Grizzy and the Lemmings: Crunch Yeah

This top quality (and amazingly violent in a jolly fashion) Canadian animation is about a grizzly bear who moves into a park ranger’s house as soon as the ranger leaves - perhaps he goes home to visit his mum? we never find out - and a slice or gang of out of control lemmings determined to invade his space and destroy his peace. [Numerous online sources assure me that slice really is the word for a group of lemmings but I confess I really find this quite hard to believe.]

Grizzy mostly eats salmon (he also watches what looks like Salmon TV), and a Nutella-style spread called Yummy; sometimes he spreads Yummy on his fish. The lemmings love speed, and anything bouncy (or disco), and will do anything including destroying the entire planet for a jar of Yummy but they are also pretty keen on the would-be Cheesy Wotsit (or Cheeto) crispy snack Grizzy sometimes eats: it’s called Crunch Yeah.

This rather bad snap of Grizzy vaulting upside down to escape some ghastly fate shows a packet of Crunch Yeah tucked into his belt.Which is interesting as Grizzy never normally wears a belt.

If any crispy snack entrepreneur is thinking of launching a new Wotsit style corn puff type of snack I can’t help feeling that “Crunch Yeah” wouldn’t be a bad name. I would probably buy a packet. I think maybe the reluctant taste testers might too. I might suggest calling it Crunch Yeah! though. I feel an exclamation mark might help the marketing.

I have struggled to find a scene to grab a shot of the Crunch Yeah snack but if you know what Wotsits or Cheetos look like you will know just what I’m talking about, and here’s a photo of some M&S Cheese Tasters (very similar in style) just in case you don’t.

Sadly only ever seen on French TV.

Penguins of Madagascar: Cheezy Dibbles

 Yes, crispy snack fans, you’re all wondering why I never got around to posting the fabulous-looking Cheezy Dibbles before aren’t you? Dunno really. But Penguins of Madagascar was on TV again this Christmas and once again I spotted this fabulous cheesy snack. So now is the time.

So here’s a tribute to this wonderful-looking crispy snack, a maize puff, covered in yummy cheesy tastiness, probably chock full of E numbers, and looking just like our favourite Cheetos or Cheesy Wotsits, or even the fabulously fictitious Crunch Yeah.

This crispy snack is a favourite with our heroic penguins.

But E numbers have a disastrous effect, not only on small children, but also on penguins as we can see from the scenes in the film where orange flavour-dust stained penguins fail to concentrate on the task ahead. And go a bit loopy.

Probably extremely tasty if only they actually existed. Sadly I don’t think they’re real.

M&S Ever So Posh Lobster Cocktail Crisps

So, let's be brave here. I've chosen to try these beautifully packaged lobster flavour crisps because I love the beautiful packaging. Wow. Dark brown silky smooth bag with a fabulous lobster-coloured lobster on. How fabulous is that? Top marks on the packaging front for this very posh packaging from Marks & Spencer.

Is it silly to try a crisp just because I like the design of the bag? Perhaps not as silly as trying a peanut or tomato flavour snack even though I think the packet design is dreadful. And obviously I've done that before.

However, as crisp fans may have noted, I don't eat fish. And that includes shellfish. I have eaten crab and lobster in the past, to be polite, but found them a bit rich. And, you know, just a bit fishy. So let's see how we go.

The aroma was quite fishy when I opened the bag but the taste was salty and savoury - nothing special but less appetising to me than a non-lobstery crisp might be -  with a hit of citrus aftertaste and a hint of shellfish going on in the background. The colour is pleasant, quite orange, and they have a good crunch as you would expect from this M&S hand cooked range but there was nothing to encourage me to nosh down half the bag in one sitting. Terry wasn't madly struck but he's not a shellfish fan either.

I asked some people at work what they thought because they all eat fish and even things with tentacles on a regular basis.

Ruth said she wouldn't exactly call them lobster cocktail. Just generic crisp flavour. " Nice though" she said, before admitting that she doesn't really eat crisps.
Nick found them a bit tart. He would put them in a bowl and eat them with drinks on holiday. "Yeah, I'd be happy to eat these".
Susan thought they don't really taste of anything apart from paprika, but detected a slight aftertaste of shellfish.

Nobody was madly impressed I am sorry to say.

So, top marks for packaging and crunch; less enthusiasm for the flavour.

Verdict? Could do better. And we didn't finish the bag.

Sunchips Original 100% Whole Grain

A suspiciously healthy-looking crispy snack this, exported especially for us by kind bloggy friend Betsy.

And I guess they must be healthy because they're labelled Heart Healthy and made with 100% whole grain; that's whole corn, whole wheat, brown rice flour and whole oat flour. There are no artificial flavours or preservatives and also there's 30% less fat than in a regular potato chip.

At Sunchips we believe that being different is good. That's why we created Sunchips with a mission to provide tasty one of a kind snacks that take afternoon snacking from ho-hum to oh yeah!

Everyone's favourite whole grain chip. It's slightly savory, slightly sweet and totally 100% original. 

Well, that's what the packaging tells me. And despite the aggressively healthy look to them, this wavy crispy snack is pretty tasty. And we did enjoy them.

You get a great big hit of salt first of all, and then the sugar. And the crunch is just right. So not bad. Not bad at all.

Popchips Ridges Buffalo Ranch

Coming to write up this crispy snack I am struck with the idea that ten years ago I wouldn’t have had a clue what the name meant.

The me of ten years ago would ask “What’s a Popchip? Because maybe we didn’t have popchips then. Perhaps not.

“What does ‘Ridges’ mean? Well, maybe I was a bit behind the times on the crispy snack front. I usually think ‘crinkle cut’ but obviously these days I can accept either.

I’ve been to Buffalo NY because I have a friend who lives there (handy for Niagara Falls and there’s a nice art gallery too but what has that got to do with snacks? Yeah, again I was really slow to discover what ‘buffalo’ means. This is because I discard the wings of a chicken as all but inedible (seriously... nothing but skin and sinew) so never discovered the alleged delights of the buffalo wing and hence, of course, buffalo to mean chicken as a crisp flavour. Which when you break it down like that does seem pretty weird. I do have a friend who says chicken wings are the best bit. But I’ve told her several times that she’s wrong and I’m sticking with that and Cliffs of Moher taste tester agrees with me. Luckily with a crisp you get the chicken flavour but not the sinew.

And ‘Ranch’? Well obviously it’s a dressing. But did I know that ten years ago? I think probably not.
Well maybe, but I don’t think I’d have had the opportunity to try.  So nothing to do with ranching buffaloes then.

So what did the reluctant taste testers of 2018 think of this crispy snack? Some of them are young enough not to realise that the name of this snack is a very modern concept in this country but naturally that didn’t stop them crunching in to this quite hot snack. It was hard to pick the chicken flavour through the ranch flavouring (which seems to be mostly cayenne pepper) but if you concentrate hard I think you can taste it.

The crunch is pretty good, and once you’ve grappled with the heat, the taste is pretty good too. Yes, not bad at all. But truthfully? A bit too hot.