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Crisps.

by 150 Comments

Who likes crisps, then? I love ‘em, but try to dial that down these days, for reasons of health, girth and, increasingly, wealth: those big “share” bags are getting very pricy.
In truth, it is probably all the powdery artificiality of flavours I love. I can’t be doing with the continentals and their salted or paprika, dull, dull, dull, I need weird and/or spicy. All said, mind, cheese and onion remains the lodestone. If I see a new make, I feel required to test drive the savour. IMHO, 1970’s Golden Wonder were the peak provider, not unconnected with a large lump of solid “cheese and onion” I once found in a bag. Probably full of now banned toxic e numbers, I can remember that playtime treat, my teeth watering as I type.
Anyhoo, I chanced upon a new provider yesterday, a brand in association with English Heritage, the flavour purportedly Baron Bigod cheese and onion. I know Baron Bigod cheese, it a Suffolk Brie that, like most bries is broadly bland until you can and have to chase it round the room. These crisps taste nothing like that cheese, nor onion. But they impart a hefty kick of umami, salt and something else indiscernible. Liberally coated, too, and flipping gorgeous. I found them at Waitrose, my excuse being my dog walk takes me past the shop most days, rather than the further away Tesco.
Anyone care to share their similar potato based peccadillos?

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Comments

      • Pipers crisps also available at The Bohemia in N. Finchley, home of the B3 Lounge, where I can go for hits of Hammond-oriented jazz-funkiness a couple of Sunday evenings a month.
        As stated above, Pipers are good throughout their range of flavours.

  2. I have a tendency to the crisp. I also have to try and keep it under control as left unattended the lure is too strong. Thick, salty, potato chips, the crunchier and saltier the better.

    There’s less choice in Germany – the default flavour is paprika which leaves me cold. However my local supermarket has recently stared stocking these incredible, barely digestible crisps called SLABS which as the name implies, are like industrial sheeting. Available in Roast Chicken, Roast Beef and Mustard and Salt and Vinegar flavours. The latter require an immediate Gaviscon chaser.

    • Whilst UK crisp fans, myself among them, have long shunned the bland and uninteresting paprika flavour that seems to rule supreme in most of Europe, I was recently introduced to Walkers Max crisps.. widely available all over the UK..and the paprika ones are bloody delicious.

  3. Currently addicted to Marmite Crisps. Nowt special about the crisp itself but the flavour wins through – particularly the ridge variant.
    In other crisp news: M&S Beef and Onion can easily be snaffled in one sitting.

    • Have you tried Tyrell’s Naked (ie salt-free)? I’ve had them on occasion – you can sprinkle a little salt in the bag, to avoid industrial quantities of the stuff, and chomp away in relative abandon

      • Nope. I’ve abandoned my crisp habit. I’m a wizz at giving stuff up. I find it better to entirely forego things that are detrimental to me rather than to keep tempting myself by adopting allegedly healthier options. I’ll just slowly but surely fall back into bad habits that way. I did the same with chocolate It gives me migraines so it had to go. Cheese may well have to go too.

        • Single malts?

          I’ve given up alcohol, and 0% beer these days tastes pretty much fine, but the cupboard where the single malts live whispers slyly to me every time I walk into the kitchen; its silken tones sidestep my amygdala, and caress my mesolimbic pathway…

            • It’s on draught occasionally but a bit watery to me. Corona Zero or Guinness Zero for preference although I’m waiting for two new ones from the Hepworth Brewery at Pullborough, a half hour drive from me.

            • @Twang

              I’ve recently been introduced to Lucky Saint when I stayed at a pal’s gaff in Kirkby Lonsdale and he had, anticipating my alcohol-free tendency, got some in from Booths. I have to say that I thought it was really quite nice – it tasted like beer, not beer-flavoured pop.

              Having praised it thus, I will now deflate my recommendation by saying that, good as it is, it is a poor substitute for the 0.5% genius that is Ghost Ship from Adnams.

              Really, if you can get your hands on that (or the aforementioned black brilliance of Guinness Zero) there’s no need to be bothering the Lucky Saint.

  5. Keoghs made a fantastic Cashel Blue and Caramelised Onion flavour, still listed on their website but apparently no longer available. Lovely. They do a good Roast Turkey flavour for December. Tayto are my go to for a crisp sandwich. When I was young, there was a very nice Worcester Sauce flavour from Perri Crisps, but I haven’t seen those in many years.

