La Patatina Originale - Amica Chips

Crisps&Critics first italian review goes to "La Patatina Originale" from Amica Chips.

La Patatina Originale, with its unique flavour, brings us to legendary italian landscapes. The chips are relatively small, with a thin and flat cut. Peeled, they are fried in sunflower seed oil (33%) and very correctly salted. Despite the final light yellow colour, the aroma is of a well baked chip. A perfect match for an "apperitivo" drink, feeling the ambience of a local bar in Italy.

Maybe you are also curious about an Amica Chips TV commercial we were made aware of: Rocco Siffredi joking about the double meaning of the italian word for "chips".

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	5 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.08 mm
Crunchiness:	93 dB
Other features:	Light yellow colour
Origin:
Country, region	Italy, Lombardy
We got them from	two Crisps&Critics readers at Lago di Garda (Northen Italy)
Price / gram	0.40 € / 50g
On-line:	www.amicachips.it

Inside a bag of "La Patatina Originale"

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"

3 Dutch Farmers Crisps - Hoekschechips

Have you ever seen crisps tulips? Have a look at the plastic bag on today's post. A simple and excellent eyewink to these potato crisps' origin: The Netherlands. We like the creativity and original packaging design, and not only for the tulips, keep on reading: 

Gerrik, Henk and René, the 3 Dutch farmers, started growing and cooking their own potatoes in 2004 from a Dutch national landscape named "The Hoeksche Waard", The Netherlands. And despite their relatively short experience, they are doing really well.

Selling for the international traveller under the name "3 Dutch farmers", local stores in Holland offer them as "Hoeksche Chips".

The transparent foil bag let's us see what we are buying. No catches, no tricks.  A good sunflower oil aroma is felt when opening the bag.

Crisps&Critics tasted these delicious crisps, personally hand-baked by Astrid (see her name printed on the package). Once washed and cut, the potatoes are cooked in pure sunflower oil with its own skin what probably gives a slight, yet pleasant, bitter taste.

An unanimous opinion at Crisps&Critics on the quantity of salt: a tiny pinch of sea salt that empowers an authentic potato flavour.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	8.5 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.50 mm
Crunchiness:	101 dB
Other features:	Nice packaging
Origin:
Country, region	The Netherlands, Zuid-Holland
We got them from	a Crisps&Critics reader in transit at Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam)
Price / gram	? € / 75 g
On-line:	http://www.3dutchfarmers.nl/

Inside a 3 Dutch Farmers Crisps bag

Nature chips - Spar Premium

These Nature chips of Spar Premium can be considered to be family relatives with the already reviewed Nature&Blue chips.  

As it happened with the "coloured" review, when we opened the bag, we smelt nothing. And this has an unadverted effect on the flavour. 

Flavour is not the same as taste. Flavour is understood as a combination of at least the following senses: taste, smell, touch... And if the smell is missing, the flavour feels weird. Is the lack of smell the price to pay for a low-fat product? 

These swiss potatoes have been baked underpressure, allowing frying at a lower temperature. The result: yellow pale colour potatoes with a hard crust. When chewing them we feel a good crunch and then have a dry sensation which some relate to a "healthy-food" feeling.  The slices are cut super thick, probably the thickest potato chips we have tasted so far.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	5.5 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.84 mm
Crunchiness:	101 dB
Other features:	Flat thick cut, pale yellow
Origin:
Country, region	Switzerland
We got them from	a Spar supermarket in Salzburg, Austria.
Price / gram	1.69 €/ 100 g
On-line	www.spar.at

Inside a Nature chips bag

Handcooked sea salt - HEMA

Strolling around Madrid last week we spotted a recently opened HEMA store, actually the first in Spain. HEMA (originally an acronym for Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam, "Dutch Standard Prices Company Amsterdam") is a Dutch discount retail chain that started life as a dimestore. And guess what Crisps&Critics found in there: Dutch chips!! 

These chips are sliced thick and unpeeled. Then, fried in sunflower oil, in small amounts and a bit longer than usual. This results in a hard crust with a strong, dry crunch. Its flavour is good and are, despite the packaging reading "a pinch" of salt, generously salted (1.1% of sea salt). 

Definitely a perfect match for any "herring and bitterballen" Dutch party. 

