Crisp Review

Sainsbury - Cheddar & Spring Onion

This week I, somewhat reluctantly, return to the practice of reviewing crisps I’ve paid for. They’re ‘premium’ crisps, produced by Sainsburys. They’re evidently a challenge to Kettle Crisps, Red Sky, and their ilk. And they do a pretty good job of it.

The crisps look good. They’re all a bit uneven, and have a perfectly calculated amount of potato skin left around the edge. They’re not completely brown around the edge, rather, they’re somewhat mottled. And there are speckles of green on each crisp, which will be the dried chive in the ingredients.

The texture is good, too. They’re nice and crunchy, and a little bit greasy. Not as coated with flavour as kettle Crisps are, but there’s a fair bit and some of it gets left on your finger. Which is nice, if that’s your kind of thing.

They’re pretty damned tasty, too! After 3 reviews of unknown flavours it was nice to know what to expect. They say “Farmhouse Cheddar & Spring Onion”, but they taste of regular cheese and onion, to me. I’m not sure what ‘Farmhouse’ cheese tastes like…

Maybe I’m being a little harsh, they’re certainly more sophisticated than standard cheese and onion crisps. The onion note is a little crisper than you usually get, and the cheese is a bit more complex. They don’t come across as distinct tastes, like the Tayto I reviewed, but they’re pretty nice nonetheless.

Crunch: 8/10
Flavour
- Intensity: 6/10 (Not very strong, but nice enough)
- Accuracy: 7/10 (What does Farmhouse taste of?)
Quality: 8/10
Packaging: 9/10 (Really nice!)

I’d say they’ve got all of the qualities of a premium crisps. Good taste. Good texture. Good appearance. Worth a shot…

Sainsbury’s - Salt & Vinegar Crunch Sticks

I’ve not yet reviewed any ‘own brand’ crisps, but there’s nothing too surprising about that. As with last week, these aren’t crisps in the strictest sense, but tasty none the less. Anyway, enough rambling, here we are…

PICTURE FORTHCOMING

The packet now declares “Improved Recipe”, and the crisps include “Maize; Dried Potato; High Oleic Sunflower Oil; Salt and Vinegar Flavouring; Salt”. They used to contain milk powder, but don’t any more, rectifying the strange situation whereby their bacon flavoured crisps were vegan but their salt and vinegar ones were not.

What we’re looking are, basically, Chipsticks. For those who are unaware of Chipsticks, shame on you they’re crunchy sticks of maize produced by Walkers. But these are made for Sainsbury’s, and aren’t called Chipsticks. Clear? Good.

The crisps are lovely and crunchy, and the salt and vinegar flavour is bang on. Nice and strong, and ever so slightly acidic. They also leave a coating in the mouth, of little bits of crisp and oil, but it’s pleasant, rather than off putting. And some of the flavouring comes off on your fingers, which makes for a lovely treat.

Definitely a nice change from your standard potato crisp.

The packaging in unoffensive, and follows the blue = salt and vinegar colour scheme - contrary to walkers aberration of blue = cheese and onion - which gains them points in my book. It’s also got the little traffic light nutrition info, which I don’t really like, that might be a plus for some.

They also come in rather large 140g packs which I find difficult to stop eating once I’ve started. I can’t work out whether this is a good or bad thing.

Here are the numbers…

Crunch: 8/10
Flavour
- Intensity: 8/10
- Accuracy: 8/10 
Quality: 8/10 (Uniform, with few crumbs.)
Packaging: 7/10

All in all, a good snack.