Upmarket Crisps (Kettle Chips Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar)

Member Name: Whizz11

Product:	Kettle Chips Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar
Date:	19/04/09 (269 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Crunchy, tasty, nice flavour coverage

Disadvantages: None

Kettle Chips are produced by Kettle Foods and have actually been around since 1982. At that time, the product was the only natural hand cooked potato chip in the Western United States. If you are looking for natural hand cooked chips it's nice to know that these were the original and maybe the best?

Salt and vinegar flavour crisps are one of my favourite flavours and one of the best variety around in my opinion are the Kettle Chips variety. This version is a little bit different because it uses balsamic vinegar instead of using regular vinegar which I think gives it a little something different and new.

If you are unfamiliar with Kettle Chips they are what I would call upmarket crisps, hand cooked for taste perfection! I also think the fact that they are called chips (the American version of crisps make them a bit more exciting and different too!!)

The hand cooked nature of the crisps makes them really tasty I think. It gives the crisps an unevenness about them and makes them very crunchy and fresh. Also, you will find on some crisps that a bite of the skin is left on the edges so this gives it a really nice texture and a bit of extra flavour. Sometimes you will find that the crisps are folded over or in funny shapes which I think is due to them being hand cooked and this just gives them extra crunch. They also have a really nice golden colour to them. The makers of Kettle chips even confirm this on their bags saying that the colour of their chips is determined by the natural sugars in the potatoes they use and this alters during the year so at different times they could change slightly.

The sea salt on the chips gives quite big grains of salt, bigger than normal salt and vinegar crisps which give it a lovely strong flavour. Also the balsamic vinegar, as opposed to just ordinary vinegar gives it a real tang and a nice strong flavour without being too sour. The crisps have a really nice covering of flavour, guaranteed to give you a good flavour with every bite.

The ingredients of these chips I think go a long way in making them as good as they are. There are not too many ingredients which is nice which guarantees you are getting a good fresh product. In fact the makers actually say, "We like to keep things simple - use best potatoes we can find, hand cook them with care in small batches then season with great tasting combinations of ingredients." They do not use any MSG or artificial flavours or colours which is nice. They also, like most crisp manufacturers use sunflower oil now instead of hydrogenated fat. This is to keep up with the healthy eating fad that most people seem to be enjoying now.

They chips are packaged in nice looking bags which I think adds to the quality and upmarketness of the chips. The bags are almost like a very strong paper but inside they have a foil lining to keep the chips nice and fresh. Again, like a lot of savoury snacks the bags are colour coded, depending on what flavour is inside. The sea salt and balsamic vinegar comes in a dark blue bag with Kettle Chips written on the front in big bold letters

They do sell regular size bags, e.g. the 34g size bags, I often buy them in the nicer sandwich stores around the capital but as I just recently bought the 150g family size bag I will give you the nutritional values for that size, however on the bag they do give the values in portion size. For example, they say a 40g portion or serving contains 190 calories and 10g of fat. This is fairly high but like any product of this nature there will be a lot of calories, the trick is to not eat too many of them.

The crisps are sort of expensive but not extortionate in my view. For a 150g bag which is a big one, especially good at parties, etc is £1.59.

All in all if you are looking for a good quality, different crisp/chip, these are the ones for you!

Summary: Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar Crisps