Miss Vickie’s Sea Salt Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

Lightly sea salted, this crisp is a little bit thicker cut than some, but not too much. A very simple crisp. I ate the whole packet (only 38.9g) all at once. I tried to save some for the Chef, honest!, but accidentally ate the lot.

Made with love & care. And very nice too.

Some time ago we tried another Miss Vickie’s; sweet chilli and sour cream flavour, and quite enjoyed it.

Trader Joe’s Organic Kettle Style Potato Chips

Most unusually this packet of crisps sent by Instagram friend in her exciting parcel from Missouri (let’s call her Missouri Taste Tester), doesn’t have a flavour. In fact, if you read the back of the packet you can see they’re seasoned with just the right amount of sea salt. But it’s most unusual to find a crisp packet without the flavour front and centre.

To be extra kind, Missouri Taste Tester sent a Trader Joe’s brown paper bag too.  So here it is in the background. In fact I already have a Trader Joe’s bag, which is famed and hanging in our spare room. A form of recycling if you will.

I sent this packet of crisps to the office via my ex-colleague Noble Friend. Because of social distancing and the Rule of Six I can’t see most of the Reluctant Taste Testers IRL, but I value their opinions.The report is that these crisps have just the right crunch, and just the right amount of saltiness. So I think that’s a recommendation.

Old Vienna of St Louis Red Hot Riplets Hot Barbecue Flavored Ridged Potato Chips

Another exciting crisp in the parcel sent by Missouri Taste Tester. I had read about Old Vienna crisps in an online article, but never expected to try them.

This is a fabulously crinkle cut crisp with masses of rich red flavour dust. We’ve never had the opportunity to try St Louis Style Hot Sauce but it certainly imparts an impressive initial taste, and then a stunning afterburn or kick of heat. The Chef and Ski Instructor Taste Tester enjoyed a bowlful while discussing politics and found they had drunk a great deal more than usual (soft drinks thank you; it was tea time) to temper the heat.

This company produces hot sauce and seasoning as well as potato crisps, and popcorn, and also rather fascinatingly sells shower curtains! And T shirts, but you know, that’s not so exciting. I’m sure I could manage without a T shirt, but if I had a suitable bath I might be seriously tempted by the shower curtain. Check out the Instagram account for more tasty fun and games.

Coming soon: an even more super seasoned snack? Wow! How tasty can it be?

Personally I would spell it the Whole Shebang but never mind.

Tesco Mocha Peanut & Dark Chocolate Mix

This Tesco snack looked as though it might be rather a tasty packet of fancy peanuts and chocolate. It reminded the Chef and me of the fabulous KP Honey Roast Peanuts (sadly we think this is no longer available). But it’s nothing like so tasty.

For a start, I don’t much fancy chocolate coated peanuts. Nothing like so tasty as chocolate coated raisins or honeycomb. And then I really wasn’t taken with the chocolate cappuccino malt balls: I could manage without another ever again. And finally, there are far too many nasty little (sort of leftover) plain peanuts which if you ask me do not add to the experience.

Looks a glamorous tasty snack. Not sure it really is. Bit of a disappointment. On the other hand, the Chef absent mindedly ate almost the entire packet.

Cape Cod Kettle Chips Original

What a beautiful little crisp this is.

Each crisp is smaller than your average crisp but has just as much, or actually rather more of a crunch than you might expect. With the delightfully simple Original flavour (basically just salt) you get pretty much the perfect crisp. Lovely.

I’m really sorry that the Reluctant Taste Testers aren’t around to share this packet with me. Or perhaps I’m not around to share it with them. But there’s always the Chef and he says he quite likes them.

A kind American friend from Instagram, Missouri Taste Tester, sent me a parcel of crisps and this is the first we have tried. And never even bothered with a dip. Very nice.

As you see; no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, and no GMO. And 40% less fat than the leading brand of potato chips. I wonder who that is? Apparently the Cape Cod Chips Company is based in Hyannis Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. To be honest that’s a bit of a surprise. Silly me. I thought it was just some marketing strategy. When your hand’s in the bag, your head’s in the cape it says on their website. They have merch!

Carrefour Boules à la Tomate

I wasn’t at all sure about this crispy snack. I mean, it’s a maize puff with added peanut so it should be a bit like these Peanut Flips but it really isn’t. Because it has added extra tomato flavour. Is this a good idea? 

I’m not sure. I think this peanut and tomato combo is a little odd.

