Where has our quest for organic, natural, and “sourced from the finest ingredients” food taken us? I shall tell you. To the brink of madness. I just had a Tyrells Naked Chip. Made proudly in Hertfordshire (as was I, but without the pride), said Naked Chips are potato crisps presented without any flavourings whatsoever. No salt, no nothing. These may be the antidote to ever more precise flavouring strategies of other posh crisp companies (Stilton & Port Kettle Chips) but frankly I have never eaten anything which has begged so much for salt.
We had a name for these when I was a kid. Crap Salt’n’Shake. Though as a kid I would have possibly been more taken with the naked ladies on the front of the packet, even if they are shown in an artful, safe for the grocer shelves way.
Tyrells do seem to do a flavoured line, including old FT favourite Parsnip and intriguing sound beetroot crisps, so maybe they are not all bad. Nevertheless the hyperbole involved with Anthony Piggy-Thompson calling them “The Holy Grail of Potato Chips” makes me slightly anti the whole concept. Surely the whole point of The Holy Grail is that no-one has found it. Use other superlatives please.