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.

Golden Wonder Transform-a-Snack Cheese & Onion

I recently reviewed the fabulous Transform-a-Snacks in Spicy flavour. You can read about them and see photos of the excitingly transformed snacks here.

I enjoyed the Spicy Transform-a-Snacks so much I went into the local newsagent run by the amazingly cheerful man (which has recently been smartly refurbished) and bought these. Continuing my quest to transform my tastebuds. And in case you didn't realise, this crispy snack is a kit for creating a crispy vehicle.

The amazingly cheerful man said it was interesting that these crispy snacks appeal to all ages. Which he then amended to 18 year olds as well as children. How diplomatic of him!

This is an interesting take on cheese and onion. It's quite subtle and not too oniony.  And in fact, I felt that the onion tasted wonderfully caramelised so you get a hint of toffee. So it's actually quite a grown up taste on a snack aimed at (probably) small boys. Not very cheesy either, but then there doesn't seem to be any cheese in the list of ingredients. What there is, is turmeric. Unusual.

Not bad at all though. I enjoyed these.

KP Hula Hoops

I tried a selection packet of Hula Hoops.

I hadn't had a Hula Hoop for years so it was interesting to try them again. We used to have them all the time and for some reason it seemed really cool to put a hoop on to the end of each finger and then eat them off my fingers - instead of just eating them out of the packet. Of course that was a long long time ago.

And guess what? They taste just as I remember. And also guess what? Apparently everyone else in the world used to eat Hula Hoops off the ends of their fingers. Well well.

It turns out that although there is nothing at all the matter with Hula Hoops I find I'm not terrifically impressed. Perhaps it's because they seem to be exactly the same as they were back in 1973 which is of course a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... But in 1973 we didn't have such a wealth of crispy snacks to choose from. Or indeed so many fascinating flavours to try.

I read on the website that Hula Hoops currently come in BBQ Beef, Cheese and Onion, Original, Salt and Vinegar, Roast Chicken, Smokey Bacon, Sour Cream and Chive, and Sweet Chili flavours. I haven't actually seen most of these as our local Waitrose has quite a small crispy snack section and tends not to stock the more exciting flavours. This multipack has Cheese and Onion, Original and Salt and Vinegar; the classics.

Hula Hoop Facts: did you know it would take over 250 million Hula Hoops to weigh the same as the Angel of the North! Hula Hoops in a hole world of their own. Not, I have to say, something I had ever considered but you never know what thrilling info will be printed on the back of a crisp packet.

I started with Cheese and Onion. The cheese and onion-ness is quite pleasant. Not too strong, not too oniony, but weirdly you can suck the cheese and onion flavour off and then you just have an original flavour Hula Hoop.

And then I moved on to Original. Quite tasty, a little bit salty, not very exciting but OK. As always, quite a hard crunch. And of course these crunchy potato snacks are little hoops. What else? Not convinced I would want to eat more than a very small bag at one sitting but perfectly good as a crispy crunchy snack.

Finally Salt and Vinegar. Which is a little bit too sharp for my taste. A little bit too vinegary. Not too bad but I far prefer the Original flavour. In fact I'm inclined to think that Original is best.

I can see why they still sell of course. These small multi pack bags seem to be aimed at the packed lunch market. Little children (and let's admit it, not so little children too) will always enjoy eating them off the ends of their fingers.