30% less fat.  But the reluctant taste testers seemed more impressed than me. Well, what do I know?

Having said the reluctant taste testers were more impressed than me, I should add they were not mad for this baked biscuit. Yes, it's a biscuit! Really. Definitely a biscuit. All the reluctant taste testers were determined that this was a biscuit.

And is it a Hula Hoop a biscuit? You know, the actual Hula Hoop that we have been eating for years in the UK (apologies to readers from overseas who may not know Hula Hoops). No, that's a crispy snack. But not a biscuit.

But here we are with the Golden Hoops, and yes, they are a brand new crispy snack. I mean biscuit. Which isn't at all like a Hula Hoop although I suppose they are fairly hoopy. (Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is.)

Anyway. Golden Hoops are made from wheat flour which has been enriched with vitamins like thiamin and niacin. Just like a breakfast cereal. Weird!

Not at all bad on the biscuity front. Sour Cream & Chive isn't my most favourite flavour but it's not a bad snack. Interestingly almost all the reluctant taste testers said they didn't really like the flavour, saying it was too strong, and I thought they  tasted a bit like washing up liquid which is a bit unfortunate. However most of the taste testers seemed to eat quite a lot of them.

And it is interesting how people can say in a determined fashion that they don't like something and then go on to eat quite a lot. It happens quite often.

KP Hula Hoops Golden Hoops Salt & Vinegar

What is this? These aren't Hula Hoops. These are not the Hula Hoops I was looking for. This is a packet of hoop-shaped biscuits.

This is a packet of rather sweet hoop-shaped biscuits anointed with a strong taste of salt & vinegar.

Golden Hoops are oven baked and are completely free from all artificial flavours, colours and MSG. Of course they still taste great! says the packet. A HOLE lot of fun to keep the family happy... and the crunchy, golden baked and deliciously tasty hoop snack from the Hula Hoops family.

Hmm... the Hula Hoops family eh? Who knew? I'm still feeling a bit cheated because these Golden Hoops are not what I was expecting. And honestly not sure that salt & vinegar works too well with a sweet biscuit.

On the other hand the reluctant taste testers ate a large bowlful. So what do I know?

KP Hula Hoops Stars

Ever had Hula Hoops? Of course you have. At least if you live in the UK. Well, look what I found in Sainsbury's. Star-shaped Hula Hoops.

Seasonal shaped crispy snacks seem to have appeared all over the place in the last couple of years. A Christmas tree is a popular shape but stars are fairly Christmassy too. The reluctant taste testers and I pondered this at work the other day. We wondered about angel-shaped snacks. They might be good. Three wise men? And what about baby Jesus shapes? Perhaps not.

Did I see holly leaf shapes in Tesco a year ago? I think I might have but I can't remember. We have of course tried Jacobs Treeselets; tree-shaped instead of rectangular, Jacobs Cheesonal Mini Cheddars which come in bell and snowman shapes instead of round, KP Cheese & Tomato Christmas Crackers which come in bell, star and tree shapes, and Tesco Snowmen Tortilla Chips. Shame about the lack of angels. Cookie cutters always come angel-shaped and reindeer too. Ooh....

These stars were smaller than I was expecting. Somehow I had expected the inside of the star to be the same size as the inside of a regular Hula Hoop. But no. The outer points of the star seem to be the same size as a regular Hula Hoop and then the inner points are just squished in from that size. So you can't put them on your finger unless you are a very very small child. Kind of disappointing.

Returned maternity leave taste tester (I must think of a better nom de crispy snack for her) missed these little stars. She isn't in the office every day. But her first question was; can you still fit them on your fingers? Because, you know, what could be better than food you can fit on your fingers and then eat? So not just disappointing to me.

Otherwise these are just exactly like a regular Hula Hoop. Quite a hard crunch and lightly salted. Pretty good.

Improbable though it may seem, this is the 400th crispy blog post!

KP Hula Hoops Puft Salted

Here's another flavour from Hula Hoops Puft: salted flavour wheat & potato rings.

