Free quasi crisps up for grabs...

As you know, I get sent stuff from time to time… with the hope I’ll review it on the blog or in print.  The stuff is often weird, generally wildly random and, to be honest, I don’t inflict most of it on you. 

James has become horribly blasé – he pokes his nose in the parcels and then rolls his eyes.  ‘Jesus. How old do they think I am?’  Okay, so as I pulled out the teeny weeny T-shirt and the yoyo I could see his point.  It takes a lot to impress him these days…unless it’s food. 

And in the last couple of weeks we have been sort of inundated (in a non watery way) with crisp type things.  I say that advisedly because they’re not technically crisps.  First up was Special K’s Cracker Crisps.  Several box loads. I’m not entirely sure why we were given such largesse– and, who knows, more may be on their way.  One parcel had been dispatched to ‘Exmoorjane Blogger, Somerset’ and still got here which was pretty good going. 

‘Say hello to new Special K Cracker Crisps,’ sang the press release. ‘A new savoury snack that, at 95 calories and three percent fat for a serving of 21 crisps, you can enjoy without the worry.’

Which gave me pause. 

First up I wondered who was the poor sod who had to write that press release?  And then I thought…95 kilocalories?  For 21 quasi crisps? That doesn’t sound very many – quasi crisp-wise.  And that sounds like quite a lot - calorie-wise.  How many are there in a normal packet?  So I Googled and found out that, actually, they are pretty low-calorie, well in comparison to other crisps and crisp type things.  Walkers Cheese and Onion crack in at 184 kcals, Wotsits are a hefty 212 kcals and McCoys Flame-grilled are a whopping 252 kcals (with 14.6 % fat). Incidentally they also apparently contain 0% alcohol.  Dontcha love labeling? 

By this point I’d gotten (sorry, I know it’s American now but I like it) a bit obsessed (as I tend to) and started wondering if they really were the lowest calorie crisp type thingies (not that they were claiming to be, but, y’know, you wonder, right)?   So I carried on Googling but "Page Not Found" came up and gave me the answer to ‘How often do pugs come into heat?’ instead.  Dontcha just love the Internet?  And, if you were wondering, the same amount as most other breeds apparently.  Providing the pug in question is a bitch.  Anyhow, eventually I discovered that Walkers Lites come in at 132 kcals.  But my all-time favourite – Quavers (the ones that sort of stick to your tongue and fizz) – are a paltry 87 kcals.  Go Quavers!  

Meanwhile, James was steadily working his way through three large boxes (yes - they also come in boxes ‘ideal for a night in’).  ‘These are yum,’ he said. 

‘Oh really?’

‘Yeah really.’

I’m not sure he’s part of their intended demographic.  Not sure he ever feels ‘racked by guilt’ by food or that he plans on slipping an individual bag ‘in his handbag’ as the press release suggests.  And I do wonder about this;  about whether it’s fostering healthy eating; associating food with guilt.  And how the hell do you turn crisps into diet food?  By packaging them like it, I suppose.  But hey, it’s your choice; it's down to you. We just test ‘em out… To be honest, they didn’t rock my boat but, like I say, James thought they were pretty good.  And, while I winced at the packaging, James didn’t even notice.

Meanwhile KETTLE® (they’re finickity about the way you write their name) Tortilla Chips don’t give a toss about calories, fat and guilt.  Their press release was all about the taste; it positively oozed and unctuosed (yeah, it’s great as a verb, huh?).  And at 466 kcals for the bag (we’re talking a big 160g bag by the way) they aren’t gonna be your best bet if you’re trying to lose weight (but then I don’t think any kind of crispy thing is really).  Great zingy packaging.  Four flavours, the usual suspects – Nacho Cheese, Cool Sour Cream, Sweet Chilli Salsa, Sea Salted.  Are they any different, any better than other tortilla chips?  A bit richer maybe…but I’m not entirely convinced that’s a good thing (I rather like a non-invasive tortilla chip myself).  James “loved them”.  Not sure Adrian even got a look-in. 

Anyhow.   There you go.  A rare product review from me.  If you wanna try the Kellogg’s Special K Cracker Crisps (what a mouthful!) for yourselves, Kellogg’s are offering three readers the chance to test all three flavours (the big(ish) ‘evening in’ boxes, not the diddy ‘slip ‘em in your handbag’ bags).  Just leave a comment and make sure I have some way of my getting touch with you if you wanna give ‘em a go.  If you want to try the others – you know the ones I mean (I can’t be arsed to do the trademark thingy again), they cost around £1.85 a bag from most supermarkets. 

Giveaway closes on Thursday morning so get in quick.