Patatas Artesanas Al estilo tradicional - Snack Day

Snack Day's Patatas Artesanas were tested while travelling in a high speed AVE train between Barcelona and Madrid. Our palate cannot distinguish some flavours when we are flying on a plane. Since our train was figuratively "flying" through tunnels, hitting speeds of 300km/h, our ears were feeling pressure differences. Are our palates and smell altered by the pressure changes, low humidity and surrounding noise? See here.

We felt these chips can play in the top league: We perceived a very good flavour with sweet scents and a real taste to hand made potato chips as the label indicates ("Artesanas al estilo tradicional"). Without jacket, these chips are cut flat, fried in 100% olive oil and modestly seasoned with salt. A balanced combination.

If you try them in "normal conditions" and think otherwise, please share!

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	7.4 cm long
and has a thickness of	? mm
Crunchiness:	99 dB
Other features:	Golden yellow chips, oily, no jacket.
Origin:
Country, region	Spain, Catalonia
We got them from	a Lidl supermarket in Spain.
Price / gram	0.89 € / 150 g
On-line:	www.lidl.es

Inside a bag of Patatas Artesanas Snack Day

Sabores de nuestra tierra - Vicente Vidal

Iberian selected potatoes from the sour variety (Agria), directly bought to the farmers, making sure their business is profitable and sustainable. The whole process is closely monitored: From the selection of the potato chips, through the plantage, growth and harvesting. Once stored, the potatoes are washed, peeled and fried in sunflower oil (33%), adding a pinch of salt following a traditional recipe from 1931.

The result are big thin and light chips with some bubbles that taste very good and crunch solidly.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	8.1 cm long
and has a thickness of	? mm
Crunchiness:	94 dB
Other features:	Many bubbles, thin chips.
Origin:
Country, region	Spain, León
We got them from	a shop near Sa Caleta, in Menorca
Price / gram	1.41 € / 160 g
On-line:	www.papasvidal.es

Hand cooked crisps - Salty Dog

Dave Willis was a crisps delivery van driver with a dog as a copilot. One day he thought that he could do better crisps than the ones he was delivering and decided to found Salty Dog.

Pedigree potatoes are carefully selected, cut flat leaving their jacket on and then hand-cooked in sunflower oil. The whole process results in thick consistent potato chips, neither greasy nor dry, very reasonably salt seasoned and leaving an authentic potato taste.

When opening the matt metal chips bag we felt a nature scent with tinges of fresh wood. As if you were entering a recently built wooden hut lost in snowy mountains... Definitely one of the tastiest crisps you could shake a tail at.

And Salty Dog has a webpage with plenty of man's best friend jargon.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	7.1 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.62 mm
Crunchiness:	92 dB
Other features:	Thick, unpeeled chips.
Origin:
Country, region	England, Chesham
We got them from	a blog follower sent them to us.
Price / gram	3.00 € / 150 g
On-line:	saltydog-grrr.com

Inside a bag of Salty Dog "sea salt"

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

Marinas Sal de Formentera - Vicente Vidal

The chips, from the potato type Agria, are of average size and cut flat. Then, they are fried in abundant olive oil (38%) and very correctly salted (0.8%). 

When opening the bag we felt a slight rancid smell that immediately disappeared leaving a deep authentic flavour and aroma. 

The chips have many bents, like the hilly roads to Cadaqués where we tested these chips. Loud crunches prevent us listening the swaying sound of waves at the Roses gulf, by the Mediterranean sea. 

The salt used is extracted in a traditional way from the natural parc Ses Salines in Formentera. It is hard to know if the salt origin makes some difference to the final product but we dare to guess a nuance in the right direction, be it the precise salt quantity and/or quality.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	7.0 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.08 mm
Crunchiness:	92 dB
Other features:	Good crunch and taste.
Origin:
Country, region	Spain, Navarra
We got them from	a seaside beach bar in Roses, Costa Brava.
Price / gram	1.59 € / 150 g
On-line:	www.patatasmarinas.com

Inside a bag of Marinas Sal de Formentera by Vicente Vidal

Creïlles fregides amb oli d'oliva - Consum

Big and very well peeled potatoes with many bubbles. Cooked in a mixture of pure olive oil and olive-pomace oil that amounts to a 32% olive oil. Olive pomace oil is olive oil extracted from olive pulp after the first press with the help of solvents. 

Product with character collecting the essentials of nature and providing a unique spirit to the art of chips cooking.

Creïlles is the name given by the Valencians to the potatoes. Some say the word comes from the Spanish term "criadilla" because the potato plant was a fast growing plant. Some others consider the word origine being "creole", Europanamerican descendants. If any of our readers has a better clue, please share!

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	8.2 cm long
and has a thickness of	mm
Crunchiness:	92 dB
Other features:	Many bubbles, a bit salty.
Origin:
Country, region	Spain, Valencia
We got them from	a Consum supermarket
Price / gram	1.15 € / 130 g
On-line:	www.consum.es

Inside a bag of Consum's creïlles fregides

Swiss Bio-Chips Nature - Bina Food

Today we test another Swiss potato chips producer: Bina Food from Bischofszell, a city between Saint Gallen, Constance and its lake. On the bottom right side of the package there's a mountain unknown to us. Can you help us recognise the mountain summit on this package?

The potatoes, as well as the sunflower oil used in this product, come from certified organic production fields. The average sized chips are cut pretty thin, have an intense yellow colour and feel a bit dry. The amount of sea salt used is very precise. 

Not the best Swiss potato chips we have tested so far, but will do the job after a refreshing bath in the Constance lake. 

