Pretzel Pete Cheese Pizza Flavour Pretzel Mix

What? Wait, Cheese Pizza flavoured pretzels? How can this be a thing?

OK, pay attention, it’s not just pretzels because there are chunky bits of biscuity bites and some little sticks too. But I actually prefer the pretzel shapes. They really seem to work quite well with this very strong cheesy pizza flavour. And there’s a lot of flavour going on.

To be honest, I think there’s a bit too much flavour here, and I’m not entirely sure it actually tastes of cheese pizza.

Not bad. But fairly sure I wouldn’t buy another packet.

Lay’s Sour Cream & Onion

And here is the very final bag of crisps sent by kind Missouri Taste Tester. What a lot of fun we’ve had trying out a whole load of crisps brand new to us. Apparently this is Missouri Taste Tester’s favourite crisp.

Oh dear. I didn’t terribly like them. I don’t know why. I just didn’t. Sometimes you just can’t put your finger on whatever it is. But hey! See above: I don’t fancy this flavour but someone else does.

The Chef thought they were all right. Which isn’t the most enthusiastic review in the world. He did, of course, eat most of the packet. If I don’t like something I stop eating: it doesn’t stop the Chef. So it’s a lot harder to tell what he really likes. Or doesn’t.

Jays Krunchers! Original

This is the final packet of original (or salt) flavour crisps sent by kind Missouri Taste Tester. And just as when I used to get a lot of books out of the library and I always enjoyed the first book the most, and the last book in the pile the least, so with these crisps.

Not nasty, not unpleasant at all, simply not as special as the sensational Cape Cod crisps the Chef and I tried first. Just a nice lightly salted crisp. Out of a big packet.

Interestingly, these crisps smell great in the packet. Some crisps taste great but smell quite nasty. I’ve never worked out how come. But the packet still smells rather good even though all the crisps have been eaten.

If you are looking for a kettle cooked chip that explodes with bold potato flavor and offers a krunchy texture, says the packet, try original Krunchers! Select, premium potatoes are sliced to the ideal thickness and sprinkled with the perfect amount of salt, resulting in a “wow” for your mouth. 

Say goodbye to wimpy chips and BITE into Krunchers!

You’ll probably enjoy them. The Chef did, I know. I’m fairly sure he ate most of these crisps when I wasn’t looking. 

Uncle Ray’s Ripple Potato Chips

Here’s another fascinating crisp gifted to me by kind Missouri Taste Tester. It’s another crisp which doesn’t have the flavour (salt) on the front of the packet, or indeed on the back. The only place it says salt is in the list of ingredients. Weird.

On the back of the packet we get a chapter from the life and times of Uncle Ray. Our chapter 11 is Thanksgiving on the Line and we learn about a disaster with 12 turkeys on board the USS Bristol. Fascinating stuff.

Also fascinating for me is that this is the official crisp of Minor League Baseball. I know nothing about baseball. To me it’s obviously a version of rounders; played by schoolgirls in the UK, but in the USA by men in pyjamas. It sounds terribly dull to me but then I absolutely hated being forced to play rounders and never once hit the ball.

 But how many times have I seen a TV character reach for his baseball mitt and a ball in order to connect with an anxious child or a colleague under stress? I suppose there must be something in it. What though? Answers on a postcard please.

This is a beautifully simple crinkle cut crisp which the Chef and I enjoyed very much (hence no photo of the crisps). The crunch is a little light but we aren’t complaining. Very nice.

I wonder why it’s not for sale in California? That’s weird too, isn’t it?

Miss Vickie’s Sea Salt Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

Lightly sea salted, this crisp is a little bit thicker cut than some, but not too much. A very simple crisp. I ate the whole packet (only 38.9g) all at once. I tried to save some for the Chef, honest!, but accidentally ate the lot.

Made with love & care. And very nice too.

Some time ago we tried another Miss Vickie’s; sweet chilli and sour cream flavour, and quite enjoyed it.

Trader Joe’s Organic Kettle Style Potato Chips

Most unusually this packet of crisps sent by Instagram friend in her exciting parcel from Missouri (let’s call her Missouri Taste Tester), doesn’t have a flavour. In fact, if you read the back of the packet you can see they’re seasoned with just the right amount of sea salt. But it’s most unusual to find a crisp packet without the flavour front and centre.

