Carrefour Gaufrettes aux Fromages (squares)

I thought this own brand wafer aperitif snack was delicious. I really liked the cheesiness and the light crispy crunch.

Imagine my surprise when the reluctant taste testers couldn’t bring themselves to like it. The trouble is, that we have historically enjoyed sweet wafers in this country. Strawberry or vanilla flavour, often a treat at children’ parties. So, when served a pile of little wafers, the taste testers were totally unprepared for the cheesy flavour. And took against this crispy snack. (Yes, see Carrefour Gaufrettes Croque Monsieur for a weirdly similar reaction)

Goodness knows why. I mean, I have offered them all sorts of crazy flavours in the past. But in crisp form. Maybe it’s Ok to have weird crisps but not weird wafers. Although I wouldn’t call cheese weird it certainly isn’t the same as strawberry.

I wonder, are French children brought up on pink strawberry flavour wafers? If so, how do they overcome their expectations?

Don’t pay any attention to the reluctant taste testers.

Supermarket own brand of course, but none the worse for that.

Smiths Bugles Nacho Cheese

We can't quite remember where we got this crispy snack made by Smiths in The Netherlands. Probably it came from a motorway service station in Northern France. But we can't be sure.

When I took these out of my bag this morning Dutch taste tester practically shouted "my favourite!" which was a pretty good response. And extremely picky tester was thrilled because they are just like the crispy snack she learned to love (and eat far too many of by the sound of things) in Thailand. Pretty much everyone in the office liked them a lot and, augmented by maternity leave tester who was back for a catch up day, we noshed down two large bowlsful.

So what have we got? Well, according to the ingredients (listed in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, German and Finnish) this is a crispy maize snack flavoured with cheese. I'm not going any further than that because I don't speak any Nordic languages. Except of course it's always fascinating to discover things like the Finnish for carbohydrate is hiilihydraatteja. Who wouldn't want to know that?

These little trumpet shaped snacks are a favourite in the Netherlands I gather. And we have tried a French version from Bénénuts, and an Italian version from San Carlo but I don't remember seeing a British bugle. Or trumpet. I wonder why not?

A very cheesy aroma wafts from the bag, the bugles taste pretty cheesy and there is a satisfying crunch. Probably everyone will hate me but I feel there is a dull slightly mushroomy after taste. So I didn't enjoy them as much as I might have.

Having said that, everyone liked these a lot and I only kept a few to take home to the Chef.

Vico Crazy Craq Strong Cheese

The Chef spotted these at a French motorway service station, and although he doesn't actually read this blog that often (I know! How annoying is that?) he didn't remember us trying them. And he was right. We hadn't.

The squirly shape of this cheesy snack made them easy to remember; or perhaps I ought to say, to not remember. Which he didn't.

We have essayed a few Vico products before but none, I think, named in Franglais. This twisty crispy snack is not in fact called Crazy Craq Strong Cheese, but Crazy Craq Strong Cheese** (and then in very tiny writing down on the corner of the packet just in case you couldn't work out what that meant) **Fromage Intense. We are left to work out for ourselves what Crazy Craq is supposed to mean. That's very crunchy to you.

Un max de CRAQUANT says the packet. Un max de goût FROMAGE. Un snack totalement VRILLÉ. Basically, great crunch, great cheesy taste, and a totally twisty snack. And that is indeed pretty much want you get.

We've tried twisty snacks before but none with such a good crunch. Techie taste tester was particularly impressed. Like me he'd taken a quick look and decided this cheesy snack would have a soft foamy crunch. But not a bit of it. There's a great crunch going on here.

And a great cheesy taste too. Yum. Probably frightfully bad for me but definitely yum.

The creepy little guy at the top of the packet is Professeur Vico. He advocates "Vicothérapie". Which seems to consist in eating Vico products. Well, he would wouldn't he?

Bénénuts 3D's Bugles Goût Fromage

Another thoughtful present from the Chef's kind daughter and son-in-law. From a French motorway service station. Again. Of course. They have great shops and you never know what you're going to find.

Bugle-shaped (so genuinely 3D). Tasting a bit cheesy. From France.

