Mackie’s of Scotland Boxing Day Curry Festive Flavour

This was a Christmas present from relations who don’t have lots of money to spare, but who pay attention to my interests and have noticed that I write a blog about crisps. So, a present which has genuinely been thought about. Well done and thank you!

Lordy, I am so fed up with people who have known me my entire life and still choose to give me trout roulade for my birthday (I don’t eat fish), or tea in a fancy container (I don’t drink tea). They give me silver jewellery but I probably won’t wear it (I am allergic to silver). They give me exciting packets of pistachios bought on a mini-break in Turkey but I won’t eat them (I really really don’t like pistachios). Oh, and someone visited to a well known chocolate shop in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage and bought me a jar of apricot jam: that’s just mean. All genuine incidents.

OK, enough of presents I didn’t want, and you might not either, and back to this crisp flavour: is Boxing Day* curry a thing? I come from a very small family so we never had a turkey at Christmas because it was just too huge. So we never had masses of leftovers, and never felt the need to make a curry. But tv shows and commercials assure me that everyone else in the universe has a huge turkey and a ham at Christmas and despite cramming 16 relatives round a too small table, they still have leftovers to eat up the next day.

Hmm… perhaps a Boxing Day curry really is a thing. 

And although these tasty crisps do have a genuine taste of curry, there is also (to me anyhow) a big hit of raisins or sultanas. Which made me think of retro curries from the 1970s. This is interesting because the list of ingredients includes fenugreek, coriander seed, turmeric, cardamom, and ginger, there’s nothing that leaps out that might give a flavour of sultanas. Those food scientists eh? Obviously they know a whole lot more about flavour than I do.

*For those of you not in the know, Boxing Day is the day after Christmas Day in Britain. In what we call “the olden days” (when we aren’t sure exactly when we mean but it was a long time ago), employees or tradesmen who delivered milk or coal would visit their employer on the day after Christmas to collect their Christmas box. A sort of tip.

Shore The Scottish Seaweed Company Seaweed Crisps Sweet Sriracha

I spotted these seaweed crisps outside my hospital ward as I was on my way to the lift. Unfortunately I really didn’t have time to stop off and battle with a smart-looking vending machine, so I just whipped out my phone and took a picture.

You can get Sweet Sriracha, Asian Pekin, and Lightly Salted.

I have to say that I have issues with crisps being sold in hospitals. However, if you are desperate for a crispy snack I imagine you would sooner grab a bag of Cheesy Wotsits or something else comforting rather than a fancy pants seaweed crisp.

Having said that, you already know I haven’t tried these crisps. Perhaps they’re amazing. And perhaps they are as healthy and tasty as their website claims.

Taylors Welsh Potato Crisps Spicy Chilli

A final outing for the Taylors range of crisps brought for me and the reluctant taste testers from Wales. Photographed here with the triceratops that came over the office fence the other day. It seemed a shame to waste it.

I'm not sure. I am never sure about chilli as a crisp flavour. Although, at least this isn't a sweet chilli flavour crisp.

I really haven't been convinced that these Taylors Welsh Crisps are up to scratch. The texture has not impressed the reluctant taste testers and me, and the flavours; probably could do better. 

Very sorry but we weren't that enamoured of these crisps. I feel bad about giving such a bad review but cannot lie.

Taylors Welsh Potato Crisps Sea Salt

I haven't really enjoyed many of the six flavours of Taylors Welsh potato crisps. For some reason the flavours didn't appeal to me and the texture was all wrong. It has been very disappointing.

But this sea salt flavour was pretty good. Funny how often my favourites turn out to be the simple flavours. I can't think that the texture of this packet of crisps can be any different to the texture of the other flavours (because I'm sure they must all be made the same way), but it seems to be more to my taste.

Very odd. It really doesn't make any sense. Let's just accept that I thought these plain seat flavour crisps quite good. And I think the reluctant taste testers were of the same opinion.

Taylors Welsh Potato Crisps Lamb & Mint

I'm not a terrific fan of meaty flavoured crisps. I think both Tech taste tester and Slightly Red-Haired Bristolian are much bigger fans of the meat than me. But I'm not certain that any of us is mad for lamb as a crisp flavour.

