Cape Cod Kettle Chips Original

What a beautiful little crisp this is.

Each crisp is smaller than your average crisp but has just as much, or actually rather more of a crunch than you might expect. With the delightfully simple Original flavour (basically just salt) you get pretty much the perfect crisp. Lovely.

I’m really sorry that the Reluctant Taste Testers aren’t around to share this packet with me. Or perhaps I’m not around to share it with them. But there’s always the Chef and he says he quite likes them.

A kind American friend from Instagram, Missouri Taste Tester, sent me a parcel of crisps and this is the first we have tried. And never even bothered with a dip. Very nice.

As you see; no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, and no GMO. And 40% less fat than the leading brand of potato chips. I wonder who that is? Apparently the Cape Cod Chips Company is based in Hyannis Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. To be honest that’s a bit of a surprise. Silly me. I thought it was just some marketing strategy. When your hand’s in the bag, your head’s in the cape it says on their website. They have merch!

Kettle Sea Salt & Crushed Black Pepper

For some strange reason the reluctant taste testers and I have never got around to trying this crisp. Possibly because it appears to be a perfectly normal flavour: because you know we love to try the weird ones. However, that doesn't seem to have stopped Tall Elegant taste tester from attempting this packet as a crunch with her lunch. She didn't eat the entire packet though, and gifted me with the leftovers to see what I thought.

Not a bad crunch, as is usual with Kettle Chips, and a nice simple flavour. I am not at all sure if there is (or could be) a difference between sea salt & black pepper or sea salt & crushed black pepper as a flavour. I think it's just the words. Why not? The more words the better. Or not. It depends on your point of view.

On the back of the packet we are told this is "Lightly Salted's darker mysteries alter ego".  Mmmn... I'm not sure that encourages me. I am more interested to learn that 100% of the potatoes used to make Kettle Chips are British, most from within 30 miles of "our Norfolk home".

But absolutely nothing artificial is an annoying claim. I suppose it is meant to tell us we are getting a super healthy crisp here. Made with proper ingredients grown on farms filled with wildlife and birdsong.

But hang on, I always wonder what a crisp without this label would be made of? Potatoes grown in industrial revolution style gloomy factories? Fake potatoes carved out of wood? Of course not. All crispy snacks are made of real ingredients... it's just that some of them (not usually in the UK) has E numbers and stuff. Which might perhaps be considered artificial.

Anyway, despite the unnecessary claims this is not a bad crisp.

Kettle Discoveries press ad

Well, I missed the opportunity to check out Kettles Discoveries at Taste of London, but I do have this advertisement alerting me to the new (not sure how new) packaging and some interesting crisp flavours.

The reluctant taste testers and I have tried the Gressingham Duck crisps which used to be called Chef's Signature. I see we tried them in January of this year. I thought it was longer ago than that. Memory can play tricks on you can't it.

And the Yorkshire Wensleydale crisps too (also previously Chef's Signature). That was in August this year. But they've both been rebranded obviously quite recently. Hmm.

However, I haven't seen the New York Deli flavour... and you can bet I long to find the Salted Caramel and Double Cream. Can't quite decide if they are going to be really amazing or quite the reverse. Apparently we just can't get enough of salted caramel as a flavour and it has invaded everything. Salted caramel chocolate (obviously), salted caramel tea, salted caramel vodka, salted caramel mousse, salted caramel cupcakes, salted caramel sauce .... and now salted caramel crisps. Here's hoping I can find some eh?

I do hope I can find a packet. Might trip over the New York Deli with Pastrami & Dill Pickle too. You never know.

Kettle Chips Chef's Signature Yorkshire Wensleydale & Cox Apple Chutney

"Why do they taste of mince pie?" asked Slightly Red-Haired Bristolian taste tester. And she's kind of right.

I had high hopes for this cheese and chutney flavour crisp. Yorkshire Wensleydale is a Protected Geographical Indication which means you can't call your cheese Yorkshire Wensleydale unless it comes from Wensleydale in Yorkshire. Indeed these crisps are made in partnership with Wensleydale Creamery.

