Mr C Brook, You're a legend in my lunchtime (Seabrook Crinkle Cut Crisps)

Member Name: misterwriter

Product:	Seabrook Crinkle Cut Crisps
Date:	19/05/05 (2284 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Crunchy, light, not greasy, very good value

Disadvantages: Not widely avaible in major supermarkets

SEABROOKS CRINKLE CUT SEA SALT ORIGINAL
e 31.8 grams (bought in a multipack of 6)
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Scared off by the artificialness of flavoured crisps (nice though they are - especially Salt & Vinegar) I tend to stick to plain old ready salted. Smiths has been my preferred choice since when I was a kid but I have relatively recently discovered Seabrook potato crisps and thought why not give them a whirl.

Since first writing this review about a year ago, the packs have undergone a makeover - so I have decided to revisit it and report back with any changes.


PACKAGING
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Seabrooks Potato Crisps -original has gone all up market with its packaging. Before, its bags were printed in just three colours - red, white and blue on thin see-through plastic allowing you a peek at its contents. They had a distinct 1950s look. Something that looked like it had been designed by the managing director in his tea break.

Now though with a full colour printed pack and foil bag it's up there with the big boys - Walkers and Smiths. I personally quite liked the cheap and brash styling it had. It had a sort of retro appeal - but you have to move with the times I suppose...

Still sticking its patriotic red, white and blue theme Seabrooks looks like it might be treading on the toes of Smiths whose crisp packets are also branded in these colours.

On the front of the pack, it proclaims that the crisps are cooked in pure sunflower oil. I also read that they've been made since 1945. That's ages ago - since the end of WWII. I only discovered you, Seabrooks, about a couple of years ago. Where have you been all my life?

Turning the pack around I find out that these crisps were founded by Mr 'C' Brook. Really? I thought that Seabrook got the name because the crisps are made from sea salt. It goes on to say they have continued his down to earth approach, have a passion for quality … blah… blah… blah….

Following on is a long list of other flavours to try (some of which look new to me).
Bacon & Brown Sauce, Beefy Canadian Ham, Cheese & Onion Cheesy, Chicken & Stuffing, Cream Cheese & Chives, Pickled Onion, Prawn Cocktail, Roasted Garlic, Sea Salt & Black Pepper, Sea Salt & Vinegar, Smokey Bacon, Spring Onion, Tomato Ketchup, Unsalted and Worcester Sauce.

Very impressive, some very unusual flavours in there like Chicken & Stuffing and Roasted Garlic. With a range like this they surely give Walkers a run for their money.

If you can't find your favourite flavour you can visit www.seabrookcrisps.com. I paid a recent visit and was informed that they are "putting together an amazing, innovative website! Meanwhile, you can order all your favourite flavours directly from us…"
With a click of a button you can print out an order form to send.


OTHER INFO

Vegetarian… CHECK
Gluten free … CHECK
MSG free… CHECK . Hang on, what's MSG? Got it - Monosodium Glutamate.



THE TASTE
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If you're a bit of a crisps connoisseur you'll probably plump for Kettle Chips. But if you after something you can afford to regularly pop into your lunchbox, Seabrooks are in my experience King of the Ready Salted. On the packs they say 'once tasted you'll love forever'. Yeah, I'll go with that.

The crisps are slightly thicker than most standard crisps but surprisingly not heavy or tough. Being crinkled they have an added crunchiness to them - I suppose in a similar way that crinkled chips have.

What sets them a part from standard crisps is its light, fairly brittle texture which might be down to the sunflower oil used to cook them. The sunflower oil gives them more of a golden taste than vegetable oil (sorry that's the only word I can think of to describe them) - a bit like olive oil which is not as greasy and bland.

I didn't get greasy fingertips when picking up the fragmented crisps lurking at the bottom of the bag. Something that puts me off other brands.

Walkers tend to be too salty in my opinion and mysteriously short on actual crisps in the packet. Seabrooks aren't, on both accounts, plus the salt comes from the sea - so I suppose it's healthier. If you can call crisps healthy.

On the taste of sea salt versus ordinary salt, there's nothing distinguishable, in my experience, between the two.

They are now foil wrapped for, I suppose they would say 'extra freshness'. Possibly there are than before but I can't tell. However I have noticed that they are an itsy weeny bit less greasy than they were when last reviewed.


WHAT'S IN THEM?
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Not a lot. Before, being repackaged the ingredients read thus:
Ingredients: Selected potatoes, pure sunflower oil, finest quality sea salt.

Now though it's simply: Potatoes, Sunflower Oil, Sea Salt. What happened to the finest quality and select potatoes - have standards slipped?

Being made from sunflower oil Seabrooks are low in Saturates and high in Polyunsaturates (the latter being better for you).

On each pack is a table of typical nutritional values. Fat is the main thing that matters in crisps. Let's see how the fat content of Seabrooks compares with Walkers crisps.

Since writing my last review the fat content (per 100g) has mysteriously gone down from 36.7g to 35.0g whilst the polyunsaturated content had stayed the same. Perhaps they use less oil than they used to.

As you will see, compared with Walkers crisps, Seabrooks contain 1g more fat per 100g. However, Seabrooks has 7g less saturated fat (the worst kind of fat for you) than Walkers crisps.

Seabrooks - (Per 100g)
Fat 35.0g
(of which saturates) 4.0g
Monounsaturates 7.3g
Polyunsaturates 23.5g

Walkers - (Per 100g)
Fat 34.0g
(of which saturates) 11.0g
There is no info on Walkers packs of mono-unsaturates and polyunsaturates.
Here are the comparisons per bag…


Seabrooks - (Per 31.8g bag)
Fat 11.1g
(of which saturates) 1.3g
Monounsaturates 2.3g
Polyunsaturates 7.4g

Walkers - (Per 25g bag)
Fat 8.5g
(of which saturates) 2.8g



WHERE CAN I GET THEM?
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I regularly buy them from Morrisons and haven't seen them in other supermarkets, but will keep you posted if I do. They seem to pretty hard to come by. A quick search on Google to see who stocks them and I was amazed to discover they were put for sale on eBay!

They sell at £1.08 (for a multipack of 6) but occasionally I have seen them on special offer for only 99p.

Walkers are 99p for a pack of 6 bags. However the bags are smaller at 25g as compared to Seabrooks - 31.8g.

So when you consider it, Seabrooks are cheaper over all.

If you can't find them in your local supermarket it may be worth dropping a line to the supermarket manager. They can be quite open to new product suggestions - especially if there's a real demand from customers.


TO SUM UP
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Light, golden-tasting, crunchy, non-greasy, non-salty, finger-lickingly good crisps.


*This review was previously published by myself under the name simoncjones at Ciao*

Summary: Thought all crisps were greasy, salty concoctions? You must try these from Mr C Brook...