Lay’s Paysanne Saveur Fromage Frais, Ail de Garonne et Fines Herbes

 

Oh my goodness I very nearly failed to post this packet of fromage frais, garlic and herbs flavour crisps. Apparently I carefully filed the packet on one of the bookshelves, so that I would know where to find it, and then totally forgot. I was just sitting in my usual spot on the sofa today, vaguely watching Death on the Nile (with Peter Ustinov and David Niven) for probably the 14th time, while I downloaded a podcast about ancient Egypt, when I glanced across the room and saw the packet. Oh look. Where did that come from?

So when was it exactly that the Chef and I tried these crisps? Who knows? Some time last year, I suppose. There’s no trace of a sniff of the flavour left. Life zooms past at such a rate sometimes it’s hard to keep up. 

Well, the packet says Nouveau. But if this crisp flavour is still available it won’t still be new will it?

Thinking very hard, I seem to remember this was rather a nice flavour. Fromage frais to give a lovely cool background; ail de Garonne, which is garlic, presumably grown somewhere in the Garonne region (it’s a great big river that meets the sea at Bordeaux); and Fines Herbes, which is a French catch all for lots of finely chopped herbs for when you make an omelette or want to add flavour to a casserole or even a salad. 

A nice combination. And the addition of a nice crinkle cut crisp made it a very good crispy snack.

French potatoes. Probably a French supermarket. Not entirely sure how these crisps qualify as Paysanne. It doesn’t really matter.

H.W. Lay Sea Salt

I had a terrible problem with this little 40g bag of crisps. I couldn’t stop eating them. I kept thinking that I really ought to say some for the Chef so that I could ask his opinion. And I just kept eating. Normally you will find me complaining that most packets of crisps are far too large. I mean, look at those grab bags you're meant to share with your friends. You know you're going to eat the whole lot yourself. It's not healthy. However, in this particular case, I wished I had a bigger bag.

If I find any more I will certainly buy them; but I'm pretty sure this packet came from (you guessed) a French motorway service station. And I'm not at all sure I can remember which one. Fingers crossed we can find them again because the Chef was pleased to approve the meagre 4 crisps I left for him. He was quite gracious about how greedy I'd been.

Thicker than the usual potato crisps from Lays, made with premium quality potatoes, slower cooked, and with a beautifully simple Sea Salt flavour, this is a really great crisp. I highly recommend it. Delicious.

The packet photo has come out a bit dull. Look for something a richer sky blue.

Lay's Σνακ Δημητριακών Ολικής Αλεσης Sour Cream & Black Pepper

Which appears to mean Lay's whole grain cereal snacks sour cream and black pepper flavour. It's complicated using google translate when you have to use a greek keyboard too. Complicated stuff.

This sort of corrugated or radiator design snack is just like the Marks & Spencer version of this crispy snack (also sour cream and black pepper). Sunchips whole grain snacks are the same shape too. It's obviously a thing.

But why is it a thing? Who decided that whole grain snacks had to be this shape? I imagine we will never find out.

It's not an exciting snack, but somehow you find yourself going back for another. And again. More than once. Because this sour cream and black pepper snack has a nice, gentle flavour, and a pleasant light crunch. Not bad at all. Yes please, I'll have another.

Brought back by Tech taste tester from Cyprus where he was visiting his girlfriend's parents. A good choice.

Lay's Heinz Tomato Ketchup Flavour

Well, the reluctant taste testers whined the other day when we tried a “ketchup” flavour crisp which was deemed not tomatoey enough, so what did we have to say about this offering from Lay's?

Good news for Noble Friend, who bought this little packet in Amsterdam, not only did she approve but the rest of the reluctant taste testers did too. Oh, except for Tall Elegant taste tester who didn’t fancy them at all.

The flavour seemed to be just exactly as advertised so we were all pleased with that. And a nice light crunch. Yes, we enjoyed this little packet of crisps. And please can anyone going to the Netherlands bring us another packet.

Lay's Pickles

Another Dutch crisp bought by Noble Friend on her recent visit to Amsterdam.

I was pretty sure Noble Friend would like this crisp because she is a massive fan of joopje sauce crisps and pickles is not unlike that very Dutch flavour. But I was pleased it was different enough for me to enjoy (I don’t really like joopje sauce). Tech taste tester compared this to a Monster Munch flavour... although without the furry child-friendly shape and texture and I think he liked it too.