To be extra kind, Missouri Taste Tester sent a Trader Joe’s brown paper bag too.  So here it is in the background. In fact I already have a Trader Joe’s bag, which is famed and hanging in our spare room. A form of recycling if you will.

I sent this packet of crisps to the office via my ex-colleague Noble Friend. Because of social distancing and the Rule of Six I can’t see most of the Reluctant Taste Testers IRL, but I value their opinions.The report is that these crisps have just the right crunch, and just the right amount of saltiness. So I think that’s a recommendation.

Old Vienna of St Louis Red Hot Riplets Hot Barbecue Flavored Ridged Potato Chips

Another exciting crisp in the parcel sent by Missouri Taste Tester. I had read about Old Vienna crisps in an online article, but never expected to try them.

This is a fabulously crinkle cut crisp with masses of rich red flavour dust. We’ve never had the opportunity to try St Louis Style Hot Sauce but it certainly imparts an impressive initial taste, and then a stunning afterburn or kick of heat. The Chef and Ski Instructor Taste Tester enjoyed a bowlful while discussing politics and found they had drunk a great deal more than usual (soft drinks thank you; it was tea time) to temper the heat.

This company produces hot sauce and seasoning as well as potato crisps, and popcorn, and also rather fascinatingly sells shower curtains! And T shirts, but you know, that’s not so exciting. I’m sure I could manage without a T shirt, but if I had a suitable bath I might be seriously tempted by the shower curtain. Check out the Instagram account for more tasty fun and games.

Coming soon: an even more super seasoned snack? Wow! How tasty can it be?

Personally I would spell it the Whole Shebang but never mind.

Cape Cod Kettle Chips Original

What a beautiful little crisp this is.

Each crisp is smaller than your average crisp but has just as much, or actually rather more of a crunch than you might expect. With the delightfully simple Original flavour (basically just salt) you get pretty much the perfect crisp. Lovely.

I’m really sorry that the Reluctant Taste Testers aren’t around to share this packet with me. Or perhaps I’m not around to share it with them. But there’s always the Chef and he says he quite likes them.

A kind American friend from Instagram, Missouri Taste Tester, sent me a parcel of crisps and this is the first we have tried. And never even bothered with a dip. Very nice.

As you see; no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, and no GMO. And 40% less fat than the leading brand of potato chips. I wonder who that is? Apparently the Cape Cod Chips Company is based in Hyannis Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. To be honest that’s a bit of a surprise. Silly me. I thought it was just some marketing strategy. When your hand’s in the bag, your head’s in the cape it says on their website. They have merch!

5 Midwest-Made Potato Chip Brands

You can imagine that with half the world in lockdown it’s been a bit of a struggle to discover new crispy snacks to share with the Chef, and write about for you lot. So I thought I would have a look and see if I could find any suitable reading for crispy snack fans who can’t get out and about.

This was a lucky find: an article from Feast Magazine (click here for the original article) about the 5 best potato chips from the Midwest (of the United States - just in case you weren’t sure) that you really ought to know about. NB I posted this article on 20th April and now, 31st July, I find it’s no longer available to read in some parts of the world for “legal reasons”. 

So here’s a link or two... Old Vienna of St Louis  If you scroll down the page they even sell shower curtains!

The Billy Goat Chip Company

Guy’s Legendary Potato Chips

I have never been to the Midwest, and quite likely won’t ever get there (there are far too many fabulous places in Europe that I have yet to visit) but it’s always interesting to read about crispy snacks, and Americans really know how to make a great snack. If only I could send off for a care package.

But thank you Feast Magazine for drawing these tasty sounding snacks to our attention.

Don’t forget to check my earlier posts where I write about crispy snacks I have actually tried.

TGI Fridays Potato Skins Snacks Baby Back Ribs

Well this is a strange one and no mistake.

It's a pretend potato skin (basically what you get when you bake a potato in the oven and scoop out all the tasty white flesh). And in many countries you eat the skin or throw it away - your choice - but it's not a dish that anyone would buy. But in the USA it seems to be a snack food. You take a potato skin and load it with grated cheese and bacon and stuff.

