Mackie’s of Scotland Potato Crisps – Mature Cheddar & Onion
I like to delude myself into thinking I’m an adventurous eater/snacker, but today’s product may convince you otherwise. I had never heard of this particular brand until I came across this product at a specialty store. This brand of crisps, or chips as we call them in the North, are made by a company in Scotland. The company was started in 2009 as a joint venture between potato farmers and a company known for making luxury ice cream. Sounds like a weird combo, I know, but if they’ve been around for over a decade, they have to be doing something right. Right?!
The store I went to had a somewhat limited variety compared to what they show on their website. Sadly I wasn’t adventurous to try the haggis and black pepper flavour. Part of it was trying to play safe to get a baseline and see if this brand is worth coming back to, but another is that I’m just not that big a fan of black pepper. When done tastefully and sparingly, it is great and can enhance a dish or snack. But I have had too many bad experiences with people using too much. It’s gotten to the point where I tend to associate foods that have too much black pepper as not being as fresh, and using it as crutch to hide the flavour of things that aren’t as fresh.
With all that exposition out of the way, let’s get down to it. Going with a safe flavour like cheese and onion means I can draw more comparisons to other brands as a reference point. Plus, if a brand can’t do something classic like cheese and onion well, what hope will it have of doing the other stuff well?
The chips look a lot like they’re baked, more than they do the typical chip. Actually, based on reading the descriptions on the bag touting a different taste and texture, I imagined something to be more like a kettle cooked chip. The smell is pretty cheesy, and what you’d expect from any other cheese flavoured chips.
One of the things they mention about their chips is that they are gently cooked, and they use sunflower oil to lightly cook the chips. From a consumption perspective, the texture is very reminiscent of a baked chip. The texture is more crisp than crunchy, and overall the chip is drier than one that would have been deep fried like the common, cheaper ones you find. This could either be a good or bad thing depending on your preference. For me, I personally prefer this style, where it’s a bit drier, but it also doesn’t leave behind as much grease and make me feel as disgusting. The chips have a more starchy texture, and taste like homemade chips. While they don’t have as satisfying as a crunch, they have more of a potato flavour to them, which I assume is because it hasn’t been fried to oblivion. I also notice that the chips don’t tend to curl or get into all sorts of weird shapes as some more common brands like Lay’s do. My guess is these chips start out thicker, so when they get fried it doesn’t curl in on itself.
If there’s one thing that I’m not too crazy about, it’s how salty the flavour can be. It isn’t that these have more sodium than other brands. In fact, it has a lot less than certain comparable flavours from other brands. And yet, it somehow hits my tongue as a bit on the salty side. Though to be fair, it could be because of how fast I’m eating them. But that shouldn’t be my fault! They should expect people to be shoveling these down their gullet. If you aren’t confident enough in your brand to expect gluttons like me to plow through a bag in one sitting, you’re probably doing something wrong.
Joking aside, these are awesome and this brand is definitely on my radar now. Having more confidence in this brand, I’ll hopefully venture into the more interesting and unique flavours in their offering. Assuming I can find them. But where there’s a will, there’s a way.