Nice cheesy aroma on opening the packet. Nice crunch, and a pleasant light cheesy (not a recognisable cheese obviously) taste. The shape works really well and the crunch is very good.

But here's weird: the aftertaste is sort of mushroomy. Which is a bit strange. And it wasn't just me. Several of the reluctant taste testers reported that they felt just as I did. Which, well, is a bit odd.

And you can kind of tell from what I have written already: this maize-based crispy snack is nice. Nice, but nothing fantastic. Although the shape and crunch do work well.

Bénénuts is owned by Pepsico France. But then they own so much.

And while I am writing about crisps (because, you know, that's something I hardly ever do) here's a link to something fun I picked up on recently. Star Wars crisps. Yes, you read that right: STAR WARS CRISPS. If you are a Star Wars fan click on the link.

Sadly these crisps aren't real. At least, I doubt they are. My goodness: if you ever see a packet I shall be staggered and expect you to send me a sample!

These faux crisps have been around for a while but I thought I would draw them to your attention in case you might be interested. A fun idea. And why hasn't a major crisp manufacturer picked up on this and pitched it to Lucas Films?

ROKA Cracker Snack

Cracker Snacks & Dip

Another little box of crispy snacks sent to me by the lovely people at ROKA in the Netherlands.

Oh dear. I feel really mean but we weren't awfully impressed.

Cracker Snacks are small square biscuits or crackers made with linseed, sesame seed, sunflower seed and oat flakes. According to the packaging there is 18% Gouda cheese in the mix too. You can see the cheese on the top, but you don't get a lot of cheesy taste - except there is a pretty good cheesy aftertaste.

These little crackers are not at all nasty. Let's get that absolutely straight. But they don't seem terribly exciting either. I must admit that I didn't try them in all the ways suggested by the packaging: to accompany my soup! (no), with pre-dinner drinks! (no), for decorating with my favourite toppings (no), as a tasty bite! (yes), for barbeques & picnics (no), and for snacking and dipping (yes - yes, I tried that). Yes, we tried snacking with a dip.

And what I got, what the reluctant taste testers at work got, was an overwhelming sensation of healthiness. These crispy crackers have quite a hard crunch and they do taste awfully healthy. I expect it's all the seeds.

I read, for example, that linseeds may help with heart disease, arthritis, PMS, and feeling calmer in times of stress. And if I'm not mistaken I remember a long ago plot from The Archers (for non UK readers it's a very long-running BBC Radio 4 soap: an everyday story of farming folk) where a character suffering terrible menopausal symptoms baked herself a cake full of linseeds and other healthy stuff, but half of the cake was eaten (ha ha ha!) by a greedy and dreadful old man called Joe Grundy (ho ho ho!) and wasn't he upset when he discovered what he'd eaten?

Well, well, perhaps these would be more fun if I'd spread hummus on them, or slices of cheese or I don't know what. I did provide a dip for the reluctant taste testers but although it helped, we were still left with that sensation of healthiness. And I'm sorry to say they are not (as advertised on the packet) irresistible.

Jacob's Treeselets

Oh yes! Jacob's fabulous Cheeselets now come in tree form. Of course they do.

And they're called Treeselets. Obviously.

I've written about Cheeselets before of course, and they are one of my very favourite cheesy snacks. You can read about them here if you like, because, you know, I'm not going to repeat what I said about these terrific little cheesy biscuits in September 2013.

But hey! Now they come in the shape of a Christmas tree.

Can't decide if the Christmas tree form is a little bit brilliant or a little bit sad. Still ultra tasty though.

For scale, this little tree is sitting on the smallest size of post-it: 38 x 51mm. And I thought it would be appropriate to photograph the tub in front of my tree books.

I guess this is a Christmas 2014 special. We'll see if they appear again in the future. 

Essential Waitrose Cheese Puffs

Another variation on the ever popular cheesy puff; much delicious extruded maize goodness. Yes, I know, these kinds of snacks are 100% pretence food but I find them irresistible.