Don't get me wrong. I love roast lamb and rack of lamb and lamb burgers. It's just that I feel lamb should be lamb. Noble Friend of course doesn't eat lamb at all because she finds lambs too cute to eat. If I used cute as a reason not to eat things I'd be stuck on a potato only diet. But hey! at least that would include crisps.

These crisps actually do taste of lamb and mint. Although chiefly mint. Interesting.

I'm still finding the slightly chewy texture of these Welsh crisps from Scotland a little bit wrong for my taste.

Taylors Welsh Potato Crisps Cheddar & Onion

Well this cheddar & onion crisp is basically a cheese & onion crisp. And very cheesy with it. Quite nice.

But you know, I'm still not convinced at the thicker than many style of these crisps. And I don't think the reluctant taste testers are either. Which is a shame. But there you are.

Taylors Welsh Potato Crisps Beef & Horseradish

I'm not very keen on horseradish so I wish that wasn't one of the ingredients here, but in fact it isn't too bad a thing. The flavour - I thought - wasn't bad although I only wanted one crisp, but Slightly Red-Haired Bristolian felt the flavour was chemical (a harsh opinion there).

Nobody else told me what they thought and almost all of the packet was eaten before lunch so I guess the reluctant taste testers didn't think this was too bad a crisp. The texture was certainly chewy once again, but I thought less odd than the last Taylor's crisp we tried.

I'm not sure I'm going to be a fan of Taylor's crisps. But we have more flavours to try so who knows?

Taylors Welsh Potato Crisps Smoky Bacon

Well, this is interesting. Noble Friend went to a wedding in Wales and was determined to find some Welsh crisps to bring back for consideration. Last time she found crisps by Jones O Cymru; this time she found 6 packets of Welsh crisps from Taylors. She also brought home a new dog. That'll be new taste tester Milo.

Made from potatoes born and raised in Wales says the front of the packet. OK, that sounds good. But the back of the packet tells me these crisps are made in Perthshire. That's the Perthshire in Scotland in case you never studied UK geography. So why would you bother exporting Welsh spuds to Scotland I ask myself? Well I can't think of any reason at all because I am well aware they grow fabulous potatoes in Scotland. That's got to be at least 300 unnecessary food miles.

So I put out a bowlful for the reluctant taste testers to try. It's a small 40g bag but even so these crisps were not snacked up particularly quickly. The taste is very mild, especially when you consider how strong a smoky bacon flavour can be. But the texture is a bit odd. Tall taste tester described it as chewy. And I think he's right. This is not a crisp where you snack up the entire packet without noticing how many you've eaten. You have to chew these.

The packet says they are thick cut, and gently cooked for a perfect crunch and unique dry texture. Hmmm... I'm not certain I want this unique dry texture but we have 5 more packets to try so I guess we'll see.

We visited the charming little Chateau de Nesle which is a sort of fortified farmstead. It has a really peaceful atmosphere and we loved our visit there, especially as there were only 2 other people there. It's privately owned, and you can hire it for your wedding reception or other grand party.

Amazingly the Germans and Americans fought over this tranquil spot in the final months of WWI.

Mackie's of Scotland Haggis & Cracked Black Pepper

Last year the Chef and I tried the Mackie's of Scotland Sea Salt, and Mature Cheddar Cheese & Onion flavours which we found for sale in the Aperto shop at Sion station in Switzerland. They had other flavours too, but not the Haggis. Perhaps Mackie's (or Aperto) thought the Swiss would baulk at haggis as a crisp flavour. I wouldn't be a bit surprised; I suspect the English might baulk too.

Which is why I asked my brother, who lives in Scotland, to send me this packet of crisps because I'd never seen any to buy in London (or Switzerland). I had read a lot online about haggis flavour crisps so I wanted to try them. And now I have. So thanks very much to my ex-sister-in-law who I suspect finally took charge of the actual posting.

Well... I'm not really sure about these. There is certainly a vast amount of cracked black pepperiness going on. And then there's something else which despite tasting and much sniffing I cannot put my finger on. Honestly, I can't work out what these crisps taste of.  I rather enjoy haggis but I haven't had any for some time and I don't really remember if it tastes like these crisps do.