But this is a completely pretend potato skin. So pretend it's made with maize and tapioca (from the cassava root) as well as potato starch and potato flakes. And since it's an American product it's also chock full of MSG, dextrose, maltodextrin, potassium chloride and other non European stuff. So not a huge potato content it seems.

One of the reluctant taste testers told me that Baby Back Ribs is a Justin Timberlake song. That'll be Baby Come Back I think. But you can enjoy this interesting TV commercial  for Chilis Baby Back Ribs Sauce from Justin and NSYNC if you fancy.

I confess I din't like the rather dull bite of this not so crispy snack. And I wasn't mad about the flavour either but somehow the entire packet got snacked up.

Managerial taste tester, who as we know hardly ever comments, was not impressed at the design or shape of this snack. And I agree it is perhaps not the most alluring snack ever.

I confess I don't get why you would market a faux potato skin crispy snack. I guess it's just not to my taste.

Lieber's Kettle Cooked Potato Chips Barbecue Flavour

Noble Friend went out to buy a pint or two of milk and brought back a little packet of kosher crisps, indeed I see they are kosher for passover. And they smell wonderful.

Sometimes a crispy snack will smell good and taste bad (or not so good), or smell awful but taste wonderful. But in this case I think the aroma that wafts from the packet is just lovely, and the taste isn't too bad. Which is praise indeed from me because I don't usually enjoy barbecue as a flavour. If the taste was the same as the flavour I'd give 5 stars but sadly it doesn't ever seem to work like that.

Slightly Red Haired Bristolian tells me she's not that impressed. Not enough taste she says, the taste is almost plain salted. Not what taste tester from the New Forest thought. She asked where they came from so she could buy another packet.

Noble Friend was quite pleased with her choice too. Very nice we thought.

I think these crisps are made in the USA but it's not easy to tell from the packet. "Distributed" it says, in the USA, in England, and in Australia. But the Rabbi in charge comes from Monsey which seems to be in New York State. I found that on a website called Walk2Shul. Useful.

Pringles Food Truck Flavors Cheese Burger

Artificially flavoured it says on the drum.

How odd. And rather off putting don’t you think? I mean, a great many crisp flavours are artificial, containing E numbers, citric acid (which comes with a fancy chemical name if you go looking for it), potassium chloride, disodium guanylate, smoke flavour, and basically all sorts you probably didn’t think you wanted in your food and don’t know what they’re for. So it’s usually best not to read the list of ingredients unless you’ve bought fancy “Hand Cooked” crisps which seem to include things like powdered roast pork which is very nearly a real ingredient. But perhaps the disclaimer is a legal requirement?

Well, however artificial this flavour, it was very popular with the reluctant taste testers. Those who knew what they were testing agreed the flavour is very accurate. Those who didn’t know picked the vinegary gherkin taste, and the sweet mustard. All agreed that the taste was very like the classic McDonald’s cheeseburger. Top marks all round.

Tech taste tester really enjoyed this crispy snack but wondered if they were truly Pringles? He thought they were a little smaller than usual. And I wonder if he isn’t right? Yes, they certainly are Pringles. But I have a rather small mouth. A long time ago my grandmother told me a rosebud mouth - no wider than the width of your nose - was a sign of beauty, but my mouth was too wide (although not by much). She really knew how to make a little girl feel good. Anyhow, I have usually found Pringles too wide for my small mouth. Not in this case.

These days a lot of people seem to have enormously wide mouths: especially all those women in the toothpaste advertisements, so why do these Pringles seem smaller? Maybe they have been ensmallenated.

There was another Food Truck flavour: Kickin' Chicken Taco. I think they were probably limited edition flavours in the first place (2015) but the Cheeseburger flavour has obviously been a great success. I don’t know if the Chicken Taco is still available. And I have no idea why so many flavours these days are “kickin'”. It’s not a word I ever use and honestly I don’t know what it means. So that makes me grumpy. But really, why kickin'?

Lieber's Original Corn Chips

This is another tiny little packet of crispy snacks from one of the local kosher shops. And I have to say I never thought it looked up to much. But you never know.

