Snyder's of Hanover, Pretzel Pieces, Honey Mustard & Onion

I picked up this little packet of Pretzel Pieces in the local Turkish shop. They sell an interesting selection of crispy snacks.

I've got say Pretzel Pieces are not a prepossessing looking snack. I mean, bits of pretzel apparently hit with a large hammer.... Noble Friend thought she was looking at a bowlful of brazil nut pieces. Well, why not? But then she tried this snack. Oh my goodness! I never saw Noble Friend so excited. She loves this snack! She really really loves this snack. I had to rush to the shop and buy her two more packets. Well, it is on my way to work.

Dutch taste tester loved them too (an extra packet for her as well) and I guess I'm not that surprised. Because they are a bit like the Dutch Joppie Saus crisps that they both love so much. Texture of course completely different but they have the same sort of sweet mustardy, piccalilli-ish kind of flavour. It's not really my thing because I don't like mustard. Neither does History Graduate. But lots of the reluctant taste testers rally enjoyed this crispy snack.

Dutch taste tester was also interested to note that Snyder's are based in Charlotte North Carolina where some her her best friends live. Interesting. Maybe we could blackmail them into sending supplies?

I wrote about Snyder's of Hanover Pretzel Crisps before, in this same flavour but all I had to go on was an empty packet brought home from Madrid by Tall taste tester. We've also tried Pretzel Pieces in Hot Buffalo Wing flavour. Luckily I know that buffalo don't have wings and this is a chicken flavour snack. But really, unless you speak the language, how are you supposed to know?

Guess what though? Snyder's make lots of other flavours. So we plan to try them out.

Tyrrell's Sweet Chilli & Red Pepper

What a great fireman photo! Perhaps spending the entire budget on gold helmets was a mistake it says on the packet. Of course the photo is black and white so the gold helmets have to be taken on trust. The packet is a lovely dark red too.

And here's an interesting hand cooked English crisp. With ingredients I don't actually like. No - I'm not mad for chilli and I actively dislike peppers. But I masochistically bought this packet of crisps anyway.

And you know what? Not bad.

Lovely crisps with the skin left on, nice crunch, slightly hot (but not very) chilli taste. As so often I tried these out on the reluctant taste testers at work and we quite liked them.

Bit of a surprise really.

The packet advised us to extinguish [the heat] with a glass of iced tea. But I don't think we really needed to. Vegan friendly. I'm afraid the packet got a bit scrumpled.

Senior taste tester bought himself a packet at lunchtime the other day and set out a bowlful. Tall Elegant taste tester likes Sweet Chilli as a flavour a lot; I don't really. But check out the fabulous new packaging! It really is gorgeous. 

So on account of the fab new packaging I am reposting this crisp from February 2015 (2 years ago.... my goodness, so long ago, who knew?)

Little Guy Throwing His Rubbish Away Responsibly

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about how Walkers Crisps (the UK version of Lay's) have a load of different designs for the little guy that throws his rubbish away responsibly.

It's a charming habit. I imagine one of the packaging designers devotes a very small amount of his time to creating new little guys appropriate to the crisp or crispy snack, and voila! nerdy people like me to are delighted to discover a fresh design.

However, it is not confined to Walkers. Hippeas, we tried the Sweet & Smokin' flavour, have their own little guy. He is sporting a CND peace sign and making a V sign. Hippeas want you to know how cool their crispy snack is.

Then there's Kolak. This little guy comes from their Hot & Spicy Crisps Black Pepper Flavour. The design is a little basic but I like the heart.

Then there's this extremely well-dressed little guy from Metcalfe's popcorn. I'm not certain why he needs a top hat but he certainly is well-dressed.

Let's not ignore KP Skips. The reluctant taste testers and I tasted Tingly Prawn Cocktail and discovered this slam dunk guy. Not a super exciting design but they made an effort to change the generic little guy into something a bit more interesting than what you usually see.

And this one here from Willards is unusual in that there are 2 bit of rubbish not just one.

I will keep my eyes open for more examples of little guys throwing their rubbish away responsibly. Do let me know if you can point me in the direction of other examples. I am sure there must be others out there that I have yet to spot.

Golden Fluff Potato Flutes Original Flavour

Yesterday we tried barbecue flavour Potato Flutes, today original flavour. Which basically means it tastes of nothing very much at all.

But nothing very much in a wonderfully tasty way. Deliciously nothingy. I liked this crispy snack a lot. Very nice indeed.

The reluctant taste testers were happy to polish off this 14g (half an ounce) bag in no time at all.

I'd like to applaud Golden Fluff for their lovely potato flutes. It's a great crispy snack and should be used more often. I don't think we have a native version of this style of snack. Golden Fluff snacks are made in the USA.

Golden Fluff Potato Flutes Barbecue Flavour

I really like Golden Fluff potato flutes. They have a great texture and very nice bite. I wan't sure that the flavour would please me because as you know, I'm not usually mad about barbecue asa flavour. But I was quite impressed at the gentleness of the barbecue in this case.

Dutch taste tester said she thought there wasn't enough flavour! Well, we all know you can't please all of the people all of the time.

You can just spot the speckles of barbecue flavour flavour dust.

Zetov Super Snacks Wavers Wheat Snack Wild Onion

Hmm.... wild onion eh? And a wheat snack.