Lay's crisps have quite a light crunch, so yes, not very like Monster Munch at all.

In French (on the back of the packet) this flavour is called Moutarde Pickles and in Dutch Aardappelchips met Piccalillysmaak. Which slightly begs the question: where does Pickles come from? Interesting.

Mnnn.... good said Cliffs of Moher taste tester as she crunched past me on the way out of the kitchen. I think we can say this was a success.

Lay’s Wokkels Paprika

Well, this is exciting. Noble Friend has been to Amsterdam and brought back some packets of crisps for the reluctant taste testers and me to try, and what fun; Wokkels are crispy spirals.

Cliffs of Moher taste tester was much struck by these crunchy spirals and I must say I thought they were very good too. Strangely not very tasty (which you know I like) at first bite, and then a hit of paprika. Very nice. Lovely light crunch, I think Cliffs of Moher would have liked more on the paprika front. But hey ho, it’s a pretty good snack.

I always wonder if spiral crispy snacks are going to have a hard inner er... spine?.. the way spiral pasta does. But in some mysterious way extruded potato copes with the shape better and you don’t get a harder core.

Apparently all the reluctant taste testers in the building (quite a lot of us work part time) really enjoyed this crispy snack. They all got snacked up quite quickly,

Apparently Noble Friend’s Antique Fan friend delights in pointing out suitable sources of crispy snacks for us to try so I mustn’t forget to thank him too.

And extra thanks to Noble Friend for the Van Gogh Museum bag. I’m so pleased she enjoyed visiting the museum.

Lay's TV Paka O Smaku Fromage

Bafflingly this large packet of Lay's crisps from the local Turkish shop comes from Poland. Extra baffling the flavour is "fromage".... or is it? No; it really isn't.

Fromage is French for cheese and the word conjures up thoughts of Cheddar although of course there are hundreds of different cheeses to choose from.  But this crisp flavour is actually smietankowego serka ze szczypiorkiem which means cream cheese with chives. At one point the translation was sour cream so it could be either I suppose. That's very misleading calling the smaku fromage.

Luckily for me modern technology has provided google translate to assist me with the impenetrable Polish language (sorry Poland, but do admit any word that starts szczyp is going to utterly baffle the average English speaker), and the slightly less techy image of a cream cheese/sour cream with chives dip on the packet.

Really quite nice. Gently herby (no, not sure I can work out which word to translate in search of the herb) and gently creamy. It's a little bit very gentle cheese and onion. The reluctant taste testers ate quite a lot of the fine cut crisps.

Sadly the crisps were quite broken. This does not of course affect the taste, but it's always a shame when the second helping from a big bag is mostly broken bits. And I did feel a bit cheated that the large packet to eat in front of the TV ( I hope with friends) was only ⅓ full.

Lay's Gourmet Nature Très Croustillant

Dropping in to the odd motorway service station on the way to our hotel in rural France I was buying Christmas presents for Dear Friend in Buffalo when I noticed this very nice looking packet of crisps. We've had a number of plain or simply salted crispy snacks on the agenda recently so why not try another? And they turn out to be rather special.

Très croustillant says the packet and très croustillant they are.

Lay's may produce some interesting flavours but for the most part the actual crisps aren't very exciting. But I am please to report these handsome gold crisps are very nice indeed.

Lovely crunch, nice colour and pleasant lightly salted taste. Very impressive. Good sized (small) bag too. Thanks very much Lay's.

The Chef and I taste tested these very handsome French crisps on the private terrace outside our comfy ground floor room. In fact, having had a lavish breakfast, we basically had them for lunch before embarking on that day's visit to a chateau.

Obviously you can't buy this exact crisp in the UK because we don't have Lay's crisps here, but I wonder if Walkers produce something very similar?

After lunch we visited the amazing Chateau de Coucy. It was a massive medieval castle which had survived very well into modern times apart from some earthquake damage (yes, who knew they have huge earthquakes in Northern France?) until it was criminally destroyed by the German army during WWI. What remains is still extraordinarily impressive and well worth a visit. Especially if you are a fan of the Anthony Price spy novel "Other Paths to Glory". Or indeed Barbara Tuchman's tour de force "A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century".