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	7.9 cm long
and has a thickness of	0.92 mm
Crunchiness:	88 dB
Other features:	Intense yellow, thin.
Origin:
Country, region	Switzerland, Thurgau canton
We got them from	an organic supermarket named "basic"
Price / gram	2.59 € / 160 g
On-line:	http://www.bina.ch

Inside a bag of Swiss Bio-Chips Bina

Premium - Frit Ravich

The first time we reviewed the Frit Ravich Premium potato chips was in 2014. At that time the chips were cooked with a mixture of vegetable oils: 30% olive oil, 70% sunflower oil. 

In 2016, Frit Ravich keeps on labelling these chips as Premium but using only sunflower oil. In our opinion, the use of high quality olive oil provides a soft but authentic scent to the chips. We miss that scent in the 2016 edition of the Frit Ravich Premium.

The chips have a lively yellow colour and are partly peeled. The measured crunch is reasonable for the chips' size and thickness. The flavour is good but in our opinion many other potato chips without flashy premium labelling deserve that labelling more.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	6.4 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.04 mm
Crunchiness:	88 dB
Other features:	Lively yellow colour
Origin:
Country, region	Spain, Catalonia
We got them from	a blogger from Barcelona bought them for us ;-)
Price / gram	1,60 € / 170 g
On-line	http://www.fritravichgroup.com

Inside a bag of Frit Ravich Premium

Purple Chips Papá Daniel - La Santamaría

Back in 2014 Crisps&Critics first reviewed Purple Chips. In 2015, we tasted Papá Daniel's Traditional Potato Chips. In 2016, while feeding our souls at a stylish eatery in Munich, Barna, we were offered purple chips that we liked very much: Papá Daniel's Purple Chips.

When opening the bag we see a huge variety of colours, from light yellow to dark purple. Every chip has its own aureole, as if each potato was an artwork deserving a frame. Multiple bubbles are spread over the many curls and bent-overs of each chip. The taste is very authentic, juicy and very slightly salted. Traditionally cooked in batches, the purple chips are pan fried in abundant sunflower oil, keeping its full flavour and texture.

Eating healthy in style is possible. Try them out.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	8.4 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.14 mm
Crunchiness:	93 dB
Other features:	Light yellow to dark purple colour.
Origin:
Country, region	Spain, Pinto (Madrid)
We got them from	Barna, feed your soul
Price / gram	3,90 € / 130 g
On-line	www.productoslasantamaria.es

Inside a bag of Purple Chips Papá Daniel, La Santamaría.

Traditional potato chips - La Abuela Nieves

A brave and determined woman, Ms Nieves, was always searching for the best quality potatoes to sell them in the Madrid market back in 1940. Soon, her son Saturio joined and became an Europe wide successful potato farmer. In 1999 Ms Nieves' grandchildren started frying the potatoes until they got to the product that we are tasting today, one of the Spanish leaders in hand cooked potato chips.

The best quality tuber are selected, washed, peeled and sliced. Each batch of potato chips is pan fried separately (not continuously in a line) in abundant pure sunflower oil. Once drained, the chips are slightly salted with Mediterranean salt and packed.

The taste is very authentic, like home made potato chips. The chips have a variety of sizes. Many chips have bubbles and different colour tonalities, from more to less cooked areas.  The crunch, addictive, leaves a juicy "frying stall" impression towards the end.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	9.0 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.34 mm
Crunchiness:	86 dB
Other features:	Many sizes, shapes, yellow tones and bubbles.
Origin:
Country, region	Spain, Castilla y León
We got them from	Mitte Meer market
Price / gram	1.99 € / 200 g
On-line	www.laabuelanieves.com

Inside a bag of La Abuela Nieves

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

Patatas fritas en aceite de oliva - Espinaler

The Riera family opened a little tavern named Espinaler back in 1896. Today everyone can enjoy a vermouth and savour excellent cockles standing next to wine barrels with views of the Mediterranean sea in Vilassar de Mar (a few km from Barcelona). Apart from its traditional sauce the Espinalers have also very good potato chips.

Selected potatoes from Soria are peeled, cut thin flat and baked with a generous amount of olive oil (34% of final product). Plus a tiny pinch of salt (0.2%). Nothing else is needed to result in an excellent combination: natural yellow colour chips with a great juicy potato flavour and an intense mouth feeling with many little crunches of each curled and bent potato chip.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	6.4 cm long
and has a thickness of	0.98 mm
Crunchiness:	91 dB
Other features:	Thin, brittle chips with many bent-overs and curls.
Origin:
Country, region	Spain, Catalonia
We got them from	a Crisps&Critics follower sent them from l'Espinaler tavern in Vilassar de Mar.
Price / gram	2.30 € / 150 g
On-line	www.espinaler.com

Inside a bag of Espinaler

Deep blue sea salt - John John

John the farmer and John the sailor decided to combine what they knew better -potatoes and exotic spices- and established John&John back in... MMXI! Nice made up story by the marketers of a German company producing potato chips in Britain, isn't it?

Old English potato varieties are cut thick and flat, traditionally cooked in high oleic sunflower oil and then salted with pure, fine sea salt from the Middle East coastlines.

The flavour when opening the bag reminds us of a haystack. The chips have bubbles, crunch hard and are pretty oily. The chips seem to be randomly salted and toasted at scattered areas.

Great package design line featuring a number (one) and an animal (seashell) depending on the potato chips flavour.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	7.0 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.12 mm
Crunchiness:	99 dB
Other features:	Thick, hard chips with bubbles seasoned with deep blue sea salt.
Origin:
Country, region	UK
We got them from	a Butlers shop in Munich
Price / gram	2.99 € / 150 g
On-line	www.john-crisps.com

Inside a bag of a John&John deep blue salt