It's distressing how many British sweet brands now have a chain of ownership leading to the US. Mondelez famously bought Cadbury's, and Bain Capital (y'know, Mitt Romney's company) own most of the "classics" like Barratts, Fox's Glacier Mints, Poppets, Tavener's, Mojo chews, Barker & Dobson etc. The only big non-American company left is Nestle, and they can also fuck wayyyyy off.
It's only Terry's and Tunnocks left now, and even then Terry's are owned by the Fr*nch.
I guess not so much in the grander scheme of things, but it’s astonishing and depressing in equal measures that Britain doesn’t seem able to have kept hold of any of its own beloved home-grown brands.
Holy shit. I just got back from a more civilised country and while I was there I bought a family-sized bag of shallot flavour Brets crisps. "I'll just try one," I thought. Did I nail that entire bag in the car park? Why, I do believe I did.
Cameron Healy Founded Kettle Foods In Salem, Oregan, USA. Cameron and his son discovered the British love of crisps, prompting Cameron to establish Kettle Foods in the UK.
He chose Norfolk as our home, where you can still find us to this day, in order to be as close as possible to many of our potato growers. Our first home was actually the corner of an old converted shoe factory in Norwich. And so, from humble beginnings, the first KETTLE® Chips were produced in the UK.
Cameron Healy and UK Co-owner, Tim Meyer, got talking to owner and chef Chris Barnard, in whom he recognised a true passion for authentic foods and > ingredients.
Sharing Cameron’s vision, Chris soon packed up his utensils and recipe books to join us in setting up the UK branch of Kettle Foods
So it's US founded, and (at least some point in the past) UK co-owned and mainly produced in the UK. A little grey area. Nice crisps, however.
Walkers was a surprise to me. But turns out that is a UK brand sold to the yanks like everything else 😬. Also nice crisps.
All the KETTLE Chips you get now are made here in the UK, with British potatoes, but our American name is a nod to the adventurer that brought us here!
So they are at least made in Europe, the last bit suggests the US connection no longer exists.
McCoys are good (thick, rippled), except that I only really like plain salted crisps and they're impossible to find - apart from in multi packs with other flavours.
I quite like the tesco finest crinkle cut ready salted.
150g bag for £1.25 or so.
The only downside is, the flavour varies (I think it's the freshness of the oil for that batch).
@GreatAlbatross@tiramichu plenty of UK crisps (including Kettle, established in here somewhere - based in Norfolk, owned in Europe). Corkers, Pipers, Tyrrells, Two Farmers come to mind. Don't think any of them are owned internationally? I come from potato country - so many crisp factories round here!
@Skua@Blaze@tiramichu@GreatAlbatross If you really want to do a deep dive, it looks like you can tell from the packaging. If it says 'Kettle Brand' it's American. If it says 'Hand cooked potato chips: Kettle' it's British. If it says 'Kettle: hand cooked potato chips' it's Dutch.
I have Irish friends (republic and northern) who stock up on Taytos when they're home, and rave about them. They export from Ulster to the US, but I've never seen there here in Scotland - weird. https://www.tayto.com/about/
They're occasionally the crisp of choice in pubs; an excellent accompaniment to an 80/-. Suppose there's worse criteria for your pub crawls. But aye, a weird omission - you'd be thinking there's plenty of wagons on the Stranraer ferry that could bring a few palletloads over.
One of Swedens biggest chip brands has their main factory in my city, and they're available in every store. I almost exclusively buy from them, nice to have such a local thing.
In Spain we have Bonilla a la vista, really good crisps, even Koreans are crazy about them. We also have snacks from Grefusa or Frit Ravish. And more crisps from eapinaler, El Gallo, Sarriegui and literally dozens of brands. Nearly all the regions have 6-7 good brans for crisps and there are hundreds of small brands in every area. Apart from the brands you can find at every supermarket.
Santa Maria also has decent ones and is owned by Paulig which is Finnish-owned.
Balsnack is Estonian, probably not available elsewhere. They make the brands Kartulivahvel, Piraat, Vigur, and some less traditional ones like Ossi which is actually pork based
It's distressing how many British sweet brands now have a chain of ownership leading to the US. Mondelez famously bought Cadbury's, and Bain Capital (y'know, Mitt Romney's company) own most of the "classics" like Barratts, Fox's Glacier Mints, Poppets, Tavener's, Mojo chews, Barker & Dobson etc. The only big non-American company left is Nestle, and they can also fuck wayyyyy off.