So it's a bit of a shame that the reluctant taste testers didn't really like these crisps very much in fact Tall Elegant taste tester thought them horrid.

I wouldn't go that far myself but there's an awful lot of flavour dust which seemed to us to be overly cheesy, and a bit too creamy. And here's weird; I had already though for myself that the crisps are oddly fizzy but I didn't say anything. And then Tall taste tester remarked on it too.

Wensleydale is a particularly creamy cheese (and a favourite of Wallace of Wallace & Gromit fame) but I'm not always sure that creaminess works very well with crisps. And the chutney is far too strong an element. I notice that one of the ingredients is ground cassia which I've not come across before. A quick look online tells me it's like cinnamon.

A quick sniff assures me these crisps smell of mince pie. I'm not sure this flavour is a good idea for a crisp.

Kettle Chips Limited Edition Hand Cooked Baked Camembert & Oak Smoked Garlic

Oh dear. I really don't like this packaging. Although I suppose it is kind of camembert  colour so I can see why Mr Kettle chose it.

I don't find it very appealing. But I must admit that the gold detailing is rather grand, and the dark red strip has a very smart self-coloured pattern. Which shows up almost better in the scan than it does in real life but only on the red. The dark cream (which is darker in life than the scan shows) also has a self pattern which doesn't show up in the scan at all. I don't know what to make of that.

Not sure about the flavour either. Was it Noble Friend who said it's just a fancy version of cheese and onion? Whoever it was was quite right.

I love camembert. I used to work for a man (sadly no longer with us) who was the proud owner of the smelliest camembert in the world. My goodness it smelled bad. So bad that his French wife wouldn't let him store it in the house. You would think a Frenchwoman would allow the cheese in the building. But no. The cheese lived in the garden shed and came into the kitchen at lunchtime. It smelled bad but wow did it taste good!

Not sure these crisps actually taste of camembert. Or oak smoked garlic. I think we're verging on the complicated flavour front. Not ideal.

And Dutch taste tester complained the crisps are too thick and the bite too hard and she prefers a lighter bite. I'm a bit surprised by this as she had such a professional crunch when taste testing. And it seems most of her friends would be surprised too. Apparently when Dutch taste tester and the Vinyl Collector give a party loads of people generously bring Kettle Chips with them.

Kettle Chips look a lot fancier than your basic Walkers or Smiths crisps both of which are a thinner crisp with a much lighter crunch. Trouble is, crisps from Walkers or Smiths look more everyday. Well... not like a present. Dutch taste tester likes a lighter bite. And maybe you do too?

And hang about; the packet says absolutely nothing artificial. Oh good. Because that rather implies that other Kettle Chips flavours might be made with plastic or polystyrene. I'm fairly sure they're not. In fact, looking at the list of ingredients they do all look fairly real. As far as dried roasted garlic (for example) can be real. Still. It does seem an odd thing to say.

Kettle Chips Chef's Signature Gressingham Duck Plum Sauce & Spring Onion

A couple of months ago I was reading an article about weird flavours of crisps, and it mentioned these. At the time I was rather sorry I had never seen them. but guess what (you've probably worked this out for yourself already); here they are.

The packet is a very swanky purple and (and I asked Dutch taste tester if she agreed) the wooden chopping board shown does actually feel faintly wooden. Amazing attention to detail or what? And the duck, spring onion and plum sauce on the chopping board are a different very glossy texture.

Yes it's a Chinese meal in a packet of crisps. Albeit without the pancakes.

We had mixed opinions on this crisp. Tall Elegant taste tester doesn't like spring onions, so they definitely weren't for her, and I confess I thought they were much too spring oniony. With a strong spring onion style aftertaste. However, Tall taste tester was very keen indeed and asked to take the leftovers home with him.

