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

Kessel Chips Sea Salt - funny frisch

The german brand funny-frisch surprised us with a new version of their "cauldron cooked" potato chips: Kessel Chips Sea Salt.


The best quality German potatoes are washed with their skin on and then cut in flat thick slices. A long, slow and gentle baking process with abundant sunflower oil provides the corpulent chips with a particular hardness and excellent crunch. Many bent-overs mulitply the rotund crunchiness impression. Regarding the flavour, it's authentic but only until the, in our view, excessive salt amount bungles it, as already happenned with other funny-frisch reviews in the past.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	8.0 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.21 mm
Crunchiness:	92 dB
Other features:	Salty flat potato slices, thick and brittle.
Origin:
Country, region	Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia
We got them from	Hit supermarket
Price / gram	0.99 € / 120 g
On-line:	www.funny-frisch.de

Inside a bag of Kessel Chips Sea Salt by funny-frisch

Alfredo's salt - Amica chips

Alfredo's is the new gourmet series of the Italian potato chips manufacturer Amica chips (more Amica reviews here).

Medium size Italian potatoes are washed, cut flat and pretty thick. After being baked in sunflower oil a few salt grains are added (1.3%).

The whole process results in hard chunky chips with a loud crunch well balanced by the amount of salt used. 
"Al punto", as the chef Alfredo orders.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	7.1 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.61 mm
Crunchiness:	91 dB
Other features:	Medium size potato slices, thick, hard and brittle.
Origin:
Country, region	Italy, Mantua
We got them from	Kempten (Germany)
Price / gram	1.99 € / 150 g
On-line:	www.amicachips.it

Inside a bag of Alfredo's potato chips

Patatas Fritas en Aceite de Oliva Sabores del Mediterráneo - Vicente Vidal

We were surprised receiving another potato crisps bag by Vicente Vidal, this time from a "Sabores del Mediterraneo" edition, traditionally baked in 100% olive oil. 

These potato chips are carefully selected and bought directly to farmers from the Iberian peninsula. Once washed they are sliced flat and baked in the same way it's been done since 1931.  A pinch of salt is added at the end. We notice a soft crunch and a vegetable flavor that turns into a bitter sensation after a few seconds. For some it might be an unpleasant feeling similar to eating a rancid product. However such a bitterness might also be due to the presence of polyphenols in the olive oil. It can also be due to the above-the-average-content of olive oil in weight (38%) in the product.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	7.5 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.18 mm
Crunchiness:	80 dB
Other features:	Medium to big size potato slices, partly peeled and baked in abundant olive oil.
Origin:
Country, region	Spain, Navarre
We got them from	A local shop in Munich promoting Spanish specialties.
Price / gram	1.99 € / 150 g
On-line:	papasvidal.es/en/

Inside a bag of Patatas Fritas en Aceite de Oliva, Sabores Mediterraneo by Vicente Vidal

Marinas Flor de Sal d'Es Trenc - Vicente Vidal

Today we taste another of the Marina's collection product: Extra crunchy Mediterranean crisps with salt flower from Es Trenc. 

The salt from Es Trenc is a finest-quality sea salt harvested by hand and following a delicate process in which nothing is added or taken away. This gift from nature for healthy gourmets is added to today's tested chips in a very precise quantity: 0.6%. Enough to enjoy the taste of the thin and curled potato chips, cut flat and fried in sunflower oil (27%) according to a traditional recipe. 

The whole combination tastes to sunlight, summer and cristal clear waters.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	6.6 cm long
and has a thickness of	0.89 mm
Crunchiness:	93 dB
Other features:	Thin, pale yellow with darker roasted edges.
Origin:
Country, region	Spain, Navarre
We got them from	A TK Maxx store
Price / gram	1.99 € / 150 g
On-line:	www.patatasmarinas.com

Inside a bag of Marinas Flor de Sal d'Es Trenc, by Vicente Vidal.

Jemně solené - Bohemia

Czech potatoes are selected, washed and cut flat before being fried in 100% sunflower oil. Only then they are slightly spiced with salt (2.2%).

This results in plain chips of a pale yellow colour, pretty thin and not so loud at crunch. The chips feel greasy in the hand but not in the mouth. The aroma reminds us of being in a bohemian bookstore.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	6.1 cm long
and has a thickness of	0.91 mm
Crunchiness:	74 dB
Other features:	Pale yellow and thinly sliced potato chips.
Origin:
Country, region	Czech Republic, Choustnik
We got them from	a shopping mall in Brno.
Price / gram	15.90 Kč / 77 g
On-line:	www.bohemiachips.cz

Inside a bag of Bohemia jemně solené

Bio-organic hand cooked chips - Trafo

Today we bring you the handcooked version of the bio-organic Trafo chips, already tested by Crisps&Critics back in 2015 (you can check that review here). The potatoes and the sunflower oil come from 100% verified organically grown producers.

The potatoes are cut flat and slowly fried, what takes a bit longer to process than with regular potato chips.  The cooking is done at a relatively low temperature (max. 165ºC), providing more bite and taste. In the end they are seasoned with sea salt, very slightly, letting feel the true flavour of the potato while enjoying a multiplying crunch of many bent-over chips in our mouth.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	7.0 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.09 mm
Crunchiness:	95 dB
Other features:	Good crunch. Organic oil and potatoes.
Origin:
Country, region	Wolvega, The Netherlands
We got them from	a bio-shop in Allach, Germany
Price / gram	1,99 € / 125 g
On-line:	www.fzorganicfood.com

Inside a bag of hand cooked bio-organic chips, sea salt by Trafo.