Chateau de Coucy in 1917

A Visit to Reims in 2016 (France)

In fact despite me begging the Chef to stop in Reims because I long to visit the cathedral, we actually stop at Tinqueux which is a suburb of Reims. And 2 minutes walk from the very comfortable Novotel there is a giant Carrefour supermarché. And we pass through Tinqueux at least 4 times a year.

I love it. I enjoy shopping a lot and all the more if I don't actually need to buy anything. And frankly I don't need to buy crisps or crispy snacks. I just do.

Check out the huge array of crisps. I am certain the crisp market in France has got noticeably larger in the last 4 years, and certainly the range of crispy snacks was larger last year than in previous years.

I can see Pringles here, and the Carrefour own brand version, about 12 different flavours by the look of it. Also tubs of hula hoops which in the UK come in packets not tubs. And then to the left of the Pringles we move into the Biscuit apéritif section where the products are usually packaged in boxes.

I have scrutinised this photograph very carefully and have determined that there are 13 different Lay's flavours on the shelf; Poulet Rôti (roast chicken), Fromage (cheese), Cheese & Onion (yes, that's French for cheese & onion), Jambon Braisé (braised ham), Paprika, Bolognaise, Spicy (French for spicy), Barbecue, Moutarde Pickles (French for mustard and pickles, a very weird but rather fabulous flavour if you ask me but I have only tried the Bret's version), Saveur Giant (bonkersly this appears to be French for cheeseburger flavour these days), Salt & Vinegar (you guessed, French for salt & vinegar), á l'Ancienne which is a sort of old fashioned style of crisp the French seem to be very fond of, and Deep Ridge Barbecue. Phew. 

Lay's crisps of course are not available in the UK. We have Walkers instead with a rather different selection of flavours. We have Cheese & Onion but not cheese flavour. Salt & Vinegar but not Spicy or Moutarde Pickles. As for Saveur Giant! I have tried a number of these so I'll put some links in for you.

We also have Market Deli crisps in the photograph (2 flavours on the shelf), and Kettle Chips (2 flavours) and Tyrrell's. I wonder what the difference is between Sea Salt & Black Pepper and Sea Salt & Crushed Black Pepper? (4 flavours).

Then there are the French crisps. Vico Grillade aux herbes. I haven't tried this flavour and it sounds rather good. I haven't tried á l'Ancienne either but I can live with that because I think it's a rather dull kind of crisp. There are 3 kinds of Carrefour own brand crisps and then the Bret's crisps. Bret's crisps come from Brittany and feature flavours that are a little bit different; Chèvre (technically goat, but in this case probably goat's cheese), and au Comté which is a very nice French cheese and Chocolat Piment (chilli chocolate).

If you stand back, or in my case sit down, and list all the crisps in this photograph which is obviously not all the crisps in the store, it adds up to a vast number of crisps and crispy snacks. Huge numbers of crisps and snacks in dozens hundreds of flavours are manufactured all over the world. Tall taste tester suggested the other day that I should write a book about crisps but I think this is it. I have posted 741 different crisps and articles about crisps and photographs of crisp packets and reviews taken from magazines and newspapers. 741!! I guess I didn't look at the numbers recently. That's amazing. But it still doesn't qualify me as an expert when there are so many crispy snacks out there.

Here's what I bought at Carrefour in August 2016. See the Lay's Saveur Giant at the front? Oh dear. What a grumpy review I wrote abut that crisp.

Lay's Hamka's Original

Dutch taste tester's sister (also Dutch) (obviously) came to visit with her husband (he's also Dutch) and brought a pile of exciting (Dutch) treats with her. Including this very exciting packet of crisps (which are Dutch).

I often peer over Dutch taste tester's shoulder as she lusts after Dutch treats on Dutch websites (in Dutch); it seems you just can't buy Dutch goodies in this country. No, not even in London. Not what Dutch taste tester really wants, anyway. I had picked these crisps as something to lust after myself. And lo! here they are.

Wow! Much bigger than I was expecting. A whole mouthful all at once. Not a crisp at all of course, because it's made of maize, so more of a crispy snack in a similar sort of style to Monster Munch but in a checkerboard pattern. And not a scary Monster Munch style flavour.

Rather a smokey flavour to start off with, but more and more moreish as you have another, and yet another. In fact, very tasty. Sort of hammy, and sort of cheesy. And a lovely light crunch. Very nice.

