REAL Crisps – Ham and English Mustard:
“First off, let’s have it right. REAL (I’m using the capitalisation because they do) are a boss brand of crisp. But I would expect nothing less. Part of the Tayto group, they’re the siblings of other popular brands such as Tayto itself, the evergreen (and no I don’t mean mouldy potatoes!) Golden Wonder, pub favourite Mr Porky pork scratchings and the upper class Jonathan Crisp who like REAL try to breath character into their fried spud offerings. So when I get a chance to savour a flavour from REAL I do expect a lot and these big beauties don’t disappoint.
“The cut of the crisps is thick and they offer wonderful crunch. They’re not oily either as can be the case sometimes with ‘handcooked’ chips as our American cousins might call them. But that’s par for the course for REAL crisps as far as I’m concerned; I expect that quality. What’s great here is the flavouring. Now, meat flavoured snacks aren’t everyone’s cup of tea (although if you’ve read some of my other reviews then you’ll know they most definitely are to my taste) and English mustard (which let’s remind ourselves, can be pretty damned hot) is not exactly subtle but you’ve got respect the balancing act here. You can absolutely recognise a good ham taste which when incorporating mustard can be a tough ask in itself but the mustard hit is a good one too. It’s enjoyable without blowing you socks off and not leaving too nasty an after taste. I mean, you will of course feel like you’ve got a bit of indigestion post snack, they wouldn’t be doing their job if you didn’t! So whilst it’s not exactly gentle it is more subtle on your palette than say Brannigan’s (explosive but still magnificent in my humble opinion) Roast Beef and Mustard crisps. So if you’re after that particular through your nose type mustard rush you might be disappointed but these are cracking if you ask me.”
8/10
Stevo, Crisp Nation
“First off, let’s have it right. REAL (I’m using the capitalisation because they do) are a boss brand of crisp. But I would expect nothing less. Part of the Tayto group, they’re the siblings of other popular brands such as Tayto itself, the evergreen (and no I don’t mean mouldy potatoes!) Golden Wonder, pub favourite Mr Porky pork scratchings and the upper class Jonathan Crisp who like REAL try to breath character into their fried spud offerings. So when I get a chance to savour a flavour from REAL I do expect a lot and these big beauties don’t disappoint.
“The cut of the crisps is thick and they offer wonderful crunch. They’re not oily either as can be the case sometimes with ‘handcooked’ chips as our American cousins might call them. But that’s par for the course for REAL crisps as far as I’m concerned; I expect that quality. What’s great here is the flavouring. Now, meat flavoured snacks aren’t everyone’s cup of tea (although if you’ve read some of my other reviews then you’ll know they most definitely are to my taste) and English mustard (which let’s remind ourselves, can be pretty damned hot) is not exactly subtle but you’ve got respect the balancing act here. You can absolutely recognise a good ham taste which when incorporating mustard can be a tough ask in itself but the mustard hit is a good one too. It’s enjoyable without blowing you socks off and not leaving too nasty an after taste. I mean, you will of course feel like you’ve got a bit of indigestion post snack, they wouldn’t be doing their job if you didn’t! So whilst it’s not exactly gentle it is more subtle on your palette than say Brannigan’s (explosive but still magnificent in my humble opinion) Roast Beef and Mustard crisps. So if you’re after that particular through your nose type mustard rush you might be disappointed but these are cracking if you ask me.”
8/10
Stevo, Crisp Nation