This crispy snack has a very off putting smell (more snacks do than you might suppose) and the taste is.... like bolognaise sauce with extra added lemon, or chocolate. I know! Weird eh? The bite is lovely and light but the flavour dust is a sinister dark red which doesn’t look too good on your fingers.

I think I probably won’t be finishing this packet. 

Copper Kettle Chips Sea Salt

 If you were reading my posts in early May you might remember I had been promised a packet of New Zealand crisps by the Chef’s Skiing Friend but they had been held up by the Spanish lockdown. Well, here they are!

Unfortunately this little packet of plain sea salted crisps went out of date at the end of April but the Chef and I thought they were pretty tasty anyway, and the crunch was still surprisingly good. Also they tasted good with a sour cream and chive dip, and without. Always a good test.

Copper Kettle Chips is a brand owned by New Zealand crisp company Bluebird Foods, which in turn is, of course, owned by the mega marketing monster that is PepsiCo. The potatoes for these crisps seem to have been grown in Pukekohe (one of New Zealand’s major spud growing areas), and processed by Vince’s Team. It’s hard to tell from the information on the packet whether Vince and his team harvested the potatoes or slow cooked [them] in small batches... to create the ultimate flavour and crunch.

Rather a small packet, only 40g, but obviously easier to post than anything larger, so we accidentally ate all these crisps before I got around to photographing them. But rest assured they look just like any other crisps you may have tried.

By the way, while researching this crisp, I learned that  2008 was The International Year of the Potato.

Dr Oetke Ancel Bretzels d’Alsace Mini

When I was about 5 or 6 we lived in Germany and used to drive to Bielefeld in North Rhine-Westfalia fairly often, and every time we saw the Dr Oetke factory. At the time I had no idea that Bielefeld was the headquarters of this giant baking, pudding and frozen pizza company. I also had no idea that there is a seriously strange conspiracy (dating from 1994, so long after we moved away) that claims Bielefeld does not exist. It seems the conspiracy stems from the fact that nobody ever goes to Bielefeld, or knows anyone who has been there. Well... I have been there and the 300,000 people who live there must be a bit baffled by the whole thing. It’s a bit odd.

The Chef and I found this little packet of French pretzels in Carrefour outside Reims. We weren’t at all sure about buying a Dr Oetke product but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. 

Twistez vous apéros avec ancel! says the packet. These mini pretzels have a good initial taste; well, you can’t go wrong with salt, and a good crunch, but an odd metallic aftertaste and indeed middle taste too. This product is made in Alsace, using French wheat, “cleverly sprinkled with salt” (although I don’t really know what’s so clever about that) and apparently has “an authentic taste”. These last two facts according to my-french-grocery.com. And “this irresistible crispness makes happiness of all” well you can’t say better than that can you?

But not as tasty as the pretzels we’ve tried from the Co-op recently.

Walkers Max Strong Hot Chicken Wings

Photo by Tech Taste Tester (stolen off Instagram)

Tech Taste Tester contacted me with news that he had just tried this crinkle cut crisp from Walkers. And he can confirm the taste is as hot as indicated on the packet. I am waiting for news on whether the taste is chickeny or not. It might not be. 

However, he points out that this is another crisp which suggests you pair it with beer. And therefore we think it qualifies as a “man crisp”. Tech Taste Tester, an actual man, deplores this. He says, in a swift Instagram message, “ladies do drink beer, but there’s a few too many other macho stereotypes and symbols used [on the packet]”. Why Walkers? Why do you do this? Does it really matter who enjoys this flavour? For goodness sake: it’s 2020 not 1975.

I looked in my local supermarket and discovered that both this Walkers Max flavour, and Jalapeño & Cheese, which the reluctant taste testers tried a couple of years ago, are on special this week. I wonder if they’re not very popular?

Co-op Qualité & Prix Snac! Bretzel Salés

Recently the Chef and I tried a small pretzel from the Co-op in Switzerland. It was very good indeed (especially impressive as I have a history of not really enjoying pretzels), but somehow we couldn’t get another packet so we thought we would try a packet of these instead.

Well, I don’t know why, but this version isn’t as nice as the first we tried. Slightly (only slightly) larger, with slightly fewer little chunks of salt (the best bit if you ask me), and a slightly doughier taste. It’s not bad but I suspect it’s the budget version. And not bio. But with a slightly more complex knotty design than the bio version. And it also comes in a much larger packet.

Quite nice. But not as nice as the first packet of pretzels we tried. The Chef agrees. Of course, these not being as nice as the bio pretzels doesn’t stop us eating them, especially with a bit of butter.