Well in this case, the reluctant taste testers and I thought it a very dull crispy snack. It's basically a corn chip made with vegetable oil (one or more of the following: canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, safflower, soybean or sunflower oils). And that sounds pretty plain.

Not being an expert on anything that might cause the little black bits, I don't know what the little black bits are. I suppose bits of whole grain corn. Whatever, we thought the taste was pretty dull.

A kosher snack made in Brooklyn. The reluctant taste testers have enjoyed many kosher crispy snacks. Just not this one. And who designed the packet? I don't know, it makes me think of the 1950s.

TGI Fridays Jalapeño Poppers Cheddar Cheese

Who knew TGI Fridays made crispy snacks? Actually I did. We tried TGI Fridays Potato Skins back in February of this year. But that was shortly before I got ill so perhaps I have an excuse for not really remembering. And apparently Mr Tesco knows too because that's where I found this packet of cheesy chilli crispy snacks.

I'm not sure I would describe this crispy snack as "snack sticks" as the packet does, but they are pretty tasty. Very chilli if that's a thing and with a great texture. Quite nice, the reluctant taste testers and I thought.

I notice these are called Jalapeño Poppers, and then in a different place on the packet Cheddar Cheese. I wonder if there are Jalapeño Poppers... some other flavours? Interesting.

Anyway, definitely worth a try if you spot them in a shop - or perhaps they sell them in branches of TGI Fridays. I don't know. I haven't been in one since ....erm... 1993. 

How can you remember these things, you cry? Well, it was the first time I visited Dear Friend in Buffalo and back then I wasn't supposed to eat/drink citrus fruits but I had a cocktail which I think involved orange juice, cream, and vodka. Does that sound right? No idea what we ate. Possibly due to the vodka. But I do not remember any crispy snack. 

Not bad.

Deep River Snacks Zesty Jalapeño

Tall Elegant taste tester went to visit a friend recently and brought back this small packet of crisps. Friend lives near Boston in the United States so that's where this packet comes from.

I've tried Deep River crisps before: New York Spicy Dill Pickle, which I found very spicy indeed. And now here we have Spicy Jalapeño. Which the reluctant taste testers and I found extremely spicy. Small and very crunchy but what a lot of taste.

Senior taste tester liked them a lot and thought them very spicy, Tall Elegant taste tester tried them and said they were extremely spicy, I thought the chilli taste was very hot, the Chef tried the last of the packet and said they were very strong.

You know how chilli often creeps up on you after you've eaten it. And you didn't think it was that hot but then suddenly it is. Not these crisps. No, you get the hot strong chilli taste at once. It's a very nice taste but it is a big taste. A very big taste indeed.

Mind you, the packet does have a warning. It says: Fair warning: the fresh heat of our jalapeño chilli pepper will leave your tongue tingling and your taste buds begging for more! And Did you feel the fire? I'm pretty sure our answer is yes.

Deep River Snacks support lots of very good causes and this packet encourages you to support the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation which is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury and improving the quality of life for individuals living with paralysis.

Snyder's of Hanover Sweet & Salty Pretzel Pieces Salted Caramel

Hmm... the name of this crispy crunchy snack seems to go on forever. The actual flavour is Salted Caramel and they certainly do taste of Salted Caramel.

I think the reluctant taste testers and I tried these Sweet & Salty Pretzel Pieces just before I was dragged off to hospital in early March. They've sitting around since then and are in pretty good condition considering. Paper clips seem to work as well as a kitchen clip at keeping the bag tightly shut. Which is lucky as here we are 4 months later.

As with all these Pretzel Piece snacks this has a huge great crunch which is fabulous, but of course as usual it looks like a snack cobbled together from the remains of an nasty accident in Snyder's kitchens. And I wouldn't be a bit surprised if that's what happened once upon a time and gave someone a marketing idea.

We've tried 4 different packets of Pretzel Pieces before but they were all savoury flavours like Hot Buffalo Wings but these are Sweet & Salty which is a very different taste. These pieces of pretzel are swathed in piles of flavour dust which delivers a great thwack of Sweet & Salty flavour. And the Salted Caramel is very caramelly.