Not a bad crisp with a good crunch but in my opinion any taste of duck is overpowered by the plum (quite sweet) and the spring onions. They do taste a little bit meaty but Tech taste tester, a big fan of  meaty crisps, was not able to pick the taste and wondered if it were lamb. This is a shame as Gressingham ducks are famous.

The packet has a sticky label on it so you can stick the packet shut. A good idea if you are embarking on this 150g packet on your own, and a fun design too as the sticky label is disguised as the Chef's apron. If you peel the sticky label off, the Chef is no longer wearing an apron. Nice design. But as you can see, the little guy throwing his rubbish away responsibly is just the generic design; nothing special.

Kettle Chips Limited Edition Chorizo Feta & Olive

I have a feeling this limited edition crisp will remain a limited edition. Somehow this flavour doesn't really work very well. It doesn't seem to taste of chorizo or feta, or olive either.

There's a huge long list of ingredients including chorizo, feta and olive, along with raw cane sugar, chilli, oregano, lemon juice, coriander, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg, but I don't think you would be able to say exactly what this crisp tastes of.

The actual crisps are large, richly coloured and have a great crunch. And a strong flavour. Which was OK. But none of the reluctant taste testers were convinced by this flavour.

Sorry Kettle Chips. We really didn't feel this combination of flavours worked well for us.

Plus and I think you can see it on the scan if you peer closely, the packaging has a pattern like Victorian floor tiles... but also gives the effect that you get when your crisp packet gets a bit old and it starts to leak oil. Or whatever it is that crisp packets do. If you keep them for any length of time you'll have seen this weird effect.

Not a total success we felt. But look: the crisps are wonderful.

Kettle Chips Crispy Bacon & Maple Syrup

Road trip!

You absolutely cannot beat motorway service stations and small shops in faraway towns for an interesting and exotic selection of crispy snacks. In small packets (all the better). But I can't remember where I found this packet. Sometimes all the service stations merge into one.

Anyhow, the reluctant taste testers and I tried these crisps and were amazed how mapley they are. Not that this is necessarily a good thing as we are fairly united in our desire to keep crisps savoury not sweet.

It was quite interesting trying these crisps because the week before we had another packet of Portlebay Crispy Bacon & Maple Syrup Popcorn which I wrote up in January 2015. Tall Elegant taste tester wasn't here then so she didn't realise we had tried this superb popcorn before.

So, faced with two entirely different textures, but two very similar tastes, what did we think? For myself, I think Bacon & Maple Syrup works better with the popcorn.

However, please don't run away with the idea that these crisps are in any way nasty. It's just that they are a bit sweet. And may not suit your idea of what a potato crisp should taste like.

Not suitable for vegetarians because they are made with actual bacon. From Norfolk. I wonder why the bacon should come from Norfolk in particular? I didn't know it was a centre of excellence in the pig farming world. And muscovado sugar too. No wonder they are so sweet.

Kettle Chips Thai Sweet Chilli, Lemongrass & Coriander

Maybe I bought these crisps because the packet is such a fabulous colour. Maybe not. But it certainly is a wonderful lime green. Or more of a lime yellow. Brilliant.

The reluctant taste testers and I were stunned at the freshness of taste you get with these crisps. All too often sweet chilli crisps are simply too sweet. But the lemongrass, and particularly the coriander just give such an unusual fresh taste these crisps are really different.

Also in the mix are garlic, tomato, ginger, galangal, star anise, cumin and oregano. The packet says there are absolutely no artificial ingredients so we have to believe that this flavour is created from all these herbs and spices. It looks like a very complicated recipe, and often complicate recipes don't work as well as their creators hoped, but somehow this is a great success. The crisps smell good too.

Lovely big crisps, richly coloured with a good bite and that lovely fresh chilli flavour. Very nice indeed.

I saved a few crisps at the bottom of the packet and took them home. The Chef really liked them too. So an all round success.

