Best Eats This Week: Corkers Crisps

Crisps in the market have gone through a transformation -- from the factory processed junk food with an ingredient list incomprehensible to anyone without a Chemistry degree, to all the artisan hand-cooked crisps that have been loved and cared for from beginning to end.   Crisps have gone gourmet and healthy(-er). 

Corkers is one of such, with a family potato farm in Cambridgeshire that's been around since the 1800s, and all their crisps are cooked on site.  They have been awarded UK Potato Grower of the Year, which I suppose is as prestigious as it gets in the crisps world.  But more importantly, they have been named Best Regional Supplier by Waitrose and three of their crisp flavors have been awarded gold stars from The Great Taste Awards.

And after sampling their impressive range of flavors, I'm convinced.  Starting with the Sea Salt, how refreshing it is to see that the ingredient list only consisted of potatoes, sunflower oil and sea salt.  It has a wonderful crunch, quite thin, and just enough salt.  Same for all the other flavors -- not overwhelmingly salty, not the crisps that make you feel the need to gulp down a pint of water. 

Other notable flavors are the new Gressingham Duck and Hoisin, reminiscent of Peking Duck.  The Pork Sausage and English Mustard is bold and delicious, and definitely a favorite.  The Mixed Vegetable crisps are the best I've had, and are perfectly sweet and lovely.

You can find Corkers at selected Waitrose stores (another sign of quality), Tate and National Trust properties.