  7. I seem to be a bit unusual in that I love ready salted but don’t like any other flavours. Or at least any others that I’ve tried, which is probably most of them. There’s not many sandwiches they don’t improve considerably. I try not to eat them very often though.

  8. I completely concur with the OP, 70s Golden Wonder Cheese and Onion will always be my touchstone, the measurement against which other pretenders to the throne must be compared. However, there are some great ones around these days, and while I will always try a new artisan style crisp, you don’t have to go too far from the mainstream to find some decent choices.
    I realise I may be putting my head above the parapet here but Walker’s Sensations are pretty good. Their Chicken and Thyme and Thai Sweet Chilli are great flavours, even if probably loaded with chemicals and probably way too much salt.

    • I have a prejudice against Walkers crisps simply because they have (or had, I’ve been away for a while) their colour scheme all wrong. I remember that they had green for Salt & Vinegar. Madness.

      • Yes that is a massive drawback isn’t it? I’ve always wondered if that’s just due to wilful perversity or marketing nous…(the fact that we’re talking about it etc.)

        • As a native of Leicestershire, home of Walkers, I avow that it is the rest of the world which is out of step. Green is salt & vinegar, red is plain, blue is cheese ‘n’ onion; them’s the rules. Smoky bacon flavour (sort of maroon-ish ) are delicious once Worcestershire Sauce has been liberally added and the bag shaken to ensure total coverage. Further vote for Brannigan’s beef and mustard: nil for beef but 10/10 for tongue-tingling mustard.

  9. I did a conference last week for a very large manufacturer of Handy Snacks, including crisp type items. Having gone home with a couple of assorted boxes of Handy Snacks, their more unusual flavours didn’t go down well. They should stick to nuts.

  10. Cheese & Onion Crisps – a culinary masterpiece. Strictly rationed here by SWMBO, thank goodness or else I’d spend every evening head down in a vat of Brets Fromage du Jura. Never thought I’d say it but those are tastier than Golden Wonder, Walkers et al.
    ps what is it with Pringles? Taste one and think this is just a tasteless piece of cardboard. Five minutes later the giant tube is empty. I’m certain they have a tiny sprinkling of crack cocaine along with the other 233 additives…

  11. As the Festering Season will soon be among us (cards will be in the shops next month) there are the ‘special edition’ Christmas crisps to delight and entertain.

    I once bought a packet of some seasonal crisps from Lidl, I’ve tried to find what they were, it was some cocktail flavour and the only one I can find now is a Negroni crisp. Suffice to say if you don’t enjoy salted crisps this was one to try as they tasted as if a bag of sugar had been liberally spread over them. Hideous.

    Has anyone tried the Walkers Christmas pudding crisps? I imagine much the same in taste.

  12. Love them! Since moving house we are a couple of minutes walk from a street lined with interesting ethnic food shops so our palate has expanded in terms of flavour and main ingredient, but a basic crisp is still the best. Cheese and onion, smoky bacon, and roast chicken flavours for preference.

    It should be basic too – any supermarket own brand crisp is far superior to ‘premium’ brands which reek of burnt oil and turn to shrapnel in the mouth. Kettle crisps especially can get in the sea.

  14. Are you only interested in hearing from people who like crisps, or are you also interested in hearing from people who don’t like crisps? Perhaps with an explanation and maybe even an interesting fact or anecdote? If the latter: I don’t particularly like crisps, they’re boring and why would you snack on them when you can snack on chocolate instead? Even peanuts are more interesting than crisps. And did you know, Italians have difficulty saying the word “crisps”.

    • Unlike various other AW correspondents, I relish a snarky put down of the record/film/foodstuff etc, so dive in, @gary. Try adding some vinegar, mind, as insufficient zest to your remarks. Tell us why your nuts are of such consequence. And do you like mucky nuts, as a chum calls the coated ones, chocolate or otherwise.
      See also hybrid crisp nuts, where a peanut is encased in a crispy shell of salt & vinegar, sweet chilli and any other spare crisp flavourings Unilever need to shift.