Salted perhaps, but not terribly salty.

Nice gentle fried crispy aroma, nice gentle salty taste, nice crunch but not very exciting. Very pale colour. I do rather feel they would be better with a bit more colour but that is a minor quibble. They do taste OK - it's just all a little quiet.

The reluctant taste testers polished off the bowlful (2 little bags) but we weren't mad for this crispy snack.  Quite nice. Inoffensive. But rather bland. That's possibly the best description. Sorry chaps; I think I'm damning this crispy snack with faint praise.

To be honest I think I prefer the original Hula Hoops.

KP Hula Hoops Puft Cheese

The packet tells me that Hula Hoops Puft are new. And I confess that I've not seen them before.

Puft. Honestly! Anyway, what you get is a sort of puffed up version of the original Hula Hoops we know so well. And somehow, because this crispy snack is puffed it seems to be much larger than an ordinary Hula Hoop.

You get a huge waft of (rather processed) cheese when you open the bag and the taste is pretty (processed) cheesy too. Lots of dairy products in the ingredients although I suspect that much of the flavour comes from the dried onion, garlic and tomato listed on the packet. And of course the colour comes from paprika as so often.

I was expecting the texture to be softer - like a cheese puff or a Quaver - but in fact they have a good crunchy crunch. Not as hard as regular Hula Hoops obviously.

The packet describes this as a hoopy snack. Which takes me straight back to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Hey you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who knows where his towel is. Or words to that effect. Ah, how the mind can be dragged back to 1978. Mind you; Douglas Adams would have struggled with his predictive text when writing that today.

Not bad. But I think I will stick to regular Hula Hoops next time.... although I do have some Hula Hoops Puft Ready Salted to try.

KP Hula Hoops

I tried a selection packet of Hula Hoops.

I hadn't had a Hula Hoop for years so it was interesting to try them again. We used to have them all the time and for some reason it seemed really cool to put a hoop on to the end of each finger and then eat them off my fingers - instead of just eating them out of the packet. Of course that was a long long time ago.

And guess what? They taste just as I remember. And also guess what? Apparently everyone else in the world used to eat Hula Hoops off the ends of their fingers. Well well.

It turns out that although there is nothing at all the matter with Hula Hoops I find I'm not terrifically impressed. Perhaps it's because they seem to be exactly the same as they were back in 1973 which is of course a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... But in 1973 we didn't have such a wealth of crispy snacks to choose from. Or indeed so many fascinating flavours to try.

I read on the website that Hula Hoops currently come in BBQ Beef, Cheese and Onion, Original, Salt and Vinegar, Roast Chicken, Smokey Bacon, Sour Cream and Chive, and Sweet Chili flavours. I haven't actually seen most of these as our local Waitrose has quite a small crispy snack section and tends not to stock the more exciting flavours. This multipack has Cheese and Onion, Original and Salt and Vinegar; the classics.

Hula Hoop Facts: did you know it would take over 250 million Hula Hoops to weigh the same as the Angel of the North! Hula Hoops in a hole world of their own. Not, I have to say, something I had ever considered but you never know what thrilling info will be printed on the back of a crisp packet.

I started with Cheese and Onion. The cheese and onion-ness is quite pleasant. Not too strong, not too oniony, but weirdly you can suck the cheese and onion flavour off and then you just have an original flavour Hula Hoop.

And then I moved on to Original. Quite tasty, a little bit salty, not very exciting but OK. As always, quite a hard crunch. And of course these crunchy potato snacks are little hoops. What else? Not convinced I would want to eat more than a very small bag at one sitting but perfectly good as a crispy crunchy snack.

Finally Salt and Vinegar. Which is a little bit too sharp for my taste. A little bit too vinegary. Not too bad but I far prefer the Original flavour. In fact I'm inclined to think that Original is best.

I can see why they still sell of course. These small multi pack bags seem to be aimed at the packed lunch market. Little children (and let's admit it, not so little children too) will always enjoy eating them off the ends of their fingers.