From sparkling wine to steak and ale – I tried all the booze flavoured crisps and there was one obvious winner
FAREWELL dry January – it’s back to boozy business.
And what could be better than enjoying your favourite bevvy with a good old bag of crisps?
Burts Ridges has only gone and brought out packs of Guinness-flavoured crisps, on sale as an Aldi Special Buy ahead of today’s Six Nations rugby match between England and Ireland.
But they are not the only booze-themed snacks that are available.
Laura Stott knocks back a range of crisps and gives her verdicts and scores.
Yorkshire Crisps Chardonnay Wine Vinegar
£2.92, yorkshirecrisps.co.uk
THESE delicious premium snacks are perfectly golden and evenly fried.
They are made near Sheffield and have the look and feel of a top-end luxury crisp – and they taste fabulous.
This is a quality vino-themed snack, perfect for pairing with your post-work bevvy, be that a pint or a glass of wine at your local – or kitchen table.
A thick texture to bite into, lots of yummy folded-over nibbles and an incredibly moreish soft salt and vinegar taste.
It is difficult to stop yourself delving back into the packet for more.
Made with Yorkshire spuds, these are a more expensive crunch, but they deliver on flavour.
RATING: 4/5
Burts Guinness
£1.35, Aldi Specialbuy
THERE might be a shortage of the black stuff in pubs – but fans of the Irish stout can now get their fix in this snack instead.
With a murky brown colour, they are darker than your average crisp, with a potent aroma which sadly I didn’t enjoy at all.
There’s lots of barley and malt in each mouthful and you get the same bitter flavour sensations as the drink. But for me, this was not a pleasant experience.
They’ve tried to replicate the creaminess with a mild milky taste, which I found very sour. Yet these crisps were still sweet.
All in all, they left me feeling queasy. A novelty munch good for extreme Guinness lovers.
RATING: 1/5
Savoursmiths Bubbly and Serrano Chilli
£2.25, various stores
CAPTURING the flavours of a flute in a crisp can’t have been easy.
But these really taste like you’ve popped the cork and had a sip of bubbly, probably because they contain the real thing, with both Chardonnay and Norfolk sparkling wine listed as ingredients.
They even have a slightly fizzy texture, which was great fun – a bit like eating cola bottle sweets.
Combine this with the fiery kick from serrano chilli and you can’t go wrong.
Not cheap, but well worth splashing out on for a treat or a party.
The only way to improve these delicious morsels would be to open a bottle of real bubbly to drink with them.
RATING: 4/5
Finest Sea Salt Chardonnay Vinegar
£1.35, Tesco
THE crisps in this bag were a little hit and miss. Some were very thick, others very thin, which crumbled into inedible pieces.
However, they were not oily and I liked that.
All the crisps seemed very pale, which was a shame because it made them appear more like a cheaper style of snack, not a premium pick.
But the flavour was great. Lots of lovely sharp vinegar acidity, a moreish saltiness which keeps you diving back in and a pleasant boozy-tasting buzz.
These are a bold- flavoured bag, so probably won’t be for you if you like your potato chips mild and subtle.
But I enjoyed scoffing them.
Good value for money, too.
RATING: 3/5
Sea Salt & Chardonnay Wine Vinegar
£1.14, Asda
A LOVELY crisp with thick crunchy slices of potato, no greasy fingers and a lip-smacking balance of sharp and salty.
But I struggled to get much Chardonnay flavour at all.
These taste more like a standard – albeit very nice – fancy pack of salt and vinegar snacks.
The plonk taste was completely absent from the packet I opened.
Not a bad one to enjoy with a glass of real chilled Chardonnay, or rather nice to put out in a bowl for a party.
But if you really want to taste the booze in your nibbles, you are better off opting for a different packet.
RATING: 2/5
Specially Selected Steak and Ale
£1.15, Aldi
THESE beef and booze bites are brilliant – by far the best value of all the tipsy titbits I tucked into.
They taste pretty much exactly how you want them to.
You get a very meaty waft the moment you open the bag and the crinkle cut delivers the robust flavours of beef and ale.
With the potato acting as the pastry element, they really taste like a meat and hops pie, which is pretty clever.
A very hearty handful, these crisps are thick cut and give you something to get your teeth into.
Perfect for pairing with a pint or when only something substantial will do as a snack.
RATING: 3/5
The Best Steak, Ale & Onion
£1.30, Morrisons
THESE state that they are hand-cooked in small batches.
But I was still disappointed the bag was smaller than the others I tried – 125g compared to around 150g for the alternatives.
These are chunky, ridged slices of potato, so you get a proper mouthful to crunch that’s full of texture and flavour with a very potent beefy aroma.
Made with dried Southwold ale, you get the smell of hops.
But with so many big tastes competing, you can’t really distinguish them.
They reminded me of a crisp version of a Sunday roast.
Perfect washed down with an ice-cold lager. I wasn’t a fan of the meaty aftertaste, though.
RATING: 4/5
Sea Salt & Chardonnay Wine Vinegar
£1.75, Co-Op
A TOUCH pricier than some supermarket snacks, but what you get are some top-quality flavoured nibbles.
You can even taste the specially selected potatoes from Hertfordshire.
Sprinkled with mouth-watering flecks of proper sea salt crystals, with a punch of acidity from the Chardonnay white, these look and taste like they could be twice the price.
A good selection of textures, from chunky slices to smaller, curled crisps, but all giving you a gratifying crunch when you bite in.
Lovely with a glass of something chilled, or scoffed from the bag on the sofa.
WINNER: 5/5
Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme – Sun Club.