Salty Dog Sea Salt & Malt Vinegar

Me, me, me, me, me! Nobody wants to read about me or what I think. Or so I keep reading on all the "how to write a blog" pages. Every so often I go looking for some technical help, and there are some amazingly helpful bloggers out there supplying answers to all sorts of questions, but somehow all too often there's a bit about how nobody wants to read about me and my views.

That's a little bit sad isn't it? Especially as all the blogs I read regularly are personal views from real people about their real lives and real interests. And that's what makes what they write and the photos they post so interesting. The world might be a better place if we all read the thoughts of grannies from Yorkshire or wild flower fans from the Pacific North West ("categories chosen at random" pronounced in those portentous tones you hear in TV commercials).

Anyhow, I can't see how I could possibly review any packet of crisps (or crispy snack) without including my personal thoughts. Or those of the Chef (if available) or the reluctant taste testers (ditto).

And so here we have my thoughts on another variant on salt & vinegar.

Oh boy! Salty Dog say their crisps bite back; and I think these really do. This is salt & vinegar in the grand tradition. And the traditional tradition of salt & vinegar. Grrr.

Or perhaps not Grrr but Woof!

Um, these crisps have a great salt & vinegar aroma, skin left on for added taste, terrific crunch, nice colour...but I can't help feeling this is quite an old fashioned taste.

So if you are a big fan of the traditional style salt & vinegar crisp these are definitely for you. And very nice too. But, if like me, you prefer a more subtle taste then perhaps you won't like them so much.

But that's OK. Because if we were all the same life would be dreadfully dull don't you think?

Boxerchips Salty Malty Vinegar

It seems a little harsh to try these salt and vinegar crisps so soon after the wonderful version by Pipers Crisp Co which we tried the other day, but every crispy snack must stand on its own merits.

Boxerchips say the fact - best damn potato chips in the world; the fiction - our crisps are a made from Farmers' Hats. Which, let's be honest, is a slightly strange thing to say. But they say other strange things on their website which also tells you all sorts of things about Boxerchips that you may find amusing, and there's "ye olde blog" disguised as latest news. You can even find out about spud juggling. In New Zealand of all places!

Anyway, back to the crisps. Which I bought on my Easyjet flight to Geneva. Still not seen them anywhere else, but perhaps I have had such ready access to other exciting crisps that I haven't really looked.

Quite nice. Good colour, quite a hard crunch, not too harsh a taste of vinegar (which we know can be a problem) and good and salty. But these crisps are a bit sweet. Not sugary but mysteriously remaining me of golden syrup. Could this be an "oh, so it's only me then" moment?

Remember, these are the crisps that come in a strange oblong cardboard box which you open up to get at the crisps. I had a lot of difficulty last year battling my way into the packet but maybe that packaging was defective. At any rate, this time it was quite easy to open the box and create a little cardboard serving dish from which to carry out my taste testing.

I think I liked the Boxerchips Savagely Salted better though.

Update on Boxerchips: by chance we went to Globus in Bern which is a large department store with a great food section in the basement. And guess what? They sell Boxerchips. Well, they do in March 2015. I was busy buying crisps I'd not seen before so I didn't look too carefully, but in case you are looking for Boxerchips you could try here. Quite close to the main railway station. Probably hard to miss this huge store.