Kettle Ridge Crisps - Salt & Malt Vinegar
Well, the first review of the new year isn’t anything unusual, but it is pretty tasty. I’ve given you some background about Kettle Foods before, so I won’t bother rehearsing that again. Here, then, is the review…
The ingredients here are pleasingly simple; Potatoes, Sunflower Oil, Sea Salt, Dried Malt Barley Vinegar, Natural Flavouring, Sugar, and Yeast Extract. With the exception of the obscure and vague ‘natural flavouring’ this is exactly what you would expect to be in a bag of Salt & Malt Vinegar” crisps. Actual vinegar is something of a rarity in the crisp world, so I’m pleased to see it listed here.
And the inclusion of vinegar definitely carries over into the taste. The crisps have a nice strong, acidic, tang, and the balance between salt and vinegar is good. They’re pretty strongly flavoured, and thus, quite moreish. I managed to polish of a large bag in a short period of time, but I’ve got poor self control, so that may or may not be relevant.
Having mentioned ingredients and flavouring, we should turn to the star of the show, the ridges…
These ridges, then, add a nice new dimension to the otherwise standard Kettle Crisps. The crisps are not as thick as McCoys (my bench mark crinkle cut crisp), but create a really nice level of crunch. They’re very well done, and the flavour stick in the gaps nicely. They’re a nice change of pace, and I have to commend kettle Crisps for pulling it off so well.
The packaging is nice, understated, and some what waxy in texture. As with standard Kettle Crisps, these crisps claim to be hand cooked, but we wont go down that path again. And they use blue to denote that they’re salt and vinegar; hurray!
I terms of numbers…
Crunch: 8/10
Flavour
- Intensity: 7/10 (Strong, but not overly so)
- Accuracy: 9/10
Quality: 9/10
Packaging: 8/10
A very nice bag of crisps that you should try if you get a chance. They’re not as good as standard Kettle Crisps, but are pretty good none the less.