  15. I tend to lean towards plainer crisps – just salted, or maybe sea salted and balsamic. I don’t understand the craving for cheese and onion at all – tastes of neither to me and just makes my mouth go funny.

    Having said that, my go to crisps are Roysters, but you can’t always get them. I love the bubbly texture.

  16. My current crisps of choice are the aptly named Proper Crisps, made all artisanly in Nelson, NZ, of all places. They really are so good I’m prepared to overlook the modest amount of airmiles they clock up on their journey across the Tasman. Current fave are these:

    View post on imgur.com

    Or, for the ‘ultimate tingly tongue vibe’ (it says here…)
    https://imgur.com/veCFK
    Recommended to all Antipodeans.

    • Interesting that they call them crisps on the pack. I am often mocked for saying “crisps” instead of “chips”.

      So to avoid confusion, I bet you think Kiwis say “fries” instead of “chips” at the takeaway? Nope.

      • Crisps are crisps and chips (ie corn chips) are chips around here, but that may be just me. In a typical Aussie let’s-mess-with-the-Poms moment, chips as in fish and chips are chips, but chips without fish are hot chips.

            • When I spent a summer in Torquay (of all places…) as a teenager, this was our salvation. The food we were served in the homes we stayed in was sooo bad…and for lunch they gave us sandwiches which were inedible. We were all extremely poor, and the little money we had we needed to be able to go out dancing most nights, and to buy records, so to get through the days without starving to death, we’d split a bag of chips from the local burger place for lunch. Just chips, no burgers.
              A “bag” of chips was 45p and actually bag-sized; it could easily feed five teenage girls. And the rest of the day we snacked on Bounty, which we bought huge bags of for very little money as well.
              At the discos we’d buy a glass of coca cola “without the ice” – that always got us angry stares, but worth it for the extra amount of coke it meant. The rest of the night we filled our emptied glasses with water from the sink in the toilets. Got to stay hydrated when dancing!

              The only girls who didn’t need to survive on chips was two girls who stayed with an Indian family…the incredible meals they described to the rest of us gave us hunger hallucinations!

  17. I do like crisps, but try not to buy too often as they are just too tempting.

    Favourites are probably Kettle Honey Dijon and Tyrell’s Sweet Chilli & Red Pepper. The problem with the Kettle ones is that here they tend to come only in the family size bag, and once they are open… (but also note that in the 80/9-% humidity here, one simply has to finish an open bag of crisps)

  19. I’m a big fan, but these days it’s a very rare treat for me – it doesn’t play well with my type 1 diabetes, unfortunately. Thankfully the crisp industry is making it easier for me to leave them out of my diet, as my favourite flavours keep vanishing, and also crisps in general don’t taste as good as they used to – the change was immediate when they switched from trans fats, many years ago.

    Anyway, when I do fall for the temptation, I reach for a Swedish brand called Gårdschips, and their Parmesan flavoured crisps – they’re outstanding! AND they don’t come in huge bags either, 150 grams only. Some people love their Truffle flavour as well, but I can’t stand truffle; it’s the best way to ruin a good meal IMO. The pigs can keep truffles for themselves (please!)

    But if you love parmesan cheese, do check those out next time you visit your son in Malmö!

    • Oh god, Smith’s. Long gone in Blighty, I think Walkers absorbed them, but always my favourite brand of crisps as a kid. They did easily the best generic salt n’ vinegar and, briefly, an adventurous (for the early 70s) , delicious, and interestingly pungent curry flavour. Much missed, and far superior to their main competition, Golden Wonder.

        • @nick-l is right to wrangle; Smiths were always the good boys choice, probably bought by their mother. Golden Wonder were the rowdy upstarts. A bit Beatles and Stones, really.
          I have never quite understood how and why Walkers (as in Queen?)!took over the market in the UK. I know it is just the UK name for worldwide megacorp, Lays. But when I was a nipper, they were a small brand only available in the Channel Islands.

        • Indeed, Pepsi own Walkers (and Smiths as was) up here too.
          Always feel sorry for Pepsi when their main competitors slogan is “The Real Thing”.
          Only way to fight back is to use a U2 single from Achtung Baby in their adverts.

          Mrs D works for Walkers, but has so far ignored submitting my marketing strategy

  21. Like others we love them but try not to eat them too often for waistband reasons. We go for lentil or humus based snacks though I have no idea if they are actually any better. I do love a dry roasted peanut too – KP or Nobby’s.

