Salty Dog Sea Salt

At last another chance to try a crisp from niche UK crisp company Salty Dog. I say niche because I have only ever seen their crisps for sale at Luton airport (which I have not passed through since August 2014) although it could be they are sold all over the place - just not in North London, or France or Switzerland where I do most of my crisp shopping.

Here we have the basic flavour: sea salt.

And? These are really good. A lovely texture with the skin left on for good looks and added taste, great crunch and just the right amount of saltiness. And a wonderfully old-fashioned - make that retro - taste of fried potatoes.

So many brands are keen to point out that their crisps are baked not fried for a healthier crisp. I'm sure I've said it before but I'm going to say it again; the secret to a healthy lifestyle isn't to eat baked potato crisps rather than fried but not to eat crisps at all. Too much salt, too much fat, and in many cases far too much sugar do not a healthy snack make.

However, some of us just love crisps. So the answer is not to eat too many. And luckily for us Salty Dog have put their crisps in a sensibly small 40g packet. But still, I'm going to share with the Chef to make sure I don't overdose on the first day of my holiday. Because (oh dear) I managed to buy 6 packets of crisps at Luton airport and another on the plane!

I'm not sure these crisps quite reach the summit of fabulousness but they certainly get way past base camp and some distance up the mountain. And I do love the little dog on the packet.

Update: I discovered yesterday (7 July 2022) that you can buy Salty Dog crisps on La Suisse, a Belle Époque paddle steamer, on Lake Geneva. Which probably means you can get them on other boats in the CGN fleet. Still a very tasty crisp.

Originally published on 12 March 2015.

Pret a Manger Maldon Sea Salt

Here's a packet of crisps that was bought at Luton Airport for a snack on the flight to Switzerland but not eaten and brought home again to London.

So we thought we had better eat them before they took to the road again.

A small packet of basic sea salted crisps. Good crunch, and a pale golden colour. We thought these were more lightly salted than salted but they were tasty. And they all got eaten - quite quickly.

Pleasant but not amazing.

The clever packaging design is simple but tells you everything you need to know.

The reluctant taste testers have got a bit fed up recently about the complicated flavour of so many modern crisps. So when Noble Friend was out and about the other day she picked up this packet of crisps from Pret à Manger. Which is why I am reposting this.

Malden Sea Salt. I love the taste of salt (I know, I know; we know it's a bad thing these days but hey! I was brought up in the 1960s sp give me a break) but Maldon salt is the tastiest. THE best salt. It comes from Essex and they have been collecting salt since 1882 (before my grandfather was born) and it really is fabulous. If you can find it give it a try. And although these crisps are not labelled "lightly" salted, it does seem that the taste is just right. Not too salty.

Well, the Chef and I had tried these crisps back in March 2015 and quite enjoyed them, but the reluctant taste testers had not. And? It's a lovely crisp, a little thicker than your basic crisp, and a beautiful taste of hand cooked potato with a fabulous lightly salted taste.

What could be better than that?

Once again we ask ourselves, are complicated crisp flavours what we are all looking for? Architectural taste tester, the most discerning of testers, thinks plain in best. Lots of the other taste testers think so too. So probably not. And this flavour? Lovely. Simple and tasty.

OK then. Come on crisp manufacturers, listen to the taste testers we all like the simple flavours best (the crisp makers won't read this - probably).

Jacobs Crinklys Cheese & Onion Flavour

Oh these crinkly little biscuits are good. Sorry; that's a cheese snack biscuit not just any old biscuit.

I found this packet at Luton Airport but as with so many things I am sure you can buy them in other places - just not in my local shopping street.

What we have is basically a crinkly version of the Mini Cheddar. And I think it really works well. Somehow they seem a little bit lighter than the usual style of Mini Cheddar, with a very good light crunch.

And a great taste. This seems like the archetypal cheese and onion flavour. Delicious. Great cheese and onion aroma, great cheese and onion taste. Not too oniony, not too sweet, not all smart and 5 star restauranty with caramelised onion or whatnot. No. Just extremely good cheese and onion. I think they qualify for a yum.

A nice little 50g bag too so no danger of eating far too many. And as you know, with any really good crispy snack that is always a danger. Ah, you say, but you can't share this bag with friends because you don't have enough to go round. No. Quite right. But they are far too good to share so I don't care.

Savoury satisfaction time after time says the packaging. You know what? They may be right.



These little biscuits were marketed as a McVitie's product. A Mini Cheddar. They've now dropped the  Mini Cheddar and the maker is Jacob's. But as both McVitie's and Jacob's are brands owned by United Biscuits I'm not sure what difference this makes.

Still a very tasty product.

First published 9th July 2014.

Pret a Manger Mature Cheddar & Red Onion

I know there are branches of Pret a Manger all over the place but pretty much the only one I ever patronise is at Luton Airport. Yes, this is another crisp from Luton.

I must tell you that I set out on my journey with almost nothing in my handbag: a book, my passport, my purse, and the house keys. By the time I got on the plane to Geneva I had added a magazine, a sandwich and bottle of water for lunch, a bottle of perfume from Duty Free, a fancy new hub accessory thingy for the Chef's iMac Air, and 6 packets of crisps.