It's only Terry's and Tunnocks left now, and even then Terry's are owned by the Fr*nch.
Barry we're not on 2we4u
What's wrong with frogs?
I guess not so much in the grander scheme of things, but it’s astonishing and depressing in equal measures that Britain doesn’t seem able to have kept hold of any of its own beloved home-grown brands.
Commiserates in Canadian
I'm all about Tayto, king of crisps.
North Taytos, or South Taytos?
A very important question.
The Norn Irish ones are more potent and flavoursome in my humble opinion.
freestaytos
Nut Nut 💦🥴
Pringles are so shitty that can't even be categorised as "chips" according to European regulations
Brets are S-tier crisps, I don't know why you'd pick anything over them anyway
Holy shit. I just got back from a more civilised country and while I was there I bought a family-sized bag of shallot flavour Brets crisps. "I'll just try one," I thought. Did I nail that entire bag in the car park? Why, I do believe I did.
Kettle Chips are British, made in Norfolk. I double-checked their website and they haven't been taken over by anyone as far as I can tell.
Unfortunately the veil has dropped. I thought the same as you but this is what the website says:
https://kettlechips.co.uk/pages/about
So it's US founded, and (at least some point in the past) UK co-owned and mainly produced in the UK. A little grey area. Nice crisps, however.
Walkers was a surprise to me. But turns out that is a UK brand sold to the yanks like everything else 😬. Also nice crisps.
You missed the last bit:
So they are at least made in Europe, the last bit suggests the US connection no longer exists.
Somewhat confused.
@i_am_not_a_robot @mannycalavera owned by Valeo https://www.valeofoodsgroup.com/about-us/our-business which is Euro/Canadian, so you're fine.
Personally I prefer Corkers.
They're owned by Campbell's Soups according to Wikipedia
Right... so Campbell's claim to own them but their site points to "Kettle Brands" which seems to be US based.
According to another post they are owned by Valeo. Their site points to Kettle Foods, which seems to be UK based.
I suspect at some point the US and UK parts of the company have been split up, although it's very confusing that they seem to have the same branding.
They don't taste American
Yeah. Looking at this diagram as a British person it's like the US stuff is our entire selection and none of the alternative brands exist here :(
Tyrell's are good.
They're owned by KP Snacks, a UK based company, who also make:
(Images from https://www.kpsnacks.com/our-brands, arranged in gimp)
I confess I have a secret love for pom bears, despite my age being long out of the single digits XD
Two pom bears eaten at once is just the perfect level of salt. They're almost a perfect crisp -- and who doesn't love little bears??
They’re just so good. I can’t be mad at potatoes, fat, and salt in any combination.
You beat me to it!
KP make amazing snacks.
These all all S tier snacks too.
I've never hear of any of these except pom-bear, which would make me buy any of the other brands lol
I love pom-bears, but love Lidl's Teddy's Hit even more.
Unfortunately, I've never seen them for sale in the UK.
Space Raiders til I die, best crisp out there 🫡
Space Raiders saved my life.
McCoys are good (thick, rippled), except that I only really like plain salted crisps and they're impossible to find - apart from in multi packs with other flavours.
I quite like the tesco finest crinkle cut ready salted.
150g bag for £1.25 or so. The only downside is, the flavour varies (I think it's the freshness of the oil for that batch).
@GreatAlbatross @tiramichu plenty of UK crisps (including Kettle, established in here somewhere - based in Norfolk, owned in Europe). Corkers, Pipers, Tyrrells, Two Farmers come to mind. Don't think any of them are owned internationally? I come from potato country - so many crisp factories round here!
Kettle chips are made in the UK, but the company is American and also owned by Campbell's (of soup fame)
Edit: Campbell's actually sold the European branch of Kettle to Dutch Valeo in 2019 https://www.thecampbellscompany.com/newsroom/press-releases/campbell-completes-sale-of-european-chips-business-to-valeo-foods/
@Skua @Blaze @tiramichu @GreatAlbatross Kettle Foods Inc and Kettle Foods Ltd are different companies. Kettle Foods Ltd is owned by Valeo Foods https://www.valeofoodsgroup.com/
@Skua @Blaze @tiramichu @GreatAlbatross NB there is also an EU Kettle Chips based in the Netherlands - they seem to be part of Kettle Foods Ltd: https://kettlechips.eu/
@Skua @Blaze @tiramichu @GreatAlbatross If you really want to do a deep dive, it looks like you can tell from the packaging. If it says 'Kettle Brand' it's American. If it says 'Hand cooked potato chips: Kettle' it's British. If it says 'Kettle: hand cooked potato chips' it's Dutch.