Actually, I bought these by mistake for a friend. I say by mistake because I failed to notice that these stunningly good crispy snacks are made with wheat flour (who knows why) and I should have bought the M&S version (also sublime, in fact possibly even better) which is not made with wheat. And disappointed friend cannot eat wheat so I ate them myself.

Really good!

I recently reviewed the original (in this country anyway) cheese puff; the cheesy wotsit. Not terribly impressed as you can read for yourself if you wish. And until now my favourite cheesy puff was the M&S Full on Flavour version. But I think the essential Waitrose version is a pretty good contender.

Nice light crunch - as it should be, good bubbly texture, lots of tasty flavour dust but not to the extent of turning your fingers orange. And a lovely cheesy taste with a slight citrusy note which lifts the taste. As I said: really good.

I don't know if these are baked or fried as the packaging doesn't tell me. Whatever Mr Waitrose or his suppliers are doing it's definitely the right thing.

Suitable for vegetarians. No artificial colours or flavourings.
The packaging is nothing exciting but this is the essential range from Waitrose.

KP Cheese Footballs

Oh wow! It's Cheese Football time of year again. 

They are sort of wonderful and sort of the last thing you ought to be eating all at the same time. And I can't help loving them. Yum yum yum.

OK, so if you never tried a Cheese Football think two semi-spherical half-football-shaped wafer outsides with a squishy salty fake cheese filling. It's a completely pretence food made of 100% not actually cheese at all. Just delicious!

Of course, one of the great things about Cheese Footballs is that you only get them at Christmas. So you get to look forward to them. Like looking forward to real English-grown strawberries in the summer. If Cheese Footballs were available all year round I probably wouldn't buy them. Yes, I know it's me being contrary again.

What do they actually taste like? Hard to say. The outer shell is a sort of wafer which doesn't taste of much, it's just there to hold the cheese in. And to pretend to look like a football I suppose. And the inner cheesy bit is a sort of cream-coloured salty cheesy mush. And quite sweet. Sounds horrible doesn't it? And yet... and yet, I find them hard to resist. At least once a year.

The trick is to bite off one half of wafer shell and eat that, then bite off the second half of the shell so you're left with the squidgy cheesy bit. And then you let that dissolve in your mouth. Or you can just eat them like a normal person would.

Because Cheese Footballs come in a drum I can't shove the packaging into the scanner so here it is on a bookshelf. The packaging says "the winning snack at home or away". Is this a snack you would take to a football match? I shouldn't think so. We also have two dreadful riddles:

Q What does Santa do when elves misbehave? A Give them the sack.

Q What do you sing at a snowman's birthday party? A Freeze a jolly good fellow. 

Probably best not to comment. Cheese Footballs were originally made by Huntley & Palmer and I have to admit I thought they were currently made by Jacobs but since many confusing mergers and a takeover by German snack conglomerate Intersnack they seem to come under the KP brand name these days.

Important Information 2 January 2022

I contacted KP at the end of December 2021. The Customer Services Team kindly replied almost immediately to tell me, and I am passing on the information to you lot, that this fabulous crispy snack is sent out to “most supermarkets” in mid September. So the advice is, if you find a shop with a stock of them, buy lots and eke them out. Because they have a 12 month shelf life you can safely keep a supply in the cupboard under the stairs. Or like me just gorge to your heart’s content over Christmas. And this Christmas I was given 2 tubs by 2 different family members! What could be better than that? (Because I don’t really like chocolate that much).

Just to add, I’m not sure what “most supermarkets” actually means. I haven’t seen Cheese Footballs in any of our local Waitrose branches for years, and my spies tell me that the smaller local Tesco stocks them, but the very large branch doesn’t seem to. And at least one branch of Sainsbury’s had them in December. So obviously you need to shop around….from mid September. Good luck next year.

October 2022: I followed my own advice and just picked up 5 tubs of Cheese Footballs from a giant branch of Tesco. But beware - there were four huge shelves of crisps and none of them were Cheese Footballs. We were super disappointed but kept looking and found what we were looking for on a completely different shelf some distance away. So keep looking.