    In France they are called chips of course – Lay’s à la recette Ancienne are lovely – there’s a little crust round the edge suggesting the skin stayed on.

    We had a large bag of Pipers Anglesey sea salt crisps on Friday night in the garden with a G&T and they were wonderful.

  26. Salty snacks are one of my serious weaknesses. Nuts, legumes (thankyou Hubert), Bombay mix, olives, the list goes on, and crisps. I have half a family bag with my butties every day at work.
    Having a Booths in my home town means that posh and/or Northern crisps are the order of the day, and always selected on the cycle of special offers – there’s always one decent brand which will be offering a discount at any one time. This matters; as the OP says, the cost of crisps has skyrocketed since the pandemic.
    Tyrells, Pipers, Lancashire, Walkers Sensations are all in favour. I may be cynical about the overhyped specification of some of the flavours (Lye Cross cheese, I’m looking at you) as I’m not convinced that crisps have a ‘terroir’, y’know. That said, I was saddened when Tyrells dropped their Ludlow Sausage flavour, as that was gorgeous.
    My addition to the conversation is the Manomasa brand. They’re corn chips, I know, but when these are on offer, my store cupboard looks like I’m prepping. The flavours are as fancy and wonderful as they sound: Manchego and Greek Olive; Serrano Chilli and Yucatan Honey; and the mighty Green Lemon and Pink Peppercorn. And, yes, of course I can tell that the honey has come from the Yucatan.

    But I’m with @locust on truffle flavours.

    • Manomasa are excellent. Unfortunately you can only get them in Oz at ludicrously expensive online expat stores. Small bag = $18.79 = £9.05. Plus postage. 🙄

      • I have tried most of the Manomasa range and find them, sadly, lacking. That is, apart from the Serrano chili ones. I’m guessing you, @thecheshirecat, like hot, in which case you should be familiar with the Cofresh range of Bombay Mix, which have some truly punitive flavours. Always on offer, it seems, at Morrisons, a shop you can find near the stations of some of the less affluent towns your engine gets driven to. 50p for a big bag. Booths own brand don’t cut muster, as, like Waitrose, they rein in the e numbers and additives that give all the taste and exotic finger staining colouring.

    • The reason for the nuts/legumes was that when my son was much younger we watched Third Rock from the Sun where this wax said.

      When the occasion arises we’ll say “do you know the peanut is not a nut it’s a legume?” Think of it as a form of bonding exercise.

    • I didn’t mention Mano Masa because I didn’t want to derail the thread (my contention is that corn snacks are far better than potato ones), but they really are good, especially with some hummus or guac. Serrano the current favourite.

      Available at Waitrose, snack zealots.

  27. Plenty of good ‘uns mentioned already. My favourite has always been and will always be Bradford’s very own Seabrook’s Ready Salted.
    From leftfield (actually from a Spar shop on a motorway service station – a shelf containing largely Eastern European varieties) Dill crisps – made an interesting change, only had them in the big bags though. Can’t remember the name of the manufacturer.

    • Dill crisps are of course huge favourites among Swedes, as we like to put dill in everything. Here the go-to brand is Estrella, but I much prefer the OLW brand flavour of Dill & chives.
      In fact, OLW’s crisps are better in general, which is a slightly controversial take amongst most Swedes, and they won the cheese snack war already when I was a child, in such a convincing way that Estrella quit making their versions until very recently, and the OLW Cheese Doodle was unchallenged, and rightly so.
      But I will give Estrella the victory when it comes to dip mix flavours. Their Holiday dip is legendary, but I want to spread the word about their Tortilla dip mix, which is even better.

    • Seabrooks are my favourite as well. Both the ready salted and their beef flavour.

      My snacks of choice when I wandered into town on a Wednesday lunchtime to buy my copy of Sounds and then enjoy as I read the weekly music news alongside a strong black coffee.

      Happy memories!

      • Well @retropath2 and I frequented the same Waitrose. I have seriously reduced the frequency of visits there because if:

        1)reduced shelf-life on their fresh produce.
        2) their exhorbitant pricing – important now that I am a pensioner.
        3) their sheer arrogance in trying to get me to use a self service checkout . They will only serve you at the basket only till if you want fags or lottery tickets.
        Fuck off.