And when I arrived here the Chef said "Oh yes, I tried those the other day. I thought they were very good". He even saved the packet for me, which was thoughtful. Although not a great help as you can't taste test an empty packet although I must say the aroma even from the empty bag is very pleasant.

So. This is a very nice crisp. Just the right thickness, a little bit of skin left on, good crunch, and a lovely dark golden colour. They have a great cheesy taste and I'm really impressed that the red onion doesn't leap to the fore as it so often does; nice and subtle. Red onion can be a real thug if you aren't careful. Not here.

Pretty good. And the charming cheesy mouse on the packaging is pretty good too.

Yes. We liked these crisps.

Pipers Crisp Co. Burrow Hill Cider Vinegar & Sea Salt

An absolutely superb crisp. I'm going to add these to my all-time favourites list. Always provided I can remember how.

At first sight these crisps from UK crispeteers Pipers are nothing to write home about: just normal crisps.

But the aroma is wonderfully crispy, the crunch is amazingly crunchy, and the taste is just divine. I do not think this flavour could be bettered. It is so much more fabulous than your average salt & vinegar crisp than you can possibly imagine. Run out and buy a packet now.

Even the Chef who doesn't like salt & vinegar as a flavour  was (relatively) enthusiastic. There really is no more to say.

A triumph of crisp engineering.

And the lovely green packet is a lovely green although not so bright as this scan would have you believe. More a soft 1940s green. What more could you want? Well, just one tiny thing; I've only ever seen Pipers crisps on sale at branches of Benugo. It means I have to make quite a trek (oh alright then - a short trip on the Northern Line) to buy them. But these are so wonderful I think it might be worth the effort.

I found this packet at Luton airport where Benugo also sold me a delicious toasted sausage inna bun with tomato sauce. Yum! What better way to prepare before taking an Easyjet flight to Geneva? (I'm so jet set.)

And thinking of sausage inna bun I can't help but think of Mr Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler of Ankh Morpork and his ghastly offerings created by the late lamented Sir Terry Pratchett. R.I.P. Terry and many thanks for hours and hours of entertainment and lots of laughing out loud.

Pipers Crisp Co Wissington Spicy Tomato

I picked up these lovely crisps (made by farmers) at Luton Airport. A nice small 40g packet so you don't feel enormously greedy if you eat the whole thing, and if you don't like them then it's not too much of a waste. Except of course that buying anything at an airport is always expensive!

Anyhow, these are lovely crisps. The packaging is very simple; just two shades of tomatoey orange. Which is fine as the flavour is spicy tomato. Don't know what makes it Wissington spicy tomato though. Nice simple typeface. It's a simple smart design.

The crisps themselves are a little smaller than average which is no bad thing. I get a little fed up battling with gigantic sized crisps. And the crunch is just right. Quite a dark tomatoey colour and a terrific spicy flavour.

There is a little bit too much celery for me in the exciting selection of spices: coriander, cayenne, cumin, mustard, black pepper, clove, green cardamom, garlic and marjoram. Most unfortunately I am intolerant to celery so I couldn't eat very many of these crisps (don't want to swell up - best not really) but I do hope you will give them a try if you have the opportunity. They won a Great Taste Gold Award in 2010 and I'm not surprised.

The tomatoes are Norfolk plum tomatoes grown at Cornerways Nursery and (rather fabulously) pollinated by over 50,000 on-site bumblebees. I didn't know people farmed bumblebees but it sounds a great idea. They are such wonderful animals and we don't see anything like as many as we used to.

I'm going to look out for another flavour from Pipers Crisp Co. There are six more flavours to try so I hope to find one soon.

Very nice crisps. Top marks. Watch out if, like me, you can't eat celery. Otherwise.... What's stopping you?

Salty Dog Sweet Chilli Crisps

Salty Dog the hand cooked crisps that bite back! it says here.

Do they? Well, I don't know about the bite but these are pretty good crisps. I picked them up at Luton Airport (not much else to do other than shop for crisps and fob off men trying to give up their seats for me) at vast expense: £1.15 for 40g for goodness sake. Oh well, it is an airport.

Anyway, you may have read that I recently tried one of Mr Tesco's new offerings in the crisp department: Goat's Cheese and Sticky Chilli Jam. Which I felt were much too sweet. Ever hopeful I thought I'd try Salty Dog's sweet chilli offering. Not bad at all.

A little bit sweet but not too much so. Nice taste, nice smell when you open the packet. Not too big, not too small. A fair number of folded crisps but I'm not fussed about that. Good crunch. Quite a bit of jalapeño flavour going on and most of the crisps are a darker orange than your average crisp. Mmm. What a pity I can't try them on the reluctant taste testers at work but this test is being carried out in Switzerland and I don't think any of these crisps will be travelling home with me. 

I will be looking out for their other flavours, and they produce popcorn and nuts as well as crisps.

I very much like the packaging too. The little dog (a terrier called Ruby) features in three different poses on the packet and all over the website which, if you'd like to check it out, is www.saltydog-grrr.com. And the colour combination of bright orange and shocking pink on silver works well with the chilli flavour. 

Salty Dog has been voted one of Britain's Cool Brands. You can buy mugs and the website advertises T shirts although as I write there don't seem to be any available. They also do car stickers and fridge magnets but I think you have to sell the crisps to qualify for these. 

We like these crisps. Woof! (as it says on the website).