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'?

Lay's Saveur Giant

Saveur Giant??? Giant taste? Taste of what?

Well, I think what we have here is a double burger with cheese. A double burger with cheese flavour. That's what I get from the picture on the packet. Does everyone in France know that "giant" means a double burger with cheese? How can I possibly tell as I'm not from France.

Giant says the packet. Le burger cult. Venez vite le deguster. It's a cult burger, come and try it quickly. Perhaps before they run out? And you get a coupon on the back of the packet: buy one double burger with cheese, one drink, one (probably) large fries and get another double burger with cheese free. From Quick. Which is a French burger restaurant. I've seen it advertised on TV, but not seen a branch in real life.

And what do we think? Sorry. Not impressed.

Immediately from my point of view; why is this flavour made with celery? Regular readers will remember that I cannot tolerate celery. Lots of people can't. Not just me. I won't come out in a horrible rash or die in agony, but I will be very uncomfortable for maybe 12 hours after eating celery. And I do wonder what it contributes to an alleged cheeseburger taste. If, for example, I were creating a cheeseburger in the privacy of my own home I would use beef mince, sliced cheese, maybe tomato ketchup, maybe a little cornichon, perhaps some sweet mustard, but celery? No. And you know what? At home I never use a bun.

Anyway, the Chef and I were not impressed.

The aroma isn't right. The crunch is fine but the flavour is all wrong. Unless this is what a double cheeseburger from Quick actually tastes like. I bought this packet of crisps in the hope of a really good cheeseburger flavour (well, obviously) but this is disappointing.

Sorry Lay's but we really don't like this crisp. And sorry Quick, but this crisp does not encourage me to visit your restaurants.

I first tried a packet of cheeseburger flavour crisps in August 2013. And with all the changes they haven't got any tastier. 

Blair's Death Rain Ancho Chili Cheeseburger Cauldron Cooked Potato Chips

Wow! You weren't expecting a brand of crisps called Blair's Death Rain® were you? It sounds a little bit heavy metal and not what you were expecting from me.

Well, I have to tell you I was browsing the very dangerous Amazon.co.uk (you never know what you'll find yourself buying next...) and I came across these crisps from New Jersey. What to do? Obviously I had to order some and this is the first packet the reluctant taste testers and I tried.

Feel Alive! says the packet; and I think we kind of did.

These are Cauldron™Cooked Potato Chips containing no MSG and no trans fats. However, yes to kosher, and yes to heat and flavour. The creator, who signs himself Your ChiliPal is obviously mad about flavour and describes himself as a Passionate ChiliHead. He's determined that anyone who opens one of his bags of crisps is going to enjoy the contents. Open the bag already!!! Fun and passion await you!!!

Possibly too many exclamation marks going on here but I have to admit these crisps are rather fabulous. And there is a whole lot of taste.

Blair's American made spuds are the most flavorful and without question the hottest, most furious chips ever created on planet earth. So now you know.

Quite a hot chilli aroma from the packet; smallish, rather dark crisps, very nice crunch and a hand cooked look to the crisps; and a great taste. The more you eat, the hotter they get - even though these are only described as medium hot. And a fabulous taste of cheeseburger too.

Most of the reluctant taste testers liked these a lot although noble friend wasn't mad keen. I have to say they were a bit hot for my delicate taste buds (which obviously I have insured for a vast sum) but I still thought this a great crisp.

Check out Blair's Death Rain snacks and sauces here. They've got a heat meter and everything.

Lay's Saveur Cheeseburger Max Craquantes

Most people who know me will tell you I'm a very fussy eater. And that's true. But I do like to try something new now and then. Especially interesting new flavours of crisp (chips or potato chips to you maybe) or chocolate. It's a tiny micro adventure on the cheap. So when I spotted Lay's Max Craquantes (very crunchy) Saveur Cheeseburger Chips in the service station somewhere in France I just had to buy a packet.

The Chef and I already tried Lay's Spaghetti Bolognaise Chips and they are amazingly spaghetti bolgnaisey. Who knew the French ate the same sort of spag bol as we do in the UK? Or maybe I should ask who knew the French ate the same sort of spag bol as cooked in one North London kitchen? The Italians certainly don't; and I'm sure any self respecting Italian would be baffled by those crisps and proabably my recipe too. But weirdly the development team at Lay's seem to have used my mother's 1960s recipe to create quite a tasty crisp.

But back to the Cheeseburger flavour. Wow! Just exactly like a MacCheeseburger including the cheese, the mustard and the slice of pickle nobody eats.

We don't eat out very much in London, but if we do go out to the pub or to the place that fancies itself a New York deli, I am quite likely to have a burger; there is usually one on the menu and thank goodness for that because I won't eat fish and I don't fancy the (currently) ubiquitous pork belly. Naturally none of these burgers, with cheese or no, is anything like the McDonald's cheeseburger and seriously, when did I last eat at McDonald's anyway?

Memory is a very strange thing and taste is a great trigger for memories. I was really surprised how strongly these crisps reminded me of the MacCheeseburger. If you like them, I expect you'll enjoy these crisps. If you're not a McDonald's fan go for the Spaghetti Bolognaise instead.

Unfortunately much of my excitement at this fascinating crisp was crushed when I discovered that Lay's is not a French company at all but, you've guessed, based in Nashville or somewhere, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of PepsiCo. Damn!

But I stand by my initial thought which is that these crisps have a very impressive cheeseburgery taste and despite looking hard I can't find them on the Frito-Lay website. So maybe this is a French flavour after all. I can't find the Spaghetti Bolognaise flavour either. So you never know.