So many thanks to Dutch taste tester's sister.

Walkers Stax Limited Edition Sour Cream & Onion

Walkers Stax? Since when?

Lay's Stax, yes. Of course I've seen them on websites and so on, but they've never been available in this country. Because as you know, we don't have the Lay's brand here.  But Lay's is Walkers in disguise (or vice versa) and maybe Walkers have decided to trial a Stax brand.

So what do we think?

Well, obviously this is the Walkers (Lay's) version of a Pringle. Stax come in a tube but with  a cardboard lid not a plastic one. And Pringles are circular while Stax are more of an oblong. Which I like. Because they fit in my mouth better. Pringles are too big. Or I have a small mouth.

But aside from that this is pretty much the same product. Doing its best to avoid copyright issues.

Most of the reluctant taste testers (except those who don't enjoy Pringles) rather enjoyed this crispy snack and quite a lot were eaten up. I have to say that when I first tried I thought the oniony taste was very strong, and then it rather grew on me. But since I had some sour cream and chive dip handy I tried it with these crisps.

You might suppose that a sour cream and chive dip combined with a sour cream and onion crispy snack would be too much of a good thing. But guess what? The two tastes combined to successful effect and I thought worked very well.

What did we think? Rather good. Now, can I find another flavour before this limited edition disappears forever?

Lay's Saveur Jambon Braisé

You may have noticed that I'm always a bit unsure about ham flavour crisps so I only picked these up in the Carrefour outside Reims because I was fairly certain Tech taste tester would enjoy them (he enjoys meat flavour crisps). Also I was sure we hadn't tried them before... so you know...

It turns out they are pretty tasty. And very hammy. A surprisingly genuine hammmy taste. Not at all fake. Excellent. Most of the reluctant taste testers were happy to crunch into several bowlsful and even the Chef quite liked them.

As so often with Lay's crisps they have quite a light crunch (the Chef says he prefers something a little more crunchy - but he might prefer something lighter next week -who can say?). But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

If you fancy a ham flavoured crisp I suggest you give these a try.

The packet is quite pink!

Lay's Saveur Giant

Saveur Giant??? Giant taste? Taste of what?

Well, I think what we have here is a double burger with cheese. A double burger with cheese flavour. That's what I get from the picture on the packet. Does everyone in France know that "giant" means a double burger with cheese? How can I possibly tell as I'm not from France.

Giant says the packet. Le burger cult. Venez vite le deguster. It's a cult burger, come and try it quickly. Perhaps before they run out? And you get a coupon on the back of the packet: buy one double burger with cheese, one drink, one (probably) large fries and get another double burger with cheese free. From Quick. Which is a French burger restaurant. I've seen it advertised on TV, but not seen a branch in real life.

And what do we think? Sorry. Not impressed.

Immediately from my point of view; why is this flavour made with celery? Regular readers will remember that I cannot tolerate celery. Lots of people can't. Not just me. I won't come out in a horrible rash or die in agony, but I will be very uncomfortable for maybe 12 hours after eating celery. And I do wonder what it contributes to an alleged cheeseburger taste. If, for example, I were creating a cheeseburger in the privacy of my own home I would use beef mince, sliced cheese, maybe tomato ketchup, maybe a little cornichon, perhaps some sweet mustard, but celery? No. And you know what? At home I never use a bun.

Anyway, the Chef and I were not impressed.

The aroma isn't right. The crunch is fine but the flavour is all wrong. Unless this is what a double cheeseburger from Quick actually tastes like. I bought this packet of crisps in the hope of a really good cheeseburger flavour (well, obviously) but this is disappointing.

Sorry Lay's but we really don't like this crisp. And sorry Quick, but this crisp does not encourage me to visit your restaurants.

I first tried a packet of cheeseburger flavour crisps in August 2013. And with all the changes they haven't got any tastier. 

Lay's Bugles Nacho Cheese

This crispy snack is a bit of a cheat. Because it is basically exactly the same as Smith's Bugles Nacho Cheese which the reluctant taste testers and I tried in April 2015. The thing is, Lay's appear to own Smiths these days. And so the packet design is almost exactly the same (except with a name change) and without the sombrero wearer.

