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 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.