Kettle Chips Sweet Chilli & Sour Cream

I've been looking for this crisp flavour for ages because of this wonderful wicker work and corn dolly advertisement. It's such a great ad I had to find the crisps so that I could post it. Never mind the crisps; look at the effort the advertising agency went to. I love it. You can read about Stella Harding the basketry artist here.

I've never done any basket weaving, but a million years ago I used to know how to make corn dollies (like the chillies). Well, I had a great-aunt who lived in darkest Suffolk surrounded by cornfields and a moat and a windmill, and somehow I learned how. Although I'd be pushed to build a corn dolly these days it might come back to me.

Living in a moated house sounds romantic doesn't it? Let me assure you there were many many mosquitoes.

And there was the time that one of my little cousins threw his mother's wedding ring into the moat. Oh the drama! You never saw so much mud in your life. They found the ring though.

Anyway, to the crisps. I took this 150g packet (which according to the packet is 5 servings) to work and set out a bowlful in the kitchen. And they were very popular. Two of the taste testers were particularly enthusiastic.

The chilli flavour is quite gentle for all there's a lot of flavour dust, but then there's a nice aftertaste of mild to medium heat. It would be a good introduction for anyone who never tried a chilli flavour crisp before.

Kettle Chips are always good quality with a terrific crunch, sliced a little bit thicker than many crisps, and usually with a good golden colour. And they keep producing new flavours which are mostly not too complicated. By which I mean not made from 400 different ingredients, or named to sound like a dish at a five-star restaurant.

We liked these, and would probably eat them again, but in my opinion this Sweet Chilli & Sour Cream flavour isn't going to set the world on fire. Which sounds as though I am damning them with faint praise. No not really. Only somehow, for me,  they don't have that extra special something.

Kettle Chips Sour Cream & Sweet Onion

I had hoped for something more interesting but basically what we have here is cheese and onion flavour.

It's a bit of a disappointment really. Especially as (and this shouldn't make a difference but it does) the packet is such a pretty colour.

I know. The fact that the packet is such a lovely green shouldn't influence they way I look at a packet of crisps. Don't judge a book by its cover etc etc. But I was led astray.

So there we are.

The aroma is really lovely, the crisps have a good crunch, the sour cream does that weird thing at the back of your palate (don't ask me how - it just kind of does), and the sweet onion is very sweet.

But the after taste is pretty much cheese and onion. True, it's a gentle cheese and onion but a bit sweeter than usual. Suitable for vegetarians, absolutely nothing artificial.

Not bad. Really, there is nothing whatever the matter with these crisps, but not very special. The reluctant taste testers and I were not that impressed. Sorry Kettle Chips.

Great packet though. Love the green!

Kettle Chips Sea Salt with a Hint of Rosemary

There are only four ingredients in these crisps. Which makes a change in these days of ultra complicated flavours. Potatoes, sunflower oil, sea salt and rosemary extract. And that's it. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans (again!).

 These are pale golden crisps. I'd say they look as though they are cooked in small batches (as it says on the packet) in really hot oil. And so you get a lot of wonderful bubbles in the crisp.

And they seem rather old fashioned. The crisps feel quite oily when you pull them out of the bag (just like crisps when I was young) and there isn't a vast amount of flavour dust. Which is great.

I think I have said quite often that although I'm happy to try interesting new flavours of crisp - and indeed, I frequently do -  in the end I often (not always) prefer a simple flavour. And this is a very simple flavour. It's a lovely gentle salted crisp with (as advertised) a hint of rosemary.

The Chef and I liked them a lot.

The packaging is nice and simple too.

Kettle Chips Lime & Black Pepper

This seasonal flavour was presumably released in summer 2014 but I never saw them until November. It's strange that I never seem to discover the summer flavours until the end of the year. Christmas flavours, on the other hand, don't seem to hang around for so long.

I have tried a number of citrus flavoured crisps so I thought these might be rather good. But I'm not sure.

