Cheetos Cheese

This packet of Cheetos Cheese came from the world foods section at Tesco. I wasn't sure at first glance whether it was a world food from Ireland or Poland. I mean, at first glance you see Cheetos Cheese, Big Bag, and Hotel Transylvania 2. And this was on the shelf between the Polish and Irish products.

However, on closer inspection, you see w kinach od 9 pazdziernika which, however odd you may find the Irish language, is patently not Irish.

So, here we have a packet of Cheetos from Frito-Lay Poland and imported into the UK by a firm based in Wokingham.

These Cheetos look pretty much how I would expect them to look. And they do taste pretty good with a wonderful light crunch. But I'm not impressed that they are a bit dry. You might say, well all crispy snacks are dry aren't they? Yes, of course. But somehow I felt the after-mouth (if that's a word), and it's not to do with the taste, is a bit dry.

It's also worth pointing out that according to the English language sticky label on the back of the packet there is no actual cheese in the recipe. There is "cheese flavour seasoning" but it contains no cheese. There is monosodium glutamate, disodium gaunylate, and disodium inosinate. Which sounds entirely too much sodium to me. There is milk and whey powder though; which may account for the interesting buttery taste.

It's odd. The packet says cheese so when you crunch in you think you taste cheese. But if you concentrate it's obvious that the taste is in fact butter. Not nasty at all just not what I was expecting.

The Chef, somewhat unhelpfully, says this crispy snack reminds him of something but he can't think what. But he did eat a few and not under duress.

I'm not sure if this packet was issued purely to advertise Hotel Transylvania 2, or as a Halloween tie in. So I thought I'd post them today.

Happy Halloween crisp fans.

PS There's a competition to visit Sony Pictures Animation Studio which (I think) runs until 16 November. So still time to enter if you fancy battling with www.cheetos.pl.

M&S Vampire's Fangs Salt & Vinegar

This is the 2015 Halloween offering from Marks & Spencer. Corn grits extruded and puffed into Vampire Fangs are a departure from last year's scorpion shapes. And the toothy shape is pretty good. One of the taste testers mistook them for false teeth and was quite put off.

 The crunch is not so light as it should be; it's rather dull and heavy. So all in all not a massive success there. But the salt & vinegar taste is not too strong and the reluctant taste testers and I found that we ate a few more than we meant to.

But after all, this is a snack for Halloween only.

The packaging is actually a much brighter, lighter orange than shown here. So this is yet another example of the scanner doing weird things with colour. But the ravens and the bats and the skulls and the (presumably haunted) house show up pretty well.

Happy Halloween!

Globus Tortilla Chips au Chili

When we were in Bern in the spring I picked up this packet of crisps from the Food Hall at the big department store Globus. It wasn't so much that I thought these tortilla chips would be fabulous, more that they were the only Swiss crisps on offer.

Only, they aren't Swiss at all. Globus, based in Zurich, have their tortilla chips made in The Netherlands.

So finally I have dredged these crisps out of my basket of goodies because it's about time we tried them. Don't worry. They aren't months past their sell by date so we won't die a horrible death. Or not on account of this crispy snack.

I am really very impressed at the chilli taste of these tortilla chips. You won't be surprised to learn that I'm not mad about chillies. But that doesn't stop me being impressed at this taste. It's absolutely right.

According to the Blogger search function, over the last 3 years or so we have tried 42 different crisps and crispy snacks featuring chilli. And this is the first to taste like a fresh chilli. Remarkable.

Aside from the remarkable taste this is an ordinary tortilla chip: triangular, orange and crunchy.  The Chef and I tried them with a selection of dips from Waitrose: onion & garlic, pecorino & basil, and sour cream & chive. All of them worked very well and I think we were pretty happy with our taste test.

The packaging is clear with a very small Globus label so I'm going to show the paper carrier bag we got from the Food Hall instead.

Joe & Seph's Crisp Gin & Tonic Popcorn

In order to celebrate the joint birthdays (same day, slightly different year) of noble friend and the tall elegant taste tester, I thought I'd provide a treat. Much anticipated by some, Joe & Seph's Gin & Tonic flavour popcorn had been sitting in my basket of crispy snacks. Waiting for a suitable opportunity.

Oh dear. What a disappointment.

Joe & Seph describe this as "the finest air popped corn coated with our classic caramel, infused with 5% gin & 5% tonic".

I am sorry to have to report that none of us liked it.

Popcorn should be light and airy. OK, I understand that caramel coated corn is chewier than your basic butter or salted popcorn, but this was soggy and soft. I checked the packaging and I'm pretty sure no air was getting in, and the sell by date is next year. So there can be no excuse for sogginess. Unless that's what you get when you add gin to the recipe.

There is a faint taste of juniper or quinine or possibly both, but really and truly the reluctant taste testers and I felt this product doesn't really work.

It smells a bit weird too; it gets right into your sinuses.

Sorry Joe & Seph; we were not impressed.

Fiddler's Lancashire Crisps Black Pudding & English Mustard

All my life I have studiously avoided eating black pudding.

