Potato Chips Salt - MUJI

Muji presents this snack in a simple packaging making honours to his philosophy: less is more. Inside we find ridge cut "bareisho" potatoes from France, fried in sunflower oil (34%) and spiced with Guérande sea salt (1.1%). Guérande sea salt is collected in the Atlantic coast of Brittany and is softer in the palate than Mediterranean sea salt.  Despite that, we found the chips to be pretty salty and a bit starchy but not at all oily. In our opinion these potato chips seem to aspire to the modesty and plainness of the brand. 

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	6.8 cm long
and has a thickness of	2.31 mm *
Crunchiness:	78 dB
Other features:	Salty, light yellow, undulated chips.
Origin:
Country, region	France, Japan, UK
We got them from	a MUJI store in Germany
Price / gram	1.99 € / 125 g
On-line:	muji.com

Inside a bag of MUJI potato chips

Croccante - San Carlo

San Carlo is going big presenting huge potatoes with a crinkle cut in his Croccante edition. 

We remark the beauty of a big and thick slice of potato, elegantly ondulated, as it can't be otherwise for a product coming from the fashion capital Milano. And as long as the potato chip is, it crunches from the begining till the end. We found the chips slightly dry,  perhaps due to the oil mix or proportion (palm and sunflower oil).

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	11.5 cm long
and has a thickness of	3.3 mm *
Crunchiness:	91 dB
Other features:	Big size potato slices, thick but light.
Origin:
Country, region	Italy, Milan
We got them from	a glamper in Italy.
Price / gram	1.99 € / 180 g
On-line:	www.sancarlo.com

* Thickness measured between top of the wave and bottom of the valley in the biggest chip we found.

Inside a bag of Croccante by San Carlo

Exotic potato - Terra

The market rules. We receive more often coloured potato chips to test.

In the Terra packaging, we find a mix of salty and sweet, several colours, flavours, textures and cuts. These chips are not only exotic, but rich.

Several potato sorts are found in this package:

• Yukon gold potatoes, introduced from Canada in 1980, with an intense flavour and yellow flares,
• Sweet potatoes of the Ipomoea Batatas variety, providing a glorious sweetness in an intense orange colour, and
• natural blue potatoes, providing a nutty touch and with a purple colour matching very well with the rest of tones.

Another interesting aspect of these potato chips is the fact that we can find both wavy and flat cut potatoes of each variety.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	8.1 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.81 mm
Crunchiness:	94 dB
Other features:	Diverse potatoes cut flat and wavy, baked on a mix of vegetable oils.
Origin:
Country, region	Lake Success, NY, USA
We got them from	Walmart in Novi, Michigan.
Price / gram	2.98 $ / 155 g
On-line:	http://www.terrachips.com

Inside a bag of Terra Exotic chips

Kartoffel chips Salz - Star Marke

Today we taste ruffled potato chips from "Star Marke", an own brand of the German supermarket chain Tengelmann.

The potatoes for this product are quite small, perfectly peeled and then cut in a wavy profile before being fried in abundant sunflower oil (34%). Some chips look like being literally soaked in oil. However, the crunch is good. The potato chips feel hard and brittle in our mouth but in our opinion they are oversalted.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	5.2 cm long
and has a thickness of	2.19 mm*
Crunchiness:	86 dB
Other features:	Wavy cut, abundant oil and salt.
Origin:
Country, region	Germany
We got them from	a Tengelmann supermarket in Munich.
Price / gram	1.59 € / 150 g
On-line:	http://www.starmarke.de/produkt-detail.php

* Thickness measured between top of the wave and bottom of the valley in the biggest chip we found.

Inside a bag of Tengelmann's Star Marke

Deep ridged - Lay's

Innovation is everywhere, also in the potato chips industry. Every April 26 is World Intellectual Property Day, a day to promote discussion of the role of IP in encouraging innovation and creativity.

A few years ago a group of inventors at Lay's had a problem: Their favourite chips would break when dipped. They needed a hard but thin chip. Hard because they wanted the chip to resist any type of dip. Thin because very thick fried potato chips' texture is not the better. The result is a chip with a more profound corrugation than existing ruffled chips while keeping its thinness. The inventors developed cutting blades and a feeding mechanism that would slice the chips evenly while keeping them uncracked. And they filed a patent for the manufacturing process. For a deeper insight on the innovation story click here or here.