The crisps themselves have a hearty crunch and lots of really good black pepper taste. But the lime? I'm not so sure about the lime.

To me it tastes blue. I have slight synesthesia and some tastes like bitter lemon and these crisps are definitely blue. And I'm not mad on blue tasting anything.

When I was a child I used to describe pain by colour too. I had a particular orange pain which bothered me a lot. It bothered my doctor too. He was an old fashioned doctor who sat behind a great big desk with his back to a conservatory housing a handsome grape vine. He preferred pain to be sharp or stabbing or.... well, he didn't care for orange pains and did his best to stamp out such descriptions. I never got a proper diagnosis. He didn't like me much; I suffered from too many mystery ailments. And when I got chicken pox for the second time he was really cross.

Anyway, these crisps taste blue to me. The lime seems to be not a real lime but more of a lime flavour. Such as you might find in a boiled sweet or jelly. One of the reluctant taste testers thought of washing up liquid.

So, these crisps are OK but could do better. Not nasty or anything - no, no. But could do better. The bright green packaging is exciting though.

I have a friend who has much more interesting synesthesia than me. She sees each number in a different colour. Now that sounds a lot more fun than orange pains and blue tastes. I think I'd like that.

Kettle Chips Mature Cheddar & Red Onion

What giant crisps! Unfortunately I failed to photograph the huge crisps at the top of the packet, but take it from me they were very large. Really quite hard to force into my mouth, and a lot of them folded around each other to make great big parcels of crisp. They get smaller (but not extremely small) as you work your way down the packet.

And tasty too. Lots and lots of very cheesy cheesiness and not too much red onion. A pretty good combination. A great deal of tasty flavour dust, a lovely mature cheddar colour, and a great crunch.

It's really quite hard to know what else to say but we liked these a lot and I accidentally ate rather too many. Luckily I have been walking to work recently so let's hope the walking has cancelled out the effect of too many cheesy crisps.

This is what the packet usually looks like, although this advertisement features a piece of hand carved woodwork (lovingly crafted by Andrew Pearson) instead of an actual bag of crisps. You can read about Andrew Pearson and see some of his other work here. I really like the image of Erasmus trying out a laptop!

The bag I actually bought from Waitrose features a competition to win a handmade kitchen worth £35,000 (or £25,000 in cash). I'm not sure which I'd rather go for. Our kitchen isn't very old but we certainly didn't spend that much on it. And then again, £25,000 would be a nice little nest egg or several very grand holidays. Well, I have entered the prize draw but the results will not be available until June 2015, and I didn't win an instant prize from the pantry.

I think it said on the website that I need to keep the packet to confirm my unique code in order to win. But I can't help feeling that it might have gone a little rancid by next June. So I have scanned the whole bag instead. 

Slight update in the packaging in 2016. And another competition.

Lay's Kettle Cooked Lattice Cut Roasted Garlic & Sea Salt

Another gift from lovely friend Lynn who packed them carefully in her suitcase when she came to visit from the USA. And I must say the lattice cut crisps survived the journey far better than the regular crisps she brought.

I don't think I have had lattice cut crisps before but I really like the texture. There's a very pleasing crunch and they feel good in the mouth.

And then there's the taste. A delicate garlic flavour and not too much salt. Pretty good. We liked these crisps.

Plus they work terrifically well with our favourite sour cream and chive dip. So what could be better than that?

Well... but the bag is giant! 198.4g (7oz) is a massive amount of crisps to buy at a time. Especially when the serving size is 28g (1oz or about 13 chips - very precise eh?). And actually, this is interesting (to me anyway); US crisp bags are quite different from European crisp bags. They're much more matte. I wonder why? I wonder what they're made of? And there's quite a bit missing from the scan of this bag. It was simply too long to fit in the A4 scanner.