However, we like bugles, and we like the cheesy taste. And this packet was specially imported from The Netherlands by Dutch taste tester. So here we are enjoying bugles again.

Lay's Edition Limitee Saveur Piment Basque

This limited edition crisp came from the supermarket outside Reims and purports to be a special Basque flavour.

Never having visited the Basque country I wasn't really aware that the Basque population traditionally wears a white shirt and trousers with a red neckerchief and belt or sash. That's the men of course. The women get to wear a selection of different outfits depending on their area of origin: despite the small size of the Basque region it seems to encompass a lot of little smaller regions all with their own costumes and even language. Wikipedia sometimes has too much information for the unwary seeker of facts. If you are interested in traditional costumes you find out more on this jolly blog here.

Wikipedia also has much to say on the subject of pelota (also known as jai alai and other names too) which is being played on the packet here.

However, Wikipedia cannot help me discover whether this crisp tastes genuinely Basque. Because if you ask me this tastes very like a traditional paprika crisp. Perfectly OK, good crunch, you know the story... but not particularly special. And I think the reluctant taste testers would agree with that.

Lay's Edition Hiver Fondue Savoyarde

Here's another crisp from the supermarché outside Reims. Fondue flavour.

Now, to me fondue is a Swiss dish. And Savoy is in France. So this is a French fondue; presumably because this is a French crisp. And by the way, how would your fondue work in the flat dish shown on the packet? It wouldn't, that's how. Because without any heat under the dish you'd have a solid lump of cheese and wine mixture in no time at all.

But I mustn't take the packaging design too seriously. If you take the fondue fork for scale then the crisps are ridiculously giant. Which they are not.

As usual with Lay's crisps (that's Walkers in disguise, first time UK reader) the crisps are a good size with a great crunch. And the flavour?

Cooked cheese, we thought. Not the kind of cheese you find in Cheese & Onion flavour, nothing at all like what you get in Cheesy Wotsits, but we thought it a passable representation of Cheese Fondue flavour.

The reluctant taste testers ate almost all of this quite large packet which I take to be a success. I saved a few to take home to the Chef. I confess he wasn't madly impressed, but he is somewhat of a connoisseur on the fondue front having spent a great deal of time in Switzerland. Plus we make our own in London.

Dutch taste tester is mad for cheese and following her encounter with these crisps was determined to take in a real fondue as soon as possible. Luckily there is a Swiss restaurant in Soho called St Moritz (don't skip the little movie) or she could simply come round to dinner with the Chef and me.

As these crisps were a special edition for winter (15/16) I do not know how long they are (or were) available to purchase.

Lay's Dill Pickle Flavored

I had a bit of a struggle forcing this great big 219.7g (7 ¾oz) bag into my A4 size scanner. So here's the best I could manage. It got a bit scrumpled.

Frito Lay Good fun! says the packet, and Happiness in Every Bite. Well, I suppose they have to say something, but I am not convinced that however much I enjoyed these Dill Pickle flavoured crisps there was happiness in every bite. And I did enjoy them.

And indeed, most of the reluctant taste testers enjoyed them too. The Senior taste tester doesn't like vinegar, and Tech taste taster can't bring himself to fancy dill pickles but aside from that I think we were all pretty enthusiastic.

Baltic Sailor taste tester (you've not encountered her before as she is a volunteer) told me the other day that her favourite crisp flavour is sour cream and dill which she learned to love in Sweden or Denmark. Or both. I couldn't manage that for her but she did take home a little baggie of these tasty crisps. Ooh, can I really? she said as she stashed the baggie in her shopping bag.

These are rather pale crisps with a lovely dill aroma, nice crunch and a light dill pickle taste. There was a bit too much vinegar in evidence for some, but I thought them very nice. The Dutch taste tester could say nothing other than Yum!

And the Dutch taste tester took some home to share with Loving Husband. Apparently he was mightily impressed and she did not get much of a look in.

This packet was specially exported from the United States by kind bloggy friend Betsy. Great choice Betsy! Thank you.

Lay's Winter Edition Bratwurst Flavour

The Dutch taste tester paid a flying visit to her home country to celebrate Sinterklaas and came back with her suitcase stuffed full of Dutch goodies. Plus, she heroically brought back this packet of Dutch crisps for me and the reluctant taste testers to try.