As usual, the best potatoes are selected. Washed and sliced in big waves, the chips go on to the frying process in sunflower oil (32% of final product). Despite the chips not crunching particularly loud, the impression is of a multiple crunch in many directions within our mouth. Welcome to the 3D crunch.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	8.0 cm long
and has a thickness of	6.05 mm *
Crunchiness:	90 dB
Other features:	Huge waves.
Origin:
Country, region	Germany
We got them from	an EDEKA market in Munich
Price / gram	1.79 € / 147 g
On-line	www.fritolay.com

* Undulated cut is measured between wave's top peak and bottom of the wave valley.

Inside a bag of Lay's Deep Ridged

Rillies - Bravo

 

Rillies chips could be considered the ruffled sister of our last Bravo review. Apart from the Rillies' wavy cut, these are thicker and tastier. 

Middle sized potatoes have their skin removed, cut undulated and baked in sunflower oil. This results in chips that are much savoury and juicier compared to its reviewed "light" predecessor.

A pity with the Rillies undulated chips share with its sister: the huge amount of salt used doesn't allow us appreciate its true potato flavour.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	5.6 cm long
and has a thickness of	2.05* mm
Crunchiness:	91 dB
Other features:	Wavy cut, peeled, pale yellow colour.
Origin:
Country, region	Germany, Schleswig-Holstein
We got them from	a Penny market in Hamburg.
Price / gram	0.99 € /200 g
On-line:	http://www.wilkbonbon.de/

* Due to the wavy cut, with very small and close undulations, the thickness has been measured between the top peak and the bottom of the valley.

Inside a bag of Rillies

Tirtikli Cipso - Doğuş

Doğuş produces undulated salted potato chips, in Turkish: Tirtikli Sade Patates Cipsi.

Gold potatoes harvested in Turkish fertile lands are peeled, washed and crinkle cut before being baked in abundant palm oil. After being cooked, the chips have a straw yellow colour. Once in the mouth the chips offer very little resistance, the crunch being subtle and soft. Each chip feels very juicy and proportionally salted.

Very correct middle-east chips to taste with Anatolian cuisine, experiencing first-hand hospitality while sailing along its turquoise Mediterranean waters.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	6.2 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.81* mm
Crunchiness:	84 dB
Other features:	Wavy cut, juicy. free of any pork or its additives.
Origin:
Country, region	Turkey
We got them from	a shop near the Fethiye marina.
Price / gram	2.99 ₺ (Turkish lira) / 115 g
On-line:	www.cipso.com.tr

* Due to the wavy cut, with very small and close undulations, the thickness has been measured between the top peak and the bottom of the valley.

Inside a bag of Tirtikli Cipso, Dogus.

ギザギザポテト - Organic farm

ギザギザ "gizagiza" potatoes are produced by Miura Seika Kabushikigaisha under the trade mark Organic Farm.

"Gizagiza" means "zigzag" in Japanese. Another synonim to add in our list of wavy, undulated, ruffled or crinckle-cut chips.

The potatoes are of the "Bareisho" type and come from certified bio JAS gardens. Once peeled the potatoes are zigzag cut. The chips are then baked in an unspecified vegetable oil and finally salted. The packaging does not mention the (bio) origin of the other ingredients besides the potatoes.

The final product are pale yellow chips of average size and gentle crunch that once in the mouth taste soft and feel juicy.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	7 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.59 mm *
Crunchiness:	89 dB
Other features:	Wavy cut, bio potatoes.
Origin:
Country, region	Japan, Shizuoka
We got them from	a Natural House shop in Omotesando-Tokyo Japan.
Price / gram	199 ¥ / 60 g
On-line:	http://www.naturalhouse.jp

* Due to the wavy cut, with very small and close undulations, the thickness has been measured between the top peak and the bottom of the valley.

Inside a bag of gizagiza potato chips

Papas fritas onduladas - Docian

These wavy old-style potato chips come from the Canaries, an archipelago in the southernmost region of Spain, closer to Africa than to continental Europe. 

Back in the XV century, the Canary Islands became a stopping platform for European conquerors and traders on their way to the New World. The privileged location of the Canaries brought prosperity to some social sectors of the islands and was the introductory point of potatoes in Europe.  The Canarians are probably then the European citizens with more experience handling with potatoes... but how does all this translate into chips?

