Seabrook Crinkle Cut Cream Cheese and Chives Crisps, 6 x 25g

Cream cheese and chives is a soft, cool flavour, the taste of a bagel spread or a dip, and Seabrook puts it on a ridged crinkle cut crisp. This multipack holds six 25g bags, 150g in total. The full product name on the pack is Cream Cheese and Chives Flavour Potato Crisps, and the pack names Calbee Group UK Ltd as the maker.

The ingredients

According to the published pack listing, the crisps are made from potatoes, vegetable oils (sunflower and rapeseed, in varying proportions), onion powder, whey powder (milk), sea salt, sugar, garlic powder, acids (lactic and citric), flavouring and a herb.

A cream cheese flavour without cream cheese

Cream cheese itself is not on the list. The flavour is built instead: whey powder, from milk, gives the dairy base; lactic acid, the acid that gives cream cheese its fresh tang, and citric acid sharpen it; sugar softens the acids; onion and garlic give the savoury, allium side that chives would; and the herb and flavouring complete the picture. The result tastes like the spread without using it, which keeps the seasoning light.

What whey brings

Whey is the liquid left behind when milk is made into cheese, dried to a fine powder. It has a mild, milky flavour and a little natural milk sugar, which makes it a common base for creamy crisp seasonings. It is also why these crisps are not vegan, even though no cheese is listed.

The chive side

Chives are the mildest member of the onion family, with a fresh, green onion taste. The published list names a herb rather than chives specifically, alongside onion and garlic powder, and together they give the soft allium note that sits behind the cream.

What a crinkle cut adds

The wavy blade gives each slice ridges on both faces, a firmer bite than a flat crisp and grooves that hold more powder. With a gentle flavour like this, the extra seasoning in the grooves helps the cream cheese note come through.

Gluten free, with the Crossed Grain symbol

The pack carries a gluten free claim and the Crossed Grain symbol, the gluten free mark licensed by Coeliac UK, with its licence number. None of the ingredients is a gluten containing cereal. The pack also says the crisps are Vegetarian Society Approved.

Numbers for one bag

The label gives 126 kcal (528 kJ), 6.9g of fat, 0.7g of saturates, 14.1g of carbohydrate, 0.7g of sugars, 1.5g of protein and 0.32g of salt for each 25g bag. That is about 6% of an average adult's daily energy reference intake and 5% of the salt. Per 100g it is 505 kcal (2114 kJ), 27.5g of fat, 2.7g of saturates, 56.6g of carbohydrate, 2.9g of sugars, 5.9g of protein and 1.29g of salt.

Reading the front of the pack

On the UK front of pack scale, per 100g, fat at 27.5g is red. Saturates at 2.7g are amber. Sugars at 2.9g are green. Salt at 1.29g is amber, in the upper part of the band.

Allergens and diet

The published ingredients highlight milk, in the whey powder. The published listing gives no may contain advice. The pack carries a gluten free claim with the Crossed Grain symbol and says the crisps are Vegetarian Society Approved. They are not vegan, because of the milk. Recipes and factory arrangements change, so check the allergy advice on the pack you receive.

How the crisps are made

Washed potatoes are cut with a crinkled blade, rinsed and fried in the sunflower and rapeseed blend until the ridged slices are crisp. The seasoning goes on while they are warm, and the pack says the bags are packaged in a protective atmosphere.

Six bags for the week

Six bags cover a working week with one to spare. The cool, creamy flavour suits a smoked salmon or cucumber sandwich, a bagel, a tuna salad or a flask of soup. With no heat and a gluten free claim, it is also an easy lunchbox crisp for a child who avoids gluten.

In the kitchen

Crushed, the crisps make a creamy, herby crumb for the top of a fish pie or a potato bake. A handful beside a jacket potato with cream cheese echoes the flavour.

Storage and packaging

The pack advises a cool, dry place away from bright light. The published recycling guidance says the whole packaging can be recycled with carrier bags at large supermarkets and should not go in home recycling.

Other Seabrook flavours

In the same six bag format we stock Seabrook Crinkle Cut Cheese and Onion, Sea Salted, Salt and Vinegar, Beefy, Prawn Cocktail and Tomato Ketchup. For a sharper cheese flavour, Seabrook Cheese and Onion uses cheese powder with onion and white pepper.

Other 6 x 25g packs of Seabrook we stock

Figures as published on each pack's label.

The published listing gives the United Kingdom as the country of origin. The tasting notes on this page are our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.