It's on the list of things I really can't bring myself to fancy; pork belly, pig or beef cheek, tripe (once tried never forgotten), hot cooked tongue (cold pressed tongue is quite a different matter), ox tail (a speciality of an old boyfriend's mother - oh dear), and cod throats (seriously?? how do you cook a throat?). Of course there are many other thing I won't eat, but I don't want you to get bored.

So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I opened this packet of crisps.

First thought: it's a beautifully designed packet. Lovely grey and yellow combination. Very swish. Whoever it is designs the packaging for Fiddler's has done a top job.

Second thought: the most obvious taste is mustard. Now it's not that I won't eat mustard, I quite like the kind that comes with mustard seeds and honey, but all too often I find it an overpowering addition to a recipe.

The mustard was not overpowering in this flavour but it did mean that I was not particularly keen. However, the rest of the reluctant taste testers, once they had overcome their anxiety about the black pudding, seemed to quite like this flavour.

I say quite like because we felt it doesn't meet the supremely high standard of the Creamy Lancashire Cheese flavour. Which is just superb.

Levi Roots Levi's Caribbean Chilli Beef Groove Cut Crisps

Sometimes you try a crisp and you aren't sure, so you try another. Sometimes you try another and you still aren't sure. Yes, the reluctant taste testers and I weren't sure.

We weren't sure why this crinkle cut - sorry - groove cut crisp doesn't seem to taste of much except sort of spicy heat. The beef flavour doesn't feature much. Which is a shame.

These groove cut crisps are quite nice. But not very special. I think I rather prefer the Reggae Reggae crisps the Chef and I tried last year.

I wonder, should Levi Roots have stuck with that?

Walkers Deep Ridged Salt & Malt Vinegar

When the reluctant taste testers and I first tried this deeply ridged crinkle cut crisp we thought the taste was very strong. Maybe too strong. So then we tried another small crisp, a small bit of broken crisp. You know, just to check.

And then, well it wasn't just me because noble friend certainly did the same (I saw her), we had another, and possibly even another crisp.

Because, yes, this is an old fashioned strongly tasting salt & vinegar crisp. But really it's a very moreish crisp. Very tasty indeed. Positively addictive in its moreishness. Impressive.

Pretty good crunch, not too hard, lovely deep crinkle and lots of tasty flavour dust.

OK so this is probably not going to be the most favourite salt & vinegar crisp that the reluctant taste testers and I have attempted. However, we can reveal that it is pretty good. And you won't be able to stop eating until the packet is finished.

Truly, you can't say much better than that.

M&S Wasabi Popcorn

Do you know, I completely forgot to write up this popcorn. Yes, I scanned the packet, and yes, I started a post. But did I write anything? Apparently not. Can I remember anything about it? No.

So I am posting this simply because of the packaging. I always liked the Summer of Flavour logo but somehow the design of this bag looks strangely out of date. Even though it is only a year old.

As this was a Summer of Flavour bag the popcorn dates from summer 2014. Which just goes to show how long I can leave a draft blog post lying around.

Roland Sticks

Roland Sticks are a delicious little pretzel style snack from Switzerland. And the Chef has been enjoying them all his life.

A lovely crunch, nodules of salt strewn along the little sticks, and a light pretzel taste.

Each not very large packet contains 200g of sticks. But they are hard baked (nothing but wheat flour, corn starch, salt, malt extract and yeast) and so presumably that makes them a lot heavier than your average crispy snack.

We tried the Waitrose version, which is much longer, last year.

Very tasty on their own. Extra tasty with a blob of butter. Yum! And the Chef even eats them with butter and marmite.

Recommended.

Kent Crisps Roast Beef & Spitfire Ale

Tall Taste Tester found this packet of crisps in his local Budgens.

The first time I went to our local Budgens I was very impressed at the interesting and unusual variety of crisps. Next time I went, only a few weeks later, the unusual crisps had all vanished so I didn't go back. Perhaps I should.

Because here is a packet of Kent Crisps, such as I found on the ferry from France and we rather enjoyed.

The packaging tells me that Shepherd Neame, which produces Spitfire Ale (made with Kentish hops of course), is Britain's oldest brewer. It also tells me that the flavour of this Ale gives the perfect zesty punch to the roast beef flavour.

I'm not so sure. As Tech Taste Tester put it, he'd rather had a pint of ale with a packet of beefy crisps. For myself I think I'd sooner have a plate of roast beef with a pint of ale... or a pint of white wine. Sorry! I mean a glass of wine.

Good quality hand cooked crisps, a good crunch and rather dark coloured flavour dust. Not a bad crisp at all. But we weren't sure that the ale added to the flavour, and we found the beef flavour only appears right at the end of your mouthful. Not a resounding success with the taste testers. And the Chef said the crispy part is OK, it's the taste part that's not so clever.

But another flavour from Kent Crisps might be brilliant. So we'll see what we can find.

In the meantime, I applaud Kent Crisps because the packaging design for these crisps is wonderful. Of course this flavour is illustrated with a Spitfire (an RAF plane famed for taking part in the Battle of Britain in WWII) flying over the Kentish coast. Brilliant.