The Docian ondulated chips are big, peeled and baked in sunflower oil, resulting in a very structured taste, with a first precise crunch and a soft oil scent at the end. Although not specified, it would make sense that these chips, originating from an island, are seasoned with marine salt.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	9.4 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.65* mm
Crunchiness:	92 dB
Other features:	Wavy cut, peeled, lemony colour.
Origin:
Country, region	Spain, Canary Islands
We got them from	a HiperDino supermarket in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Price / gram	1.02 € / 165 g
On-line:	http://www.emicela.es/

* Due to the wavy cut, with very small and close ondulations, the thickness has been measured between the top wave peak and the lowest part of the wave valley.

Inside a bag of Papas fritas onduladas Docian

国産原料にこだわったポテトチップス - Fukagawa Yushi Kabushikigaisha

From the far east, another way of labeling products reaches Crisps&Critics. At the bag front we don't find any brand name, any striking logo nor a motto easily fittable in a typical jingle add. Just a rising sun behind a rice field and a bear presenting this text:  "Potato chips with selected products of national origin". 

The potatoes come from Hokkaido (north of Japan) and are of the Danshaku type. Prepared with care during hours, the chips are cut in wavy slices and go through a very well thought production process so that the taste and texture are optimized. Rice bran oil baking provides the chips with a mild and pleasant flavor. Rice bran oil is extracted from the hard outer brown layer of rice after chaff (rice husk). The baked flavor is well accompanied by a precisely measured quantity of sea salt from the Saroma lake, a sea water lagoon fed from the Ohotsuku sea, between Hokkaido and Sakhalin.

Altogether, it does not surprise Crisps&Critics that these chips are very tasty. At first sight simple food, one feels that it has been carefully prepared with natural products cultivated over the years and specifically chosen and combined to match and please every subtle palate.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	5.9 cm long
and has a thickness of	N/A *
Crunchiness:	83 dB
Other features:	Wavy cut, rice oil.
Origin:
Country, region	Japan, Hokkaido
We got them from	a YoursLIVI supermarket in Hiroshima, Japan.
Price / gram	151 ¥ / 60 g
On-line:	http://kumachan.co.jp/shop

* Due to the wavy cut, with very small and close ondulations, the thickness has not been measured.

Inside a bag of Kumachan potato chips

Natural Crinkle Cut Crisps - Euroshopper

Crisps&Critics is back from a culinary trip in Iceland. Regarding salted potato chips we could only find imported brands, like today's review: Natural Crinkle Cut Crisps produced in Belgium for the generic brand Euroshopper.

Each of these Euroshopper crisps feel big, thick and, in our opinion, a bit too salty to guess its authentic potato flavour. Partly unpeeled, these crisps have been well baked in vegetable oil. Longer cooking time gives a certain toasted flavour to the crisps.  

The chips have a crinkle cut, with small waves close one to the other, what probably gives the impression of eating thicker chips than they really are.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	8.5 cm long
and has a thickness* of	2.20* mm
Crunchiness:	87 dB
Other features:	Narrow wavy cut, quite salty
Origin:
Country, region	Belgium, Hainaut
We got them from	a Bonus supermarket in Reykjavik
Price / gram	219 Íkr (Icelandic króna) / 200 g
On-line:

* Due to the wavy cut, with very small and close ondulations, the thickness has been measured between the top wave peak and the lowest part of the wave valley.

Inside a Natural Crinkle Cut Crisps bag.

Patatas Fritas Onduladas corte rústico - Carrefour

Huge and unbroken ruffled potatoes is what Crisps&Critics has found in this bag of "Onduladas corte rústico" (wavy rustic cut) from Carrefour supermarket's own brand.

Fried in sunflower oil (36%) and with a touch of salt (1%) all the chips look and taste very similar, whatever its size. Not at all boring though. It's flavour brings our memories back to a typical Spanish bistro.

Despite being very thin (just 0,84mm) these potato chips score high in its crunchiness, probably due to the wide wavy cut.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	10 cm long
and has a thickness of	0.84 mm
Crunchiness:	103 dB
Other features:	Wavy cut
Origin:
Country, region	Spain
We got them from	Carrefour supermarket
Price / gram	1.48 € / 160 g
On-line:	http://www.carrefouronline.carrefour.es

Inside a a bag of "Patatas fritas onduladas corte rústico"