It reminds me of the olden days when William Morris Fan taste tester who worked with me and the taste testers before ever the taste testing was invented, introduced me to Sweet & Salted as a flavour for the first time. She rushed out to one of the local kosher delis and produced a snack such as I had never seen before  - I think it was popcorn. Wow! That must be less than 10 years ago. Amazing. Crispy snack flavours have come on apace since then. Although possibly that comment applies more to the UK than the USA.

Never attempted this sort of flavour? Definitely worth a try. Go on. You know you want to.

Cheese-It Original

Little Square cheesy biscuits. Not super exciting we thought  but fairly OK.  I'm sure I have heard of Cheese-Its and I was hoping for more exciting stuff. But as Slightly Red Haired Bristolian said, these are kind of like mini cheddars only not so much.

For some reason I seem to have forgotten to photograph this little square snack. Perhaps because I wasn't that thrilled with them. OK but that's as far as I am prepared to go.

Herr's Buffalo Blue Cheese

Oven baked with real CHEESE screams the packet, and you can certainly taste the blue cheese in this spicy, bright orange crispy maize-based snack. Very crispy, very orange and very strong tasting. Nothing subtle here. I don't really pick the buffalo flavour; presumably that's chicken wing flavour in its weird American disguise. I'm sorry, I can't help finding it weird that chicken wings are called buffalo wings and hence simply buffalo.

History Graduate taste tester, who has family in California, was excited to see this flavour. Apparently he had blue cheese fries the other day. Which means nothing to me: obviously I have led a very sheltered life and only ever eaten "normal" fries. But maybe I should take steps to try blue cheese fries if they taste anything like as good as this crispy snack.

A lovely light crunch, and a great big snack, so not many in this little 28g packet. I've only tried 2 flavours from Herr's but I really like both of them and would likely buy far to many if I had access to a ready supply.

Andy Capp's Hot Fries

The reluctant taste testers really loved the Andy Capp Cheddar Fries that we tried the other day. However, these Hot Fries are another story.

Very very hot. Too hot we thought. All the reluctant taste testers agreed that this crispy snack was really too hot for us. Tall taste tester told me seriously that you could only eat one or two, and as he spoke he absent mindedly crunched into another one, or three he added. But that was about it.

This very hot crispy snack was not popular and most of them did not get eaten so I chucked them in the bin. What a difference compared to the Cheddar Fries which we enjoyed to much.

Snyder's of Hanover Pretzel Pieces Jalapeño

Well, we seem to have tried a good number of Pretzel Piece flavours lately and they've all been very tasty. And extremely crunchy.

This flavour  is just as broken up as ever (no surprise there) and has a strong taste of jalapeño peppers. Which I didn't used to like but have grown accustomed to. Not from eating real food you understand, but from trying all sorts of weird crispy snacks. Because (who knew?) eating crispy snacks is actually very educational. I'm generally a very picky eater and there are flavours I have tried as part of a crispy snack that I would never have considered trying in real life. In the end this has made me a bolder eater when it comes to actual food. Which is great. But I guess it tells you that I don't consider crisps and crispy snacks to be real food.Well, you know, not a major food group like fruit & vegetables. Just in case you hadn't read my alerts in the sidebar about eating healthily, I really am aware that crisps and crispy snacks should be eaten in moderation. Although sometimes you just can't help loving a crispy snack and eating a lot more than you mean to.

OK, I know the answer to this one. Try hard not to do this too often. It isn't good for you. I sometimes find an amazing snack and I want to eat the whole packet at once. but I try really hard not to do that. Please take my advice and restrict your intake too. Sharing packet with the reluctant taste testers helps a lot.

OK, back to the snack. Which the reluctant taste testers quite enjoyed and ate a fair pile of. It seems like quite a true Jalapeño taste.

And on another subject I'm really quite impressed that my computer inserts the little wavy line over the n (is it a tilde? I can't remember this morning) in Jalapeño all of its own accord. I bet it wouldn't have done that 10 years ago. On the other hand, it doesn't like the expression "all of its own accord" and wants to change it to "all of its own account"; this is annoying but at least it tells me that my computer has not yet learned to read my mind. Cause for celebration there I think!