        Anyway to the main point – love Crisps and when we switched our main shop to Lidl I tried their six pack which is called Snaktastic -,very high quality and half the price of the Walkers equivalent. 89p for 6 packets is a bargain.
        Like others on here very impressed with Pipers.
        Also I remember buying a multi pack of Walkers with several flavours. It included Tomato Ketchup and invariably was left until the end forlorn and neglected. On basis of nothing else being available I tried them – they were fantastic and a mild addiction followed.

        Also a shout out for Lays (parent of Walkers) – they have the best ready salted and their sour cream and chives are delicious.

    • I do love a good root vegetable mixed crisps (beetroot, carrot, parsnip, sweet potato with a few regular potato crips mixed in is the usual mix of the Swedish brands). They’re not as common as they used to be, so I tend to have to grab a bag of organic store-brand to get my fix.

      My saddest loss of crisp flavour happened to me twice. First they quit making the French Herbs & Sourcream flavour, the best flavoured crisp ever. Then, years later, I discovered a new crisp flavour called Herb Garden in an extra crispy crisp brand with the peels left on, and that one tasted exactly as my old favourite, but had a better texture – six months later they stopped making that one as well…

      And I’m very reluctant to taste Limited Edition crisps, because if they’re good, you know they will soon disappear, forever.

  31. I have vague memories of UK adverts in the 70s for Tudor crisps. They never made it across to Ireland. I seem to remember a Geordie accent in the ads.

    The upmarket crisps in Ireland back then, or maybe the 80s was Captain Crisps, the first to come in a foil pack. Sacrilegious to say it but back then Tayto wasn’t always top notch. I remember burnt offerings and green crisps were a risk.

    The cheapo option in Ireland was Perry crisps, always regarded as inferior to Tayto. I seem to remember they did a nice salt’n’vinegar.

  33. Not quite crisps – but has anybody tried Takis? They’re a bit nacho like, but rolled into a tube, bright electric blue – so you know they’re going to be good for you. Hot? I thought so – left me sweating, blue tongued, blue fingered … not sure if this is a recommendation or a warning tbh.

    • That reminds of the joke about the guy who goes to the doctors and complains that his cock has turned orange.
      The doctor asks if he has changed any habits – what do you do every night?’
      Nothing much, just eat cheesy whotsits and watch porn.

  38. @retropath2 Just yesterday I had the pleasure to eat another new favourite cheese crisp, an imported brand from Spain; Rubio, and they were Manchego cheese flavoured. Not that it says so on the original packaging, it says “Cheese/Fromage ” and in smaller print “The extraordinary flavour of one of spanish most popular cheeses” (sic!) But the added Swedish print (it can’t be sold if they don’t stick that on when imported) says “Manchego chips”, and if you know your cheeses (I don’t) you can probably recognize it on the weird illustration on the front of the bag. It’s a bent crisp silhouette in gold foil upon which they’ve photoshopped two pieces of cheese in the middle of the gold crisp – the crisp is huge and the cheese wedges obviously big pieces of cheese but in a reduced scale. Next to this odd illustration the fine print says: “Serving suggestion”. Ummm….no?
    Anyway, weird text, bad grammar and odd illustration aside, this was a really good cheese crisp! Almost as good as that Swedish Parmesan crisp I recommended earlier.

        • Warning, @retropath2 – the first time I bought these they were directly imported from Spain and bought from my import grocer; and had “Manchego cheese” in the list of ingredients in Swedish.
          Then this Friday I found it in my usual supermarket and bought it again, but when I opened it on Saturday night it tasted nothing like the first bag…very bland cheese taste. Looked at the bag and it just said “Cheese powder” in the ingredients, and the bag had the Swedish text printed directly on the bag, not on a separate sticky label like the first one. So probably either made somewhere else for the European market from a different recipe, or they’ve changed the original recipe and skipped the Manchego part all around (but the picture was the same on the new bag, so very misleading…) or perhaps they’ve used a pinch of Manchego and the rest is generic “cheese powder”.
          So beware – if it doesn’t actually say Manchego somewhere on the bag, don’t buy it. It now barely tasted of cheese at all!

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