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	7.5 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.53 mm
Crunchiness:	103 dB
Other features:	unpeeled, salty
Origin:
Country, region	The Netherlands, Amsterdam
We got them from	a HEMA store in Madrid (Spain)
Price / gram	1.25 € / 125 g
On-line:	http://www.hema.nl/

Inside a bag of handcooked sea salt - Hema

Nature & Blue Chips - Spar Premium

Crunchy colours, mmmmm!!!

This bag has two different potato varieties: nice purple potatoes from St. Gallen (Switzerland) combined with well-known-to-us yellow potatoes. The differences in color between varieties of potatoes are basically differences in carotenoid and flavonoid content (pigments).

The yellowish potatoes in the bag are cut thick (one of the thickest we ever tried) and quite crunchy. The purple ones are just a bit thinner and feel softer, lighter, airier but still crunchy. 

These potatoes do not smell. Still taste good, feel natural and are chic.

Innovation is the key also for this Swiss potato chip manufacturer. Chips are gently fried in a vacuum with pure sunflower oil at 140ºC (regular frying is at around 180ºC). Like this, each chip absorbs 40% less fat. 

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	6.5 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.80 mm
Crunchiness:	96 dB
Other features:	Purple colour, flat thick cut, no curls..
Origin:
Country, region	Switzerland, St. Gallen
We got them from	Spar supermarket, Salzburg
Price / gram	1.69 € / 100 g
On-line:	http://www.spar.at/

Inside a bag of Nature & Blue chips

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Classically Ready Salted - Walkers

Very thin crisps. So thin that daylight can go through along the whole crispy surface. The Classically Ready Salted from Walkers are a historical snack salted with salt from Chesire (1.4%). Apparently, a very long time ago, in the Triassic period, some parts of Chesire were flooded with seawater. Those big salt reserves are nowadays used, for example, to spice up this Walkers' snack.

British potatoes are fried in a mixture of sunflower oil (26%) and rapeseed oil. Their taste is classical, as its labeling. The crisps are rather small in diameter and do not sate. Its crunch, short and powerful, leaves an airy sensation.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	5.5 cm long
and has a thickness of	0.91 mm
Crunchiness:	101 dB
Other features:	Flat thin cut
Origin:
Country, region	UK
We got them from	a Sainsbury’s supermarket in London
Price / gram	0,50 £ (pounds) / 25 g
On-line	http://corp.walkers.co.uk/#!/our-range/walkers-crisps/ready-salted

Artesancis - Lay's

Crisps&Critics was travelling when stumbled on these chips. Despite not having all the instruments to fill in the feature table, we felt these crisps were worth a review.

We got these potato crisps from a refrigerated vending machine. The chips were cold and they provided us with an unknown experience eating fresh chips under the Spanish sun. The flavour coming from the bag is very good and authentic, probably due to the chips being fried in olive oil (according to the Spanish labeling, in the Portuguese translation the oil type is not specified). One drawback: when chewing the potatoes it all felt like a floury mass. Still, their flavour, one of the best potato flavour tested so far. 

By the way, don’t let Lay’s marketing department fool you today (April 1st): The product name is “Artesancis” and not “Artesanas" or "Artesanais” (Spanish and Portuguese for "manually cooked") as Lay’s would like us to read from the packaging and their internet link. There’s some controversy around the net on (this and other) deceptive marketing techniques if you want to know more...

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	6 cm long
and has a thickness of	not available
Crunchiness:	not available
Other features:	Flat cut. Weird labeling.
Origin:
Country, region	Spain
We got them from	Vending machine
Price / gram	1 € / 40 g
On-line:	http://www.lays.es/productos/lays-artesanas/

Sunland Farm - Kelly's

The first review from Austria goes to the Sunland Farm Naturally Salted Chips, from Kelly's. 

It passed our review with honours. We had to read again and again at the ingredients list behind the bag to confirm that the excellent potato flavour of these chips is really authentic: no added flavours. 

Each chip has consistency and is crunchy hard: is it due to the Saratoga Springs original recipe? First, unpeeled Austrian potatoes go on a salty bath. Afterwards the chips are cooked on sunflower oil. Of course, the salt comes also from the Austrian Alps.

Special mention to another very well packed product: the Kelly's Airpack keeps the chips fresh and unbroken. 

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	7.5 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.14 mm
Crunchiness:	104 dB
Other features:	Unpeeled potatoes
Origin:
Country, region	Austria, Salzburg
We got them from	Spar supermarket
Price / gram	1.69 € / 100 g
On-line:	www.kellys.eu

Inside a Sunland Farm's bag