Ardens Twists Gruyère & Spinach

According to the back of the packet, the people at Ardens found a similar crispy snack on a trip to Switzerland; possibly Gruyère, which after all was a place before it became a cheese. There's a socking great castle for a start and I have long wanted to visit it. But do take care when looking for it online. I searched Gruyère and got images of the Château de Gruyère ✅, Schloss Thun❎, the Château de Chillon❎, and a bridge in Lucerne❌. At least the first three are castles.

These are quite big, quite twisty twists, not too chunky, quite crispy and with an intriguing ribbon of green in the twist. That'll be the spinach then.

And I was pleased to see that although there were a few breakages most of the twists were still as long as the makers intended. I know it affects the taste not at all, but any snack works better without too many broken bits.

The Chef and I tried a few. We both thought they tasted a little green (which isn't nasty but isn't a top compliment) so I took most of the packet in to work for the reluctant taste testers to try. A great success! The reluctant taste testers liked them much more than I did and the bowlful didn't last long. Which just goes to show you shouldn't necessarily rely on one person's opinion.

Tall taste tester snagged another twist as he walked past, "Nice," he said briefly.

Ardens Twists Tomato & Basil

Tall Elegant taste tester won this packet of sort-of cheese straws in the Christmas raffle but brought them back into the office because she wasn't sure she'd like them. I don't know why. I thought they looked really tasty and was quite jealous.

But lucky for me I got to taste them anyway. And they really are rather good. Well, I thought so.

But. But take a look a the packaging design. This is a prime example of the product looking nothing at all like the pack shot. You could probably do Ardens for misrepresentation. These puff pastry twists look nothing at all like the large cheese straws shown on the packet.... maybe a little bit like. But not much.

It's hard to tell from my photograph but these twists are a lot thinner and narrower than shown on the packet. I thought it would show up better. Less beautifully twisted too. But of course that affects the flavour not at all.

This crispy snack comes in a little silver baggie inside a cardboard box. You'd think the box would protect the product but I thought there were far too many breakages. That's a shame. The photograph shows the first twists that came out of  the baggie. The second helping was a lot more broken.

As I said, I thought this crispy snack was rather good, but I'm not sure that Ardens are fully behind their product. The packet suggests their twists are stupendous with soup, lush with dips, heavenly warmed, divine at wine time, fun with friends (all ticked) or just straight out of the box. Hmnn. It almost seems they aren't quite sure we will enjoy their product.

Apparently this is a product Ardens discovered in Switzerland. I wonder if it was the Zweifel Flȗtes à l'Ancienne Fromage?

M&S Full on Flavour Salt & Vinegar Twists

I've been walking past these twisty snacks in Marks and Spencer for months. Possibly years. And I finally decided I might given them a chance to be better than I thought they would be. And you know what? They were right and I was wrong.

I'm always a little bit cautious about salt and vinegar. It can be a terribly harsh flavour, even to the point of taking the skin off the roof of your mouth. But these are quite mild. Very tasty in fact. Sort of... just right.

Nice smooth texture, not a lot of flavour dust. Very easy to eat a lot more than you thought you were going to.

And then, they do look just like pasta twists or fusilli for all you Italian speakers out there. I don't know about you, but when I cook pasta twists I always end up with the edges just right and the core of the twist still not quite cooked enough. So I never buy fusilli any more, and that's why I walked past these crispy snacks for so long.

However, these work just fine. Somehow the core of the twist has just the same crunch as the edges. Pretty clever, eh?

Suitable for vegetarians and vegans. No artificial colours or flavourings and no MSG. But you can't recycle the metallic blue and silver packaging.

The blue and silver really reminds me of one of my late 1960s Barbie's best outfits called Zokko #1820. And huge thanks to the Fashion Doll Guide which has posted a great photo of the exact outfit I am thinking of. A little disco dress with silver knitted top and metallic blue skirt, and a silver belt with orange stripe. It came with silver boots. How space age and modern Barbie was in 1969. Amazing.

I still have all my Barbie outfits (and my Barbie too), although all packed away just now. And in storage so I can't get at it to photograph the dress, or check to see if I still have the all important matching orange earrings. I expect it came with an orange coathanger too; everything came with a coathanger. But I am fascinated to see how much I could sell all the bits for. If I wanted to.

Back to the crispy snack. Pretty good.