Let's just say the taste is a bit odd. Quite tasty. Just... a bit odd. The packaging got high marks though, especially from the tall taste tester.

The reluctant taste testers quite liked these crisps, with the emphasis on quite, but like me I think they were a little bit baffled at the flavour. All of them noticed the great taste of cracked black pepper, and all of them wondered quite what the rest of the flavour was. It seems to have been created from yeast, wheat, onion powder, barley malt, and oatmeal. Interesting.

You might think haggis crisps would be made with heart, liver and lungs (creepily known as sheep's pluck) but no, are in fact they are suitable for vegetarians and even vegans. Amazing eh?

I was back in Sion in March and Aperto has stopped stocking Mackie's crisps, at least for the time being. So we had no chance to attempt other flavours when we took the train to Bern.

Mackie's of Scotland Mature Cheddar & Onion

Ever hopeful, and as I happened to be catching another train from Sion station (in Switzerland), I picked up a second bag of Mackie's of Scotland crisps. Yes, we were in the Aperto shop buying another cup of coffee (no small bottle of wine this time) and a bag of crisps.

Well I don't really know what to say. Scottish crisps in Switzerland still seems so weird.

But I must admit I'm quite disappointed that whoever started exporting (or importing) Scottish crisps to Switzerland stopped short at the haggis flavour. That would be interesting to try but perhaps the Swiss didn't fancy it.

Anyway, after trying the sea salt flavour the other day, we thought we'd try cheese & onion. I took the crisp photo on the train and the blue you can see is my jeans. Crisp packets are more see-through than you suppose. No. I never thought about it either before I started writing this blog. But you can't see the mature cheddar golden of the crisps; that's what you get for wearing jeans while undertaking serious food photography!

Anyhow: not bad. The Chef and I liked these a lot more than we did the sea salt flavour. They still didn't smell quite right when I opened the packet. I think smell is very important but I've discovered that many people don't seem to consider it as much as I do. But the taste is not bad.

It's a gentle, rather sweet cheese and onion flavour. Not too much onion and I guess that must be the mature cheddar coming through. Plenty of flavour dust.

Still not as nice as they might be though. So I'm still wishing I was writing a better review.

Mackie's of Scotland Sea Salt

As we were on holiday in Switzerland we thought it would be nice to go to the Thunersee and visit Schloss Oberhofen. So while waiting for the train at Sion we dropped into the handy Aperto shop for a cup of coffee and a small bottle of wine - as you do - and what did we funfair? [seriously this iPad gets madder and madder; what I meant to type, what I tried to type was "find"] .... And what did we find?

Well, you are obviously agog to know, so I'll tell you. A selection of crisps from Mackie's of Scotland! How weird is that?

Having just tried the sensational sea salt flavour from Seabrooks of Yorkshire, and the really pretty good nature (sea salt) flavour from Swiss chips company Zweifel perhaps I was pushing it a bit in choosing the sea salt flavour.

This little 40g packet comes from Inchture in Perthshire. I used to live in Perthshire so
I really wanted to like these crisps. I have friends in Perthshire; I have family in Perthshire. I wanted to be able to say how nice these crisps are.

Made from plough to pack in Scotland, it says on the packaging. The Taylor family, third generation farmers, teamed up with Mackie's of Scotland in 2009 to create the perfect potato crisp. Their potatoes are naturally grown and are the best varieties for crisping (this packet was made from Lady Claire, a variety I have seen on other crisp packets). It is obvious that they have pulled out all the stops to create a great crisp.

But I wasn't that impressed. Sorry about that family Taylor.

The crisps are a little thicker than usual for UK crisps, the crunch is fine, the taste is fine but that's it. The crisps are fine. But sadly not better than that. And when I first opened the packet, the aroma really wasn't very nice at all. I'm afraid, that for me these qualify for a could do better. The packaging design is rather charming though.

Here is my photo of Schloss Oberhofen on the Thunersee. It's a shame the sky is rather cloudy because you can't really see the mountains in the background. The little turretty thing springing out of the lake looks as though it has been there forever doesn't it? I'm not sure when it was built, but it wasn't there in 1863. So just a modern extension; just like the glass box which is a very nice restaurant where we had lunch.