Carrefour Mini Flûtes Pure Beurre Au Parmesan et a l'Ail

Reluctant taste tester from the New Forest tells me that cheesy twists or flutes (or cheese straws) are her vey favourite crispy snack. And this mini flute seemed to pass her personal taste test with flying colours.

To be honest, I can't really find anything wrong with a crispy snack that has a lovely bite, a flaky texture and a great cheesy taste. And in this case, added parmesan and garlic. Really and truly, what's not to like?

A mini flûte seems to be better even than a large (or regular size) because you only need to bite them once; or you can stuff them into your mouth whole if you're feeling greedy. Whichever, this means fewer crumbs. Because a good quality cheese straw style of snack will likely crumble and if you are like me you will end off with crumbs down your front.

I found this tasty snack at the Carrefour supermarket outside Reims in France. There's an aisle of little boxes like this one filled with an exciting array of crispy snacks. Far more than you normally find in a British supermarket. There's also a large selection of potato crisps but if you happen to be in a large French supermarket I think you'll find it worth your while checking out the little boxes of crispy snacks.

Made in Switzerland not France.

M&S Christmas All Butter Mini Goats Cheese Straws with Chilli & Roasted Onion Chutney

What a mile long name for a crispy snack. What a terrifically tasty crispy snack!

Yum!!

I think if you asked them you'd find that all the reluctant taste testers liked this mini cheese straw concoction very much indeed. I thought they were very good but we all liked them; Senior taste tester, Tech taste tester, Giraffe Fan.... even those of us who don't like goats cheese (Tall Elegant taste tester "but I don't like goats cheese") enjoyed this extremely good and terrifically tasty crispy snack.

Lovely texture, nice bite, the sort of streusel cheesy topping was cheesy and crunchy, nice heat from the chilli aftertaste and the onion chutney adds to the rounded taste: altogether a tremendous snack. 10/10 for general deliciousness.

Grab some while you can because this is probably a limited edition for Christmas only. And grab them now because Tall taste tester is going to buy up the entire supply to give to his family for Christmas.

Probably not madly healthy. Because you will eat more than you meant to.

Waitrose Crisp & Savoury all butter Cheddar twists

Here's a cheese straw-style crispy crunchy snack from Waitrose.

Obviously shop-bought but very tasty and fabulously buttery in a great almost home-made way. Not obviously cheesy but without the cheese I imagine this crispy snack would be a little bit dull.

And they don't fall apart as soon as you bite into them. Because I am a bit prone to dropping crumbs down my front this is a great plus.

We bought these for a leaving party at work and the reluctant taste testers and I liked them a lot. I think the trustees did too.

The cheesy twists come in a silver baggie inside a cardboard box. Nothing fancy but very nice.

ROKA Cheese Puffs Gouda Cheese Onion & Garlic

Posh Cheese Puffs from the lovely people at ROKA in The Netherlands.

These Cheese Puffs are a sort of cheese straw with lots of layers of fine pastry. Not that I ever managed to make a cheese straw this good. They come in a plastic tray in a silver baggie in a cardboard box. When I opened the baggie there was an amazing aroma of onion and garlic. Just delicious. The cheese is more subtle but the whole effect is fabulous.

The plastic tray protects the puffs which are quite fragile, being made of lots of layers of fine pastry, and I have to say they all survived intact despite a journey through the post.

But you don't get all that many in a packet which is a shame.

You can see from the photograph that each Puff is perforated in the middle "twin bites: breakable in the middle for double fun" it says on the packet. If you break them in the middle you can pop each half into your mouth without biting into the fragile pastry, thus avoiding pastry crumbs all down the front of your smart frock. Or, in my case (quite often), all down my cleavage (if you haven't got a cleavage you won't know how tickly that can be). So a clever design feature.

I opened the packet and put the Puffs in a bowl to take a photograph and the Chef and I tried one each. And we thought, well, these are quite nice and the taste is great, but they are a little bit dry. Then the Chef suggested that perhaps a glass of champagne would be the ideal accompaniment. Which is odd because he hadn't seen the packaging which shows a party and a man about to pour from a bottle of champagne. It also shows a very lavish cake but I guess that's another story.

I covered the bowl carefully and determined to try again. When I got home from work next day I found the Chef had accidentally eaten nearly all the Cheese Puffs and had decided they were rather better he had originally thought. He's picky and would not have grazed like this on a sub-standard snack. And I think he's right. Even without that glass of champagne.

I have to admit that we failed to read the TIP! on the side of the packet to stick the Cheese Puffs in the oven at 200°C or 400℉ for 2½ minutes. Oh dear; 2½ minutes isn't long to wait. That'll teach me to read the packaging first and I'll definitely turn the oven on next time.

I haven't tried them with a glass of champagne either. There is a bottle in the fridge but I have a friend coming to stay in a week and that's waiting for her to arrive. So I guess we have to try another packet together. And no doubt the Chef would complain if we left him out.

Definitely a crispy snack to try again.