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2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20
After beers and snacks, our exploration of the discount products. The clerks now know us and greet us with a mixture of compassion and admiration: according to them we are stoic.
Despite this and despite certain unforgettable taste surprises (sic!), We decided to venture into the world of chips and similar. Because not everyone can emulate Cracco and afford gourmet chips every day.
We then tasted different products, drawing up two rankings as always.
In the first you will find a selection of the last in the class, in the other you can get an overview of the best, those to be kept in the pantry and even, yes, to offer to guests.
The worst of the worst
(from the first worst to the last)
6. Twinny - Jocky Chips
125 gr - 0, 89 euros
Tasting them and feeling catapulted into a Chinese restaurant on the outskirts of the world was one thing.
Harmless to the eye, these hollow potato rectangles bring together the smell of the worst festivals you have attended. The grease surrounds the mouth, binds it and holds it captive for hours.
The presence of palm oil among the ingredients is the least of the problems given the terrible taste and the subtly sweet paprika aftertaste that remains.
Bag Snack products from Galliera Veneta, a company founded in 1987 which in 1997 aimed at the Eastern European market (especially the Czech Republic) through its subsidiary Bag International.
Sold by Prix.
5. Noodles - Jocky Chips
125 gr - 0, 99 euros
Pale like the bloodless princesses of certain films of the past, these rolled strips are the older sisters of the Twinnys mentioned above.
If the smell reminds you of adolescence, when you went to a Chinese restaurant and they brought you dragon clouds, which you looked at as exotic food with a mix of circumspection and charm, the flavor is barely better than the previous ones. Same manufacturer, same discount.
4. Croquettes of corn with cheese - Buongiorno Natura
100 gr - 0, 89 euros
Emulating the Fonzies (who have created hordes of employees due to the aroma of synthetic cheese), these croissants do not equal the originals.
Pleasing to the eye, the smell of cheese mixes with that of oil on the nose. Insipid and very crunchy, bordering on hard.
For sale by IN's. Salati Preziosi brand, produced by Preziosi Food, a subsidiary of the Giochi precious group (now sold to Vertis sgr).
3. Paprika stick - CrustiCroc
1250 gr - 0, 69 euros
The party of flavor enhancers in matchstick format. The bag leaves no room for the imagination: here the aroma of paprika (recalled by the vivid purplish red of the package) is clearly perceptible to sight and smell.
If you manage to overcome the color barrier, you will see an uneven browning and a greasiness that is too pronounced in some cases.
Tasty on the palate and salted correctly (we would have expected much more salt), however, they have a long list of ingredients to scare them (when we arrived at the "smoke flavoring" we stopped shaking our heads).
Not recommended for an aperitif unless you have a tank of water at hand. Made in Germany, unknown location. On sale at Lidl.
2. Rustics - Good morning Nature
150 gr - 0, 59 euros
Why do apparently simple and therefore potentially good chips tumble so low?
Easy: they are the excess made fried tuber. A heralded rusticity made the producer exceed: too browned, too salty, too greasy and with a marked and unpleasant smell of oil.
The search for a return to the ancient and artisanal and to raw flavors sometimes leads astray, straight into a ditch of taste. The product makes you regret the synthetic flavors, glutamate and flavor enhancers.
For sale by IN's. Products by Preziosi Food, see above.
1. Paprika-flavored crisps - Mambo Kids
150gr - 0, 89 euros
Bag that Spartan is an understatement. Transparency, a winner in the case of a product that wants to boast craftsmanship and good looks, in this case turns out to be a boomerang.
The sight reveals an excessively high oil level, uneven frying (some fries are visibly burnt and therefore very dark) and an uneven distribution of the paprika seasoning.
The smell leads to the glutamate as well as the flavor: on the palate, however, the spicy sweetness prevails over the salty one.
On sale by Eurospin, they are produced by Ica Foods, in the Pomezia (Rm) plant.
The best of the worst
(starting from the bottom of the ranking up to the best, in first position)
8. Classic crisps - CrustiCroc
200 gr - 0, 89 euros
A spartan package, with the questionable choice of a blue that would be best for a car catalog, here are the Lidl chips.
Classic (only potatoes, sunflower oil and salt), they have a slightly nauseating smell. Dull to the eye, they do not stand out for their inviting and uniform gilding. To the taste they reveal too marked greasiness, which is also visible from the oil spots on the surface.