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

Potato Chips with Salt - Tiger

Our first Danish review comes from Tiger. The first "Flying Tiger Copenhaguen" store opened in Munich and an avid Crisps&Critics follower approached us with a beautiful bag full of potato chips from the T-stores.

The packaging imitates a brown paper grocery bag and is fun-labelled with a sort of handwritten font type. When we open it we feel a good flavour and find medium sized chips with orange aureoles and a few dark spots. The chips crunch a lot, they are hard and thick. Cooked in abundant sunflower oil, we presume an overall good taste, the chips being generously salted. 

Produced in Sweden for the Danish company Zebra, the parent company of the Flying Tiger Copenhagen.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	6.9 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.79 mm
Crunchiness:	93 dB
Other features:	Thick potato chips with orange colour aureoles.
Origin:
Country, region	Denmark, Copenhagen
We got them from	an enthusiastic C&C fan bought them at a Flying Tiger shop.
Price / gram	1.50 € / 150 g
On-line:	www.flyingtiger.com

Inside a bag of Flying Tiger potato chips

Strážnícké brambůrky jemně solené - Petr Hobža

Back in 1988, the Hobža couple had an idea: Place a pile of sliced potatoes on a pan for the visitors to an outdoor cinema to have something tasty to eat together with their pint. None of them knew, though, that just a few years later they would be selling tons of crisps in Czechia and Slovakia.

Selected Czech potatoes of small size are washed, thin flat sliced, washed again in clean water, centrifuged and fried in abundant rapeseed oil (36% of final product). Only then a pinch of salt is added, resulting in light yellow translucent crisps with a reasonable crunch and unique aroma.

Nicely decorated package for the Strážnícké brambůrky jemně solené  (Crisps slightly salted from the Strážnícé town) with flower motives over a transparent background lets us see what we are going to taste: authentic Czech crisps.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	5.0 cm long
and has a thickness of	0.99 mm
Crunchiness:	83 dB
Other features:	Very thinly sliced potato chips.
Origin:
Country, region	Czech Republic, Strážnícé
We got them from	a shopping mall in Brno during the Moto GP 2017
Price / gram	17.90 Kč / 60 g
On-line:	http://www.hobza.cz

Inside a bag of Strážnícké brambůrky jemně solené by Petr Hobža

Original Recipe - Miss Vickie's

Our first review from Canada goes to Miss Vickie's Original Recipe.

Specially selected farm potatoes of small/medium size are cut flat and kettle cooked with unspecified vegetable oil in small batches, with a precise pinch of sea salt. Light yellow chips with some bubbles, as depicted in the package, and many bent-overs (sometimes three-fold) multiply the crunch sensation. 

Some like to eat healthy, others prefer tasty, but as consumers we want to know what we eat: Be it maple syrup or poutine. It would be great if Miss Vickie's would inform about the oil type used in her -by the way very savoury- product.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	6.4 cm long
and has a thickness of	1.43 mm
Crunchiness:	97 dB
Other features:	Many bent-overs, cooked in unspecified vegetable oil.
Origin:
Country, region	Ontario, Canada
We got them from	a local grocer of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.
Price / gram	3.67 Can$ / 220 g
On-line:	https://www.missvickies.ca

Inside a bag of Miss Vickie's Original Recipe.

Potato Stix - Utz

Our first review from the USA is finally here, let's taste Utz's Potato Stix!

At the time of writing this post it is almost 100 years that William and Salie Utz started making fresh potato chips in a tiny kitchen. Today Utz produces chips in 395 flavours and iterations.

The potato sticks we tasted are peeled, cut in sticks and then baked in cottonseed oil. This results in a soft dampened crunch and a certain floury sensation in our mouth when chewing the sticks. 

To pack these sticks in a can not only looks good and keeps the sticks intact: it is space efficient. In a volume similar to regular 150g flat cut potato chips, Utz's barrel is capable to hold almost half a kilo of potato sticks!

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	5.1 cm long
and has a thickness of	2.32 mm
Crunchiness:	74 dB
Other features:	Plenty of potato sticks packed in a 15 oz can.
Origin:
Country, region	Silver Creek, NY, USA
We got them from	Walmart in Novi, Michigan.
Price / gram	3.98 $ / 425.2 g
On-line:	www.utzsnacks.com

Inside a can of utz Potato Stix.

Xips de verdures - Ve de gust

Today we bring you potatoes of the sweet type. Together with extremely thin slices of yucca, beetroot and platain that complement eachother very well. All are cut flat and carefully fried in sunflower oil. The ensemble provides a crunchy symphony and subtle flavour mix in our palates. Sweet and salty never went along so well. The package transmits purity and luxury.

Features:
The biggest potato crisps is	4,2 cm long
and has a thickness of	? mm
Crunchiness:	95 dB
Other features:	Very thinly sliced sweet potatoes with yucca, beetroot and platain.
Origin:
Country, region	Spain, Catalonia
We got them from	a butcher in Mataró.
Price / gram	4,50 € / 130 g
On-line:	http://www.xipsvedegust.com

Inside a bag of Xips de Verdures of Ve de Gust.