This square crispy snack reminds me of Shreddies breakfast cereal. You don't get the same checkerboard effect, more of a sort of corduroy stripe, and they are kind of wavy which Shreddies are not, but nonetheless, I did get quite a Shreddie vibe.

They taste, to me at any rate, of falafel. Onion flavoured falafel. Quite nice. But the bite is very dull which is not ideal. OK, but not super exciting and the reluctant taste testers didn't finish this little 40g bag.

Super Snacks, it says on the packaging, often imitated, never duplicated. A yummy treat that's good to eat. Yes well.

Made in Israel for a company based in Brooklyn, NY.

Manōmasa Chipotle & Lime

I'm so bored with chipotle sighed Dutch taste tester, and I didn't expect much myself as I don't usually care for crispy snacks made with lime. But. actually, I thought this combination or chipotle chile and lime wasn't at all bad. Pretty tasty in fact.

These tortilla chops are quite tasty. Very nice indeed. And despite my usual dislike of lime as a flavour (it tastes blue); I really did like this flavour. Although, having said that, I don't really get tortillas; the bite isn't right and then there's that odd floury texture.

Not all the reluctant taste testers were mad keen on this flavour. Giraffe Fan particularly told me she didn't fancy these crisps (tortillas). Got to say I was quite surprised because I had thought Giraffe Fan would rather like them.

Some of the reluctant taste testers thought these were rather good. Some didn't. So I guess you have to make up your own mind. And as always with Monomasa the packaging design is lovely.

Pret a Manger Maldon Sea Salt

Here's a packet of crisps that was bought at Luton Airport for a snack on the flight to Switzerland but not eaten and brought home again to London.

So we thought we had better eat them before they took to the road again.

A small packet of basic sea salted crisps. Good crunch, and a pale golden colour. We thought these were more lightly salted than salted but they were tasty. And they all got eaten - quite quickly.

Pleasant but not amazing.

The clever packaging design is simple but tells you everything you need to know.

The reluctant taste testers have got a bit fed up recently about the complicated flavour of so many modern crisps. So when Noble Friend was out and about the other day she picked up this packet of crisps from Pret à Manger. Which is why I am reposting this.

Malden Sea Salt. I love the taste of salt (I know, I know; we know it's a bad thing these days but hey! I was brought up in the 1960s sp give me a break) but Maldon salt is the tastiest. THE best salt. It comes from Essex and they have been collecting salt since 1882 (before my grandfather was born) and it really is fabulous. If you can find it give it a try. And although these crisps are not labelled "lightly" salted, it does seem that the taste is just right. Not too salty.

Well, the Chef and I had tried these crisps back in March 2015 and quite enjoyed them, but the reluctant taste testers had not. And? It's a lovely crisp, a little thicker than your basic crisp, and a beautiful taste of hand cooked potato with a fabulous lightly salted taste.

What could be better than that?

Once again we ask ourselves, are complicated crisp flavours what we are all looking for? Architectural taste tester, the most discerning of testers, thinks plain in best. Lots of the other taste testers think so too. So probably not. And this flavour? Lovely. Simple and tasty.

OK then. Come on crisp manufacturers, listen to the taste testers we all like the simple flavours best (the crisp makers won't read this - probably).

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?

Kettle Chips Limited Edition Hand Cooked Baked Camembert & Oak Smoked Garlic

Oh dear. I really don't like this packaging. Although I suppose it is kind of camembert  colour so I can see why Mr Kettle chose it.

I don't find it very appealing. But I must admit that the gold detailing is rather grand, and the dark red strip has a very smart self-coloured pattern. Which shows up almost better in the scan than it does in real life but only on the red. The dark cream (which is darker in life than the scan shows) also has a self pattern which doesn't show up in the scan at all. I don't know what to make of that.

Not sure about the flavour either. Was it Noble Friend who said it's just a fancy version of cheese and onion? Whoever it was was quite right.

I love camembert. I used to work for a man (sadly no longer with us) who was the proud owner of the smelliest camembert in the world. My goodness it smelled bad. So bad that his French wife wouldn't let him store it in the house. You would think a Frenchwoman would allow the cheese in the building. But no. The cheese lived in the garden shed and came into the kitchen at lunchtime. It smelled bad but wow did it taste good!

Not sure these crisps actually taste of camembert. Or oak smoked garlic. I think we're verging on the complicated flavour front. Not ideal.

And Dutch taste tester complained the crisps are too thick and the bite too hard and she prefers a lighter bite. I'm a bit surprised by this as she had such a professional crunch when taste testing. And it seems most of her friends would be surprised too. Apparently when Dutch taste tester and the Vinyl Collector give a party loads of people generously bring Kettle Chips with them.

Kettle Chips look a lot fancier than your basic Walkers or Smiths crisps both of which are a thinner crisp with a much lighter crunch. Trouble is, crisps from Walkers or Smiths look more everyday. Well... not like a present. Dutch taste tester likes a lighter bite. And maybe you do too?

And hang about; the packet says absolutely nothing artificial. Oh good. Because that rather implies that other Kettle Chips flavours might be made with plastic or polystyrene. I'm fairly sure they're not. In fact, looking at the list of ingredients they do all look fairly real. As far as dried roasted garlic (for example) can be real. Still. It does seem an odd thing to say.