The packet tells me all sorts of interesting things. For instance, the crisps are

• Guaranteed Fresh! 
• Lay's Kettle Cooked Lattice Cut potato chips - perfect for sharing and Crafted With Care™
• No artificial flavors or preservatives
• Made with Lay's "signature potatoes"
• From the FritoLay® Flavor Kitchen® 

and the brilliant information that they are Deliciously Indulgent. Take a moment to relax (it says), unwind from your day and savor right now - one delicious bite at a time.

What good advice.

Kettle Chips Sea Salt with a Hint of Citrus Lemon

Interesting isn't it how citrus flavours are making their way into so many crisps?

Over the last year or so I've tried Lemon Harissa from M&S, Lime & Pink Peppercorn from San Carlo, Chilli & Lemon from Cofresh, another Chilli & Lemon this time from Kolak, and Sea Salt & Lemon Vinaigrette from M&S. And I've rather enjoyed all of them especially the last which was the first citrus flavoured crisp I bought.

I don't know how the trend started. In fact, I have no idea how food trends start; all I know is that they do. So suddenly every restaurant has ox cheek and pork belly on the menu; everyone you know is mad about cupcakes (although they are a  little bit 2013) and looks rather sneery at you when you admit the last time you baked cupcakes was in the 1980s; or you accidentally buy olive bread when you wanted plain because the shelf was crammed with olive or walnut or chilli breads.

I would need a flavour forecaster to explain to me how trends work (and just how do you become a flavour forecaster I wonder?) but sadly I don't know one. I have read a little online but although it appears the cupcake trend began because Sex and the City was so popular, mostly it seems that with a little bit of this and a little bit of that all thrown up in the air at once the flavour forecaster looks at what comes down again and makes a prediction about what will be popular in the coming year.

So what was forecast for 2014? Here are a few things I found in an article on the Guardian website:

• kale ice lollies - here's the website 
• savoury yoghurt: carrot, tomato, parsnip and beetroot - apparently they're a "thing" in New York
• insect bars: made with cricket flour - bound to be gluten free - and flavoured with chocolate, peanut butter, coconut, ginger and lime. Oh dear, I'm not sure about the packaging
• beef, turkey and bison protein bars
• and er edible wood. 

Coming soon to a supermarket near you? I'm not sure. It's June now so only 6 months to go to see if any of these predictions is correct. And no mention of citrus crisps. Well, I expect they're a bit too normal and everyday for this list.

Anyhow, back to my packet of crisps from the local branch of Waitrose. Nice crunch, good golden colour which doesn't show up in my photograph, very crispy (you can smell that they're fried not baked) and slightly citrusy aroma, and a good salty lemony taste. Quite a lot of flavour dust. But, and it is a bit but, these hand cooked crisps are rather greasy. It's a shame because otherwise they qualify for a very good.

Kettle Tortilla Chips Nacho Cheese

Here we have a handsome cheese flavoured isosceles-triangle-shaped nacho crispy crunchy snack. Pretty good and very very cheesy. I really can't remember the last time I tried a crisp that claimed to taste of cheese and actually did taste of cheese. (You'd think they would because it sounds like an easy flavour but mostly they don't taste of cheese at all.)

This is a big triangle with loads of tasty flavour dust. Quite a dark orange so there's lots of paprika colouring; very corny because tortilla chips always do have a big corn taste; lots of crunch and a great taste of nacho cheese and cheddar and double gloucester cheese. Amazingly cheesy.

Quite a lot of ingredients including buttermilk, cream, butter (all dried obvs), red peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cayenne pepper, and "natural flavouring" (what?).

The whole triangles are fabulous but sadly my packet had all too many breakages which was disappointing. I'd be sorry if every packet is so full of broken chips but I don't remember treating my packet particularly roughly. What a shame. Because, as I say, the whole triangles are wonderful. And big.

The beautiful red packaging is wonderful too. A lovely plain design. Plain and uncluttered. I really approve. On the back we have exciting and important news about the Flavour Fiesta. And an apology because the packaging is not currently recyclable.

I tried these on the reluctant taste testers at work who seemed to approve. And at home? They went down well here too. Not bad.

