Blair's Death Rain - Jolokia Pepper (US)

On a recent trip to central Sydney, I happened upon a convenient store in Haymarket which stocked the mother of all spicy crisps, Blair's Death Rain - Jolokia Pepper. You can imagine my excitement when I noticed the fiery beast in the humblest of convenient stores. I saved the packet until I returned home, in order to take in the full experience of possibly the hottest crisps on the market today. I ate the first few crisps slowly, focusing on the crisps itself and the flavour. While the crunch and overall structure of the Blair's Death Rain crisp is exceptional, I must say, there is little flavour in the Jolokai Pepper variety. I realise this sounds like the rhetoric of a chilli novice but, in this instance, I must concur with the popular phrase of ‘heat evaders’. If you remember well, this is the second packet of Blair’s Death Rain crisps I have reviewed. The first packet was the Habanero variety. The little sibling of the Jolokia flavour. I found Habanero to be spicy enough to make the eyes water but still maintain a very pleasant taste. The Jolokia flavour is not so. Jolokia is no mucking around, kick you in the balls, hot! This is the hottest crisp I have ever tried. Like the Habanero flavour, the store attendant that sold me Blair's Death Rain - Jolokia Pepper, warned me of the immense heat contained inside this packet. Never the less, after the first few testers, I decided to challenge myself and I smashed the entire packet in about 5 minutes. As I devoured the contents of the packet, my lips began to sting, my throat began to burn and by the end of the packet, my tongue felt like the searing sand of a thousand deserts! I had a sweat on and my eyes were watering. I was gargling water and the burn still lingered for about 15 minutes after. While the flavour is not great, that is not the point. These crisps are meant to be hot and hot they are! I enjoyed the challenge but Blair's Death Rain - Jolokia Pepper would not be my first choice on every occasion. ⋆⋆⋆⋆

Kettle Chunky – Mediterranean Herbs & Spices (Aus)

As some of you are aware, I am back in Australia. While I was away, a friend of mine sent me a picture of some new crisps that came out in Australia which were a thicker cut to the usual cauldron cooked crisp. Obviously I was very excited about this and booked a flight home at once. I had a stopover in Thailand on the way but couldn’t enjoy it, as I was unable to focus my attention away from my pending purchase. Once back in Australia I did as all good returning Australians do. I bought a Chocolate milk. How I had missed that smooth chocolaty texture. The next trip was with my mother, to the supermarket, from which the highly anticipated purchase was made. Casually tossing the packet in to the shopping trolley, my mother spotted the selection I had made. She looked at me with a concerned glare. I asked my mother what was the trouble and she replied “don’t get those ones, Matt, they will break your teeth”. As I was fully aware that these crisps were thicker than the average crisp, I replied rather nonchalantly “I think I will be ok”. However, the warnings did not stop. My mother went on to explain that upon these very crisps, she chipped her tooth and when my young nephew attempted to bite through the extra chunky crisp, he required a filling. Heroically and undeterred by all the warnings, I continued on my quest to review the thickest cut crisp on the market. Tentatively, I bit down on the first crisp. Let me tell you readers, these crisps are crunchy, probably the crunchiest this connoisseur has ever come across. They are also very crispy, which I imagine would be the difficulty in creating a thicker than average crisp. The Mediterranean Herbs & Spices flavour is lightly sweet and slightly peppery with hints of oregano and rosemary. The flavour is good but not mind blowing. Despite the cautions from concerned loved ones I thought the chunky crisps were a success. There was a lot of bubble crisps and folded crisps in this packet, which makes for an exciting time! ⋆⋆⋆⋆