The branding is identical. Did Valeo buy the UK branch or something?
@Skua @Blaze @tiramichu @GreatAlbatross Honestly couldn't tell you. But the UK company can't spell Oregon so they can't work that closely together... https://kettlechips.co.uk/pages/about
https://www.thecampbellscompany.com/newsroom/press-releases/campbell-completes-sale-of-european-chips-business-to-valeo-foods/ it did! Including the European and Middle Eastern parts too, not just the UK parts
That spelling thing is hilarious
I can highly recommend Co-op's own brand Irresistible crisps. The salt & vinegar ones especially
Stumbled on these the other week, they have no right to taste that good!!!
Seabrook are still going, though Japanese owned since 2017.
Seabrook crisps immediately take me back to playing on the swings and slides in a pub beer garden on a warm summer afternoon
I have Irish friends (republic and northern) who stock up on Taytos when they're home, and rave about them. They export from Ulster to the US, but I've never seen there here in Scotland - weird. https://www.tayto.com/about/
They're occasionally the crisp of choice in pubs; an excellent accompaniment to an 80/-. Suppose there's worse criteria for your pub crawls. But aye, a weird omission - you'd be thinking there's plenty of wagons on the Stranraer ferry that could bring a few palletloads over.
Taytos are amazing.
@MrsDoyle @Blaze Taytos have Irish and Northern Irish versions, just to get really confusing.
Where are you getting all of these exotic templates from?
How do I find an alternative to [[American product]?
Look next to it on the shelf.
Croky in Belgium is good aswell!
They're in the Netherlands too.
Taffel (FIN), Estrella (SWE) & Oikia (FIN) as well!
Taffel vs Estrella is a way to start a fight tbh
I like Estrella's sour cream and onion more, but Taffel has some other great flavors.
I agree on the sourcream & onion, taffel's furious is delicious, but Oikia Musta Melody Black Garlic is absolutely without competition for top spot.
In the UK we have... all of the ones at the top and... none of the ones at the bottom
I think
Please let me know I'm wrong and where I can find those thx
Amazing, will do. Thank you!
You can find brets although you need to do a big supermarket for them (or a specialist fancy food shop)
Croky! Made in Belgium!
Je craque
I haven't found a Brets flavour that I like. So I'll stick to the house brand chips in my supermarket, or Croky.
As an American, the only one of them that's worth eating is Kettle Chips anyway. But even then, as a Massachusettsian, I would prefer Cape Cod chips.
Well, I'm European and I think at least 80% of the brands in the chips/crisps section are those 5 us brands. Loads of people buy them.
Cape Cod ftw
FunnyFrisch make these "Lentil Chips" which sounds weird but they are actually so good.
One of Swedens biggest chip brands has their main factory in my city, and they're available in every store. I almost exclusively buy from them, nice to have such a local thing.
@M137 @Blaze I think it’s also called crisps in English in case anyone is wondering. :blobmiou:
How could you leave out the best crispy crisps ever; croky?!
In Spain we have Bonilla a la vista, really good crisps, even Koreans are crazy about them. We also have snacks from Grefusa or Frit Ravish. And more crisps from eapinaler, El Gallo, Sarriegui and literally dozens of brands. Nearly all the regions have 6-7 good brans for crisps and there are hundreds of small brands in every area. Apart from the brands you can find at every supermarket.
Bonilla la Vista
Kettle, Pipers, or Tyrrell’s crisps for me.
Chio nachos are the vilest nachos known to man.
Sell those in Canada. We need more options.
Santa Maria also has decent ones and is owned by Paulig which is Finnish-owned.
Balsnack is Estonian, probably not available elsewhere. They make the brands Kartulivahvel, Piraat, Vigur, and some less traditional ones like Ossi which is actually pork based
It is still owned by PepsiCo.
I recommend that you don't eat any of these brands food. it is better for your health