Tyrrells Lightly Sea Salted Crisps, 150g

Lightly Sea Salted is the plain Tyrrells: hand cooked crisps with a light sprinkle of sea salt and nothing else. This is the 150g sharing bag, which the label suggests serves five. The full product name on the pack is lightly sea salted potato crisps.

Three ingredients

According to the published pack listing, the crisps are made from potatoes, sunflower oil and sea salt. That is the whole list. With no seasoning blend, what you taste is the potato, the oil and the salt, so the potato and the cooking matter more here than in a flavoured crisp.

How light is lightly

The label gives 0.65g of salt per 100g and 0.2g for a 30g serving. That is half the salt of Tyrrells Cheddar Cheese and Chive, at 1.3g per 100g, and a little over a third of Tyrrells Sea Salt and Cider Vinegar, at 1.8g. On the UK front of pack scale it is amber for salt, in the lower half of the band.

Sea salt

Sea salt is made by evaporating seawater. Chemically it is mostly sodium chloride, like any other salt, so it counts towards the salt figure in the same way; the difference is in the crystal and in traces of other minerals, not in how much salt you eat.

Hand cooked

The listing describes these as hand cooked English crisps. Hand cooking means frying the slices in batches: the oil temperature drops when each batch goes in and recovers as it cooks, which gives a harder, more uneven crunch, with some slices curled, folded or golden at the edges. On a plain crisp, that texture is the main event.

Sunflower oil

The only oil on the list is sunflower oil, a light oil with a neutral taste that lets the potato come through. The label gives 2.4g of saturates per 100g.

Red Tractor potatoes

The label says the potatoes are Red Tractor certified. Red Tractor is the British farm and food assurance scheme, which checks standards on the farm. The published listing gives England as the country of origin, and the front of the pack reads est. Herefordshire, England.

Numbers per serving

The label gives 156 kcal (649 kJ), 8.8g of fat, 0.7g of saturates, 16g of carbohydrate, 0.1g of sugars, 2g of fibre, 2.1g of protein and 0.2g of salt for each 30g serving. That is about 8% of an average adult's daily energy reference intake and 3% of the salt. Per 100g it is 519 kcal (2164 kJ), 29.3g of fat, 2.4g of saturates, 53.4g of carbohydrate, 0.4g of sugars, 6.7g of fibre, 6.9g of protein and 0.65g of salt.

Reading the front of the pack

On the UK front of pack scale, per 100g, fat at 29.3g is red, as it is for fried crisps generally. Saturates at 2.4g are amber. Sugars at 0.4g are green. Salt at 0.65g is amber, towards the low end of its band.

Allergens and diet

No allergens from the UK list of 14 are highlighted in the published ingredients, but the allergy advice says the crisps may contain milk. The pack says they are suitable for vegetarians and carries a gluten free claim. There is no vegan claim, and the may contain advice is worth noting for anyone avoiding milk. Recipes and factory arrangements change, so check the allergy advice on the pack you receive.

The pack

The blue bag uses a black and white vintage photograph, like the other Tyrrells packs we stock: three bathers doing handstands on a beach. Under the name it reads hand cooked English crisps and est. Herefordshire, England.

Who it suits

A plain crisp with a short list suits anyone who prefers no strong flavour, including many children, and it is the easiest bag to share when tastes differ. Check the may contain advice first for anyone avoiding milk.

Serving the bag

A plain hand cooked crisp goes with everything: a cheeseboard, a bowl of houmous or guacamole, a smoked salmon platter or a glass of sparkling wine. The hard crunch stands up to a thick dip without breaking.

In the kitchen

Crushed, plain crisps make a neutral, gluten free crumb for fish, chicken or a gratin, and a crunchy topping for soup or salad. Season the crumb with herbs, lemon zest or spices to suit the dish.

The 40g bag

The same lightly sea salted crisps come in a 40g single bag, which we also stock. Its label gives the same per 100g figures, and 208 kcal and 0.26g of salt for the whole bag, so it suits a lunchbox or a picnic where a sharing bag would be too much.

Storage and packaging

The pack advises a cool, dry place and, once opened, an airtight container. The bag is packaged in a protective atmosphere, and 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 Tyrrells flavours

In the same 150g bag we stock Tyrrells Sea Salt and Black Pepper, Sea Salt and Cider Vinegar, Smoked Paprika, Sweet Chilli and Red Pepper, Cheddar Cheese and Chive and Roasted Chicken and Sage. Sea Salt and Black Pepper has the same salt figure, 0.65g per 100g, with black pepper added.

Sizes of Tyrrells Lightly Sea Salted Crisps we stock

Figures as published on each pack's label.

The tasting notes on this page are our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.