This "winter edition" crisp is wearing (as it were) a Christmas jumper with a knitted snowflake design. And it's a limited edition for winter. Why not Christmas I wonder? Another winter edition we sadly did not get to try is Cheese Fondue flavour. Interesting. We'd like to know what that's like but as none of us is going to the Low Countries any time soon it seems unlikely.

Anyway, we were all amazingly impressed how good these Bratwurst crisps are. Amazingly they really do seem to taste of Bratwurst. And, sign of a good flavour, we ate quite a lot of the packet. Impressive. I have to say I liked them quite a lot.

The Chef quite liked them too. Except. He was eating some plain salted crisps and then tried this flavour which made him realise that in fact the flavour is really rather artificial.

So I recommend that you try them on their own. And then you'll agree that this is a pretty good flavour.

Als de dagen korter worden is het de best tijd voor gezellige avonden thuis, samen met vrienden en familie. Geniet samen van de Lay's Winter Editions die je doen denken aan heerlijke en typische winterse gerechten! says the packaging. Basically when the days are cold it's the best time to spend your evenings at home with friends and family. Enjoy Winter Editions from Lay's and they will remind you of delicious traditional winter dishes.

No! of course I don't speak Dutch. I'm roughly translating the French blurb. And slightly wondering what makes Bratwurst or Cheese Fondue particularly winter dishes. Because we eat both all year round.

Anyway, don't pay any attention to the Chef and grab them if you can.

Lay's Kettle Cooked Wasabi Ginger

This 8 oz packet of crisps was exported from the United States especially for me and the reluctant taste testers by generous bloggy friend Betsy. And for my metric measuring readers that's a gigantic 226.8g! Amazing.

Anyway, it turns out that this flavour was the winner in Lay's 2014 Do Us a Flavor Choose Your Chip competition. The Wasabi Ginger flavour was created by mother of three daughters Meneko Spigner McBeth, and she won a million dollars. Good for her! I read all about her on the back of the packet.

And it is a pretty good flavour. The reluctant taste testers were very impressed.

These crisps are not as pale as the photograph shows, have a very nice crunch and are packed full of flavour. There's a lovely ginger zing followed by the distinctive "horse radish" wasabi flavour. And they are made with real wasabi not just regular wasabi substitute horse radish.

As I said, the reluctant taste testers liked these a lot and ate two bowlsful. And we still had some left over for the family funeral this week.

It is unfortunate that I don't like horse radish. Never have. So I don't really like wasabi. But that's my personal taste. I think this is a really great crisp flavour, a proper crisp flavour like salt & vinegar or cheese & onion. And well done Meneko for suggesting it.

Lay’s Saveur Cheeseburger

You might guess that it was trying a packet of cheeseburger flavoured crisps that set me off writing a blog. You'd be wrong of course but it would be a good guess. No, I started to write this blog because I met the writer of News from Nowhere at a wedding celebration (no actual wedding but plenty of celebration) and he encouraged me to write about trees; which is what I really wanted to do.

But somehow a packet of Lay's Max Craquantes Saveur Cheeseburger grabbed my attention and on a nasty rainy day in Switzerland I wrote my first post. They were great crisps. They were crinkle cut. And very cheeseburgery.

You might say that cheeseburger flavoured crisps changed the course of my life. It's always the little things isn't it? Because the Chef, and the reluctant taste testers and I try loads of different crispy snacks, and I write about them, and you lot out there in India and Brasil, Australia and Malta, Poland and even St Helena read what we think. Amazing eh?

Anyway, I knew that Lay's produced a flat crisp version of the cheeseburger flavour and I'd been wanting to try it for ages. So naturally when I saw a packet I snatched it up.

Erm... what shall I say? Well, the reluctant taste testers liked these crisps quite a lot and ate two bowlsful. I... I was disappointed. I thought the flavour was almost all about the gherkin and the mustard and really not much about the cheeseburger.

If this flavour had been called something else I'd probably have said, yes, this is an OK flavour. Not a bad crisp at all. But Lay's called it cheeseburger. And I don't think it is. Or not any cheeseburger I ever ate. And I do love cheeseburgers.

Extra disappointing is that this flavour is endorsed by Belgian burger chain Quick, which is big in France. I've never seen a Quick (at least I don't think I have) so I've never tried one of their burgers. But do their cheeseburgers really taste like this?