REVIEW: Tyrrell’s – Sweet Chili & Red Pepper Hand Cooked Potato Crisps

Rating: ©©©©-3/4 chips  (lip-smacking)

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Comments:

Apparently, some time ago, we here at Chip Review already had the pleasure of tasting Tyrrell’s Sweet Chili and Red Pepper Potato Crisps.  The bag above on the left, must be some older rendition that Tyrrell’s released years ago.  While the bag on the right displays one of the Tyrrell’s timeless black and white photos.  Since we cannot find any notes, or rating for these crisps, and none of us can even remember tasting them at all, we will approach and review them as if it was for the very first time.

First, and foremost, we must admit that there was a bit of a disagreement here at Chip Review about who each of the dapper gentlemen were gracing the front of the potato crisp bag.  In the end, after a bit of yelling and stomping, and even name calling, the dust settled and we agreed that the gent on the right must be none other than Sweet Chili himself, and that would make Mr. Red Pepper his sidekick on the left.

As for the potato crisps themselves, well, it did not take more than a couple of handfuls for us to determine that Tyrrell’s had created a uniquely complex, and tasty flavor combination with their Sweet Chili & Red Pepper.  In fact, it was easy for us to declare these as the best Tyrrell’s potato crisps that we had ever tasted!  One miniscule issue we did initially have with the crisps was the flavor name.  To us, it seemed a bit redundant to say both chili and pepper flavored, because quite often these two words are referring to the same thing.  Maybe with a tad more clarification, or description, we would have understood that the pepper in the name was referring to peppercorns and flakes, and the chili was referring to the chili pepper?  Minor qualm, but one that we felt needed addressing.

Getting back to that uniquely complex and tasty flavor combo we mentioned above.  We should just say from the get go, that we are not going to do the description of this flavor the justice that it deserves.  The complexity of this multilfaceted flavor bonanza was quite simply amazing.  From the very get go we tasted the sweet, the spicy chili, and the aromatic and zippy pepper punch.  The flavor seemed to hit each taste bud with every chip.  Beyond the expected seasoning notes, we also tasted loads of garlic, and then lots of other intricate flavors that we could not pinpoint; but one glance to the ingredients list and we saw there there was also anise, ginger, basil and white pepper – WOW!  Can we just point out the spicy spectrum that these chips deliver – they include ginger, garlic, white pepper, jalapeno chili pepper, cayenne pepper, and red pepper.

We’ve commented numerous times on Tyrrell’s potato crisps in the past.  How their crisps are very crunchy, nearly verging on being too hard.  How the crisps are made of whole cross sections of the potato, meaning that the entire edge of the crisp still has the peel intact, and that the majority of the crisps are whole slices (pretty darn unique within the industry if you ask us).  The potato crisps are a perfect match for Tyrrell’s flavor extravaganza.

Lastly, it took us a while to figure it out, but we finally realized that these Sweet Chili and Red Pepper crisps, kind of remind us of a cross between Kettle Brand’s Spicy Thai Potato Chips, and Mackie’s of Scotland Scotch Bonnet Potato Crisps.

As always, these are our thoughts, we would love to hear what you think.  Agree or disagree, let us know.

Chips provided to Chip Review from Tyrrell’s Potato Crisps for review

Chip Ratings Scale:

(1/4 increments)

© – return to sender

©© – tolerable

©©© – notable

©©©© – lip-smacking

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