Miss Vickie’s Sweet Chilli & Sour Cream / Poivron et Crème Champêtre

Here’s another Canadian crisp from Miss Vickie's. I see the Canadians follow the USA in their spelling of chilli: chili. (Or "child" as my always annoying auto correct would have it.) And again I look at the packaging and think 1887 when actually it says 1987. See what I mean though? It's the lacy edging that does it.

If you've read a number of my posts you may have noticed that I don't usually like sweet chilli as a flavour. And I don't think the sour cream part of the flavour is particularly evident here so that doesn't really impact on my opinion. In this case (unusually for me) I thought the sweet chilli was pretty tasty and I think the reluctant taste testers liked it even better than I did.

Sometimes it's hard to write a lot about a crisp that is quite nice. Not nasty, not fabulous, but quite nice.

So here we are then. A quite nice sweet chilli crisp. Which we quite enjoyed.

Lidl Deluxe Sweet Chilli & Sour Cream Extra Crunchy Skin-On Hand Cooked Potato Crisps

History Graduate taste tester went off to to take the theory part of his driving test, and flushed with success (because, dear reader, of course he passed with flying colours) he rushed into a Lidl supermarket and purchased a packet of crisps. Obviously.

And boy do these crisps have a long name. And weirdly, they don't say Lidl on the front of the packet. Although, I guess, you can only buy Lidl crisps in a branch of Lidl, so perhaps they don't feel the need to tell us. It says Lidl UK GmbH in tiny writing on the back. At the bottom. But luckily, we know this anyway because History Graduate went to Lidl.

Slightly Red Haired Bristolian was a fan, and Tall taste tester was a really big fan. "There's a Lidl in my road," he confided. "I might go there at the weekend and buy a packet for Christmas."

Nice little crisps, I like the skin left on and they really do look hand cooked. The Chef has carried out a controlled experiment and discovered they work extremely well with a sour cream & chive dip. He's right. They do.

I think most of the reluctant taste testers quite liked this crisp, but not all could pick a flavour and perhaps found that a bit of a flaw. I couldn't pick the flavour either but it didn't stop me enjoying some of these crisps, plus a little dip.

And the Chef has given these crisps his seal of approval. If he were in a TV ad perhaps he would  tap the packet in an appreciative fashion. You know how people in commercials do? I call this the tap of approval - I am sure there must be a technical term but I don't know what it is.

More Lidl news: this packet features the biggest barcode I have ever seen. I have turned the packet sideways so that you get the full effect. I daresay this makes it easier to scan?

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.