Not very salty (where is the salt when it is needed to cover the flavor?), They are forgettable on the whole and deserve a last place in the ranking of the best only for the limited number of ingredients compared to other competitors.
Strictly Made in Germany, the production plant is not specified.
7. Tortilla Corn chips - CrustiCroc
300 gr - 1.19 euros
Those who have the attribute of polenta eater in their DNA do not do it so easily.
So if we Venetians can be said to be polentoni, the proud answer is that yes, we are, but by virtue of this we look with shrewd experience at the category of snacks that are called tortillas and would like to evoke South America, when instead they remember –Taste– the countryside of the 1950s, poverty, emigration.
Using the criterion of the ingredients list, where generally the little is better, we make them among the best even if these corn crusts are practically insignificant.
Pale, with an almost imperceptible smell, not too greasy, they are absolutely tasteless. Little salt, crunchy to the limit of hard, emblem of the snack for those who are satisfied.
They come from Belgium, even if it is not known where from. On sale at Lidl.
6. Chips - Mambo Kids
65 gr - 0, 65 euros
The package winks at the Cipster, the originals.
Among the ingredients (potato flour and starch) there is also palm oil, which is not comforting but also appears in the originals.
The flavor does not excite, a chemical and synthetic prevails, however they are not particularly greasy, nor too salty.
For sale by Eurospin, they are produced by the well-known Pata di Castiglione delle Stiviere (MN).
5. Teddy's hit - CrustiCroc
125 gr - 0, 99 euros
If the intent of marketing strategists is to seduce small consumers who parade on the shelves with their parents, this is the winning choice, it must be admitted.
Attractive packaging, bright colors and a multiplication of bears that not even Haribo. These Teddy's hits are the "Cipster" version for children: perfect for children's birthdays where in the end, the parents, affected by the organizational stress of the event, pounce on these snacks.
Pale and slightly transparent they do not have a particularly inviting smell. However, they are not too greasy, and the flavor - despite being made with powdered potatoes - is decent. Correct the salting.
Made in Germany (as usual with no other details), they are on sale at Lidl.
4. Cheese croissants - Snack Day
200 gr - 0, 69 euros
Let's face it right away: these croissants play dirty. For sale at Lidl, they come in harmless transparent packaging, complemented by an almost anonymous logo. The point is that when you open the package you are drawn into a vortex of addiction that you never leave.
The smell of cheese is not too pronounced and the color is even pleasant, a nice sunny yellow. Crunchy on the first bite (obviously you don't eat one croissant at a time, but two or three at the same time) melt in your mouth, thanks to the palm oil.
Greasy as expected, they bewitch with the cheesy flavor given by unspecified “cheese-containing flavors” and glutamate, which leads to repeated drinking and then eating again.
Stopping at the list of ingredients you would liquidate them immediately, in reality the surprise comes at the end, when you read who produces them: Amica chips. Surprised?
They end up on the list of the best for an overall pleasant taste and because certain competitors have been able to do much, much worse.
2./3. Classic Mambo Kids / Tipeta
Same price: 300 gr - 0, 79 euros
Why do we put them together by assigning them a good position (2nd place)?
Simply because, despite being sold in two different discount stores (respectively Eurospin and Prix) they are produced by the same company, Pata.
Fairly uniform to the visual examination, with a good gilding, in some cases they are guilty of an excess of oil, but these are limited episodes.
Pleasant to the nose, where oil is not predominant over the potato, they have the flavor you expect to find from the classic and comforting potato chips of the bar, those served alongside peanuts and spritz.
Cracco does not live here, in the sense that they are cool things, I would rather say the dear old fries of alcoholic conversation. You can offer them easily without making a bad impression.
1. The crunchy Classics with iodized salt - Mambo Kids
150 gr - 0, 99 euros
Sober bag, which refers to a certain craftsmanship confirmed by that captivating "iodized salt" shot in the spotlight.
Good scent of potatoes and not of oil, perfect thickness, uniform browning, absence of greasiness, inviting crunchiness and good flavor, even with the correct salting.
In short, as you will have understood, they are the best in the test.
Produced by Pata (who wins outright, in short), you can find them for sale at Eurospin.