M&S Guilt Free Snacking Cheese Puffs

I don't know how you make this surprisingly tasty triangular cheesy snack out of potatoes but that'swhat it says on the pack. I guess you have to visit the factory (weirdly in Greece) to find out. And considering that the cheese in question is the delicious but mild Gouda from Holland it's interesting that they they taste so genuinely cheesy. In fact they taste more of cheese than most cheesy crispy snacks which tend to taste of how you think cheese might taste or ought to taste rather than how cheese actually does taste.

Confusing I know, but I have never come across cheese that tastes (for example) like Cheesy Wotsits or Quavers (both from Walkers). Which are great. And tasty. And I love them. But I don't eat any cheese that tastes like that.

However, I do eat cheese that tastes like this. I love Dutch cheese and I'm pretty sure I remember being taken to the traditional cheese fair at Alkmaar 40km North of Amsterdam when I was about six. I don't remember the place at all but I do just remember the cheese fair. Brilliant. Men in white with big hats carrying loads of cheeses on special cheese-carrying devices and piles of cheese all over the Square. Lucky thing Dutch cheeses come covered in wax.

© i-love-holland.com

So although the Alkmaar fair does not include Gouda (only locally made cheeses) I am sure you will be interested to know that they have a Cheese Museum, and a Cheese Market Magazine, and Alkmaar is well worth a visit.

Anyway, these cheesy snacks are shiny tasty triangular pillows. And the shininess makes them quite slippery and hard to pick up. You have to grab on to two corners or they slip from your fingers.

The thing they remind me of most is Oat Pillows from Quaker Oats. A great cereal I used to love but because they were pillow-shaped you don't get too many in a box and eventually my mother complained they were too expensive and wouldn't buy them for my any more. All many many years ago now. I think the cereal I remember is the same as Oat Pillows - if not it was very very similar.

© qrz.com (he's a radio ham called Jan who lives in Alkmaar)

And now for the science bit: 100 calories per 22g pack (they come in multi-packs), no artificial colours or flavourings, suitable for vegetarians.

And the personal bit: I really like them. But stupidly I ate a whole multi-pack without taking a photograph of these crazy triangles. So next time I buy a bag I'll have to remember to add a photo. The packaging shows the shape absolutely, but the cartoon hand is far too small! OK - see below for photo.

And this is the 2015 packet. A bit different from 2 years ago.

McVitie's Mini Cheddars

I bought several multi packs of mini Cheddars for Halloween. It's hard to resist a BOGOF and to be honest, the bags of mixed chocolate bars were very expensive - and not very full.

So in rapid succession I have tried Original, Cheese and Onion, and BBQ flavours.

Regular size Cheddars come in a packet like digestive biscuits or rich tea and are often broken at the edges or crumbled into bits. Mini Cheddars seem to be the same thickness (or thinness - why is it always thickness?) but because they are smaller in diameter they seem less prone to breakages. Not that a broken Cheddar tastes any better or worse than a whole one, but this way you get fewer crumbs. Better for eating in bed then, and that's got to be a plus.

The Original flavour mini Cheddars, oven baked, no artificial colours or flavours, and made with real cheese have the same taste as the big ones. The bite sized snack with the big cheese taste it says on the back. Actually it says this on all three flavours. But they aren't really that cheesy. In fact, I'm finding that with lots of allegedly cheesy snacks; they don't actually taste that much of cheese. It's a mystery.

Cheese and Onion flavour are really oniony. There's a good lot of cheese in the flavour too but the onion is the star. I liked these a lot but then wondered if I was breathing onion over everyone in the office all afternoon.

I think the cheese and onion combination here works a lot better than in many cheese and onion crisps which is interesting.

The BBQ flavour I tried with extreme caution because the last BBQ flavour snack I tried was just disgusting. In fact downright horrible. So I carried this little bag to and fro to work for over a week before I dared open it!

And impressively there didn't seem to be too many breakages. I think the mini size works well.

But these crunchy biscuity snacks have a delicate BBQ taste along with a good lump of cheese flavour. So quite nice. And Ruth liked the taste too. To my surprise I think I like these the best.


Quite a good combination of flavours for a multi pack. Not bad. But perhaps a little old fashioned.