Long Chips Mashed Potato Snack Sea Salt & Vinegar + 2 Other Flavours

The Chef and I waited for our train from Geneva Airport at our usual café and just as we were about to leave I spotted these three flavours of Long Chips: Sea Salt & Vinegar, Original, and Thai Chilli. But there wasn’t any time to get the Swiss francs out; only time for a photograph.

I have since managed to get hold of a packet of the Sea Salt & Vinegar. And what did we think?

Answer: I have no idea what we thought because we never opened the packet. And for some reason this review has been languishing in my drafts folder for four years. I think I will post this anyway. Here’s a website for you to take a look. Lots of flavours I have never seen, and apparently you can buy them from eBay or even Etsy.

I think this is the same crispy snack that the Reluctant Taste Testers tried before. That was a Sour Cream & Chive flavour. It could be the same, but the packaging design has had a bit of a makeover. In fact, it’s totally different. I can only ever remember seeing a packet of Long Chips at Geneva airport, but we haven’t flown anywhere since before Covid and probably never will again, so it’s very possible I will never see another packet. Unless I take a train to Latvia.

Tyrrell’s Hand Cooked Crisps Sea Salt & Vinegar Furrows

Senior taste tester walked all the way down the building to tell me he liked these salt & vinegar crisps. He liked the soft taste. You know how salt & vinegar crisps can have an amazingly harsh flavour? Not this crinkle cut version which has a sweet gentle taste.

This is a very nice take on salt & vinegar. And I like the crinkle cut. I didn’t used to like crinkle cut. So many had far too much flavour or, worse, were too thick cut for my taste. But this is pretty good crisp. The aroma is nice too. The reluctant taste testers tell me so.

Because it wasn’t only Senior taste tester who liked this. This was a large 150g packet, and very nearly all got snacked up. Impressive.

Tyrrell’s have very good packaging design. The packets always look great. But I have a bit of a problem with Tyrrell’s crisps. The flavour is usually fine, but it turns out I often don’t like the crisps. I don’t know why but I don’t. Well they’re a bit too potatoey. You eat a crisp and end up with a bit of potato in your mouth. So there we are.

And this packet tells me I can recycle it. Great! Or does it? I just looked up the “green dot” yin yang style arrow symbol, and it doesn’t mean any such thing. What it means is that the manufacturer has made a financial contribution towards the recovery and recycling of packaging in Europe.

I bet hardly any people know what this symbol means. I wish it was a different symbol that meant the packet could actually be recycled but I suspect that won’t happen for a long time. This is not a problem I have with Tyrrell’s. But a problem the country, and indeed the world, has with all (most at any rate) crisp manufactures. You can’t recycle your crispy snack packet and a lot of the rubbish on the side of the road will include crisp packets. It’s time the crisp manufacturers thought about this.

It’s important.

Jones o Gymru Halen Mon PDO Sea Salt & Vinegar

Yes, you've guessed: another tasty crisp from Jones o Gymru. And looking online for further information, I find that this flavour Halen Môn Sea Salt & Vinegar celebrates Anglesey-born Dr Tom Parry Jones who invented the electronic breathalyser. Which is definitely the fascinating fact for today.

Plus, get this.... you can Say it With a Spud if you contact Jones o Gymru. Yes, a special Welsh-grown potato with your very own message written on it in (what looks suspiciously like) biro can be mailed to the loved-one of your choice. A potato-gram! Whatever next?

Well, I guess that was a pretty fascinating fact too.

This is another 40g packet of very tasty crisps and not too much scary vinegar. So the reluctant taste testers liked them quite a lot and noshed them down in no time. Very nice.

I have read online that you can buy these crisps in Tesco. But possibly only in Tesco North Wales. I say North Wales, because the Chef's brother was in South Wales just the other day and searched diligently for a Welsh crisp for me to try. Which was extremely kind of him. And he found nothing. So, as I say, maybe North Wales only. But I daresay you may be able buy them online if you want to try.

Kent Crisps Sea Salt & Vinegar with Biddenden Cider

This was an exciting find on the P&O cross channel ferry last week. I think it was the Pride of France. Maybe?

And huge thanks to the lovely Maggie who allowed me to buy this packet despite the fact that the tills were already closed. Basically I blackmailed her into it: I said (with a sob in my voice) "but I didn't know you sold these great crisps and I've never seen them before... and I write a blog about crisps" and she gave in and sold me this little 40g packet.

There were other flavours on sale but I grabbed the first bag that met my hand. And since the tills were closed and I was on borrowed time I didn't think it was appropriate to start reading all the different packets. Plus I didn't have all that much UK money in my purse and maybe trying to pay in Euros might be pushing it.

Maggie did tell me that you can buy these crisps in Tesco. But I have a feeling that's Tesco in Dover and not Tesco Finchley Central. I haven't yet had the chance to check but I would be quite surprised to find them on sale in North London.

This is a lovely fine cut crisp with a nice clean crunch. And a really quite sharp taste. Not only do we have sea salt & vinegar, but also the addition of Biddenden cider. The packet says that Julian from Biddenden Vineyards believes we have created a truly mouthwatering crisp. Which I guess is pretty much the case; with the sharpness of the vinegar and the Biddenden cider it would probably be hard not to create a mouthwatering crisp.

I would be interested to try another flavour from Kent Crisps. This seems like a product from a company determined to produce a good product.

Nice packaging design too.

 

Update: the Chef doesn't even like salt & vinegar crisps but he finished the packet all by himself.



Ritz Crisp & Thin Sea Salt & Vinegar Flavour

Here's another packet of crispy crunchy Crisp & Thin snacks from Ritz. And we liked these just as much as we liked the Cream Cheese & Onion flavour.

Everyone who tried these lovely light snacks said "vinegary" which is true. But after all, it does say vinegar on the packet. And it's not the far-too-strong-makes-your-tongue-curl-up style of vinegar, but a very acceptable tasty vinegary sharpness. And just the right amount of sea salt.

In fact Ritz (owned by Mondelez International, the American confectionery, food & beverage conglomerate) seem to have made all the right moves with this great new crispy snack.

Fine little biscuits rather than crisps, Crisp & Thins are made from a mix of potato flour, cornstarch, wheat flour and oat bran.

And very nice too. I would certainly put them on my shopping list - if I didn't have a mission to try as many different types of crispy snack as possible. But definitely one to try again.

Plus there are two more flavours to seek out. A treat in store.

And here are a few more photographs of the fabulous Haddon Hall where the garden makes great use of the lovely old stone walls. Worth a detour? No! Worth a special trip.