Crispy texture where you can taste the corn (says the packaging), seasoned with great tasting ingredients. As ever there's no artificial colours, artificial flavours or added MSG. Perhaps that's something to do with the mystery "natural flavouring".

Suitable for vegetarians (but best avoided I imagine if you have an allergy to milk products), and here's another crispy snack you need to keep away from bright light. I still think this is weird. Perhaps I will get to the bottom of that one day. And made in Spain. Spain? I know.

I haven't tried them with dips but I am certain they would work just fine.

Kettle Tortilla Chips Cool Sour Cream

I wasn't quite sure I liked these on first try.

Perhaps they don't go terribly well with the Prosecco I felt was a good accompaniment to building and decorating the Christmas tree. Perhaps I needed to go away and think about it.

Anyhow, on second thoughts these are rather good. Naomi appeared to eat a fair number. And Terry likes them too.

So what have we got? Good crunchy orangey tortilla chips with quite a lot of purplish black bits. Reading the list of ingredients I'm not sure if these dark spots are red and green peppers or black pepper or what. But the chips have a good hot zing at the same time as a lovely cool creamy taste.

Not sure I could indentify the dill though. Dill features in the ingredients and on the package so it must be there somewhere. Pity I couldn't spot it in the taste because I like dill.

But, just as it says on the back of the package, you really can taste the corn. So all in all a good tasty crunch. Which works very well indeed with a sour cream and chive dip. Yum.

I'm not mad for tortilla chips but these are rather good. And I really like the packaging. It's a good green.

Kettle Chips Mozzarella & Pesto

It says here on the package that Mozzarella & Pesto is a seasonal flavour. I checked on the website and it is; a special flavour for summer. So it's a bit odd that I never noticed these crisps until October. However, the bright green packet is very cheerful and summery, and extremely welcome on a dreich day like today.

These are pretty good for a (presumably) limited edition season crisp. Good crunch and texture, really large crisps, lots of flavour dust, good colour with little herby bits of basil and parsley. In fact I think they rate a "yum".

I bought these to try because I love mozzarella (if I get grossly fat one of the reasons will probably be overindulging in this superb cheese) and I wanted to see how the guys at Kettle managed to get a crisp to taste of mozzarella. I think they've done a pretty good job. I can't really find a way of describing it but there really does seem to be a mozzarella taste. The pesto part of the taste doesn't strike me as being particularly pesto-y although Lauren at work disagrees with me here. She was very impressed at the size: "is this all one crisp?" she wondered, carrying off what looked like an A4 slice of kettle fried potato. I wasn't fussed that the crisps don't seem to taste of pesto because in fact I don't care for it much.

You know, I always thought I liked pesto. But every time I ate it I ended off a little dissatisfied and not very happy with my dinner. It seems to work fairly OK in a sandwich with a load of other flavours but after yet another unsatisfactory pesto & pasta dinner I decided I don't like pesto much. So I'm not going to buy it again.

So not a very pesto-y taste, but at the same time an extremely tasty, in fact yummy, taste and I would be happy to recommend these to anyone who fancies the idea.

These crisps are hand cooked using traditional methods, are suitable for vegetarians, and contain no artificial ingredients. They do contain dried whey (from milk), dried buttermilk (from milk), dried mozzarella cheese (from milk), dried cheese (from milk), dried butter (from milk), and dried cream (from milk). And then the ingredients list says: contains milk. So if you have a problem with milk probably these are best avoided.

The Kettle Chips company was sold to a private equity group called Lion Capital LLP in 2006. According to Wikipedia there was a scandal involving water pollution in California (2008), and union busting issues in the UK (2007). Since 2010 the company has been owned by Diamond Foods which suffered an accounting scandal in 2012. This is a shame because the original Kettle Chips company used green energy and won awards for environmental design. I'd rather buy crisps from an environmentally friendly company than one that... well, they don't have a very good reputation.