I'd like to give you all a hearty welcome to guest crisp reviewer Sarah, who is reviewing the new flavour from Hackney crisp makers Leighton Brown.
Not everyone is a fan of the vegetable crisp, after all, it has been a little overdone - its novelty soon wore off when every mediocre self-professed 'gastro-pub' in Britain started serving up a melange of multi-coloured baked vegetable slivers in place of their more conventional, reliable, potato-based cousins, in the hopes of appearing just that little bit more fancy. Truth be told, out of the average vegetable crisp offerings, I would normally by-pass the unappetising-looking beetroot bits, sifting out the delicious curls of parsnip instead. Because parsnips are awesome.
HOWEVER. These deep damson and golden covered morsels (yes, that's right, golden beets are a thing) are downright delicious. There's only a soft crunch to them, but honestly that's fine, as they win you over with their melt in the mouth-ness. The flavour is sweet and almost tangy at first but soon mellows leaving behind the genius addition of the dill. Dill I tell you. Dill! It just works, and the after taste is earthy and herby and wonderful. The only very slight disappointment was that I couldn't really detect any horseradish - there's no heat - and so maybe a smidge more of the hot stuff would have off-set the sweetness rather brilliantly. But really that's only a tiny complaint. These crisps are how vegetable crisps ought to be done. Would any chef worth his mustard serve up vegetables naked and bland and boring? No, he'd season the shit out of them. And so it should be with crisps. Now pass the dill.
8/10
Not everyone is a fan of the vegetable crisp, after all, it has been a little overdone - its novelty soon wore off when every mediocre self-professed 'gastro-pub' in Britain started serving up a melange of multi-coloured baked vegetable slivers in place of their more conventional, reliable, potato-based cousins, in the hopes of appearing just that little bit more fancy. Truth be told, out of the average vegetable crisp offerings, I would normally by-pass the unappetising-looking beetroot bits, sifting out the delicious curls of parsnip instead. Because parsnips are awesome.
HOWEVER. These deep damson and golden covered morsels (yes, that's right, golden beets are a thing) are downright delicious. There's only a soft crunch to them, but honestly that's fine, as they win you over with their melt in the mouth-ness. The flavour is sweet and almost tangy at first but soon mellows leaving behind the genius addition of the dill. Dill I tell you. Dill! It just works, and the after taste is earthy and herby and wonderful. The only very slight disappointment was that I couldn't really detect any horseradish - there's no heat - and so maybe a smidge more of the hot stuff would have off-set the sweetness rather brilliantly. But really that's only a tiny complaint. These crisps are how vegetable crisps ought to be done. Would any chef worth his mustard serve up vegetables naked and bland and boring? No, he'd season the shit out of them. And so it should be with crisps. Now pass the dill.
8/10
