2009 Tasting Packets

Grand UK 2009 Scratching Tasting

It's been a long time since the last comparison tasting but in December 2009, I managed to get an opportunity to drive around the West Midlands buying packets of pork scratchings. I took the packets to a favourite pub of mine, The Bree Louise in Euston, London and arranged to meet friends there just before Christmas to try them all.   With some brought over with me from Spain, this gave us 15 different scratchings to try, covering traditional, crunch and spicy varieties.

As before, I asked for like/dislike views, and people put in numbers and comments, which are in the table below.  The final numbers were collated/averaged to give the final scores.
The comments show that opinions on a particular packet could be quite polarised with the same scratchings being loved by some tasters and rejected by others. 

There was also some collateral damage - one of our tasters lost a filling.  The second time this has happened to him and despite his wife forbidding him from having more scratchings!  That's dedication.		 Broken Filling
Broken Filling


All comments/ratings are the personal opinions of the reviewers.



Packet
Rating
 Scratching Comments

4 Freshers Hellishly Hot Pork Crunch:
Hellishly lame - hellishly cardboard - Shite  - not so hot
nice spice - not hot enough, little seasoning - Not hot
Not pork scratchings, too soft
5 GTS Golden Pork Crunch:
Not enough flavour - nice texture but artificial flavour
for beginners - regular cut, light seasoning
good texture, a bit bland - too soft & puffy
5.5 RayGray Pork Crackling & Apple Dip:
An abomination! - bit of aftertaste - OK, crunchy
Apple dip is inspired - apple dip nice
the apple is nice - nice & crunchy - OK crunchy
6.5 T J Snacks Original Pork Crunch:
Weak flavour - quite hard
poofy - original & good - best crunch
well done but bland - nice seasoning & crisp
7 Freshers Pub Pork Scratchings:
Nice & Fatty, could be more flavoured
crunchy - bit fatty - greasy but meaty - bit greasy
more than OK - good trad - good size
7
 		GTS Hot & Spicey Pork Crunch:
 Tasty but 'wrong' flavour for scratching - OK - hottish
Properly curry hot - nicely spiced - nice as far as they go - better than Freshers
7.5 Qs Pork Crackling:
Good flavour - tooth killers
VG, iffy aftertaste - excellent
good but not good enough - great texture & flavour
7.5 Ms Pork Scratchings:
Ace - no flavour - pretty good - too hard, good taste
good balance of flavour & texture  - Hard as a whore's heart
Only for connousieurs with their own teeth - crispy & tasty
7.5 KVE Tasty Pork Scratchings:
Nice & flavour, could do with more flavour
too fat - vg crunch - quite hard - just crunchy
sets the standard, good balance
7.5 Freshers Top Notch Pub Pork Crackling:
Fantastic - average - good texture, not the best flavour
Nice & Fatty, could be more flavoured - really good
meaty, tasty   - OK - better than brothers
7.5 Medina Chicharricos:
Mediocre, tasteless - disgusting - Not enough flavour
nice enough but not scratchings - light, crunchy
great texture - crunchy but not dangerously hard
Pipped at the post
7.5 T J Snacks Original Pork Scratchings:
Good - OK - very salty - rather salty
gently but nicely spiced - OK
8
 KVE Traditional Butchers Pork Scratchings:
Nice & flavour, could do with more flavour - best by far
Quite good, real deal - all crunch and OK flavour
interesting shapes, varied tastes - dull
8 G Simmons & Son Pork Crunch:
Perfect Puff style - pork quavers
salty,  shite - too salty - good flavour - great
melt in your mouth - salty perfection